Fast-growing social media startup Prosodichas nailed down $1.4 million in seed funding, money that the Seattle company will use to help media companies, publishers and other big brands target their Facebook posts to users when they are most likely to be online. The service also analyzes past Facebook page posts, and then makes predictions about how to best interact and post content moving forward.

Ignition Partners, the Bellevue venture capital firm, participated in the funding as did angel investors David Remer and Gary Vaynerchuk.

The involvement of Vaynerchuk, a New York social media expert, was previously reported by GeekWire.

Prosodic said that it is currently processing social media performance for more than 330 million Facebook Page Likes. Discovery Communications, for example, said it has seen a 70 percent increase in interactions and a 42 percent increase in click-through rates since implementing Prosodic’s technology.

Prosodic is still very much in the early stages of development, but CEO Leigh Fatzinger told GeekWire in March that business “is going crazy” with interest from big brands and digital media agencies. “We are still getting started,” he said.

Fatzinger previously founded Nology Media, and worked at OneComm, Nextel, LightPointe, Terabeam, and ADAPTIX.

A number of other companies are operating in the social media monitoring space, including Visible Technologies, Simply Measured, Banyan Branch and Ready Pulse. Prosodic employs 11 people.

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BOULDER, Colo., May 14, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Click to Tweet: #Symplified taps former #PGPCorp. #Vontu and #Symantec veteran for top sales post http://bit.ly/JbhHI2

Symplified(R), the Cloud Identity Company, today announced the appointment of Denise Hayman as senior vice president of worldwide field operations. Hayman is a serial start-up sales executive who has helped build several very successful information security vendors including Zscaler, PGP Corp (now Symantec), Vontu and Tripwire. She joins the Symplified executive management team and reports directly to CEO Eric Olden.

Hayman assumes worldwide responsibility for direct field sales, inside sales, service delivery, customer support and field marketing. She joins Symplified following a record setting 2011 in which the company nearly tripled revenues year-over-year and increased customer adoption by 300 percent to surpass 3 million licensed users for its cloud and mobile identity and access management (IAM) service. Last year Symplified also raised an additional $20M in Series C financing led by Ignition Partners.

“Denise knows what it takes to scale successful information security companies and take advantage of fast growing markets like cloud and mobile identity. She has proven it over and over during the course of her career,” said Eric Olden, CEO and founder of Symplified.

“IT is undeniably moving to mobile and the cloud. This seismic shift is driving the need for a new approach to identity and access management, which has emerged as one of the fastest growing segments of the security market,” he added.

“Denise has the sales, management and industry expertise to hit the ground running at Symplified. Based on her track record at Zscaler, PGP Corp and Vontu, she is the ideal sales executive to extend our position as the leader in the cloud and mobile identity management market and take revenues to the next level,” he concluded.

Hayman joins Symplified from Zscaler, a leading provider of cloud information security services, where she was vice president responsible for partnerships and alliances on a global basis. Previously, she was vice president, global sales and field marketing for encryption software leader PGP Corp until its acquisition by Symantec. Prior to PGP, she was vice president of sales for data leak prevention market originator Vontu. Earlier, Hayman was senior vice president, worldwide sales and business development for IT security and compliance solutions vendor Tripwire. She started her career at Symantec. Hayman is a graduate of Boston College.

About Symplified | The Cloud Identity Company

Symplified provides seamless identity and access management (IAM) across cloud, web and mobile apps used by employees, partners and customers. The Symplified service and its Trust Fabric(R) App Store unifies access management, federated single sign-on, auditing and user management across any access device. It can be delivered securely either on-premises or across its unique Cloud Fabric(R) deployment platform via the Symplified Trust Cloud(TM) which is hosted on the global, massively scalable Amazon Web Services infrastructure. The Symplified Structure platform enables cloud service providers to seamlessly integrate IAM capabilities across their suite of cloud services without the need for infrastructure investments. The company has been recognized by the Wall Street Journal, CRN, Network World, RSA conference, SINET 16, AlwaysOn 100 and others for its innovations. The Symplified management team created web access management market originator Securant and the ClearTrust product, which was acquired by RSA Security. The company has received financing from Allegis Capital, Granite Ventures, Ignition Partners and Quest Software. Symplified is headquartered in Boulder, Colo.

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Rand Fishkin, the CEO of the popular SEO software company SEOmoz, recently announced a new project related to webspam research. The goal of the project is to better understand and devalue the amount of “link equity” that passes from pages that could be considered webspam. Fishkin explained the project on his Google+ page earlier this week:

“We’re working on a spam research project here at SEOmoz with the eventual goal of classifying, identifying and removing/limiting link juice passed from sites/pages we’re pretty sure Google would call webspam. A score (or scores) of some kind would (eventually, assuming the project goes well) be included in Mozscape/OSE showing the spamminess of inlinks/outlinks.”

Although he freely admitted that SEOmoz will not be able to develop better algorithms or spam detection than Google, he did indicate the research has already provided interesting results. While some people are already angry that he is planning on “exposing” spam, Fishkin is hopeful that the project will provide marketers with a better understanding of web marketing, search engine penalties, and link quality.

Fishkin indicated that the Penguin update was NOT the catalyst for the project and told WebProNews the following of Google’s recent update:

“In terms of Penguin – it’s done a nice job of waking up a lot of folks who never thought Google would take this type of aggressive, anti-manipulative action, but I think the execution’s actually somewhat less high quality than what Google usually rolls out (lots of search results that look very strange or clearly got worse, and plenty of sites that probably shouldn’t have been hit).”

SEOmoz data scientist Matthew Peters is expected to present the findings of the spam research project at the MozCon SEO conference in July. SEOmoz, which has 15,000 paying subscribers, also recently announced that they had raised $18 million in Series B funding from The Foundry Group and Ignition Partners.

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Back in his days at Boston College, Bill Clerico knew how to stand out in a crowd. He did it by donning a costume of the school’s mascot, an eagle. Now as co-founder and CEO of WePay, one of many startups targeting the payments industry, he needs to stand out again.

Some investors are taking notice. WePay has just raised $10 million in a financing round led by Ignition Partners. Highland Capital Partners and August Capital, who were previous investors, also participated in the round. The company, founded in 2008, has raised about $20 million so far.

The Palo Alto, California-based company said the funds will be used to grow its workforce of 40 employees and expand its technology, which WePay touts as an easy way for small businesses to begin accepting payments online. It counts EBay’s PayPal as one of its big competitors.

When assessing a merchant’s track record, WePay looks at data on social networks. Once a business has an online presence — say, on Facebook or Yelp — they’re most likely going to have reviews and comments that can be data-mined. Clerico said it’s far easier for would-be fraudsters to create fake paperwork, than to control everything that is written about them on the Web.

Clerico won’t reveal revenues, but says sales grew by 10 times in 2011.

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SEOmoz CEO Rand Fishkin has been down this path before, as detailed in his extensive account of the company’s unsuccessful attempt to raise a large round of venture capital funding last year. But this time, with a different investor, the deal has actually closed.

They’re so excited that they’ve created their own Internet memes about it.

The Seattle-based provider of search-engine and social-media optimization software is announcing this morning that it has raised $18 million in Series B funding from Foundry Group of Boulder, Colo., along with one of its original investors, Bellevue-based Ignition Partners.

Foundry’s Brad Feld (one of the co-founders of TechStars) will be joining the SEOmoz board as a result of the deal.

Gillian Muessig, the company’s co-founder (and Fishkin’s mom) will be stepping down as president and board member, looking to pursue new projects.

SEOmoz says it plans to use the money to expand its web index, add new features to its software, hire more people and possibly make some acquisitions. The company currently has 60 employees, all of them in Seattle.

“It’s a huge amount of relief,” Fishkin said via phone yesterday afternoon, on his walk home from the office. “It feels like the last few years finally make sense around this process. The company has been going great … but there was always this monkey on my back: Why, if all of these things are going well, do we not have the kind of external validation and interest from investors?”

“This is validation, and it’s a validation in such a big way. Brad is such a huge presence in the industry. … It just feels great.”

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Ignition Partners is leading a $10 million venture capital round in WePay, a Silicon Valley online payments company. The money will be used to build out the company’s team and technology, with WePay claiming that its business grew by 10 times last year. The company certainly is entering a crowded field, one dominated for years by eBay-owned PayPal.

As part of the funding round, Ignition’s Chris Howard has joined the board. Other backers of the company include Highland Capital Partners, August Capital, Y Combinator, SVAngel, Dave McClure, YouTube founder Steve Chen, and PayPal co-founder Max Levchin. Total funding in the company — founded in 2008 and now employing 40 people — stands at $20 million.

The investment is the latest by Ignition in a San Francisco Bay Area company, following an extremely active pace of investment last year in which the Bellevue firm bankrolled more than a dozen California companies.

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Korrio is the newest Seattle tech company to take on sports, and rather than looking to the pros, they’re aiming at the sports most of us do for fun. The name, Korrio, comes from the Maori word for play.

Korrio founder and CEO Steve Goldman took a few minutes to answer some questions about the company.

What is your elevator pitch?

Korrio helps you organize and share your sports life by providing the only integrated service for organizations, teams, families and fans.

We came up with the idea … As a parent and coach of two kids that are actively involved in sports I saw first-hand the lack of easy-to-use solutions in this space. After leaving Isilon Systems and thinking about what I wanted to spend time on, creating a great product for youth sports seemed like the perfect way to blend my passions for my kids, sports and building companies of lasting value.

The word that describes our company culture is … Play. We’re a company focused on sports, so we really try to have fun beyond all the hard work. We’ve taken “play” to heart and use it as an acronym to describe the kind of company we want to be: Passionate, (building) Lasting value, Always innovating and (doing) Your best.

The biggest challenge we face is … Building an integrated service means we have to focus on both administrative features for clubs, and consumer features for parents, players and fans. As a startup with a small development team, making sure we strike the right balance so priorities are appropriately set is a recurring challenge.

We’ve raised … Early seed money from angels such as Martin Coles (former COO of Starbucks, CEO of Reebok, and Nike executive), Sam Schmidt (owner Sam Schmidt Motor Sports), and Damon Huard (former NFL quarterback). Later, we secured $3.3 million in Series A funding from Ignition Partners. Partner John Connors (former CFO of Microsoft and current Nike board member) led the investment and joined our board of directors. We expect to raise additional funding this year.

If we had $3 million, we’d invest in … Mobile. Korrio already supports publishing your practice and game calendars to your phone, as well as sending you text alerts or “robocalls” when events change. The next focus for us is to bring the full Korrio experience to your smartphone or tablet so you can be as connected on the sidelines as you are at home.

The oddest thing about our company is … It smells like fresh bread all day. We’re located in SODO directly over Macrina Bakery, so in the summer when the windows are open it’s pretty tempting to float downstairs for a snack.

The one thing missing from the business is … More great people. As we grow we’re seeing how dynamic the Seattle market has become for top talent. We have a couple of open developer positions now that we’d love to fill with A players.

We won’t fail because …We have the best team, the best technology and the biggest vision in the space. Nobody else has ever tried to build something on this scale for youth sports and we are confident we have all the right pieces in place for success.

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Adam Bosworth, co-founder of Keas Inc., talks about the company’s employee wellness programs which use social games. Bosworth spoke yesterday with Cory Johnson on Bloomberg Television’s “Bloomberg West.”

Check out video here.

In the effort to make workers healthier, employers and insurers have dangled carrots. They’ve threatened with sticks. Now, they are trying games.

A growing number of workplace programs are borrowing techniques from digital games in an effort to encourage regular exercise and foster healthy eating habits. The idea is that competitive drive—sparked by online leader boards, peer pressure, digital rewards and real-world prizes—can get people to improve their overall health.

Geologist Deanna Gerwin enrolled in the game offered by her employer, Coeur d’Alene Mines Corp. CDE +0.46% in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. She selected healthy tasks that she was already doing, such as getting eight hours of sleep a night. But when she saw that other employee teams were outstripping hers, she ramped up her efforts to generate more points, such as eating fruits and vegetables five times a day and walking 10,000 steps daily. On weekends, she logged in to do extra health quizzes that padded her point total. Soon she made it into the top 10 in the rankings.

“I was surprised I got so into it,” says Ms. Gerwin, who says she rarely plays traditional digital games such as “Angry Birds.”

A survey of employers released in March by the consulting firm Towers Watson and the National Business Group on Health found that about 9% expected to use online games in their wellness programs by the end of this year, with another 7% planning to add them in 2013. By the end of next year, 60% said their health initiatives would include online games as well as other types of competitions between business locations or employee groups.

Researchers say using videogame-style techniques to motivate people has grounding in psychological studies and behavioral economics. But, they say, the current data backing the effectiveness of workplace “gamification” wellness programs is thin, though companies including WellPoint Inc. and ShapeUp Inc. have early evidence of weight loss and other improvements in some tests.

Moreover, some employees may feel unwanted pressure from colleague-teammates or bosses when workplace competitions become heated, though participation is typically voluntary.

Some companies say they are seeing enthusiasm. A Samsung Electronics Co. semiconductor plant in Austin, Texas, offered a weeklong walking contest in the fall using a program from insurer UnitedHealth Group Inc. UNH +1.75% that lets employees form teams and track their results. The company will probably use it again for a planned Olympics-style matchup, which will involve events such as relay races wearing clean-room suits, said Charmaine Winters, senior manager of human resources.

Employers often award prizes and financial incentives to winners of the games, which typically also have digital rewards like badges. Game companies say they’ve seen prizes as big as cars, as well as extra days off, preferential parking spaces and cash, but often employers offer health-savings-account contributions.

A growing number of companies are trying to grab their business, including ShapeUp, Virgin Group’s Virgin HealthMiles, RallyOn Inc., RedBrick Health Corp. and Keas Inc., which provides the Coeur d’Alene Mines game.

Big insurers are also getting in the game. WellPoint, which already offers a wellness incentive program, is planning a new feature that lets workers track their steps using a pedometer device and compete for digital badges and rewards. Aetna Inc. AET +0.93% has a “Get Active!” initiative that lets workers form teams aimed at fitness and healthy-eating goals. Its members can access a digital game called Mindbloom that lets them create a tree that adds leaves as they perform tasks like drinking water.

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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., Apr 30, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Catalina Marketing Corporation, the leader in precision consumer marketing, today announced that is has completed its acquisition of Modiv Media, the industry-proven provider of mobile commerce solutions. The integration of Modiv into Catalina provides brands and retailers the ability to engage shoppers, influence their behavior, and boost loyalty with a unique mobile experience that saves shoppers time and money.

Catalina helps manufacturer and retail brands deliver unprecedented performance and healthier outcomes with integrated in-store and online marketing platforms. The acquisition extends Catalina’s targeted consumer engagement to include shoppers’ smartphones.

“We’ve been watching Modiv for quite some time now. Their success in driving in-store innovation is unmatched and their ability to deliver a scalable mobile commerce solution is exactly what retailers are looking for,” said Jamie Egasti, CEO, Catalina Marketing. “The acquisition will allow Catalina to drive greater consumer engagement before and during the buying experience for brands, and deliver increased revenue and shopper loyalty for large-scale retailers.”

“Modiv’s retailer-proven mobile commerce solution, coupled with Catalina’s scale, analytics and content, provides an unmatched mobile shopper marketing solution for large retailers,” said Mike Grimes, SVP of mobile commerce for Catalina and former CEO of Modiv Media. “Helping shoppers save time and money through an intuitive and relevant mobile experience is paramount to the future of retail. When combined with Catalina’s deep targeting and large CPG-funded offer pool, this becomes a must-have for retailers.”

“Modiv has spent the last several years building in-store mobile solutions from the ground up, engineering for a very complex environment,” adds Egasti. “Today, they have the only mobile commerce solution designed to meet the demands of high-frequency retail. From comprehensive integration with POS systems to leveraging loyalty and CRM to influence behavior, this solution integrates perfectly with Catalina and will change how retailers and brands engage and empower consumers.”

Since its founding in 2001, the Modiv solution was built on the premise of connecting the physical store with the shopper via a mobile device. Already in over 350 locations, their retailer-branded solution influences over 1 million shopping trips per month that drive over $1 billion in retailer sales annually.

This February, Modiv introduced Modiv Social which enables retailers and brands to offer shoppers an integrated mobile coupon wallet experience that aggregates coupons from any couponing source (web, retailer, mobile, digital, etc.) and gives shoppers the unique ability to share select mobile coupons via Facebook. Going far beyond simple sharing, Modiv Social enables retailers and brands alike the ability to track, monitor, manage and analyze the lifecycle of a socially shared coupon, as well as identify ‘shopping influencers’ and rewarding those who share these coupons.

The entire Modiv team will remain in the Boston area and will be the foundation of Catalina’s mobile efforts. The company is currently evaluating a new office location in Boston’s Innovation District to support expansion plans for the mobile team.

About Catalina

Catalina is committed to helping manufacturer and retail brands deliver unprecedented performance and healthier outcomes. With proprietary and integrated in and out-of-store marketing platforms — including CouponNetwork.com, Catalina enables the delivery of the right message to the right audience in the right environment. Catalina leverages the world’s largest, transaction-level, shopper-data warehouse to develop, deliver, and measure shopper and patient-driven engagements to approximately 90M households and 130M health consumers, annually. Media distribution channels include over 55,000 food, drug and mass locations worldwide, including 18,000 US pharmacies. Catalina is based in St. Petersburg, Florida, with operations in the US, Europe and Japan.

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