Securing documents became more relevant after Wikileaks unleashed thousands of confidential documents concerning the U.S. government onto the Internet. Enter Confidela, a provider of software designed to secure documents and make them more difficult to crack unless the reader has permission to view them.

Confidela, designer of the WatchDox document security program, announced today that it has raised $9.25 million in its second round of funding led by Shasta Ventures.

WatchDox basically wraps up a document in a protective layer that requires another user to have permission to read it. The sender has full control over the document and can decide whether to delete it, allow the reader to print it and pretty much everything else. The document is read through a web browser after it has been opened. There are also applications to access WatchDox-protected documents on the iPad and iPhone.

The company has around 3,000 customers, including a number of businesses in the financial services industry that deal with more sensitive information. Other customers include some companies in the semiconductor industry, where intellectual property needs an additional layer of protection. But perhaps the most notable new customers coming to WatchDox are governmental agencies concerned with potentially disastrous leaks following the Wikileaks scandal.

The service can already be integrated into some email services like Gmail and Microsoft Outlook. Part of the funding will be spent on developing a plug-in for Salesforce’s customer relationship management (CRM) software and Microsoft’s Sharepoint software, said Moti Rafalin, Confidela’s chief executive. But the majority of the funding will be used on sales and marketing, he said.

Confidela earlier raised $5.5 million from Gemini Israel Funds and Shlomo Kramer, co-founder of Check Point and Imperva — two other security firms.

Tags: document security, leaks, security, Watchdox

Companies: Confidela, WikiLeaks

Article courtesy of VentureBeat » deals

Adap.tv, a provider of online video advertising, has raised $4.5 million in a third round of funding. Existing investors Redpoint Ventures, Gemini Israel Funds and Spark Capital participated in the round, according to a filing with the SEC.

Based in San Mateo, Calif., Adap.tv provides publishers with an ad serving platform for monetizing videos. Last week, the company announced that comScore ranked it the third largest online video property based on video advertisements. Adap.tv reached more than 60 million unique online viewers with more than 440 million video ad views last month.

Founded in 2007, Adap.tv previously raised $10 million in 2007 and $13 million in 2008.

Companies: Adap.tv, comscore, Israel Gemini Funds, Redpoint Ventures, Spark Capital

Article courtesy of VentureBeat » deals

Start-up Sense of Fashion has raised a round of money from the Gemini Israel Funds venture capital fund.

The Tel Aviv, Israel-based company runs an e-commerce site for independent fashion designers to sell and promote their products. It was founded by Daria Shualy and Yael Givon and resembles the do-it-yourself sales site Etsy. The site tries to promote discussion around indie fashion around the world. The blog StartUpMania reported the funding but had no further details. The amount is said to be more than $1 million.

Sense of Fashion’s chief executive is Ori Levy, founder of the start-up Trendum Buzzmetrix which was sold to Nielsen. Levy was the main investor in the company before Gemini invested. Sense of Fashion was founded in 2008 and has four employees.

Companies: Gemini, Sense of Fashion

Article courtesy of VentureBeat » Deals & More