Global Grind (globalgrind.com), a startup currently previewing a personalized startpage featuring urban-related feeds, raised a $4.5 million Series A round of venture capital from Accel Partners:

The New York-based company was recently launched by former executives of 360hiphop (later acquired by BET Interactive), including: CEO Navarrow Wright, CFO Richard Slomovitz and former 360hiphop CEO Osman Eralp.

Also involved is hip-hop impresario Russell Simmons, who bankrolled 360hiphop and is again providing both financial and infrastructure support. Simmons will sit on the board alongside Jim Breyer, and is incubating Global Grind in the offices of his Rush Communications umbrella company.

I recently checked out the site quite briefly and saw no real reason to get excited but I’m not that into these kinds of startpages.  Mashable has a reasonable review that correlates with what I saw.

Previous ProHipHop Coverage:
Hip Hop 2.0 Oddities from Universal Music Group & Def Jam

Related Coverage:
Anybody Checking Up on Global Grind?