DIANPING
Big money continues to pour into Chinese startups looking to establish them selves in hot sectors that might be considered saturated in the West. Take Dianping. Launched as a crowd-sourcing review site in 2003,it began to move into group buying last summer. It's in a strong position. It has 30m users, who've posted 20m reviews, covers 2,000 cities in China and 1m retail merchants. The USD100m round values the company at USD800m, but is a sizeable investment in an intensely competitive area in China. But, according to participating investor Lightspeed Venture Partners MD James Mi, it is in a enviable position due to its seven-year relationship with local merchants. Such large investments are necessary to sector in this sector, according to another investor Quining Ventures. Its MD Gary Rieschel says: "The competitive environment for the Groupon models has raised the capital required to build scale in that business. Dianping is profitable and has a proven business model, which is why its valuation was relatively high." [Read More]

EYEVIEW
The best approach to online video advertising is still some way from being cracked. There is still room for innovation in this space and this is why VC firms and high-profile investors like Google chairman Eric Schmidt are still happy to back startups in the sector. Schmidt's second investment in Eyeview will help to raise the profile of the company, which is focusing on video targeting related to consumers' demographic, time, weather and browsing history. Headquartered in New York, with R&D operations in Israel, the company plans to use this cash injection for a marketing push in the US. [Read More]

IDEELI
One consequence of the group-buying phenomenon is the increased investment in private members shopping clubs. Ideeli specialises in flash sales, like Gilt Groupe, which has also raised a large amount of funding recently. Ideeli's latest investment is USD41m, bringing its total funding to nearly USD70m. It says it has more than 4m members and has recently branched into travel and daily deals alongside its core clothing and accessories shopping offers. It is looking to use the new funding to finance partnerships and boost its staff. [Read More]

99DESIGNS
Accel Partners leading a USD35m round in 99designs is perhaps more significant due to where the crowd-sourced design marketplace is based than what the company actually does. This is Accel's third investment in Australia in nine months and one of its partners, Andrew Braccia confirms: "We're looking more closely at Australia." That said 99designs looks a a good bet. Just two years old, but already profitable it is now looking to make a big push in the US. [Read More]

PEEL
Peel is focused on convergence between smartphones and the TV experience in the living room. It has smartphone TV recommendation app, but also sells a Wi-Fi-based device it calls a 'fruit', which turns your smartphone into a universal remote control. It plans to use this USD16.7m funding to help market this hardware as well as make its products available over more smartphone platforms. [Read More]