Sony (NYSE: SNE) Music Entertainment has taken a stake in indie digital music distribution service IODA. Financial terms were not disclosed, but Sony did say that it would integrate parts of IODA’s online music platform with RED, the independent music distribution company it acquired back in 1994. IODA boasts a…

Moving to boost its online real estate listings, newspaper publisher AH Belo (NYSE: AHC) (NYSE: BLC) has led a $2 million investment in online real estate brokerage Sawbuck Realty. Sawbuck’s service lets people search for listings and then connects them with real estate agents. It takes a cut of any…

It’s been two years since Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) first started selling applications for the iPhone through the App store. In that time, investors have flocked to the opportunity, pumping slightly more than $100 million into 17 companies. The figures are being reported today by “the ChubbyBrain database,” which keeps a…

TeeBeeDee.com—a social network aimed at baby boomers—is shutting down. In a note to members, founder Robin Wolaner said that the company had lacked the resources to continue developing the site: “Our business opportunity proved disappointing.” The site had raised more than $7.5 $9 million from Shasta Ventures and Monitor Ventures,…

A battle is intensifying in the white-label local search market. MojoPages said Tuesday it had raised $5 million in a first round of funding—money it said it would use to boost its core private-label search offering, which lets media companies put local directories on their sites under their own brands.…

Car news and reviews site network High Gear Media has raised a $5.5 million second round. It will use the money to improve its technology platform and build on its collection of 38 auto-related websites. The round was led by DAG Ventures, a new investor. Previous backers Accel Partners and…

Online video infrastructure firm Nokeena Networks has picked up $6.5 million in a second round of funding—bringing its total raise to just over $15 million. Mayfield Fund led the round, with participation from previous investors; Nokeena will use the new funding for sales and marketing. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based startup’s…

Glubble, an online community that lets families share photos, messages and status updates, has raised $1 million in funding from a group of private European investors. (This brings its total funding to about $3 million). The S.F.-based startup is also getting new leadership with the money: COO Alexander van Elsas…

Search marketing tech and services firm ClickFuel has raised $2.5 million in its first round of funding. Baird Venture Partners led the investment; Baird Principal Jim Pavlik, and Partner Bill Filip are joining the startup’s board. Founded in 2008 by AuctionPal co-founder Colby West, it’s now helmed by Steve Pogorzelski,…

Do-it-yourself social network platform GROU.PS has raised $1 million in the second tranche of its first round of funding. The new money comes from Golden Horn Ventures, the same firm that invested $1.1 million in the startup roughly a year ago. VentureBeat reports that GROU.PS’ more than 100 million registered…

In the battle for the online personal finance market, free has become the status quo. Both startup Mint.com and rival Quicken Online have amassed more than one million members each by charging zilch for their services. Now, though, both companies are seriously exploring charging for some features. Quicken Online GM…

Travel shopping and fare-tracking site Yapta.com has picked up $2 million in a second round of funding. Voyager Capital led the round, with participation from Bay Partners, First Round Capital, Swiftsure Capital, W Media Ventures, as well as private investors. Seattle-based Yapta has raised $7.7 million in total since its…

Typography for the web may not sound that sexy, but the idea has been enough to attract funding from the likes of Twitter co-founder Evan Williams, Flickr creator Caterina Fake, and Matt Mullenweg, the force behind WordPress and Automattic. The recipient of the undisclosed amount of funding is San Francisco-based…

Some new venture capital fundings, as gleaned from SEC filings filed over the last week or so: »  Daylife: The NYC-based online news aggregation and software firm has raised $3.9 million in a new round of funding, its third. The last publicly disclosed funding was the second round of $8.3…

Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen and ex-Opsware executive Ben Horowitz have closed their new VC fund, Andreessen Horowitz Fund I, L.P, at $241.5 million, according to a new SEC filing today. The amount was raised from a total of 44 investors. Earlier Kara reported that the fund might exceed the stated…

Redlasso is proving that a digital media startup can survive (and perhaps even thrive) even after being sued by a group of big media companies. Lawsuits from NBC and Fox shut the online video news clipping service down in mid-2008; Redlasso settled, then sealed a deal with Fox to get…

Online advertising continues to struggle, but ad optimizer AdMeld will push forward with its expansion plans, now that it has raised an $8 million second round. The round was led by led by previous backers Spark Capital and Foundry Group, and brings New York-based AdMeld’s total funding to $15 million…

Vince Broady, the former founder of Gamespot and former SVP of entertainment at *Yahoo*, has officially launched his new startup called ThisMoment. The San Francisco-based company has also raised about $3 million in seed funding, from some familiar digital media names like Shelby Bonnie, Mika Salmi, and Jason Hirschhorn; prior…

Paul Allen is back in the software market, with the launch of Xiant, a business that helps Outlook users organize their mail. Xiant is the latest in a growing industry of startups offering e-mail add-ons. Allen himself is also an investor in Gist, which combines e-mails from contacts with the…