SiliconBeat reports Riya has raised $15-million of private equity from Bay Partners, which may put to rest - at least temporarily - speculation it will be acquired by Google. In some ways, it's reassuring Riya has gone to the VC well again rather than sell out early in the business-building process. One of the more discouraging aspects of the Web 2.0 pheomena has been the willingness by entrepreneurs to embrace buy-out opportunities rather than staying the course and building a larger business. Of course, many of the these Web 2.0 "businesses" are being built to be sold so striking when the iron is hot is just part of the game/end game. Riya's decision to take more money suggests its software isn't ready for prime-time yet and/or the business is not quite to attract a suitor and/or its founders believe that they would leave a lot of money on the table if they accepted a take-over offer sooner rather than later.
Update: Looking at Bay Partners' portfolio, Riya appears to be an out of the box move given the VC has a strong focus on enterprise software and hardware. Bay's Internet plays are data management companies as opposed to consumer-oriented companies.
As well, here's Riya's blog post on the latest financing round. The company said the money will be used to hire some "absolute rockstars" with finance, business development and advertising skills.