Switch, the Tinder for job apps, has just announced a new investor in the form of Marker VC, closing out their seed round at $2 million.
And as VCs closed new rounds, existing portfolio companies took advantage of market conditions to consummate some large acquisition offers and IPOs.
VCs closed some huge deals last year, including a $120 million mega-round for enterprise messaging startup Slack, but the recent influx of early-stage capital proves there's still a need for better tools.
Bessemer met with at least six pet companies, Benchmark with 13 and Sequoia with 8. "The venture firms were like whores in bed with several startups at once," says one VC close to the shenanigans.
The Series C round comes from a list of notable investors that includes Yunfeng Capital (the firm co-founded by Alibaba CEO and founder Jack Ma), previous investor Sequoia, and, it seems, at least one other Silicon Valley VC close to the education space that is not yet being disclosed.
In the first half of 2011, a number of well-known VC firms closed significant funds.
In addition to SocialCam and Docker, some of Founders Den's better-known tenants have included the point-of-sale software maker Revel Systems, which was reportedly in talks with IBM earlier this year about an acquisition; and the venture firm SoftTech VC, which closed on a record $150 million in commitments this past summer.
Another day, another new VC fund closes in Europe.
Hax was founded and is operated by SOSV, "the accelerator VC," which just closed a $150 million fund.
Northzone, a 20 year veteran of the European VC industry, has closed its 8th fund, capped at €300 million, which it will deploy to "early-stage" startups in the region.
