VENTURE CAPITAL POST

American Internet and tech giant Google struck a manufacture and distribution deal with Italian optical wear maker Luxottica for the future versions of its wearable Glass.

In its first foray outside of North America for its premium video syndication platform, New York, US-based multinational mass media firm AOL Inc launched the AOL On Nework in the UK.

London, UK-based social shopping startup Nuji nabbed $2 million in a seed funding round from TAG, Seedcamp, Samos, and other angel investors to launch an iOS app this April.

A new tax law in the UK that will take effect at the beginning of 2015 seeks to close a loophole that exempts online music, apps, and downloads from a 20% value added tax.

Boston, US-based enterprise data management startup Actifio scored $100 million in its Series B funding led by Tiger Global Management for its expansion with its valuation now reaching $1.1 billion.

San Francisco, US-based online restaurant reservation service OpenTable will shut down Los Altos, California-based restaurant recommendation app Ness, which it acquired in February, on April 21.

London, UK-based Video-on-Demand (Vod) service Screenburn raised $500,000 (£302,000) in an angel funding round to fuel its expansion for 2014 and to continue monetizing the presence of music and film artists on Facebook.

Pasadena, California-based kinetic desk maker Stir raised $1.5 million in a seed funding round led by Vegas TechFund and Zach Ware to scale up its production and distribution efforts.

Redwood City, US-based video streaming service Qik will shut down on April 30 after its features have been integrated into Skype, which acquired it for $150 million three years ago.

Twitter is now offering an alternative way of sending Tweets via SMS after Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan lambasted social media for linking him to a corruption scandal and blocking the social network in the country.

New York, US-based brand advocacy startup Crowdtap picked up $5 million in a Series B funding round led by Foundry Group to continue inspiring its customers to create quality promotional content on blogs and social media sites.

Granada, Spain-based gifting startup Giftri mines web consumers' Facebook data, including Likes and Interests, to come up with personalized gift recommendations that gift-senders can buy from Amazon.

After issuing a recall and full refund for the involved product, San Francisco, California-based fitness tracker maker FitBit is now facing a class-action lawsuit filed by a customer over the rash issue caused by the latest version of its Force fitness band.

Boston, US-based application programming interfaces (APIs) provider MachineShop Inc emerged from stealth mode and got $3 million as its first capital from a group of its customers to enable businesses to create their own middleware for Internet of Things.

Munich, Germany-based app crowdtesting startup Testbirds picked up €2.1 million in its Series A funding round led by Seventure Partners for its expansion across Europe.