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Great blog post by Loic Le Meur, Founder of Seesmic, explaining how he formed the company and raised his intial investment. what’s that old adage? - Oh yes - ‘ its not what you know, it is who you know’.

I closed the initial funding of Seesmic in September 2007. The main investment came from Atomico’s Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis (they invested $5.5 million on the $6 million). Talking to bloggers all the time, I have not been very good at keeping the secret as Om Malik was the first to talk about it on October 8, 2007. On November 28, Liz Gannes got almost the entire list of investors right. We have never really hidden the funding as a partial investor list was even on our company backgrounder at the last Demo conference (by the way see our DEMO video if you want to learn about Seesmic in 6 minutes). So the only real news today is the full list of investors.

We should have made it “officially” public for a while but I did not want to do it until all the paperwork was done and signed. That happened last week. Getting 14 investors on board – most of whom are individuals and not through funds - takes time.

Niklas Zennstrom and I have been friends for years and we have been wanting to launch a project together for a while. We both know that the media that has not really changed since the growth of the Internet is TV. Most of our friends do not watch TV anymore or watch it only with a laptop on their knees. TV will totally change in the future, we all know that. While Niklas and Janus are focusing on the high end video content with Joost, I have always been fascinated by the conversations.

I explained to Niklas that for me, the quality of conversations that I have enjoyed on blogs and social software since 2003 had to happen in video and that simply isn’t happening yet. I said I wanted to make this happen and make it my next company and Niklas immediately [Read more]

Tags: AOL, Goldman Sachs, Google, IPRO, Joost, LinkedIn, Pulver, Seesmic, Skype, SofTech VC, SupportSoft, TechCrunch, Topica

Blyk, the new mobile network for 16-24 year olds funded by advertising, has announced its expansion to the Dutch market. Blyk will use Vodafone Netherlands as its host operator, which means that Blyk members in the Netherlands will be able to use voice, text and data services across the Vodafone network.

Blyk’s CEO and Co-founder, Pekka Ala-Pietilä said, “For advertisers Blyk is a pan-European youth medium and the Netherlands is among the three highest advertising spend per capita in Europe. It is also a key target market for those
brands with international campaigns.”

“From an advertising perspective, the Netherlands is also an incredibly creative and dynamic market. The deal with Vodafone ensures that we can offer the highest quality service in the Netherlands for both our members and our advertisers.”

Anthony Hellegers, Director Strategy, Wholesale, Legal & Regulatory at Vodafone Netherlands said: “Last year we announced that we want to build a sustainable position in the Dutch MVNO market by offering a true partnership model and the best network quality. We are delighted that this has been recognized and that Blyk has chosen Vodafone Netherlands for their expansion into the Netherlands.”

Blyk will launch in the Netherlands in the second half of 2008. Other European markets are under discussions and details will be released later.

In a further statement, Blyk announced new investors Goldman Sachs and Industrial and Financial Investments Company (IFIC), who will join a roster that includes Sofinnova Partners and a number of private investors. On the investment, Ala-Pietilä commented, “We are pleased to have two new and prominent investors. It reflects great confidence in the Blyk model.”

Tags: Blyk, Goldman Sachs, IFIC, Sofinnova Partners, Vodafone

The Daily Telegraph is reporting that Setanta, the Irish TV broadcaster, has raised £90m from its existing shareholders, including Goldman Sachs, Doughty Hanson and Balderton Capital. The money will be used to pay for soccer rights acquisitions including FA Cup games and England Internationals.

Tags: Balderton Capital, Daily Telegraph, Doughty Hanson, Goldman Sachs, Setanta