Today’s early-stage startup funding and acquisitions news, from around the web:
Commerce
Online Attorney Marketplace UpCounsel Raises $1.5 Million, Opens Its Patent Practice To All (via TechCrunch)
Listia Raises $9M in Series A Funding, Will Expand Mobile Platforms of Online Trading Marketplace (via company press release)
Staples Buys Personalization Startup Runa To Square Up To Amazon In Office Supplies (via TechCrunch)
Heartland Invests $20 Million in Leaf (via company blog)
Financiers/Funds
Now almost 600 strong, 500 Startups announces new $44.1M seed fund (via VentureBeat)
Rolling in dough: SAP Ventures launches new $650M fund (via GigaOm)
Education
SoFi Reaches $500 Million in Capital Raised to Fund and Refinance Student Loans (via company press release)
Content/Publishing
Madefire Raises $5.2M, True Ventures-Led Round As It Tries To Reinvent Digital Comics (via TechCrunch)
Mobile
Russian m-banking start-up raises $2m (via Finextra)
Yahoo’s latest acquistion: sports app developer Hitpost (via VatorNews)
Data
Numerify raises $8 million in first round of funding (via San Francisco Business Times)
# # #
