Palo Alto, California-based single-page promotional website design platform raised $1.7 million in a seed funding round ledyby Founder's Co-op to expand its market reach, improve its products, and enable mobile content creation.

Paris-l’hospital, France-based car rental startup Drivy secured $8.3 million (€6 million) in a new funding round with Index Ventures and Alven Capital as lead investors to fuel its expansion in Europe.

San Francisco, California-based website testing and optimization platform Optimizely raised $57 million in a Series B funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz to hire as many as 250 additional staff within this year.

Irvine, US-based fitness trainer app PEAR Sports took home $5 million in its Series B funding led by previous backers Innovate Partners and Nordic Ventures to ramp up its marketing efforts and third-party sales.

Venice, California-based online vitamin seller SmartyPants Vitamins bagged $2.2 million in a new capital raising via San Francisco-based equity crowdfunding platform CircleUp to develop new products and expand its workforce.

Atlanta, Georgia-based e-commerce lending firm Kabbage Inc landed $50 million in its Series D financing led by SoftBank Capital to provide $500 million worth of loans for small online businesses by the end of 2014.

San Jose, US-based payments giant PayPal fired Rakesh "Rocky" Agrawal as its vice president (VP) of strategy this weekend after releasing some insulting words about his colleagues on the social network Twitter.

San Francisco, US-based peer-to-peer lending marketplace pioneer Prosper raised $70 million in a funding round led by private equity firm Francisco Partners to build its business and fuel its growth.

Perth, Australia-based publicly listed firm Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Ltd secured $49.5 million in a placement of 90 million shares to its Australian and new US investors at $0.55 apiece for development of its Magnolia LNG facility.

Reston, Virginia-based social lending marketplace StreetShares bagged $1.2 million in its seed funding round with Accion Venture Lab as the lead investor to back veteran-owned and main street businesses after it launches this month.

San Francisco, California-based nutrition and fitness startup MyFitnessPal is set to launch localized apps with additional languages to build its audience in Asia, particularly in China, Japan, and South Korea.

Dublin, Ireland-based medical startup Mainstay Medical raised €18M as it completed a listing in the Iris Stock Exchange (ISE) to fund the clinical trials for its product in the US and Europe next year.

New York, US-based taxi service Yellow Cab bought its younger rival Rochester Taxi Co, which is owned by Roba Bati, for an undisclosed amount in a deal that will bring the latter under the Best Ride brand later on.

Mining tycoon Andrew Forrest acquired Perth, Western Australia-based beef processor and exporter Harvey Beef for an undisclosed amount through his company Minderoo, and announced expansion plans for the newly-acquired firm.

Ridgefield Park, New Jersey-based camera and photography equipment manufacturer C&A Marketing Inc added the already-bankrupt Chicago, Illinois-based photo chain Calumet Photographic Inc for $4 million to rebuild the shuttered business.

Boulder, US-based robotic toy maker Orbotix raised $15.5 million in its Series D funding round led by Shea Ventures to create new categories of connected toys and to expand globally.

Cambridge, Massachusetts-based e-book deals service BookBub scored $3.8 million in its first funding round led by NextView Ventures and Founder Collective to expand its workforce and services and tap into international markets.

Fremont, US-based intellectual property (IP) management firm Lecorpio bagged $10 million in an unneeded funding round with Los Angeles-based investor M2O to guarantee the safe exchange of ideas and information for its enterprise clients.

Washington, US-based software giant Microsoft acquired Wellington, New Zealand-based cloud computing firm GreenButton for an undisclosed amount to incorporate it into the Azure public cloud platform to give companies remote access to software.

New York, US-based physical storage provider MakeSpace landed $8 million in funding from Upfront Ventures, OATV, Founders Fund, and other investors, to model its service after Uber and Dropbox and expand its workforce.

New York, US-based open-source video platform Kaltura bought Tel Aviv, Israel-based pay TV service startup Tvinci for an undisclosed amount to gain flexibility in the video business and grow its revenue.

Tesla Motors quietly secured permits to modify a former Chrysler facility in California and is hiring 32 workers for the said facility, according to a Bloomberg report published last week.

New York, US-based mobile gameplay-recording startup Kamcord raised $7.1 million in a Series A funding round led by TransLink Capital to conquer the giant gaming markets of Japan, China, and South Korea.

New York City, US-based online legal staffing startup Hire an Esquire closed $350,000 in its seed funding round from investors 37 Angels, 645 Ventures, and Ulu Ventures to expand its client base.

New York, US-based web performance monitoring firm Catchpoint Systems will be foraying into China and Russia, based on the pathway provided by their clients, indicating that Asia Pacific and Russia are the emerging markets in the industry.

Sao Paulo, Brazil-based curated web platform Netshow.me closed an undisclosed amount in its seed funding round from Buscape co-founder Rodrigo Borges to offer online concert service for artists and musicians.

Madison, US-based weather forecasting and analytics startup Understory bagged $1.9 million in a seed funding round led by True Ventures to build software and a forecasting model that will be able to generate weather data through ground-level observation.

London, UK-based music streaming startup Bloom.fm announced via Twitter that it shut down right after it was banned from Apple's ad network and its sole investor, Russian TV channel TNT, pulled its fundings.

Reston, US-based online solar marketplace Geostellar secured $1 million through equity crowdfunding on the Return on Change platform to upgrade its business model and employ salespeople who will promote its services to US homeowners.

Palo Alto, US-based analytics and SaaS (Software as a Service) startup PunchTab bagged $6.25 million in its recent funding round led by Mohr Davidow Ventures to run loyalty programs and promotions for its large enterprise clients.