Coverage

Back

Funding Daily: It pays to do the Internet’s heavy lifting

Not one, not two, but three hosting providers are making today’s Funding Daily. That’s one way to tell that a business is still commercially viable.

But read on to see what other kinds of businesses picked up funding beside hosting companies Automattic, SquareSpace, and FireHost.

Can we finally call WordPress maker Automattic a billion-dollar company?

Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, may be raising a new $100 million round of funding, Fortune reports. If true, Automattic could be valued at over $1 billion following the round. Such a valuation reinforces past reports, including estimations from Tiger Global’s $50 million investment in Automattic last year. Read more on VentureBeat: Can we finally call WordPress maker Automattic a billion-dollar company?

This Internet of things company works with Coca-Cola & just raised $50M — smart soda cans?

Things we learned today: Coca-Cola has been experimenting with the Internet of things. Talking soda cans could be in the future. But more importantly, Jasper, the company powering whatever Coca-Cola has been working on, just announced a new round of funding: $50 million. Temasek led the round, which now brings Jasper’s valuation to over $1.3 billion. Jasper was established in 2004, and this new round brings its total funding to $205 million. Read more on VentureBeat: This Internet of things company works with Coca-Cola & just raised $50M — smart soda cans?

Don’t forget about website runner Squarespace. It just raised $40M

Squarespace founder and chief executive Anthony Casalena wants to keep adding to the site-hosting platform and making it more flexible, even as competitors like Automattic and Wix loom. A new $40 million funding round for Squarespace should help the company’s system become more popular. General Atlantic provided the new money, which follows a $38.5 million round in 2010. New York-based Squarespace officially started in 2004. It has 285 employees now, and it should employ around 400 people by the end of the year, Casalena said. Read more on VentureBeat:Don’t forget about website runner Squarespace. It just raised $40M

FireHost wants to be an upmarket Amazon Web Services, and investors are buying in for $25M

FireHost, one of many companies that offer to run your website from their cloud infrastructure and one of a few that blend in some nifty security features, has raised $25 million. The Richardson, Texas-based company has doubled its revenue every year for the past three years, chief executive Jim Lewandowski told VentureBeat by email. That’s even as it competes in a crowded market that includes big cloud providers like Amazon Web Services and smaller, lower cost vendors like DigitalOcean and Linode. Today’s funding comes from the Stephens Group LLC, which has investedin three previous rounds for FireHost, including the $12 million round last year and a $10 million round in 2012. To date FireHost has raised $59 million. Read more on VentureBeat: FireHost wants to be an upmarket AWS, and investors are buying in for $25M

You are cordially invited to congratulate Paperless Post on its new $25M funding round

Whoever said manners and courtesy were dead clearly didn’t know about Paperless Post and its invitations and cards empire. Yesterday, the company confirmed that it has raised $25 million in a third round of institutional funding. August Capital led the round, and some existing investors also chipped in. Read more on VentureBeat: You are cordially invited to congratulate Paperless Post on its new $25M funding round

Securing cloud infrastructure has never looked this good: Threat Stack snags $2.67M

Threat Stack, a startup with a cloud-based software for helping companies keep an eye on the security of the cloud infrastructure they use, has raised $2.67 million, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.