Tuesday, June 26, 2007

CircleUp Raises $3M

Los Angeles-based CircleUp, a firm that operates an online service focused on "social communications," is announcing today that it has raised $3M in a venture capital round. The funding is being led by Sid R. Bass Associates, which contributed $2.5M to the round. John Payne, CEO of the firm, told socalTECH that there are no other institutional participants in the venture capital round, but that the firm's initial seed funders also participated. CircleUp operates an online service that allows users to coordinate answers to email questions, and is being used to coordinate meetings, sports teams, and other group communications. Payne also said that some areas the firm has been seeing strong demand for its services are in the sports area, as well as with churches and even business applications. Perse Faily and Paul Pappajohn at Sid R. Bass are joining the firm's board as part of the funding. CircleUp's services are currently still in beta mode, but the firm expects the service to be fully available this summer. More information »