Internet News 17JUN15

• Snapchat Turns Geofilters Into An Ad Unit. The company is now extending its custom geofilters to businesses as a monetization strategy.
• Edge fund – a new, small seed stage investment initiative to invest in technology like virtual reality and drones that will offer founders a suite of additional services.
• Vessel – Get exclusive, early access to some of the best web series, music videos and complete segments from TV before everyone else. Early access to your favorites for only $2.99 a month.
• Portal – a mobile app which focuses on making file transfer easy. Launching first on Android where it’s able to more deeply integrate with the OS, Portal is designed to make it easier to move files – even large files – between your computer and your Android phone.
• The S Factory – a pre-accelerator for female founders. The 12-week program is designed to educate first-time women entrepreneurs with an intense course load that includes pitch training, an investor preparation lab, and progress reports from mentors.
• BloomThat Grows Beyond Flower Delivery To Gifts With $5.5M.
• BloomThat – An on demand flower delivery startup. Flower delivery starting at $38. Handcrafted blooms delivered on demand.
• Nod Labs Gets $13.5 Million In Funding To Push Nod Backspin, A Gaming Ring To Rule VR Headsets.
• Nod Lab – A technology startup with focus on virtual reality creating a beautiful way for people to touchlessly and gesturally communicate with the world around them. Transform everyday actions into magic moments.
• Tidemark Continues To Sail Along With $25M In New Funding.
• Tidemark – Corporate Performance Management Software. Tidemark offers a portfolio of next-generation enterprise performance management apps that provides analytics and forecasting solutions.
• Reveal Picks Up $1.5M To Bring Cryptocurrency To The Mobile-Social Space.
• Reveal – the new “Ask Me Anything” app that’s using cryptocurrency to transform social media.
• Google App Engine – Google’s App Engine for PHP is now out of beta and generally available on the company’s platform as a service offering. This means PHP apps are now covered by Google’s App Engine service level agreement and deprecation policy.
• Techstars Buys UP Global, The Non-Profit Behind Startup Weekend.
• Techstars — a startup incubator that has built up a network of programs across the U.S. and Europe and specific verticals like health and education.
• Sketchfab, The Platform For 3D Files, Lands $7M Series A Led By FirstMark.
• Sketchfab – a place to be for 3D files: a platform to publish, share, transfer and find the best 3D AR and VR content.
• Bloom – Stay connected with your parents. Share Moments happening everyday, Easily upload pictures and videos, Add an audio message, Start a video call, Set your availability.
• Connectifier – changing the way recruiting is done today. A large scale data analysis software that processes professional profiles from all around the web. By analyzing code repos, blogs, and social profiles they are helping recruiters and hiring managers connect more efficiently.
• With $44 Million In Funding, Biotech Startup Zymergen Is Buying Up Robots To Mass Produce Materials From Microbes.
• Google Bug Bounty Reward Program – A security rewards program for Android. The Android program will only cover vulnerabilities that affect Nexus phone and tablets available for sale in the Google Play Store, though. Right now, that’s the Nexus 6 phone and Nexus 9 tablet.
• French IoT Startup Actility Raises $25M From Foxconn, Orange And More.
• Actility is positioned on the M2M (Machine to Machine) market and on communicating objects (Internet of Things) deployed on a massive scale in various markets segments, particularly in the energy sector.
• Doppel – A Wearable That Puts A Pulse On Your Pulse, a psychophysiology wearable for people who want to be able to influence how they’re feeling via a tactile rhythm.