Meerkat raises $14M as Twitter's rival app Periscope makes its debut

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[LIVE NOW] The live streaming battle is heating up.

Meerkat, the live video-sharing application, which launched at the beginning of this month and dominated South by Southwest (SXSW), confirmed on Thursday that it has raised "around" $14 million in funding from Greylock Partners and a host of other big names, including YouTube cofounder Chad Hurley, actor Jared Leto and Ashton Kutcher's VC fund. The funding round closed this week.

See also: Meerkat and Periscope could get expensive fast until smartphone data plans catch up

Fittingly, Meerkat creator Ben Rubin announced the funding in a live broadcast on the app. He described being "inundated" with investor interest in recent weeks, and shrugged off concerns about growing competition. "If you have a good idea and you don't think there's 10 other smart teams working on it already, then you don't have a good idea," Rubin said. Read more...

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from MashableSeth Fiegerman