Oxygen will be running a 13 week program that will provide a £20,000 loan in return for 6% equity stake in your company. It seems like a good deal on the surface, but a loan in exchange for equity isn’t really the best way to start off your company. This loan doesn’t need to be repaid until your startup raises more investment.

It’s also unusual in that the £200,000 fund covering 10 teams is coming from one individual businessman with no previous history in the tech industry.

It will be interesting to see if this kind of accelerator will work here in the UK. It seems like this idea is a very interesting one, and even possibly something the Government should look at to accelerate technology startups.

• SeeSaw Hits the Deadpool: Couldnt Emulate Hulu Success – May 30, 2011
• Derwent Open Social Media Based Hedge Fund in UK – May 19, 2011
• Dell Streak 7 Tablet Available to Buy in the UK Today – April 28, 2011
• Lovefilm Sign Streaming Movie Deal with Disney – April 20, 2011
• Yandex Opens Up Their Own Startup Investment Program – April 14, 2011

Oxygen Accelerator: How to Get Your Startup Funded in the UK originally appeared on: Crenk
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Yandex the very popular Russian search engine has just launched their own startup investment program, Yandex.Factory. The program offers funding opportunities to Russian and international projects.

The investment program will focus on seed and early stage investments of up to hundreds of thousands US dollars.

“Yandex is growing fast. We are full of ideas, but it’s not always easy to do everything at once. If we spot a young, talented team of like-minded people doing interesting and relevant things on the market, we are eager to support them in all possible ways, including financing. We feel it is important that the industry keeps growing and we have an opportunity to make sure it does,” says Ksenia Yolkina, Project Manager of Yandex.Factory.

To join the Yandex.Factory program, startup teams in Russia or the CIS can present their projects at the company’s traditional open-doors event, Yandex.Start. International teams can send their application at ventures@yandex-team.ru. To learn more about the Yandex.Factory program, please visit the program’s web page.

• Derwent Open Social Media Based Hedge Fund in UK – May 19, 2011
• Oxygen Accelerator: How to Get Your Startup Funded in the UK – May 9, 2011
• Yandex Market iPhone App Now Available to Download: Shopping Comparison iPhone App – March 22, 2011
• Yandex Money Extending Its Reach in Ex Soviet Countries – March 16, 2011
• JP Morgan Didnt Invest in Twitter – March 3, 2011

Yandex Opens Up Their Own Startup Investment Program originally appeared on: Crenk
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This was Zuckerberg first domain for the Harvard social network, which apparently was a college version for “Hot or Not”. The idea of a social network started to grow, and the domain name selected end up with Facebook.com in 2004. By 2007, Mark Zuckerberg did not renew the first domain name and Rahul Jain took it.

FaceMash.com is now for sale in Flippa. The auction started at U$S8000, and the current bid is at U$S19000 with 15 days to go.

If you have an idea for a social network startup, then this is the domain name for you.

• Official Google Social Network: Google+: Facebook Competitor – June 29, 2011
• Customize your Facebook Fan Box – February 3, 2011
• Video: Mark Zuckerberg with The Social Network Counterpart Jesse Eisenberg on SNL – January 30, 2011
• GoDaddy for Sale: 1 Billion Dollars – September 11, 2010
• Skinbook: The Nude Social Network – June 3, 2010

Facebook’s Original Name, FaceMash, for Sale originally appeared on: Crenk
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A stricter approach to copyright infringement and the weight of their user base and a newly cut, seven figure cheque behind them meant that they were able to secure content licensing deals with Japanese providers, bringing exclusive and simulcast content over from Japan to their largely American audience. They now stream and broadcast only content to which they have legitimate license, and operate a membership program to get access to content earlier than it’s normally available for streaming, and to watch high-def versions of videos.

I think this is a great example of a site managing to turn popular appeal into a solid business model in the icanhascheezburger.com mould. Take a pretty unique type of content, build a user base, and exploit that user base hard and fast, while trimming away any hint of illegality. Skating the Web 2.0 copyright infringment maelstrom for a while might be dangerous, but once you’ve got the traffic, then you’ve got bargaining power, and if you can get some financial backing, or really get on top of your advertising proposition then the rewards can be huge.

• Oxygen Accelerator: How to Get Your Startup Funded in the UK – May 9, 2011
• Yandex Opens Up Their Own Startup Investment Program – April 14, 2011
• Battle of the Streaming Video Services: Amazon, Hulu and Netflix – March 1, 2011
• Facebook’s Original Name, FaceMash, for Sale – October 10, 2010
• Official White House iPhone App: Download Free – January 21, 2010

Crunchyroll: Watch Free Anime Online originally appeared on: Crenk
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Yahoo has confirmed that is has purchased a small start-up located in San Francisco in order to add better photo functionality to their Web Mail. The company which has been bought out is called Xoopit and is an emerging contender in the photo sharing world. The service allows users to share photos easily on a host of different sites such as Flickr and Facebook by taking them from their e-mail inboxes.

On the company blog, Bryan Lamkin, the senior vice-president said:

“ Why is this such a big deal? Yahoo! Mail is actually home to one of the largest online photo repositories in the world. And every day, millions of you use Yahoo! Mail as your primary way to share the photos of important moments in your lives. While social networks and community sites are great for sharing photos with everyone you know, we realize it’s not for everyone or every occasion. For many, email is still best for sharing photos among a more select group of friends or family. And now we’re making it all that much easier for you.”

Xoopit seems over the moon with the new deal. They have updated their homepage screaming Yahoo! everywhere. On their company blog they said that “the Xoopit team today sees this acquisition as an exceptional path for us in achieving our vision. Over the last few months, we have left every conversation with the Yahoo! team thinking that together we can wow the world”

The specific financial deal has not been revealed but it is estimated to be in the region of $20 million. That amount of money is no chump change for a new group of start-up creators who will hopefully go on to create even better websites and services in the future.

• Xoopit Wins with Yahoo – December 16, 2008
• Yahoo Mail Gets International Expansion into New Markets and More Languages – December 7, 2011
• The Advertising Collective: AOL, Yahoo and Microsoft Join Forces – November 9, 2011
• Carol Bartz Gets Fired as Yahoo CEO Over the Phone – September 7, 2011
• Oxygen Accelerator: How to Get Your Startup Funded in the UK – May 9, 2011

Yahoo! Buys a Start-Up Site originally appeared on: Crenk
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The event gives the startups an opportunity to share, explain, and possibly have their ideas funded. Companies have a high chance of being launched at this event, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Thanks to all the sponsors who help support and foster an event where these startups can find growth and a possible future!

Keep track of this event, and check back here for some of the highlights of the event.

• TechCrunch Hits 1 Million Milestone – September 14, 2008
• WikiLeaks Needs Your Help To Take Down Corrupt Banks – October 24, 2011
• Crenk is Getting Greatly Improved! – October 18, 2011
• Share and Listen to Music on Facebook with Spotify – September 23, 2011
• AOL Consolidating Blog Brands into 20 Power Brands! – July 4, 2011

TechCrunch50 Showcases Startups originally appeared on: Crenk
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