VC update: Action Engine, deCarta score big

Mobile on-device portal solutions developer Action Engine Corporation announced the completion of a $20 million venture funding round, bringing the company's total equity funding to $65 million. Led by Baker Capital with participation from Northwest Venture Associates and The Spangler Group, the funding is targeted to accelerate investment in Action Engine's sales, marketing and customer implementation functions. Its on-device portal solutions--downloadable clients residing on handsets that promise to facilitate discovery and access to mobile content--have already resulted in deals with media brands including MSNBC.com and TiVo.

In other VC news, location-based services and software provider deCarta announced the close of a $15 million Series C funding round led by existing investor Norwest Venture Partners. Mobius Venture Capital and Cardinal Venture Capital also returned to contribute to the round. According to deCarta, the financing is earmarked to accelerate the organization's growth in new markets and to expand its international reach. deCarta's software platform promises LBS providers and application developers the platform to efficiently build applications integrating a variety of map and data sources to provide mapping, routing and spatial search functions. Partners include Google, Ask.com, Verizon and Sprint. 

For more on the Action Engine financing:
- read this release

For more on the deCarta financing:
- read this release