Never mind that exits are now at a six-year low and that venture capitalists themselves continue to struggle to raise money. For the second quarter in a row, confidence among VCs in the Valley is up. The streak follows six consecutive quarters of decline starting in mid-2007, according to an…

Collective Intellect, a Boulder, CO-based provider of social media monitoring services for businesses, has raised another $3.1 million in funding, according to an SEC filing just filed (embedded below). This adds to the $9.6 million it has raised in two previous rounds, from investors such as Grotech Capital, Appian Ventures,…

CoTweet, a startup whose software is behind many high-profile corporate Twitter accounts, has raised $1.1 million in a first round of funding. Investors include Baseline Ventures, Founders Fund, First Round Capital, SV Angel, Maples Investments, and Freestyle Capital. The company’s platform provides multiple tools for corporate Twitter users, including the…

Mobile video streaming service Qik has raised just under $5.5 million in funding, according to an SEC filing, which the company has confirmed. This round’s backers include Quest Venture Partners, CampVentures, and private investors. The Redwood City, Calif.-based startup raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Marc Andreessen and Ben…

Digital content licensing startup GumGum has raised $2.6 million in funding, according to an SEC filing just filed. GRP Venture Partners led the round, with participation from previous backer First Round Capital. The L.A.-based startup has raised around $3.8 million in total, including the first tranche of a $1 million…

Wordnik, the online dictionary site which has been under some controversy due to this NYT story last weekend about its P.R. strategy, has raised $3.7 million in funding, according to an SEC filing just filed. The site, based in Chicago and started by Erin McKean, former editor in chief for…

Bertelsmann, who all but exited out of music business when it sold its portion in Sony (NYSE: SNE) BMG back to Sony last year, is back in it: it is ramping up its new-ish music rights/publishing venture BMG Rights Management in a deal with PE firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts &…

Audience researcher Quantcast is in the process of raising a $50 million third round funding, PE Hub reported, citing an unidentified source. A rep for the company could not be reached for comment. Estimated at a $300 pre-funding valuation, Quantcast has been evolving beyond its primary role as a web…

Austin Ventures has invested about $20 million more in Asset International, the B2B online/print financial information provider headed by Jim Casella, the former CEO of Reed Business U.S. The company confirmed the new funding to me, after an SEC filing on it came out yesterday. This is in addition to…

Financial details about ZeniMax Media’s acquisition of Quake-developer id Software were kept under wraps—but a new SEC filing reveals that ZeniMax raised $105 million in debt financing to facilitate the deal. We’re working on confirmation regarding where the funds came from.

Joost was squeezed out of the market by broadcasters picking their own VOD channels instead of aggregators, acknowledges Mike Volpi, who resigned as CEO after abandoning the company’s consumer focus and has joined its equity holder Index Ventures as a partner. “The biggest lesson - people want to watch great…

Left-of-center political news blog TalkingPointsMemo has received its first outside money, from Marc Andreessen and other angel investors, according to TC. The amount is small, and pegged between $500K to $1 million. The investment from Andreessen, his second in a blog network (the first being Business Insider), is a personal…

StyleCaster has raised $4 million in a first round led by billionaire Quicken Loans owner Dan Gilbert. The site—which offers personalized style tips, shopping, and a social network—said it would use the funds to expand internationally, grow its ad network, and create new web-based and mobile apps. It was started…

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…