Funding

3D Robotics has raised over $5 million in round two funding to accelerate its growth and expansion into new markets says Chris Anderson 3DR CEO and former Editor in Chief of Wired Magazine, Entrepreneur and author.
According to Anderson, the round was led by Jon Callaghan at True Ventures and Bryce Roberts of O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures , both joining the 3DR board.

Armed with a BSc, Chemistry from The University of Manchester, Jason Njoku, CEO and Co-founder of iROKO Partners left London for Lagos in what could have seemed a wrong move.

But Jason Njoku with his fearless determination saw success ahead, the CEO and Co-founder of Iroko Partners, world’s largest digital distributors of Nigerian music and movies, with a library of over 1600 licensed movies.

eBay has introduced a new and efficient optional way to manage returns to replace the old system after clients requests.

In a blog post, eBay says,” With a variety of return procedures, restrictions and policies, it’s often impossible to know what returning an eBay purchase will be like. Sometimes it can be fast and easy; other times it’s like pulling teeth.”

Not everyone turns to angels or VCs to raise money, as evidenced by the massive trend in crowdfunding. President Obama further solidified this approach to fundraising with the passage of the JOBS Act allowing small businesses and startups to raise up to $1 million a year without requiring a public offering.

Remember that feeling the first time you got an iPhone? You were all excited and happy to have the coolest technical gadget to date. Then you got Instagram. And you could share pictures with the world with filters making them look like they were from just about any camera ever made.

Amidst the media frenzy surrounding Facebook’s S1 filing to go public, some people took pause today to reflect on what the IPO could mean for the social networking giant. Among them, Stephan Paternot shared an open letter to Mark Zuckerberg

TechZulu is excited to invite you to the 2012 Startup and Entrepreneurial Forecast taking place on Tuesday Jan. 24 7pm at Coloft in Santa Monica. We have a line up of amazing speakers who will share their insights and forecast for startup trends in 2012.

Mike Jones may be known for his most recent role as CEO of MySpace, but this Internet entrepreneur is no stranger to the startup world. He’s had multiple exits (his company Userplane sold to AOL for nearly $40 million and Tsavo Media drew a cool $75 million from Cyberplex) and also advises private startups

So you have a startup idea, perhaps some level of execution or traction, but you or your co-founders are doing it blind; you trudge along with a little advice or knowledge you’ve picked up in torrented audio books after finally having made that decision to quit the 9-5. You continue to build your venture as lean as possible and hit a personal make it or break it point with a couple of unsuccessful investor meetings and very little guidance. So what’s the next step? You have faith in your idea and your company but the littlest things are occupying the biggest blocks of your time and you feel like you’re getting tunnel vision.

Thinking about applying to or ever wondered what its like taking part of an accelerator or incubation program? Well now is your chance to find out thanks to upStart.LA. The Santa Monica based startup accelerator, is inviting Los Angeles tech entrepreneurs for an evening of discussion highlighted by a panel of startup founders that have received funding from leading accelerators and incubators on Thursday, Nov. 10th from 7pm to 9pm at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium (SMCA). The event will feature a panel of some of SoCal’s brightest entrepreneurs who have received funding from TechStars, Y Combinator, 500 Startups, and Idealab and will be moderated by upStart.LA’s Co-Founder, Dan Dato.