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February 28, 2007
John Doerr Re-invests In Brother's Biz Purkinje
St. Louis-based Purkinje has raised $10M in Series D funding led by board members John Doerr (partner and Michael Long (former Healtheon CEO). The company lists John Doerr as the principal owner in the company.
Perkinje has 300 employees and says it serves over 5000 physicians. It sells a suite of solutions in the areas of practice management, electronic health records, personal health records, and electronic prescribing and it sells IT services to physicians.
A Purkinje electronic medical record
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Posted at 07:54 PM | Posted to eHealth | TrackBack
Pre-launch Consumer Voice Play Ooma Secures $12M After Re-start
Pre-launch, pre-logo Ooma, which does seem to have offices in Sunnyvale has secured $12M of an $18M Series B round, says PE Hub. Return backers are Worldview Technology Partners and Draper Fisher Jurvetson. The company raised $7.8M in Series A funding back in 2005, which has us wondering what did they spend all that money on and not yet have a product or a logo?
The company plans to sell software for the consumer voice applications market. It appears that a switch in direction is at hand as the company lost its CEO - Michael Cerda - and head of engineering - Spero Koulouras - last year. Koulouras only says that "Ooma is a startup company with ambitions to change the nature of internet and PSTN communications." The company's founder Andrew Frame is a youngster who launched the startup in August 2004.
Team Ooma Gets Ready To Pitch VCs
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Posted at 07:06 PM | Posted to Voice | TrackBack
Video Sharing Site Fliqz Raises $2.5M
Berkeley, CA-based Fliqz video sharing website Fligz has raised $2.5M in Series B funding from Mohr, Davidow Ventures, according to PEWire. The startup had raised $1M from angels. Fliqz niche is that it hosts videos for the average joe, which makes it comparable to say Videoegg. Angel financing came from VC Frank Caufield, Dave Witherow (former president of VentureOne), Don Hutchison, and Marty Korman (Wilson Sonsini). VentureBeat reports that the company's revenue model is to do a rev share with publishers on ads.
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Posted at 06:58 PM | Posted to | TrackBack
Domain Squatter Vantage Media Raises $70M
Venice, CA's Vantage Media has raised $70M in Series A led by Montgomery & Co. with Scale Venture Partners, Tudor Ventures and Integral Capital Partners. Vantage also named Steve Jillings as CEO. Jillings was CEO of Frontbridge Technologies, an email security company acquired by Microsoft Corporation in August 2005.
The company sits on 40M keywords yielding over 1B impressions per year. Its primary market is in search-based marketing leads for educational institutions. We understand that this market is not as lucrative as it once was so Vantage will likely branch out to other lead generation sectors.
There is no indication of what Vantage will do with all of this capital, but we are guessing that its founder Mark DiPaola, will pocket a good portion of this. DiPaolo is a young Berkeley business grad with just a few years under his belt.
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Posted at 12:57 PM | Posted to Advertising | TrackBack
Samsung To Buy Transchip For As Much As $100M And Other Fresh Deals
Investments
+ AMHERST, MA Chiliad Publishing has secured $4M of a $6.25M Series C (Corporate information management software)
+ LONDON, UK Fizzback has raised $5M (Instant customer feedback via SMS text messaging)
+ PARIS, FRANCE SecurActive has raised €1.5M (LAN/WAN security appliance software)
+ RUNCORN, UK ACAL Energy has raised £1.6M (Alt energy)
+ AVON, MA Terascala has raised $3M in first-round funding (Linux cluster)
+ GERMANY Ingent has raised $1.72M in Series A (Information retrieval applications)
+ SAN FRANCISCO, CA Informative has secured $1.5M of a $5M Series CC recap (Marketing software)
NEW BRUNSWICK, CANADA Virtual Expert Clinics has raised Cdn$1.45M (Web-based software for the treatment of learning disorders like autism)
M&A
+ ISRAEL Samsung has been negotiating to acquire TransChip as much as $100M. (CMOS imaging solutions)
IPO
+ PARIS, FRANCE SexyAvenue Files For IPO (Online erotic store)
Posted at 09:48 AM | Posted to News & Updates | TrackBack
Green Retailer Sterling Planet Raises $7M
Atlanta's Sterling Planet has raised $7M in Series B funding from Low Carbon Accelerator. Sterling Planet is a retailer of solar, wind and other clean, renewable energy to businesses and homes through direct sales and electric utility partnerships.
So if you get your energy from Niagra Mohawk or one of Sterling Planet's other partners, you can pay a bit extra to get certified green energy. We have to say that for a retailer they don't do a great job of marketing via their web site.
Visit - site
Sample pricing to upgrade your home to green energy.
Posted at 08:51 AM | Posted to Alternative Energy | TrackBack
February 27, 2007
Still In Beta, Medstory Medical Search Bought By Microsoft
Microsoft did not disclose financial terms of the acquisition of Foster City-based Medstory. The search engine is currently in beta and Microsoft said the startup and its 10 employees will become a part of its 120-person Health Solutions Group.
Angel investors and advisors, include:
* Esther Dyson, high-technology authority and editor-at-large at CNET Networks
* Zach Nelson, President and CEO of NetSuite
* Marty Tenenbaum, Chairman of CommerceNet
This strikes us as a decent strategy for MSFT to combat GOOG, by buying up vertical search engines.
View - site
Posted at 09:44 PM | Posted to Search | TrackBack
Israel's MATE Video Surveillance Does Head And Car Counts
MATE Intelligent Video has raised $6M in first-round funding led by Infinity Equity Capital, which was joined by I-CSVC and seed backer The Peleg Group. MATE is an Israel-based video surveillance and content analysis startup. The company sells through video distribution channels but also directly - it did a big deal with the government of Turkmenastan to secure an oil distribution facility for example.
MATE's features people counting functionality which helps retailers understand shopping patterns and the effect of advertising campaigns, as well as effectively allocate and manage sales or service personnel. By comparing customer traffic with point-of-sale information, conversion ratio can be obtained. MATE also does car counting which helps manage parking lots by estimating occupancy at each parking level.
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Posted at 09:40 PM | Posted to Video | TrackBack
AOL Dangling $80M Buyout Carot Before Third Screen Media
Last May, the Wall Street Journal reported the MSN was in talks to buy mobile ad network Third Screen Media. Today the same paper says that AOL is a suitor for Third Screen and that the going price is $80M. Third Screen Media has raised $8M in VC funding from TD Capital Ventures and Blue Chip Venture Co.
Third Screen Media has both a mobile ad server and a network of publishers. It represents USA Today and The Weather Channel among others.
AOL had bought Advertising.com and we assume they would fold Third Screen into that group.
Posted at 09:33 PM | Posted to Advertising | TrackBack
HP Buys File Serving Software's Polyserve
Hewlett-Packard has bought PolyServe, out of Beaverton, OR. PolyServe makes virtualization software that helps companies use smaller, inexpensive computers for processing and data storage in place of larger, more expensive ones. Virtualization technology also makes it easier and cheaper to manage and maintain large-scale computer server farms. No financial terms were disclosed.
PolyServe has raised $72M in VC funding since its 1998 inception, from top VC firms including Greylock, Fidelity Ventures, and NEA. Polyserve has 117 employees and more than 500 customers. PolyServe has plenty of competition, particularly from market leader VMWare of Palo Alto which was purchased by EMC for $635M almost three years ago. Regarding revenues, PolyServe will only say they did well over $20M in annual sales in 2006
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Posted at 09:31 PM | Posted to Enterprise Software | TrackBack
Geo-Intelligence Specialist SPADAC Funded
McLean, VA-based SPADAC has raised $6.5M in Series B funding from Pequot Ventures. By analyzing past activities and geographic data in a spatial-temporal construct, SPADAC says it might help predict:
* Where border tunnels might be found
* Which infrastructure is vulnerable to various threats
* Where suicide bombers are most likely to strike
* How precious resources should be allocated or distributed
Its primary client base are government homeland security and defense agencies but it also sells to the private sector.
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Posted at 09:29 PM | Posted to Homeland Security | TrackBack
Mobile Skype's iSkoot Raises $7M
iSkoot has raised $7M in Series B from Charles River Ventures, Khosla Ventures, ZG Ventures, and Jesselson Capital. While Skype allows users to make calls from a PC to other PCs or landline phones, iSkoot's software allows Skype calls to be received on mobile handsets. iSkoot is developing similar mobile products for other IM and social network communities.
iSkoot has been making a lot of headway. It has a co-marketing and development partnership with eBay-owned Skype, and has its first mobile carrier for its Skype-to-mobile service with The 3 Group, a UK-based division of Hong Kong conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa. The iSkoot software will come preloaded on certain carrier phones, including Nokia and Sony Ericsson handsets.
Read - iSkoot Raises $7 Million in Series B Financing (Release)
Posted at 09:26 PM | Posted to Wireless | TrackBack
Australia's Roo Group Buys P2P's Wurld Media
Roo Group is keeping up its M&A work with its buy-out of NYC-based Wurld Media. Roo last bought MyVideoDaily. Roos will pay Wurld Media $10M in cash and stock. Wurld operates a site called Peer Impact, a legal P2P service.
Read - ROO to Buy P2P Company Wurld Media
Posted at 09:20 PM | Posted to File Sharing | TrackBack
Dolby Labs To Pay $28M For BrightSide Tech
Best known for its audio technology San Francisco-based Dolby Laboratories is ratcheting up its video technology by buying Vancouver-based Brightside Technologies in a deal worth $28M in cash. Brightside has developed technology used to create more vibrant video on LCD and project televisions and claims to provide 10x the brightness and 100x the contrast of existing TV and computer monitors. The reviews for the technology have been ecstatic, however pricing has been harsh.
Posted at 09:17 PM | Posted to Video | TrackBack
Match.com Buys Two International Dating Sites and Other Fresh Deals
Investments
+ KING OF PRUSSIA, PA & MILPITAS, CA InterDigital Communications [Nasdaq:IDCC] has invested $10M in Kineto Wireless (UMA technology)
+ MARINA DEL RAY, CA Exist Global has received a round of venture capital funding (Offshore software engineering services in the Phillipines)
+ BEVERLY, MA Vivace Semiconductor raises $10M In Series A funding (Semiconductors)
M&A
+ DALLAS, TX Match.com buys Netclub in France and the eDodo social networking site in China. Financial terms weren't disclosed. (Online dating)
+ BURLINGTON, MA Optiant has acquired SLIM Technologies (Supply chain network design technology)
Posted at 08:09 PM | Posted to News & Updates | TrackBack
Austin's Pre-launch Job Site ItzBig Funded
The online job search sector is evolving rapidly with LinkedIn making a big impact and search startups like Jobster raising an $18M round.
Austin's itzBig has raised $4M in Series A funding, says PeHub, from Rho Ventures and Sevin Rosen Funds. Their plan is to "allow people to securely and privately find a great job when they’re looking, or simply explore attractive opportunities when they’re not. Companies and recruiters, on the other hand, will be able to find, screen and rank candidates real-time, allowing them to land the most qualified person for a job more quickly."
The startup plans to test two different user experiences. One for employed professionals who are interested in a private way to keep an eye out for alternative opportunities. And another track for active candidates which will feature those capabilities, in addition to significant improvements in abilities to interact with recruiters and to receive continuous feedback on where you stand against other candidates for the same job.
The company is pre-launch so we can only speculate about what this will mean.
view - site
Posted at 08:02 PM | Posted to Search | TrackBack
Super Micro Computer Sets IPO Terms On Lousy Market Day
Super Micro Computer said it plans to sell 8M shares for between $9.50 and $11.50 per share. Super Micro sells server systems and high-end motherboards. It claims 2006 revenues of $328M and net income of $18M.
Read - Super Micro Computer sets IPO at 8 milllion shares
Posted at 08:00 PM | Posted to Hardware | TrackBack
February 26, 2007
Passenger Opens Kimono. VC-backed Co. Builds Social Networks For Corps.
A couple of months back we reported that Passenger Inc. out of Los Angeles had raised $1.83M in Series B funding led by Shelter Ventures. But we didn't really know what the company did even though the company has been around since 2005.
Now the company's site has launched its site and we see that they are selling a software as a service platform to Fortune 500 companies to create private, branded online communities focused on their own brands. Passenger says that Coca-Cola, ABC TV, and Sara Lee are among the customers using the firm's product to deploy their own private brand communities.
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Posted at 10:08 PM | Posted to Social Networking | TrackBack
Virtual Concert Network Launches To Serve Deprived Rockers
We think this Virtual Venues Network is on to something. The company has developed a set top box to night clubs, theaters and college dining halls to deliver live, high res concerts that are taking place at other venues. Remote venues will then charge a cover price to attend.
We think this will work because there are so many small college towns where rarely if ever interesting bands will book. We don't this getting interest in Austin or New York, but it will be a god-send in Redding or Dayton.
Read - Virtual Venues Network Selects Limelight Networks to Deliver New Concert Industry Channel
Posted at 10:04 PM | Posted to | TrackBack
Carl Icahn Puts $50M Into Motricity
Investor Carl Icahn has put in $50Min equity funding to Motricity. Motricity sells the plumbing necessary for cell phone users to download music and games. It lists what seems like most of the major media companies as clients and has been buying up rival.s In August of last year, Motricity raised $32M in Series G. That round was led by Advanced Equities with return backers including Intel Capital, Wakefield Group, New Enterprise Associates, Noro-Moseley Partners, Technology Crossover Ventures, and Qualcomm. Motricity has raised around $180M in total VC funding since its 2001 inception by our count.
In March of last year, Motricity says it would be slightly profitable with annual revenue of about $380M. A 2007 IPO for Motricity is anticipated.
Read - Carl Icahn Invests $50 Million in Motricity
Posted at 10:01 PM | Posted to Wireless | TrackBack
Chinese Software Outsourcer Achievo Raises $24M
Software outsourcer Achievo, which does its development in China, has raised $24M in a Series B. The company was recently ranked as the No. 2 on a top Tten Chinese offshore outsourcing vendors. It tends to focus on Java/J2EE, .NET and embedded platforms.
Read - Achievo Secures $24 Million in Series B Funding (Release)
Posted at 09:56 PM | Posted to Enterprise Software | TrackBack
Concept Shopping Raises $3.6M For Smart Couponing
Concept Shopping has raised $3.6M in Series E funding, according to PE Wire. Return backers are Mohr Davidow, Integral Capital Partners and Sutter Hill Ventures.
An interest stat here is that just 3% of consumers redeem coupons offered in the Sunday papers and weekly fliers. Lisle, IL-based Concept Shopping aim to give coupons broader interest by determining which items customers routinely buy, then issuing coupons for those products.
The company has been around for eons and has had money to get the business moving but it seems they have failed to date. We image they must finally have some super market interest or investors might have cut them off by now.
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Posted at 09:54 PM | Posted to eCommerce | TrackBack
Intel Leads $12M Deal With ViDeOnline For Censor Screened International IPTV For China
Redwood City-based ViDeOnline Communications has closed a $12M funding round led by Intel Capital.
ViDeOnline will be controversial, we expect as it has been working with authorities in China to address how international content can be sanitized or consered to be complain with China's regulations for media licenses. It will next offer this content over an IP digital network.
The company is led by Dr. Patricia Lu who had founded interWAVE Communications where she was Chairman and took the company public in January 2000.
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Posted at 09:51 PM | Posted to Video | TrackBack
EidosPays 7.7M Pounds for Gaming's Rockpool
Investments
+ SAN JOSE, CA CipherMax has received $10M in VC funding (Enterprise-class storage security)
M&A
+ LONDON, UK Eidos Buys Rockpool For Up To 7.7M Pounds (Games)
+ ITALY Dada Acquires Stake in Blog Publisher Blogo.it (Blog software)
Posted at 09:47 PM | Posted to News & Updates | TrackBack
Still In Beta, Medstory Medical Search Bought By Microsoft
Microsoft did not disclose financial terms of the acquisition of Foster City-based Medstory. The search engine is currently in beta and Microsoft said the startup and its 10 employees will become a part of its 120-person Health Solutions Group.
Angel investors and advisers, include:
* Esther Dyson, high-technology authority and editor-at-large at CNET Networks
* Zach Nelson, President and CEO of NetSuite
* Marty Tenenbaum, Chairman of CommerceNet
This strikes us as a decent strategy for MSFT to combat GOOG, by buying up vertical search engines.
View - site
Posted at 09:44 PM | Posted to Search | TrackBack
Art eCommerce Site ImageKind Funded By Patrons
Imagekind.com has raised $2.6M in Series A from an interesting mix of European and Seattle VCs and angels. Holtzbrinck Ventures of Germany led the round, and was joined by Crosslink Capital, Erik Blachford (former CEO of Expedia), Tom Hughes (co-founder of Photodisc), the Samwer brothers (founders of eBay Germany and Jamba) and Nick Hanuaer (founder of aQuantive and Second Ave Partners).
Investors were selected for their ability to help Imagekind to enter Europe. The company's CEO does some boasting regarding the round in the release" "We never actively solicited investors but there was an unexpected level of interest in Imagekind", Kelly Smith, CEO and one of Imagekind's founders.
The company allows artists to sell their work online and for buyers with photographs to put those on canvas. It claims to set itself apart by the quality of its canvas and colors and says that its canvas can last up to 200 years.
Pensive (Lsongeuse) by Pierre Auguste Renoir would cost you $35 with free shipping
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Posted at 09:36 PM | Posted to eCommerce | TrackBack
Friendly Chemicals Maker Segetis Secures $5M From Khosla
Vinod Khosla is all over the alt energy/environmental map, investing everywhere from fully operational alt energy plants to pre-logo white-boarded startup. Segetis out of Plymouth, MN barely has a web site and Khosla has invested. PE Wire reports that Segetis has secured $5M of a $15M Series A round led by Khosla. The company will develop renewable chemicals.
Posted at 09:03 PM | Posted to Alternative Energy | TrackBack
JDSU Pays $115M for Optical Components PicoLight
Louisville, CO-based Picolight has been acquired by JDSU for $115M in stock plus $10M in cash. Picolight makes optical pluggable transceivers based on VCSEL technology. That sounds great, however, Picolight has raised around $140M in total VC funding since its 1996 inception,
Picolight is backed by Charles River Ventures, Coral Capital Management, Investor Growth Capital Ltd., ORIX Venture Finance, Scale Ventures, and Vesbridge Partners. Picolight raised $12M in Series C last July.
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Posted at 08:07 PM | Posted to Telecom Equipment | TrackBack
Art eCommerce Biz The Guild Raises $3M
The Artful Home (aka the Guild Inc.) has secured $3M of a $3.5M Series B round, according to PE Wire. Shareholders include San Francisco Equity Partners and Dolphin Equity Partners.
Launched back in 1999, Guild.com raised $40M as a tool for creatives. The company spent all that money, then sold to Ashford.com for $6M in January 2001. Next the company's CEO Toni Sikes bought the assets of Guild.com back from Ashford.
This artful wine glass would only cost you $340 per at The Guild
Sikes describes her Madison, WI-based company today as eBay meets the art world and she recently relaunched the brand as The Artful Home.
The Guild recently reported some results for the holiday season and full year ended December 2006. Overall sales for fourth quarter were up 45% over fourth quarter 2005, due primarily to additional catalog mailings, increased website traffic, and a higher conversion rate on artfulhome.com. Holiday catalog sales were up 54% over 2005, reflecting the company's investment in increased catalog circulation.
Posted at 08:04 PM | Posted to eCommerce | TrackBack
Israeli Voice ID Startup Persay Raises $1M
Persay out of Tel Aviv, Israel has raised $1M in VC funding from Athlone Global Security. The company claims its products are independent of language and accent and enable verification of individuals using a simple spoken pass phrase or during natural conversation, via any media.
Persay was founded in 2000 as a spin-off of Verint Systems [NASDAQ: VRNT] which does analytical software solutions for communications interception, digital video security and surveillance, and enterprise business intelligence. The company raised $5M from VCs for the spin-ff.
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Posted at 08:23 AM | Posted to Voice | TrackBack
Fox Interactive To Pay As Much As $100M For Strategic Data Corp.
We had reported weeks ago rumors that Fox Interactive was buying Los Angeles-based online advertising optimization firm Strategic Data Corp. The deal is now legit, although pricing is still at the speculation stage. PaidContent reports several deal terms including the upfront price being about $50M and the earnout at $100M.
One important point that remains un-answered to us is why does Fox need to buy the company? What if other ad optimization companies leapfrog Strategic Data, wouldn't Fox want to use them?
Read - FOX INTERACTIVE MEDIA ACQUIRES INTERACTIVE ADVERTISING TECHNOLOGY COMPANY STRATEGIC DATA CORPORATION (Release)
Posted at 08:19 AM | Posted to Advertising | TrackBack
Network Security's Sourcefire Prices IPO At A $80M High
Network security software maker Sourcefire set its planned IPO at 5.77M shares for an estimated price of $12 to $14 a share.
The Columbia, MD-based company said in an amended filing with the SEC that it plans to sell 5.32M shares and stockholders will sell an additional 450K shares.
The company has applied for a Nasdaq listing under the symbol "FIRE"
SourceFire has raised around $64M in VC funding from firms like Sierra Ventures, New Enterprise Associates, Inflection Point Ventures, Core Capital Partners and Sequoia Capital.
Posted at 08:16 AM | Posted to Enterprise Software | TrackBack
Betzip Raises VC Funding For US Legal Poker Wagering
San Francisco-based BidZip says it just completed an additional funding round from both VCs as well as many prominent angel investors
BetZip.com says it has a patented method of enhancing online multi-user games by allowing people to compete legally for cash prizes. The offering stays legal by we make it impossible for players to lose money - winners can get prizes. Betzip charges a $20 p/month subscription fee.
They have started with the online poker market where they say they are now the only legal, play-for-money poker site in the US. But BetZip plans to take its model across other multi-player games and activities.
The company's CEO is Jason Kellerman, who was CEO of LookSmart until January 2004. CTO Kevin Flood was GM at Harrah's and VP Engineering at Wagerworks. Angel investors include Gil Penchina, CEO of Wikia.
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Posted at 08:14 AM | Posted to Games | TrackBack
Europe's Vacation Rental Site Properazzi Funded
Launched in November last year, Properazzi is a pan-European property search engine that claims to be the biggest in Europe, with property from almost every country in the continent, both for sale and rentals. It’s free to be included in the index, and there will be paid services offered in addition.
Properazzi's CEO is Spaniard Yannick Laclau. He was a McKinsey consultant. François-Louis Mommens is CTO and co-founder. He was CTO and founder at Algoria Technologie in Paris. Properazzi has raised angel funding from Wikia CEO Gil Penchina, among others.
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Posted at 08:11 AM | Posted to eCommerce | TrackBack
Carl Rosendahl's Community Online Video Site Uth TV Raises Angel Funding
Uth TV started as two, completely youth produced, 30-minute TV shows that aired on the Bay Area UPN in the summer of 2005. The company is now expanding to encourage youth to create videos and upload them on the site. The company was founded by and its CEO is Carl Rosendahl, who founded Pacific Data Images in 1980. At this point, it is unclear what is the profit motive.
Investors include eVite founder Al Lieb's Innovive Technologies. The amount of the investment is not disclosed.
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Posted at 08:09 AM | Posted to Video | TrackBack
Simnasium Funded For Online Fantasy Baseball Simulation Game
Simnasium has raised angel funding. Simnasium Total Baseball is a real Inside baseball for fans who are into Billy Bean and Moneyball. Players choose from thousands of players. Once they draft and build a team, they set the batting lineups and pitching rotations, assign bench and bullpen roles, and tell the Manager how to run the team. They then play-out a 162-game season over the course of 9 weeks.
The company's founder/CEO is Dayne Myers who was CEO at Elemental Security as well as at Infinity I/O, and a Partner at Paratus Capital. He was able to raise funds from Mayfield, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Sequoia Capital in the past.
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Posted at 08:06 AM | Posted to Games | TrackBack
Job Search Site With Pan Global Aspirations - JobWindow - Raises Some Funds/Looking For More
Switzerland's JobWindow has raised some angel funding but is looking for more. The company is pre-launch in the US but has live sites in Switzerland, Austria and Germany. It seems that its positioning is that it will find jobs for seekers around the world. We are not sure we get why people will want to do global searches. We suppose that some professions, such as investment banking, people don't care where they live and want to know what is available everywhere. The project was started in 2002, with the first version launched in the first quarter of 2003. The next version of the system was started in second quarter of 2005 and is underway.
An angel investor and coordinator for more funding is Swissman Nicolas Berg.
Visit - site.
Posted at 08:04 AM | Posted to Search | TrackBack
Fire Sales In The Local Market: Hearst Invests In Local.com; InsiderPages Salvaged
The much touted local search business has been a bust for many of the startups that jumped in. But that doesn't stop the larger media companies from taking advantage of firesales.
Techcrunch is reporting that local, user review site InsiderPages has been acquired by a public company. The company was incubated by idealab and did a $8.5M round with Sequoia and Softbank in March 2006, then did a round of lay-offs.
Meanwhile, Irvine-based Local.com has received $8M in a private placement from Heart Interactive Media. The company's model is to sell banner and text ads on its 10M+ monthly visitors. In addition to its main site, it has a UK site and does wireless search.
Local.com (NASDAQ: LOCM) often ranks in the Top 100 in U.S. website traffic according to comScore. But its stock has not been impressive.
Visit - Local.com
Visit - Insiderpages.com
Posted at 08:00 AM | Posted to Search | TrackBack
AeroScout Secures $11.4M For WiFi Visibility And Other Fresh Deals
Investments
+ SAN MATEO, CA AeroScout has secured $11.4M of a $20.5M Series C round. Intel Capital and Menlo Ventures were joined by return backers like Pitango Venture Capital and SVM Star Ventures. (WiFi-based enterprise visibility solutions)
+ MENLO PARK, CA Aquest Systems has raised $20M in Series C (Semiconductor manufacturing automation)
+ OAKLAND, CA Wirama has raised a Series A funding (Wireless RFID)
M&A
+ BOSTON, MA Optiant will acquire Slim Technologies (Supply-chain network software)
Posted at 07:57 AM | Posted to News & Updates | TrackBack
Amazon Invests In Reality Gaming Biz Atomic Moguls
We'd really like to know what are the investment criteria up at Amazon as their deals seem random. The company has followed Second Avenue Partners lead in a $1.05M investment in Atomic Moguls, a fantasy game start-up led by former NBA exec Brenda Spoonmore. This is another example of the startup trend towards online contests.
The first site to be launched is FantasyMoguls.com, a movie-based fantasy site that reminds us of Hollywood Stock Exchange. Players act as movie agents or producers and marketing their movies across their social networks. As they explain it, if Talladega Nights makes $51M over the weekend, it makes $51M for your fantasy studio -- if you had drafted it. It may be that the Amazon connection came about because this site taps Amazon's IMDB database.
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Posted at 07:55 AM | Posted to Games | TrackBack
3rd Big Wireless Field Worker App Funding This Week - Dexterra Raises $35M+
Earlier in the week, wireless field worker application company Gearworks raised $21M+ while competitor Airclic raised $12M+.
Today we learn that another player here Dexterra has raised around $35.56M in Series E funding, according to PEWire. New Enterprise Associates led the deal, and was joined by return backers Canaan Partners and Sigma Partners. Dexterra has raised around $83M in total VC funding since 2002.
Dexterra sells middleware for mobile applications using existing Microsoft .Net or Java tools, along with reusable components from Dexterra. It has stiff competition including Intellisync, now part of Nokia, and Syclo.
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Posted at 07:52 AM | Posted to Wireless | TrackBack
With Private Jet Orders In Hand, Adam Aircraft Looks to Raise $100M In Debt
Private Jets are a boom biz these days thanks to the growing ranks for the super wealthy and growing misery on commercial flights. We now have an ex-Internet boss who wants to be the next Howard Hughes, rapidly building a new type of aircraft.
Even though it recently raised $182M, Adam Aircraft says it is looking to raise $100M - $125M in debt financing, says PEhub. The $2.2M A700, which will be about half the cost of the lowest-priced corporate jet now on the market thanks in part to lower cost materials.
If you happened to catch the newish Miami Vice flick, this jet was featured there.
The company's founder actually comes out of tech. Rick Adam founded New Era of Networks, or NEON, a database software developer tht he took NEON public and its market value peaked at $3.5B in 2000. He had to settle for a sale to Sybase for about $233M. Adam was the first investor in his name-sake aircraft company, investing $26M of his own cash.
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Posted at 07:49 AM | Posted to Aircraft | TrackBack
FeedTribes Raises $1M In Angel Funding For Cell Phone ePay
FEED is a prepaid account that is linked to a cell phone. To make a purchase, you text message your PIN number then you will receive a unique 4-digit numeric transaction code and your up-to-the-second account balance. Then you would give the transaction code to the retailer who enters the code and the amount of sale into their POS terminal. The trouble is that at this point there only about 10 vendors who work with feed - although we are happy that The Butler and the Chef in SF's South Park takes it. Another problem will be competition from PayPal Mobile, even if it is just perception.
PeHub reports that the company has raised $1M from founders and angels and that it is looking to raise $2M-$5M Series A.
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Posted at 07:46 AM | Posted to eCommerce | TrackBack
Star of Dot.com Movie Does $100M IPO With Follow-on Startup
Canada's JumpTV has completed an $100M IPO on London's AIM market.
Readers of the a:c may be familiar with the documentary film Startup.com, which follows a couple of entrepreneurs as they launch a company called GovWorks. The star of the movie was Kaleil Isaza Tuzman, who rebounded by founding and serving as president of JumpTV. He currently operates out of Dubai.
We think the JumpTV concept is a killer. It offers subscription-based broadcasts of ethnic TV over the Internet. It currently has rights to broadcast 270 channels from more than 70 countries. JumpTV delivers news, sports and entertainment content on a real-time basis primarily to expats hungry for TV from back home.
Read - JumpTV announces completion of US$100,000,000 common share offering (Release)
Posted at 07:43 AM | Posted to IPO | TrackBack
Social Net For Book Worms - Shelfari - Raises $1M From Amazon
Shelfari has raised $1M in VC from Amazon and others, according to the Seattle PI. The company was founded by a trio of refugees from RealNetworks. Shelfari uses Amazon's Web Services technology to display book covers, author information, reviews and other book details and the company's business model has been to earn an affiliate spiff from Amazon.
Read - Shelfari raises $1 million from Amazon.com, others
Posted at 07:40 AM | Posted to Social Networking | TrackBack
Koolanoo: Jewish Social Network Raises $3M
Giza Venture Capital is leading a $3M seed investment in online social network Koolanoo Group. The company plans to build from its platform and launch social networks for other ethnic and religious groups. The company owns and operates one of China's first social networks and video sharing website; 360Quan.com. Reviews and traffic for Koolanoo have not been terribly impressive.
Read - Giza leads $3m investment in Internet co Koolanoo (Globes)
Read - Koolanoo’s Jewish MySpace Launches (Mashable)
Posted at 07:38 AM | Posted to Social Networking | TrackBack
BigBand and Infinera Price Promising IPOs
BigBand Networks which sells network-based platforms allowing cable operators to offer video, voice and data services today set its planned IPO at 10.7M shares at an estimated price of $10 to $12 each for an IPO take of up $128M. Its stock has been approved for listing on the Nasdaq under the symbol "BBND."
Meanwhile, Infinera, which sells a new digital optical communications system, filed on today to raise up to $150M in its IPO. For 2006, Infinera said its net loss increased to $89.1M from $64.6M in the previous year, while revenue increased to $58.7M from $4.1M. Infinera has applied to list its stock on the Nasdaq under the symbol "INFN."
We expect both of those companies to have very warm receptions particularly as the past couple of weeks have seen some nice IPO success stories led by Opnext and Salary.com.
Opnext is today trading at $17.43 with a market cap of $1.08B. It was originally founded in September 2000 as a subsidiary of Hitachi. The company sells optical modules and components for 10 gigabit communications. It competes with Agilent spin-off Avago, Bookham, Finisar, and JDS Uniphase. The company finished its 2006 fiscal year back in March with $151.7M in revenue, and has grown revenue at a 38% average annual growth rate since 2003. Though it has historically been unprofitable, it has managed to turn a slight profit for the first nine months of its 2007 fiscal year.
Salary.com is today selling at $12.50 and a market cap of almost $188M. It is trading at a high multiple compared to comparables like Taleo. It sells advertising on its site, premium services and on-demand software solutions for managing employee compensation packages. It sports a gross margin of around 80%, but expenses that have outpaced revenue growth have kept the bottom line well in the red. For the first nine months of the company's fiscal year, it grew revenue 54%, but the loss from operations more than doubled.
Posted at 07:34 AM | Posted to IPO | TrackBack
Wireless Antenna Maker Cushcraft Sold To Laird for $89M
The UK's Laird Technologie s(LSE: LARD.L), has paid $89.87M in cash to buy Manchester, NH-based Cushcraft, a maker of wireless antenna. Polaris took a majority interest in Cushcraft in September 2003. The sale is the second portfolio company exit in a month for Polaris, as it follows the recent acquisition of Archivas, a provider of digital archiving solutions, by Hitachi Data Systems for $120M.