Gist, a year-old company started by Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) co-founder Paul Allen’s Vulcan Capital, has raised $6.75 million in a first round of funding led by the Foundry Group. Vulcan also participated. The company’s service, which is still in testing mode, offers a central place where users can see e-mails from contacts, as well as the latest news about them and their companies, culled from blog posts, social-networking sites, and Tweets. As TechFlash notes, it will likely compete with services already offered by other startups, including Xobni which has an Outlook plugin that pulls updates about a user’s contacts from Facebook, LinkedIn, and other sites. Gist said it would use the new cash to expand its operations and fund product development. Release.