VENTURE CAPITAL POST

Mountain View, US-based search giant Google will shell out $207.7 million (€150 million) to expand its data center in Dublin Ireland to beef up its revenue generation through its cloud services.

Caving in to public pressure, San Francisco, US-based marketing automation firm RadiumOne terminated its chief executive officer (CEO) Gurbaksh Chahal after he pled guilty to domestic violence and battery charges recently filed against him.

Los Gatos, US-based e-commerce startup Wanderful Media raised $14.5 million in its fourth funding round from different media companies to launch a mobile app called Find & Save that aggregates local sales deals.

After announcing via press conference that its Falcon 9 rocket has successfully made a soft landing in the ocean, Elon Musk expressed his desire for Space X and other private companies to join the bidding for military rocket launch contracts.

Ohio, US-based Payments-as-a-Service company 2Checkout closed its first funding round at $60 million with Chicago Growth Partners and Trident Capital as the lead investors in a deal that will fuel its global expansion.

Burbank, US-based SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) database startup Connectivity secured $6.3 million in its Series A funding from Greycroft Partners, Rincon Venture Partners, Double M Partners, and other investors to release a new platform with additional features.

Maryland, US-based software cybersecurity firm HackSurfer bagged $3.5 million in a recent funding round to provide better cloud-based enterprise data protection for its customers from both private and government sectors.

Atlanta, US-based security software provider Damballa pocketed $13 million in venture funding from its existing investors to beef up its sales force and support its growth campaign in North America.

Tom Preston-Werner, the co-founder and president of San Francisco, US-based social coding network, stepped down from his position after former employee Julie Horvath claimed she experienced gender-based harassment and retaliation in the company.

Bellevue, US-based Internet business operator Blucora acquired Atlanta, Georgia-based explainer site HowStuffWorks in a deal valued at $45 million in cash from Discovery Communications, which had bought the site in 2007 for $250 million.

Santa Monica, US-based music streaming service Beats Music is looking to raise between $60 million and $100 million in a new funding round in a bid to keep up with bigger rival Spotify, as the Beats Electronics spin-off failed to attract the targeted number of subscribers since its January launch.

Seoul, South Korea-based early stage venture capital firm K-Cube Ventures has emerged as one of the key players in the country's startup industry with its quick and risky investment deals that focus on startups that offer unique solutions to existing problems.

US-based search giant Google has just hired high profile biochemist Cynthia Kenyon of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) to be part of its secretive Project Calico which aims to come up with a way to extend the lifespan of humans.

Seattle, US-based entrepreneur Liz Havlin is set to launch a crowdfunding campaign via Kickstarter to raise $30,000 to develop a 3D printer called the Legacy that uses recycled colored plastic as ink.

While news have already spread about Google's plan to bring the Internet to more people using high-altitude balloons in its "Project Loon" initiative, the search giant has finally started testing the solar-powered balloons over Nevada.