SkyGrid Receives $11 Million in Funding From BlackRock, RRE Ventures, Others

SkyGrid, the news filtering startup we wrote about in May, has announced the close of $11 million in Series B funding led by RRE Ventures. Investment management firm BlackRock also participated in the round, along with investors from both Wall Street and Silicon Valley. Previous venture investors include Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Esther Dyson, among others.

SkyGrid also announced that James D. Robinson III, co-founder and general partner at RRE Ventures and former chairman and chief executive officer of American Express Company, has been elected to the company's board, joining SkyGrid founder and chief executive officer Kevin Pomplun and Junglee Founder Rakesh Mathur.

Silicon Valley-based SkyGrid gathers mainstream and alternative information sources online, filters the information for reputation and relevance, and presents a personalized screen arranged by ticker symbol, industry sector, index or user-customized portfolios. SkyGrid launched in February 2008 with 10 customers and the company says it now has more than 100, including traders, hedge fund managers, portfolio fund mangers, and research analysts from financial institutions with asset bases from $100 million to over $1 trillion.