identi.ca gets funding, and a case of bad timing

I learned through GigaOM this morning that Montreal-based Identi.ca has taken a round of funding from Montreal Startup. I was, and remain, a big supporter of Identi.ca and first covered it back in July, 2008.

It appears that Montreal Startup is the sole funder in this round so I will assume that GigaOM is right and the amount of funding is probably in the $200,000 to $400,000 range.

This is exciting news for the Canadian startup community, but just after hearing it this morning I came across this announcement from Google. In November 2007, Google acquired Jaiku, a “lifestreaming” service that resembles Twitter and which preceeded services such as Friendfeed which largely copy its functionality, and it was founded even before Twitter.

Google is announcing today that they are going open-source and will be making Jaiku freely available. On top of that, you will be able to easily deploy it to the Google App Engine.

I am not sure of the exact impact of Jaiku going open-source, but it no doubt has some impact on Identi.ca’s plans. I am confident that Evan and Montreal Startup will take this development in to account, and I certainly believe that there is more than enough room for a few open source applications to thrive.

Reminder: Office Holiday Party

There are a few geekmas parties going on this December, and they are selling out quickly. Both have been organized by members of the community, and look like they will be a blast.

Montreal has CelebrateCamp on December 18th.

Come out an celebrate 2008 with the Montreal Technology Community. We have many things to celebrate as a community. A successfull year of Barcamps, StartupCamps, Democamps, Podcamps and a number of other community events flourished this year. We’ve seen more startups launched, more investing activity and a number of our local friends have personal & professional success created in 2008.

and in Toronto there is #hohoto, which came together on Twitter in a matter of days. It is taking place at The Mod Club – Monday, December 15, 2008, 7pm. There will be DJs, cheap drinks and all the proceeds are going towards the Daily Bread food bank.

Update:

Halifax is having a Geekmas event on December 17th raising money for Feed Nova Scotia!

Which other cities will get on board and start raising money for charity?

Montreal Start Up raises another $2M

Montreal Start Up announced today the closing of an additional $2,000,000 for its venture fund from the Solidarity Fund QFL, bringing total assets under management to $5,000,000. The Solidarity Fund QFL joins Investissement Québec, la Conférence Régional des Élus, and 20 of Montreal’s most successful entrepreneurs and investors who partnered with Montreal Start Up to address the need for more early stage capital and mentoring.

“We have met with hundreds of entrepreneurs since our launch and the quality and creativity of the ideas we are seeing is constantly improving. We were having to turn down good deals because of the limited amounts of capital available to us. The support of Solidarity Fund QFL will allow us to support more of Montreal’s best startup companies.” John Stokes, Montreal Start Up

Also revealed were Montreal Start Up’s four latest investments: Mobilize Central, KeenKong, The Book Oven, and Oneeko all of which are based in Montreal. These investments are in addition to its previously announced investments in Standout Jobs and Akoha.

This is all fantastic news from Montreal, easily one of the most vibrant startup communities in Canada.