Facebook Funds Seattle Startups

Eric Hal Schwartz5/28/09

Two Seattle-based companies were awarded part of a $500,000 grant by Facebook today. The companies, Sortuv and Vittana, are two of the 20 startups and nonprofits receiving money through fbFund, a new program designed to help startups that make social websites and software.  Sortuv is a search engine designed around plain questions rather than keywords, while Vittana is a nonprofit facilitating direct microloans to people in developing countries.  As part of their award, each company will spend 10 weeks at Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto, CA, learning about how to grow and improve their business from investors, entrepreneurs, and Facebook developers.

Eric Hal Schwartz was an intern in Xconomy's Seattle office.