Raleigh, NC-based Valencell, an innovator in mobile health and fitness technology, has received $5.5 million in Series B venture investment. The round was led by Best Buy Capital, the investment group of Best Buy Co., Inc., with participation from Series A investors TDF and True Ventures. Valencell was a presenting company at TechMedia’s Southeast Venture Conference in Atlanta in March.

Seeded by its three founders, Valencell previously raised a Series A round of $1 million and has been awarded more than $3 million in R&D grants.

Valencell created a technology it calls Healthset powered earbuds, which gives audio headsets the ability to monitor the health and fitness of the user.

Healthset sensor technology tracks real-time physiological metrics including heart rate, calories burned, steps taken, distance traveled, speed and more, while the consumer listens to music, talks over the phone, or goes about daily life activities. Data is streamed to smartphones and/or mp3-players through wired or wireless links, enabling live body metrics, training, and coaching via fitness applications on mobile devices and online.

“People everywhere are listening to music while running and exercising,“ explained CEO and cofounder Dr. Steven LeBoeuf. “Integrating heart rate sensors directly and seamlessly into music earbuds fits right into the behavior of consumers today. Everyone’s body responds differently to exercise, so being able to monitor the heart, the body’s engine, will help consumers customize and personalize workout regiments for their specific goals whether it’s for weight loss, toning or endurance. Users will be able to view their metrics live through fitness applications on their iPhone, Android phones, other mobile devices and online.”

Recent research from PricewaterhouseCoopers cites growing demand for mobile health monitoring: 88% of physicians said they would like their patients to track their health information and 40% of individuals said they would buy a personal health-monitoring device or pay for a subscription to send health information to their providers.

California-based social commerce firm BeachMint chews on $23.5M financing

BeachMint has secured a $23.5 million round of funding led by Scale Venture Partners and Lightbank, the technology investment fund started by Eric Lefkofsky and Brad Keywell, cofounders of Groupon.

Existing investors, New Enterprise Associates, Trinity Ventures, and Anthem Ventures also participated in the round. The new funding will be used to grow the existing brands, JewelMint and StyleMint (launching July 1), to accelerate the company’s phenomenal growth and to expand into new categories.

Sharon Wienbar, Scale Venture Partners’ managing director, will join the company’s Board. She said, . ”Consumer e-commerce is being transformed by social networking and curation,” said Wienbar. “BeachMint is redefining online shopping by taking advantage of these trends to deliver great consumer value. We are excited by the amazing traction BeachMint has achieved in a short time with JewelMint.”

BeachMint was founded by MySpace Co-Founder, Josh Berman, and serial tech entrepreneur, Diego Berdakin.

Evernote raising about $50M in new capital

TechCrunch reports that the popular notetaking service, Evernote, is raising about $50 million in venture funding in a round led by Sequoia Capital. It is already up to $40 million in the round. It previously raised $20.5 million. We use the free version of Evernote, which makes it easy to save text, images, and urls when you’re doing web research, and saves your data in the cloud, so it is available on any machine on which you install the software.

Daily Deals for Moms lands angel funding

Yet another niche play in the crowded daily deals space has grabbed initial angel funding.

Denver-based Daily Deals for Moms, a social couponing website for moms and families looking for and sharing great deals with a commitment to support small business and keep retail dollars in the community, says it has secured a round of angel funding. The group of investors includes Victor Lazzaro, Jr. of Denver based Volante Capital.

The company will keep the financing open to strategic investors, but intends to close the round within the next few weeks. The infusion of capital will fuel growth, further build infrastructure, and continue to drive awareness of the site as it expands into more cities.

Launched in 2010 by Mompreneurs Ashley E. Kingsley and Whitney Trujillo, Daily Deals for Moms primarily serves secondary markets such as Denver, Toledo, and Des Moines. It is specifically focused on daily deals for moms and families.

Some of these niche players in the daily deals and coupons sites may have a better chance of survival in the long run than the 800 pound gorillas if they create deals that benefit both the consumer and the business. If nothing else, they’re likely to be targets for the larger companies if they go public and have substantial reserves of cash to make acquisitions.

OwnerIQ closes on $7M for targeted advertising platform

OwnerIQ, the inventor of Ownership Targeted media and developer of one of the most advanced Real-Time media buying platforms in the industry, announced today it has closed a $7 million expansion round. All existing investors participated, and Longworth Venture Partners also joined this round.

Founded in 2006 in Boston, OwnerIQ operates a network of channel-focused websites to help consumers easily find and store must-have self-support product information. The company pioneered the concept of Ownership Targeting, providing brand advertisers with highly customized programs to precisely target consumers based on products they already own.