Today Daily Grommet, the online marketplace and product launch platform for undiscovered consumer products, announces the second tranche of investment by Rakuten, the third largest online marketplace in the world, and a rebrand that includes a name change to The Grommet. This investment makes Rakuten the major stakeholder in the business. This significant news in The Grommet's history marks the company's success in levelling the playing field so that the best products and companies coming out of the "hardware renaissance" can succeed. The Grommet's disruptive business model gives consumers a trusted place to engage with the stories and people behind the explosion of new consumer products. It does so by discovering, launching, and sharing up-and-coming products with an emerging e-commerce shopper looking for meaningful products to buy online.  READ MORE

SimpleTuition, Inc., a leader in providing tools and resources that help students pay less for college-related expenses and be smarter about how to manage their student debt, today announced it has closed a $4 million Series D funding round. This round of funding was led by previous investors Atlas Venture, Flybridge Capital Partners, and North Hill Ventures. The new funds will be used to fuel the growth of SimpleTuition's three core businesses – student loans, textbooks and rewards – with investment in product development, marketing and business development.  READ MORE

DraftKings, Inc., a leading provider of daily fantasy sports online with offerings across the board in fantasy baseball, fantasy football, fantasy basketball, and fantasy hockey, has closed a $7M Series A round of funding led by Atlas Venture. DraftKings plans to use the money to continue to perfect the customer experience and to broadly market its online and mobile offerings in short-term fantasy sports play. Featuring daily fantasy sports contests and same-day settlement, DraftKings makes playing fantasy faster and more exciting for both seasoned and casual players. Launched on April 28, 2012, the funding announcement comes right as the company is celebrating its first anniversary. READ MORE

As reported by TechCrunch, Fashion Project in Boston, has raised $1.8M in funding from Atlas Venture, High Peak Ventures, Schooner Capital, and other angel investors.  Fashion Project is an eCommerce site where you can done and shop for designer labels with a portion of every sale going to charity.

TripAdvisor®, Inc. today announced it has acquired Jetsetter.com, a leading members-only private sale site for hotel bookings.  The Jetsetter brand will continue to operate out of New York City and will be incorporated into Smarter Travel Media.

"Jetsetter is an outstanding brand and I am absolutely delighted to welcome the Jetsetter team to the TripAdvisor family," said Steve Kaufer, co-founder and CEO TripAdvisor, Inc.  "With Jetsetter and our own SniqueAway brand, we now have two leading travel private sale sites under one roof.  We are excited by the opportunities this provides to continually help drive amazing value for our travelers staying at some of the world's most highly-rated hotels."

TripAdvisor®, Inc., today announced it has acquired Tiny Post (tinypost.co), the highly acclaimed app that lets you write over photos and turn them into stories.  The Tiny Post team will be based in TripAdvisor's Palo Alto office.

"The Tiny Post team have created a wonderful app that shows the possibilities of combining travel photos with social and mobile," said Steve Kaufer , co-founder and CEO TripAdvisor, Inc.  "We think Tiny Post is a great fit with our continued drive to provide engaging and sharable content and I am happy to welcome this strong team to TripAdvisor."  READ MORE

EverTrue, an education fundraising platform, today announced a $5.25 million Series A funding round led by Bain Capital Ventures with participation from existing investors Boston Seed Capital, TechStars CEO David Cohen, Bonobos CEO Andy Dunn and Trunk Club CEO Brian Spaly. Bain Capital Ventures joins a prestigious list of higher education leaders who have invested in EverTrue including Harvard Corporation Member Paul Finnegan, Brown University Trustee Sam Mencoff, Northwestern University Trustee Tim Sullivan, University of Pennsylvania Overseer Jim Perry, Georgetown Regent Brendan Carroll, former University of Chicago Trustee Ned Jannotta and Buckley School Trustee Thomas Lehrman.  READ MORE

Battery Ventures participated in a $1.2 million seed round for iPhone app Polar. Other investors in the round include Yahoo founder Jerry Yang at AME Cloud Ventures; John Lilly at Greylock Partners; Maynard Webb from Webb Investment Network; and Ash Patel at Morado Ventures. Polar is a super-fast and easy way to create and vote on great-looking photo polls.

Plastiq, an online payments solution provider based in Boston, Massachusetts with offices in Toronto, Canada has closed a $6M round of Series A financing. The round was jointly led by venture capital firms Atlas Venture and Flybridge Capital Partners. Investors from the previous round, NextView Ventures and Greenoaks Capital Management LLC, also participated alongside angel investors including Harvey Golub, former Chairman and CEO of American Express.

As reported by the Boston Business Journal, Consumer United has raised $52.5M in fudning led by Spark Capital and Thayer Street Partners.  Consumer United is a website focused on helping people shop online for personal auto and other insurance products by enabling shoppers to quickly compare rates and find better coverage from companies that best fit their individual and family needs.

Intrepid Pursuits LLC, maker of the location-based music discovery app Timbre, has secured a seed funding round of $360,000 to commercialize and further develop the app as it launches world-wide.  Atlas Venture, Boston Seed Capital, and Bantam Group led the round.

Backstage, LLC, the world's most trusted name in casting, auditions and entertainment-industry opportunities, today announced that it has acquired Sonicbids, the leading platform for bands to connect with promoters and market themselves online. The deal, financed by Guggenheim Partners, combines the two leading entities for actors, musicians, casting directors and promoters to showcase and discover talent. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Backstage and Sonicbids come from the same heritage of matching artists with opportunities. For more than 50 years, Backstage has been the world’s most trusted name in casting, auditions and entertainment-industry opportunities. It helps actors, singers and dancers find opportunities, while connecting casting directors, producers, directors and choreographers with amazing talent.

Care.com (http://www.Care.com), the largest online care destination in the world, has acquired Parents in a Pinch, a leading back-up child and adult care specialist, broadening its service offerings for employers and members. Terms of the transaction, which closed on December 31, 2012, were not disclosed. 

Parents in a Pinch, which is currently based in Brookline, MA and will relocate to Care.com's offices, is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Care.com and will continue to be run by co-founders Barbara Siegel and Davida Manon.

Redstar Ventures, a Cambridge-based “venture foundry” announced on Wednesday that the early-stage venture capital fund Avalon Ventures has led an investment in LoopIt, an operating company from Redstar Ventures. The investment is the first external seed funding for LoopIt and will be used for research and development of its “conversation engine,” which is designed to help consumers tap friends across their social networks for advice when shopping online. Redstar said LoopIt is just one of the operating companies it will formally announce in 2013.

Kitsy Lane, a Maynard, MA-provider of a social commerce platform for at-home entrepreneurs, has raised $3.5m in a Series A funding.  The round was co-led by Data Point Capital and Longworth Venture Partners, with participation from existing investor Point Judith Capital.  In conjunction with the funding, Data Point Capital’s Scott Savitz, will be joining the company’s Board of Directors.

Launched in July 2012 by CEO Andy Fox, Kitsy Lane provides a social commerce platform that is designed to enable store operators to quickly launch their own Internet jewelry and accessories boutique. In just five months since the launch, the Kitsy Lane community has grown to over 22,000 women owned and operated businesses.

PreSonus™ Audio Electronics, a leading designer and manufacturer of audio-recording software, hardware, and related accessories, today announced it has acquired Nimbit^®, Inc., the pioneers of direct-to-fan sales and promotion for the music industry. The Nimbit acquisition extends PreSonus’ strategic vision of empowering musicians and audio professionals with an ecosystem of products and services.

Ovuline, a leader in healthcare IT for pregnancy, today announced $1.4 million in seed financing. Lightbank led the round, with participation from Launch Capital, LionBird and Techstars founder and CEO David Cohen. The funding allows Ovuline to continue development of its mobile and Web-based Smart Fertility™ product and expand its presence in the pregnancy tracking space.

Launched in June 2012, Ovuline uses technology and machine learning to help couples have children, and its statistics show that Ovuline users conceive two times faster than the national average. The company’s fertility product, Smart Fertility™, has already helped 20,000 women conceive.

As per SEC filings, MustBin has raised $1.4M in funding.  MustBin is a stealth mode startup that is founded by serial entrepreneur Brian Shin, who is the founder & CEO of Visible Measures.  According to his LinkedIn profile, MustBin is solving a big consumer problem and is backed by leading VC's and angel investors.

As per SEC filings, PatientsLikeMe in Cambridge, MA has added another $3M to a previous round of funding back in August.  PatientsLikeMe is the world's leading online health data sharing platform. PatientsLikeMe creates new knowledge by charting the real-world course of disease through the shared experiences of patients. While patients interact to help improve their outcomes, the data they provide helps researchers learn how these diseases act in the real world and accelerate the discovery of new, more effective treatments. 

As reported by the Boston Business Journal, Nara is Cambridge has raised $3M in funding, which was led by Account Management LLC.  Nara is a consumer based recommendations service.

RallyPoint, the Boston-based provider of a LinkedIn-type online service exclusively for U.S. military service members, announced on Tuesday it raised $1 million from a group of angel investors in December.

Founded by two veterans who met first while in Iraq and reunited at Harvard Business School, RallyPoint is designed to help service members advance their careers. The service launched onNov. 12, Veteran’s Day.

Testive, a 2012 TechStars Boston alumus, announced a $500K seed round lead by prominent Boston angels. Testive builds educational testing and test prep software. Testive's TurboTest™ platform was developed at MIT and can accurately predict students’ scores on the SAT® and other tests 3x faster than traditional practice tests.

Testive’s fundraising round was led by several prominent Boston Angels including Jean Hammond (an active angel and early investor in ZipCar and Pixibiity), Eileen Rudden (Former Chief Officer of Chicago Public School’s College and Career Prep Office), Dharmesh Shah (co-founder of Hubspot), and Bill Warner (founder of Avid and active Boston Angel). Don McLagan, an investor and the former CEO of Compete.com, has joined Testive’s Board as an observer.

Playrific, a leading digital media aggregation service for children, announced today that it has closed an oversubscribed $1.7 million round of equity financing. The funding was lead by Golden Seeds, a network of angel investors dedicated to investing in early stage companies founded and led by women, with participation of investors from a variety of other angel groups including Launchpad Venture Group, Walnut Ventures, Northeast Angels and Maine Angels.

As per SEC filings, Fancred in Brookline, MA has raised $500K in funding.  Fancred is a social sports app that connects friends who want to talk sports.

Spindle in Boston, MA has raised $2.3M in funding.  Investors in Spindle include Polaris Venture Partners, Atlas Venture, Greylock Partners, Lerer Ventures, SV Angel, Broad Beach Ventures, Project 11, Ray Ozzie, and Raman Narayanan.  Spindle is building products that weave the online social world together with the world around you.

As per PandoDaily, CoachUp in Boston, MA has raised $2.2M in funding from General Catalyst.  CoachUp helps athletes achieve their full potential by connecting them with great private coaches.  They recently graduated from the TechStars Boston accelerator program.

Priceline.com Inc. plans to buy online travel-research company Kayak Software Corp. for $1.8 billion to expand its travel business.

Priceline will pay about $500 million in cash and $1.3 billion in stock and assumed options. The deal values Kayak at $40 a share, a 29 percent premium over its closing price Thursday.

Shares of Kayak — which also reported a 78 percent jump in third-quarter earnings — soared in after-hours trading while Priceline shares fell.

Flashnotes, the online student-to-student marketplace for buying and selling class material, has closed a seed round of $1.8M. The financing was led by Ryan Moore of Atlas Venture and Jordan Levy of Softbank Capital, with participation from angel investors Michael Lazerow (Founder, Buddy Media), Paul Sethi (Founder, RedBooks) and Paul Tedeschi (Founder, Mr. Youth), Sachin Jade (Klifer Capital) and Abigail Coxsen.

Zagster, a company that provides bikes-as-a-service, today announced it has raised $1,000,000 in funding, led by LaunchCapital and including Fontinalis Partners, a strategic investment firm co-founded by Bill Ford and focused exclusively on next-generation mobility companies. Several leading Boston-area angel investors, including John Landry and Jean Hammond (an early investor in Zipcar) also participated. The funding will help the company accelerate a national rollout of its turnkey bike sharing service aimed at the hospitality, real estate and employer markets.