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Daniel Klaus, co-founder and CEO of Music Nation Inc., talks with Tech Confidential about how his Web 2.0 startup is capitalizing on social networking and online video to replace highly paid talent scouts with fans who work for free. Leveraging the popularity of reality-TV talent shows, especially "American Idol," that let the audience pick the winners, Music Nation invites visitors to the...

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The bankers orphaned when SVB Financial Group in July decided to shut its investment banking arm are starting to find new homes. A group of former bankers from SVB Alliant, the tech boutique acquired by SVB Financial for $100 million in 2001, have been hired by Mooreland Partners LLC. The Greenwich, Conn.-based technology advisory has snagged three SVB Alliant...

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TVtrip.com, an online search engine for hotels in Europe that features video clips, has secured $4.8 million in Series A financing from Balderton Capital (the newly named London-based European team of Benchmark Capital) and Partech International. The travel Web site was founded in May by four former execs from Expedia Europe. TVtrip hired professional camera crews to shoot independent...

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Venture investors must enjoy the warm glow coming from solar companies because they keep pumping money into them. The latest company to get an infusion of cash, Stion Corp., makes a thin-film solar panel that will generate solar electricity at a price comparable to current electric rates. Stion, which was formerly called NStructures, plans to begin production of its...

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"The difference between Web 1.0 companies and Web 2.0 companies is that Web 2.0 companies are not hypothetical — they have real value," said Shawn Gold, MySpace.com's senior vice president of marketing and content, on a panel at the Web 2.0 NY & Madison Ave. 2.0 Summit in New York City on Thursday. Gold, who co-founded Weblogs Inc., said...

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Synthetic Genomics Inc., a company formed by J. Craig Venter with the goal of creating new microorganisms, has scored an investment from oil giant BP plc. Venter, who is known for his work sequencing and then trying to patent various animal genomes, formed Synthetic Genomics in 2005 to create viruses and other microorganisms with specialized properties of use to...

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You have to love this investment manager's take on the recent shutdown of Prudential Financial Inc.'s equity operation, which operated independently from the company's investment banking group. "If the product was valuable, people would buy it, and it would make a profit," investment manager Chad Brand of Peridot Capital Management said in a recent commentary on SeekingAlpha.com. Brand, who argues that...

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David Kirkpatrick, managing director of SJF Ventures, tells The Deal.com that groSolar is reloading for a Series B round of between $7 million and $10 million. SJF Ventures led the company's Series A round of $2.5 million and has been talking with clean energy funds and strategic investors about the next round. GroSolar, which delivers and installs solar power...

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Betting that tracking consumers' behavior online will translate into big bucks, Commonwealth Capital Ventures led a hefty $15 million Series B round in Me.dium Inc., a company that monitors Web behavior and hooks up people with similar online habits. This latest round raises the one-year-old startup's total funding to $20 million. Paypal Inc. founder Elon Musk was the original investor. Existing...

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Female entrepreneurs secure less angel funding than their male counterparts, but that may be partly because they are less likely to ask for investments from private investors than men. According to the latest findings from the Center for Venture Research at the University of New Hampshire, only 8.9% of proposals fielded by angel groups are from women. However, when...

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