August capital, Google Ventures to the $ 18. 5 m in online legal service rocket lawyer

Leena Rao is currently working as a writer for TechCrunch. She recently finished graduate school of the Medill School of journalism at Northwestern University, where she studied business journalism and videography. From 2004 to 2007 she helped lead efforts for advocacy and community relationships Congressman Carloyn Maloney in New York. She graduated from Columbia University in 2003 where it was ... ? Read More

More big money online legal services. After LegalZoom raised $ 66 million from Kleiner Perkins and IVP, competitor rocket lawyer also announced a new round of funding. Start generated 18.5 million in funding led by August capital, Google Ventures and Investor Growth Capital (IGC) participated in the round. This brings total funding to rocket lawyer $ 30 million.

Founded by Charles Moore, the rocket lawyer not only provides legal documents for consumers and small businesses, but also helps users create customized legal documents that can be electronically signed and shares instantly online or downloaded for printing. Moore says that every month, more than 20000 the last wills and 40000 business contracts created. Rocket lawyer offers these documents free of charge.

While users can use rocket lawyer on a one-time basis, many of the users of the site pay for actual legal advice along with access to documents. Users can pay just $ 20 per consultation up to $ 200 to $ 300 per year for the legal service of the call, which is a fraction of the cost that some lawyers (the company currently has thousands of people who pay for annual maintenance).

Moore said that 20 million people will use rocket lawyer by the end of this year. Rocket lawyer and the visitors increased by more than 100%, year over year. The company grows revenue by 10 million dollars annually, but refused to say if the lawyer launch profitable yet.

Taking into account the traction that other players like LegalZoom is seen, it looks like the industry online legal services to the fast-growing market that still has great potential. LegalZoom and looks to IPO next year.

The new funds will be used to continue building the rocket lawyer brand and patent online legal solutions.

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Battery Ventures and Nea back social App Umami TV

Leena Rao is currently working as a writer for TechCrunch. She recently finished graduate school of the Medill School of journalism at Northwestern University, where she studied business journalism and videography. From 2004 to 2007 she helped lead efforts for advocacy and community relationships Congressman Carloyn Maloney in New York. She graduated from Columbia University in 2003 where it was ... ? Read More

More cash flows in social TV application. Cautious company Umami attracted $ 1.65 million in seed funding from battery ventures, NEA and other Angels companion, social TV platform.

Although information about Umami is limited, we know an application free of charge the iPad its launch is currently in closed beta with the television networks and is set to launch in the fall of 2011 TV season. Like apps like miso and GetGlue, Umami provides viewers with a second screen experience for the content of television programmes. Umami adds additional contextual content around programme viewers are watching, as well as provides a platform for the network to interact with consumers.

Umami was founded by Rovi former Vice President of advanced advertising Scott Rosenberg and Brian Slavin, who held positions in technology and product Lightningcast (acquired by AOL), leap wireless and Broadsoft. The Lightningcast, he helped launch broadband video advertising products and solutions with the television networks and built a launch online video ad network.

Faced with competition from startup GetGlue, miso, TV Tune-in and other.

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DreamIt ventures graduates 15 startups in New York

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Tech Accelerator DreamIt Ventures is holding its Demo Day for its New York class of startups today. The 15 companies include students and alumni from top academic institutions like Harvard Business School, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Yale University and Carnegie Mellon University. Several of the founders also have past work experience at companies including Yahoo, Microsoft, American Express, and McKinsey.

This event is the first opportunity for media and investors to see the startups present their ideas. There will be 250 to 300 people, almost all investors, attending today’s presentation.

DreamIt Ventures was founded in 2007 in Philadelphia, and ran its first class of startups in summer 2008. The firm provides common accelerator services, such as shared office space, a cash stipend for developers, a variety of donated services to help developers with legal and accounting issues, PR assistance, a speaker series with tips from investors, an advisory board consisting of early stage entrepreneurs, and, most importantly, one-on-one mentorship for the participating companies.

After having received several hundred applications for inclusion in this year’s program, DreamIt narrowed down the applicants to just 15 startups.

For the second year in a row, five of the companies were selected in partnership with Startl, the non-profit social enterprise dedicated to accelerating digital innovations for learning, from kindergarten to college, both in and out of the classroom.

The full list of graduates is below.

1DocWay

1DocWay brings the doctor’s office online. Patients can interact with their doctor over a secure video chat platform offering increased access to clinical care, especially for the rural, elderly, disabled and busy. As a result, physicians receive additional revenue generating opportunities and scheduling flexibility.

The platform is live and in a closed alpha with anchor clients using 1DocWay in varying clinical applications, including a $35 million psychiatric health system with 75 clinicians, 94 beds and 6 outpatients clinics.

AfterSteps

AfterSteps is an online end-of-life planning service that simplifies death preparation, just like TurboTax does for tax preparation. AfterSteps enables users to create a complete end-of-life plan, store it, and then transfer it to designated family members upon death, ensuring that they have this critical information when they need it most.

AfterSteps was a finalist in StartUp2011, Silicon Valley Baby Boomer’s Conference, and Harvard Business School’s Business Plan Competition. It’s currently a finalist in MassChallenge. While at DreamIt, AfterSteps launched its initial version, acquired its first paying subscribers, signed its first distribution contract, and was featured in Forbes.

AppAddictive

AppAddictive utilizes “Apps” and “Ads” (Appvertizements) in a marketing platform for businesses to acquire customers through social media. It integrates content, ad campaigns, messaging and analytics into one platform so businesses can optimize connections, commerce and advertising in social media.

By removing the multiple steps of advertising across different social networks, AppAddictive makes it easy for businesses to interact with their fans and make them buy.

AppAddictive also makes it easy for businesses to acquire customers from user generated web content, a Facebook platform of social apps and ad network. They have paying clients and are currently generating ad revenues from millions of impressions per month.

AppBrick

AppBrick provides robust mobile solutions for content producers. BookBrick™ and StoryBrick™ empower authors and publishers to easily create, launch and manage powerful apps via an intuitive, web-based interface – no programming required. AppBrick-powered apps deliver a rich, social and engaging new reading experience to consumers across multiple platforms. At the same time, AppBrick provides smart analytics and introduces new direct marketing and sales channels to authors and publishers. It also provides a new way for authors and publishers to reach and connect with their audience.

BookBrick™ enhances digital books with rich-media, productivity tools and social features, while StoryBrick™ easily converts digital children books into an interactive, customizable storyboard.

Clothes Horse

Clothes Horse is a platform that enables consumers to shop for clothing across retailers with a single user profile. It’s like a Facebook Connect for fashion, they say.

Their first product is a Saas solution that retailers plug into their website which recommends the best fitting clothes based on a shopper’s body size and favorite past purchases. As users provide more information about their wardrobe in each shopping experience, a Fashion Graph is created that connects users, brands, and clothes.

Retailers want this because it tackles their top friction points today: successfully turning shoppers into customers and minimizing returns. The company is currently working with brands both large and small who have signed up for DreamIt’s Charter Partner Program.

Cognection

Cognection commercialized three decades of research in consumer psychology and behavioral economics, similar to Dan Ariely’s work in the book Predictably Irrational, to generate a new type of product recommendation engine that makes the online retail experience more meaningful for consumers and more profitable for retailers.

Recommendations combine the most important product attributes with implicit user preference data to enhance the customer experience with easier choice justification. Conceptually, Cognection focuses on the following: “Given what we know about your preferences, here are the best products for you. Now let’s get you there faster and construct product comparisons that make those products even more attractive.”

The company identifies, quantifies,and fixes human irrationality, it says, “to nudge consumers to direct customers through the conversion funnel in a manner optimized for better choices that end frustration in e-commerce.”

Hoot.Me

Hoot.Me is a Facebook application that allows students to switch Facebook into study mode. With Hoot, students are able to see what their friends are working on and collaborate inside of Facebook.

For example, if a student is working on calculus homework, Hoot lets the student see in real-time all of his or her friends working on calculus. He or she can then browse through old study sessions or create a new session to collaborate from within Facebook using group video conferencing, screen sharing, and smart chat (which allows typed math equations to be automatically reformatted to look the way they would in a textbook). If friends are not available or can not answer the question, Hoot enables tutors to connect with those who need their help via an affordable transaction fee.

KeepIdeas

KeepIdeas helps consumers organize and collaborate on decisions in the cloud. It’s a social “Evernote for verticals.” Engaged members are already keeping 30,000 ideas -including recipes, hotels, couches, homes, and more.

Growing by focusing on vertical markets, partners of its primary product, KeepRecipes, range from Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto to iVillage, with “more exciting announcements on the way.” The platform will eventually expand to KeepTravel, KeepDecor, KeepHomes, and more.

LearnBop

Learning one-on-one from an individual tutor has been shown to increase a student’s performance by an entire letter grade. Unfortunately, it is economically impossible for every student to have their own personal tutor. Until now.

LearnBop’s authoring tool enables tutors to create interactive math and science problems online that respond to and learn from a student’s incorrect responses with real-time clues, as a tutor would in a one-on-one scenario. Using LearnBop’s
proprietary platform, college students have reduced the amount of time it takes to create such lessons for the calculus curriculum from 12 months to 2 months. Some LearnBop lessons are open sourced and can be modified for local use, while premium lessons are available for sale in LearnBop’s online marketplace. Clients include Carnegie Mellon University and CUNY and many others are currently in beta.

LetsGiftIt

Let’s Gift It is a platform for social gifting. It gives online retailers a plug-in tool which allows multiple contributions towards high ticket items on their registry,
wish-list and product pages. By socializing the buying experience for high ticket/high margin products, the company helps online retailers generate incremental revenue and increase average order value while helping gift givers collaborate on high-end gifts.

Pandaly

Pandaly creates interactive games that provide users a better way to discover, rate, and share discounts with friends. Through these experiences, Pandaly collects information on individual preferences which it uses to recommend the most relevant deals to each consumer.

Pandaly recently released its first experience, The Daily Deal Showdown, in which users are presented two deals and asked to choose their favorite. Other games are due this fall.

Re-Vinyl

Re-Vinyl is a mobile application that connects musicians and related brands to their fans to increase fan engagement and revenue opportunities for the band and brands.

Within this context, Re-Vinyl provides a number of services for the bands and their fans. Among other features, it provides a platform where musicians and related brands can tell and sell their story on their terms and which includes a
toolkit where fans can collaboratively remix, respond, and purchase musical content.

TakeTheInterview

Take The Interview is a cloud-based video interviewing platform for employers and candidates.

As an employer, you know in the first few minutes of meeting someone if that candidate is not a fit for your organization. Many interviewers waste valuable time and resources interviewing candidates that could be screened prior to the in-person interview.

Take The Interview provides a time-saving filter between the resume review and the in-person interview, by offering asynchronous (not-live), under-5-minute interviews that employers can control and review at their convenience.

Take The Interview launched during the summer and already has over 80 beta customers.

Pictour.us

Pictour offers a marketplace for photo tours that you can use whenever you travel to a new city or even to discover new things to do in the city in which you live.  Pictour allows anyone to create and publish photo tours that are displayed on an engaging interactive map that can be easily browsed on the web, a smartphone, or downloaded for offline use right in the traveler’s pocket.

Financial-organization:
DREAMIT VENTURES

DreamIt Ventures is a venture capital firm specializing in incubation and seed investments. The firm seeks to invest between $10,000 and $30,000 in each company. The organization was founded...

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Social learning game developers Airey Labs raises $ 1. 5 m from Google Ventures, others

Robin Wauters is currently staff writer for TechCrunch and lead editor of Virtualization.com. In addition to its activities, professional blogging, he is an entrepreneur, the organizer of the event, from time to time the Council consultant and an angel investor, but the most important champion of the full launch. He lives and works in Belgium, a small country in Europe. He can often be found work from their home or ... ? Read More

Airey Labs, mobile, Tablet and started building browser games with educational twist to young children, has landed $ 1.5 million in seed funding from Google Ventures, Foundation of wealth and the founder of Playdom, Rick Thompson.

Airey Labs said that he wants his social games to come with a genuine educational value that will be approved by parents.

The company is part of the StartX command (formerly known as SSE Labs), Stanford student Startup Accelerator.

The launch was founded in the year 2011 genius named Andrew Hsu.

Check this guy's summary:

Hsu, who began the study of molecular biology at the University of Washington (Uw) laboratory at the age of 10, won the Grand Prize in the Washington State Science and engineering fair in 11, matriculated in SS 12 and finished with three degrees of Bachelors of science in the age of 16 years. At the age of 19 years he was a 4 year old candidate in Neurobiology at Stanford University, when he left in early 2011 to continue his dream run. He was recently named a member of the Thiel 20-20.

He is also the author of several books and once a competitive swimmer.

Airey Labs is a new generation of social learning games for children. We build iOS games on your mobile phone and tablet, social games for your browser and casual massively.

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