It pays to be networked - Admob, LinkedIn announce fresh funding in downturn
Namitha Jagadeesh -
Thursday, October 23, 2008 2:58 PM
Two Silicon Valley companies - Admob, a mobile ad network and LinkedIn, a professional networking platform have announced fresh investments in the last two days, perhaps the two largest rounds of venture funding announced since the US market meltdown last month. Admob has raised $15.7 million in third round funding from Sequoia Capital (which made the now infamous 'R.I.P Good times' presentation to portfolio companies two weeks ago) and previous investor Accel Partners. LinkedIn announced fresh funding of $22.7 million from Goldman Sachs, SAP and McGraw-Hill, a follow-on to the $53 million series-D round it raised at a valuation of $1 billion earlier this year. TechCrunch reports that while LinkedIn has announced the funding now, the round closed last month, before the market crash.
But at a time when fundraising is expected to get tougher - both for start-ups and VCs, the announcements are a reminder that there is still a pool of already-raised capital that VCs will continue to deploy across start-ups, albeit cautiously. Citing from a report by Thomson Reuters and the National Venture Capital Association, Venturebeat notes that 55 venture firms in the US raised $8.1 billion in the third quarter of 2008, and Sequoia topped the list.