Venture/Growth Capital

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• Personal genomics company Navigenics raises $18m to prevent disease 04 Feb 2010. Source: AltAssets. Navigenics Inc, a personal genomics company, has raised $18m from consumer products player The Procter and Gamble Company. Existing investors Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers and Mohr Davidow Ventures also participated in this series C round.

• Deutsche Bank sets up $300m German SME fund 03 Feb 2010. Source: AltAssets. Deutsche Bank has set up a fund to provide equity capital to small businesses in Germany. Mittelstandfonds für Deutschland will provide a means for small- and medium-sized companies to obtain equity capital at favourable conditions in the form of participatory rights.

• Glam Media raises $50m for women’s advertising 03 Feb 2010. Source: AltAssets. Glam Media Inc, an online advertising platform that specifically targets females, has raised $50m in a private equity mezzanine funding. The series E round was led by Aeris Capital with existing Glam Media series D Investors Burda Digital Holding - the digital arm of Hubert Burda Media - and Mizuho Capital participating.

• Network company SpiderCloud Wireless in $25m series B 03 Feb 2010. Source: AltAssets. SpiderCloud Wireless Inc, a developer of wireless technologies and the pioneer of the Enterprise Radio Access Network (E-RAN) platform developed for mobile operators, has closed a series B financing round. The $25m round was led by Opus Capital along with new investments from Shasta Ventures and existing series A investors Charles River Ventures and Matrix Partners.

• Internet streaming platform Ustream sees $75m flow in from investors 03 Feb 2010. Source: AltAssets. Ustream, a live streaming platform for internet and mobile devices, has raised $75m in series B funding lead by Softbank of Japan, one of Asia’s largest internet and telecom companies with a large mobile presence. Additional funding commitments are pending from other investors in the US and Asia.

• VC investment outside US halved in 2009 02 Feb 2010. Source: AltAssets. Despite renewed vigour for non-US venture capital investment in the final quarter, 2009 witnessed a drop of 47 per cent from the previous year, with $8.2bn put to work in 1,391 deals outside the industry’s home ground. This compares to $15.5bn invested in 1,932 deals in 2008.

• Online behaviour data exchange BlueKai rakes in $21m 01 Feb 2010. Source: AltAssets. BlueKai, a company that aggregates shopping and research behaviours across the internet to sell on an exchange for advertisers, has closed a C round of financing led by GGV Capital (formerly Granite Global Ventures). The round, which is said to have raised $21m, includes investments from existing investors Redpoint Ventures and Battery Ventures.

• Coulomb Technologies charges up with $14m in venture funding 01 Feb 2010. Source: AltAssets. US electric vehicle charging station developer Coulomb Technologies has secured $14m in series B funding in a round led by US venture firms Voyager Capital and Rho Ventures, fuelling its expansion into the market for powering electric vehicles.

• Turkey’s RHEA Investments kicks off year with duo of deals 29 Jan 2010. Source: AltAssets. With Turkey beginning to take off as a private equity frontier market, Istanbul-based asset management firm RHEA Investments has entered the new year with two deals.

• Index appoints Marten Mickos as entrepreneur-in-residence 29 Jan 2010. Source: AltAssets. US venture capital firm Index Ventures has appointed Marten Mickos as European entrepreneur-in-residence. Mickos, who has served at Sun Microsystems and database software company MySQL, will be tasked with seeking out new investment opportunities within the European technology market, and identifying and evaluating companies in the sector.

• Abraaj Capital reaches first close on Palestine fund 28 Jan 2010. Source: AltAssets. Dubai private equity firm Abraaj Capital has reached the first close of a $50m fund targeting Palestinian investments in small and medium enterprises. So far, Abraaj has raised $15m towards the fund, which it is raising in partnership with the Palestine Investment Fund, a publicly owned investment vehicle which aims to strengthen the Palestinian economy.

• Elevation Partners gets behind local search service Yelp with $25m 28 Jan 2010. Source: AltAssets. Elevation Partners, a media and entertainment-focused private equity firm, has agreed to invest $25m in Yelp through the purchase of series E preferred stock, and intends to drive a further $100m into the company to pick up equity from existing shareholders.

• CEE investor 3TS exits Austria’s adverServe 28 Jan 2010. Source: AltAssets. 3TS Capital Partners, a growth capital investor in Central and Eastern Europe, has exited its majority stake in adverServe Digital Advertising Services. In 2006, 3TS invested into adverServe as part of its earlier PXP Software engagement.

• Online accounts receivable marketplace The Receivables Exchange raises $17m 27 Jan 2010. Source: AltAssets. The Receivables Exchange, an online marketplace for real-time trading of accounts receivable, has closed $17m in series C financing led by Bain Capital Ventures, with additional commitments from existing investors Redpoint Ventures and Prism Ventureworks.

• UK venture philanthropy firm Impetus hires Palamon co-founder as chairman 27 Jan 2010. Source: AltAssets. UK venture philanthropy firm Impetus Trust has appointed Louis Elson, managing partner and co-founder of its European mid-market private equity firm Palamon Capital Partners, as its new chairman.

• Fidelity Growth Partners Europe expands team with hires from Index Ventures, 3i 27 Jan 2010. Source: AltAssets. Fidelity Growth Partners Europe, a private equity division of mutual fund manager Fidelity International, has hired former Index Ventures associate Chris Barchak as a principal.

• Virtual desktop start-up Unidesk taps $12m 26 Jan 2010. Source: AltAssets. Unidesk, a virtual desktop management software business, has secured $12m in series B venture capital funding. The round was led by series A investors Matrix Partners and North Bridge Venture Partners.

• Sofinnova Partners picks up €260m for sixth fund 26 Jan 2010. Source: AltAssets. European venture capital firm Sofinnova Partners has closed its sixth fund, Sofinnova Capital VI, on €260m, following what the firm describes as its most successful year.

• Electric vehicle service provider Better Place drums up $350m 25 Jan 2010. Source: AltAssets. Almost two years after its first car partnership and first country deployment in Israel, California-headquartered electric vehicle service provider Better Place has signed an agreement with an HSBC-led investor consortium for new equity financing of $350m, valuing Better Place at $1.25bn.

• Email management start-up Mimecast gets £13m 25 Jan 2010. Source: AltAssets. Mimecast, a holistic email management company offering SaaS-based email archiving, continuity, security and policy control, has received £13m (€14.8m) in series B financing from venture capital firms Index Ventures and Dawn Capital. The company plans to use the funding to increase research and development initiatives and continue to build its market presence.

• In-flight Wi-Fi company takes off with $176m 25 Jan 2010. Source: AltAssets. Aircell, a company that develops Wi-Fi solutions for in-flight use, has raised $176m in a financing round in which no investors have been named.

• US VC investment strong in Q4 despite sharp drop for 2009 22 Jan 2010. Source: AltAssets. An overall bad year ended on a high note as venture deal activity increased in the fourth quarter of 2009. Venture investors put $6.3bn to work in 743 deals in the most recent quarter, up slightly from the $6.1bn invested in 619 deals during the same period in 2008, according to new statistics from Dow Jones VentureSource. In total, 2009 saw 2,489 deals completed and $21.4bn in venture capital invested in US companies, a 31 per cent drop from 2008 when $31bn was invested in 2,817 deals.

• BaltCap inks €30m Latvian VC fund agreement with EIF 22 Jan 2010. Source: AltAssets. Eastern European private equity firm BaltCap has signed an agreement with the European Investment Fund to establish a €30m venture capital fund.