Adotas » RockYou

Got Funds? Martini and RockYou Soak Up Investor Cash

Gavin Dunaway — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 17:21:31 +0000

ADOTAS – Martini Media and RockYou have both decided to cool off from the heat by taking a dive into the money pool.

Martini, an online media company that targets affluent consumers with annual household incomes over $100,000, brought home $6 million in a Series B funding round led by Reed Elsevier Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of the venerated publishing house and business information provider. Also giving to the cause were Granite Ventures and Venrock

“There is deep value in capturing key consumers in both their professional and personal lives and Martini Media is the emerging expert in targeting the affluent for premium advertisers,” said Kevin Brown, partner at Reed Elsevier Ventures.

Martini said the funding will be used to improve the company’s reach of affluent consumers across business and lifestyle vertical, particularly through advances in its technology platform, sales efforts, publisher relationships and consumer personalization.

RockYou has followed up on a $50 million Series D funding round in November led by SoftBank with another cool $10 mil from the company, as well as the acquisition of the majority of shares in joint venture RockYou Asia. This brings the social media innovator’s total funding to $127 million; others who have sunk cash into RockYou include Sequoia Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Partech International, DCM and SK Telecom.

Funding Round-Up: RockYou, Earth Class Mail

Kathleen — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 16:47:41 +0000

ADOTAS – RockYou, a widget and social applications shop, raised $17 million to pad out its already generous $35 million third round. The company has raised a total of $67 million so far.

Earth Class Mail has raised $5.1 million in funding through a convertible note. The company has also agreed to work with the national mail carrier of Switzerland (Swiss Post) in a deal that will allow the Post to license its technology for converting snail mail into digital files. Earth Class Mail is currently raising a Series B round that it estimates could approach $30 million.

What’s Next for RockYou?

Kathleen — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 13:58:59 +0000

ADOTAS – Is RockYou really rocking? Well, the social networking widget maker certainly isn’t dying, especially with a spanking new $35 mill in their coffers – the third round of funding was led by venture capitalists DCM, with a handful of private backers also throwing money into the pot.

But they’re still not on top – Slide holds that coveted spot. (Slide rang in the New Year with a $50 million infusion). And this new round come amid whisperings online and offline that RockYou is in the throes of the big decision all burgeoning onliners must face: bail out now with a respectable, but relatively minor valuation, or push ahead and hope it can beat out Slide and other up-and-comers (like Meebo and Ning) in the social networking ad game?

While widgets have been installed on zillions of users’ pages, monetizing the space with ads has proved to be an almost Sisyphean task. Also, Facebook is about to unveil a significant redesign, making it harder for applications and widgets to go viral – which could be good or bad news for more established brands (it will definitely stymie the small fries).