A few bits of startup news today:

-- Seattle mobile media analysis firm Ground Truth raised $7 million from Emergence Capital Partners and Openair Ventures, plus its previous investors, Steamboat Ventures and Voyager Capital. The 20-person company, led by former Qpass President Sterling Wilson, has raised $9.6 million. Its service launched in January.

-- Optimum Energy, a Seattle heating, ventilating and air conditioning software company, today launched a Web-based system for managing commercial HVAC systems. It's a companion to Optimum's networked system that it claims will reduce energy consumption by 30 to 60 percent.

-- Google's going to call out the success of Bellevue online project management company Smartsheet, highlighting its success on Google's business application marketplace. Smartsheet's leads spiked after it appeared on Google's Apps Marketplace, according to Chairman Brent Frei, a veteran of Microsoft and Onyx. Frei said the results will be touted on the Google Apps Developer Blog (and on Frei's own blog ...).

Frei said business has been "extremely good" since January with paying customers growing 17 percent month over month. Smartsheet launched in both Google's marketplace and Intuit Workplace, and Google's now one of its four primary sales channels.

A snapshot of Smartsheet's Google stats: