Venture Capital & IPO Review

foursquare closes $20m series B funding led by Andreessen Horowitz

2010-06-30T13:55:00.000-07:00

Today foursquare closed a $20m Series B round with Union Square Ventures, O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures and our newest partner, Andreessen Horowitz. We’re thrilled to have the continued support of our original investors and additional support and expertise from the team at Andreessen Horowitz. The two big names behind Andreessen Horowitz - Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz - are each legends in Silicon Valley. They know better than anyone how to transform startups into successful organizations. As we continue to rapidly expand to take advantage of the opportunities in front of us, Ben and Marc’s expertise in growing companies will be invaluable. With this new round of financing, our main priority will be to expand our organization to supplement the amazing core team we’ve assembled already (know any great engineers? send them our way!). We’re hoping to build a world-class engineering organization, based primarily in our headquarters in New York City, to help us develop the next generation of mobile + social + local products that will excite our users and provide unique value for local merchants. The new investment capital will also help fund the infrastructure needed to house our team (we’re finally getting a new office!) and support our growing audience of nearly 2m users.

Tesla Motors - NASDAQ's newest IPO (shares rise 41.4%)

2010-06-29T14:05:00.000-07:00

Today Tesla Motors went IPO and the stock soared in spite of a very weak market. Here is an excerpt form CNBC: Shares of electric carmaker Tesla Motors Inc opened nearly 12 percent above their initial public offering price on Tuesday as investors bet that electric cars would define the future of transportation. Tesla's shares were still up 10 percent in afternoon trading despite weakness in the broad market and as other auto stocks were hit by concerns of a global slowdown. Tesla, which at the IPO price of $17 had a market capitalization of $1.6 billion, is the first initial public offering by an American automaker since Ford's debut in 1956. The IPO comes amid heightened interest in electric cars and as major automakers gear up to launch various types of battery-powered vehicles, including plug-in hybrids.

"They're competing against both internal combustion engines and alternative fuels like fuel cells, compressed natural gas and things like that," said Matt Therian, an analyst with Connecticut-based IPO research house Renaissance Capital. "It's probably too early to say that electric vehicles are definitely going to be the next thing in cars, but if they are I think the potential is huge." Analysts say that the cars may be sleek, but the shares will be volatile in the near term. The Palo Alto, California-based company is losing money and does not expect to be profitable for at least two years. "A lot of people were puzzled about why we were going public without profits," CEO Elon Musk, dressed in jeans and wearing a plaid blazer and a shepherd's checked shirt, told reporters outside the Nasdaq building in Times Square, near several Tesla Roadsters. "The reason we are not profitable today is because we are in the midst of expanding with the Model S (sedan)," Musk added. The IPO is also the first for the eccentric and charismatic Musk, who is the inspiration for Robert Downey Jr's Tony Stark character in "Iron Man" and also has a cameo role in this summer's sequel. The serial entrepreneur, who turned 39 on Monday, previously sold most of his bigger ventures, including online payment company PayPal to eBay for $1.5 billion in 2002. Track the stock via CNBC

Compute.Org to Give $5M in Seed Grants to Tech Startups

2010-06-24T15:20:00.000-07:00

Compute.org, a non-profit foundation based in Seattle, will put its money where its mouth is by giving out substantial seed grants to a wide variety of Internet and software startups. The foundation hopes to reach its target goal of $5 million in financial support by the end of 2010. “I’m really inspired by seeing other people succeed in their businesses,” says Andrew Conru, founder of Compute.org. “I absolutely understand that a relatively small amount of money can create huge results.” Conru ‘s long history in the tech industry has led to the formation of at least twenty companies, and an acute understanding of the intricacies involved in successful online ventures. As part of Compute.org’s grant program, recipients will also receive direct mentoring and consultation from Conru.

“I’ve been called a serial entrepreneur many times,” Conru admits. “Being able to share some of that knowledge and experience is as important to me as the financial support.” While Compute.org promises its grants will have no strings attached, there are some guidelines in place for companies seeking funding. Applicants must show that their motives include a philanthropic element; either through direct charitable giving or as a result of the service they plan to provide. “There is no reason why a company can’t be for profit, and still be for a cause,” Conru explains. “Helping others through technology is the core of our belief behind this project.” With venture capitalists shifting their funding to larger and more established companies, Compute.org’s timing could not be better. Economic hardships have slowed the growth of Internet startups, something that Conru hopes to remedy through his organization’s giving.

MMV Financial Commits $3.0MM Financing for Unitrends, a Back-up and Recovery Vendor

2010-06-23T17:19:00.000-07:00

Unitrends has secured a $3.0MM financing from Toronto based MMV Financial. Unitrends is a leader in disaster recovery and business systems continuity for the small and medium business (SMB) market providing an integrated hardware and software solution for data backup and BareMetal disaster recovery. The company’s disaster recovery solutions are currently deployed to more than 1,500 customers, primarily in the U.S. “We’re excited about the investment that MMV has made in Unitrends,” said Tim Wallick, CFO, Unitrends. “This funding will enable Unitrends to accelerate its investments in R&D, marketing, and sales.” “Unitrends addresses a critical need of small and medium-sized enterprises as well as a range of public agencies and non-profit organizations to protect mission critical data in times of crisis. MMV is delighted to be a Unitrends financial partner,” said April Young, MMV’s Managing Director, US.

IQ Engines Receives $1 Million in Series A Financing

2010-06-23T17:00:00.000-07:00

IQ Engines has secured $1 million in a Series A financing. The company plans to use the capital to support the public launch of its any-image recognition engine, an application programming interface (API) that enables retailers, handset manufacturers, wireless carriers, and application developers to build visual search, image labeling, and augmented reality applications for mobile phones. The IQ Engines any-image recognition API is now available via the company's new developer portal at http://developer.iqengines.com. The company also announced today that it has received a $119,000 research grant from the National Institute of Health, which will be used to support further development of its any-image recognition engine's ability to provide accessibility tools to assist the vision-impaired, and a $200,000 supplement to its SBIR Phase II grant from the National Science Foundation to advance the development of 3D object representations for visual search.

"I believe that visual search powered by IQ Engines' any-image recognition technology will change the way that people use mobile devices." "I believe that visual search powered by IQ Engines' any-image recognition technology will change the way that people use mobile devices," said David Austin, a former Apple Inc. executive who joined the IQ Engines Board of Directors in conjunction with the financing. "During my 17 years with Apple, our goal was to make every interaction with the computer elegant and intuitive, and IQ Engines shares that goal.

WordStream Receives $6M in Series B Funding Led by New Investor Egan-Managed Capital

2010-06-12T16:43:00.000-07:00

WordStream, an Internet marketing software company, has secured $6 million in series B financing from Egan-Managed Capital, a new investor in the company that led the round, and was joined by existing investor Sigma + Partners. The company will use the funding for continued growth and expansion of its search marketing tools for search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. WordStream also appointed Frank Andrasco, a Partner at Egan-Managed Capital, to its board of directors. Since the company’s launch in early 2009, WordStream has grown from four founding employees to more than 35, and already more than 500 businesses worldwide rely on WordStream software to help power their PPC and SEO marketing efforts. Andrasco, a Partner at Egan-Managed Capital and a new member of the WordStream Board of Directors, says “I’ve followed WordStream closely since its initial funding 18 months ago and have been delighted with their pace of product innovation and the growth in their customer base. I’m looking forward to joining with Sigma and the WordStream management team to help build a company that can make the power of search marketing accessible to small and medium-sized businesses.”

Paul Flanagan, a Managing Director at Sigma Partners and a member of the WordStream Board of Directors, says “We’re thrilled to have Egan join us in backing WordStream. We find SaaS business models a very attractive investment opportunity, and WordStream is a particularly compelling SaaS company because of the high degree of product innovation and the simple, powerful nature of their tools.”

Soonr Secures $4.5 Million in Venture Capital Funding to Expand Cloud Service Platform

2010-06-10T12:53:00.000-07:00

Soonr Inc. has secured an additional $4.5 million of financing from existing investors and HighBAR Ventures, an early stage and structured venture capital firm. The new funding will be used to grow sales, marketing and partnership efforts and to accelerate the company’s continued expansion into new markets. Soonr addresses the growing need to protect vital business data with cloud-based backup and to deliver productivity through cloud-based collaboration and mobile access. According to AMI-Partners, the U.S. market for small business online storage/backup is expected to grow from $138 million to $295 million by 2013, while the smart phone device and data services market will double from $2.5 billion to $5 billion during the same time frame.“Soonr is a pioneer in cloud backup and synchronization and has a successful track record of working with service providers around the world,” said John Kim, Managing Partner at HighBAR Ventures. “Our investment will allow Soonr to accelerate its partnership strategy and expand its world-class Software-as-a-Service platform.”

“Our customers have told us that they appreciate an integrated suite of services,” said Martin Frid-Nielsen, Co-founder, Chairman and CEO of Soonr. “For a predictable monthly fee, business owners can now secure all of their data and leverage cloud software and services in a meaningful and measurable way.” Visit Soonr's press room for complete financing details

Solexant's Nanocrystal Solar Technology Lands $41.5M Series C Round

2010-06-07T13:59:00.000-07:00

Solexant Corp. announced the $41.5M first close of a Series C financing round following the successful completion of a 2MW pilot line operating at the company’s headquarters. The round, led by Olympus Capital Partners, includes two other new investors, DBL Investors and Birchmere Ventures, with strong support from existing investors Trident Capital, Firelake Capital, Medley Partners and X/Seed. Rami Elkhatib, general partner of Olympus Capital Partners, and Cynthia Ringo, managing partner of DBL Investors, will join Solexant’s board of directors.

“Solexant’s winning combination of breakthrough technology and manufacturing coupled with the management team’s ability to prove the commercial application of its nanocrystal ultrathin-film solar cell technology in a very capital-efficient way, impressed us immediately and maps ideally to our investment strategy,” said Rami Elkhatib, general partner of Olympus Capital Partners and new Solexant board member. “We’re very passionate about investing in sound companies like Solexant that can bring transformative solutions to important clean tech markets. With its unique thin film technology and cost-efficient production process, we’re confident Solexant will be a leader in the solar industry. ”Solexant utilizes an extremely capital efficient “roll-to-roll” manufacturing technique to produce the industry’s first nanocrystal ultrathin-film solar cell. This method allows for more efficient use of equipment space, as well as higher throughput and lower labor costs than competing thin film companies. The company’s production process brings down the solar module manufacturing cost and total balance of systems (BOS) cost to below those of other thin film competitors.

Marin Software Closes $11.2M Series D Venture Capital Financing

2010-06-03T17:36:00.000-07:00

Marin Software has raised an additional $11.2 million in Series D financing. All of Marin’s existing venture capital investors participated in the Series D raise and were joined by new investor Triangle Peak Partners. Marin’s venture capital investors include Amicus Capital, Benchmark Capital, DAG Ventures, and Focus Ventures. Since its founding in April 2006, leading advertisers and agencies have quickly adopted Marin Software to better analyze, manage, and optimize their paid search marketing programs. Today, Marin Software has over 180 customers and its technology is used globally to manage more than $1 billion of annual search spend, making Marin the largest application provider in its field.

The company will use the new funding to further develop its industry-leading Marin Search Marketer® application and to support the needs of its clients. Currently Marin Search Marketer automatically bids more than 350 million keywords each night, automatically generates more than 300,000 client reports each week, and has an application uptime of 99.9%. In the past year, the company has expanded overseas, launched support for Facebook Ads, and delivered new, innovative products designed to meet the needs of the world’s most sophisticated search marketers. Many of the world’s largest advertisers and agencies rely on Marin Software to manage and optimize their paid search programs, including Razorfish, Neo@Ogilvy, University of Phoenix, FreeCreditReport.com and Reply! Advertisers and agencies that have recently adopted Marin Search Marketer include: KAYAK, Macy’s, PriceGrabber, Red Bricks Media and TradeDoubler.

“Marin Software has become the leader in the paid search management application vertical by delivering a market-leading product for the world’s largest advertisers and agencies,” said David Pesikoff, founder and president of Triangle Peak Partners. “We believe that Marin is uniquely positioned to help advertisers and agencies to leverage technology to achieve superior returns from their spending in paid search and social media.”

Mobile Security Software Vendor Mocana Closes New Series C Funding from Symantec

2010-05-29T14:17:00.000-07:00

Mocana, a security software company that delivers comprehensive protection for smart devices, has closed a strategic investment from Symantec Corp with existing institutional investors Southern Cross Venture Partners and Shasta Ventures also participating in the round. The infusion of funding will be used to expand the company's product lines, build out its international presence and increase marketing activities. The investment is further paired with a technology partnership between Symantec and Mocana in an effort to extend security services to several new classes of connected non-PC "Smart Devices."

Connected non-PC "Smart Devices" including smartphones represent a $900 billion dollar hardware, software and services ecosystem that's growing more than twice as fast as PCs. Mocana has already established itself as the leader in this technically challenging market space, where dozens of different operating systems run on scores of different CPU architectures. Furthermore, securing these Smart Devices requires software on the device and cloud services and is especially difficult because resources that PC developers can take for granted - like memory, CPU horsepower and even power reserves - are often severely limited in smart devices. Still, these devices are flooding on to the Internet, and by some estimates already outnumber PCs by at least 5 to 1. Mocana CEO Adrian Turner said, "We look forward to a deep and fruitful collaboration with Symantec to deliver a global platform for securing non-PC devices. The Symantec investment will help Mocana cement its position as a leader in securing smart devices."

Zend Technologies Receives $9 Million In Funding Led By Greylock

2010-05-17T15:59:00.000-07:00

Zend Technologies, the PHP company, has received $9 million in venture funding led by Greylock Partners, a current investor, with participation from all other Zend investors including Azure Capital Partners, Index Ventures, Intel Capital, SAP Ventures, Walden and others. The investment will fuel the Company's accelerated product development and market expansion at a time when the entire PHP ecosystem is experiencing rapid adoption by mainstream corporate IT. In 2009, Zend added 4,000 new customers, achieved record sales, and expanded into key geographies such as the U.K., the Netherlands and India. Zend now has more than 1,000,000 registered users. A primary driver of business growth is increasing demand for Zend Server, the Company's PHP Web Application Server. Zend Server enables businesses to deliver reliable high-performance Web applications and maximize end-user satisfaction while dramatically reducing application development and management time and costs.

"Today's enterprises are looking to agile Web and Cloud-based technologies such as PHP to deliver business value better and faster," said Moshe Mor at Greylock Partners. "We believe that Zend's leadership position in the PHP space enables the company to drive its solution to deeper adoption across a broad commercial audience in the U.S. and around the globe." "We are delighted to have the ongoing commitment of our distinguished investors as we take our company and technology to the next level and continue to grow our leadership in the PHP market with the best PHP solutions," said Andi Gutmans, CEO and co-founder of Zend Technologies. "Technology cooperation with IBM, Adobe, Oracle, Microsoft and other industry leaders further enables us to deliver Zend PHP solutions broadly into corporate IT departments where simple yet powerful and scalable solutions for rapid application development are in high demand."

INVIDI Technologies Completes $23+ Million "D" Financing Round

2010-05-05T16:13:00.000-07:00

INVIDI Technologies Corporation has secured over $23 million in a financing led by Google, with GroupM (a unit of holding company WPP), Motorola Ventures, and leading venture capital firms Menlo Ventures, InterWest, and EnerTech as participants. Google leads the round, which includes a second investment made by GroupM, the world’s largest media investment company, andMotorola, a leading set top box manufacturer. Other participants include repeat investors from INVIDI’s prior rounds of financing: Menlo Ventures, InterWest Partners, EnerTech Capital, Westbury Equity Partners, BDC Capital, and others. As part of Google’s commitment to this new relationship, Shishir Mehrotra, Director of Product Management for Google TV Ads and YouTube Ads, has joined INVIDI’s board of directors. In addition to its investment in INVIDI, the two companies have agreed to work together on projects of mutual interest that will bring value to INVIDI’s customers.

“Google and GroupM share our vision that addressability will transform television advertising by increasing effectiveness and eliminating wasted reach,” says INVIDI CEO David Downey. “They want to play an active role in shaping this revolution. This financing will accelerate our current efforts to deliver the functionality advertisers crave and the ability for operators and networks to increase the value of their advertising inventory. We can deliver this functionality on any platform our customers desire, tailored to their specific network needs.” “INVIDI Technologies is actively advancing the growth of addressable technologies, which brings more relevance to TV viewership and advertising,” said Shishir Mehrotra, Director of Product Management at Google TV Ads and YouTube Ads. “We’re happy to join INVIDI’s investors, and we’re looking forward to seeing continued progress in this space.”

Intel Capital invests in Caring.com, SmartZip Analytics and SmartZip Analytics

2010-05-03T13:08:00.000-07:00

Intel Capital, Intel Corporation's global investment organization announced three U.S.-based investments totaling approximately $15 million. The deals include eldercare website Caring.com, real estate investment ratings provider SmartZip Analytics and infrastructure services provider Virtustream. In addition to these three investments, Intel Capital also highlighted several recently announced investments. These include educational gaming company Tabula Digita, Carrier Ethernet solutions provider Overture Networks and advertising technology company BlackArrow.

"Technological innovation is an important driver for growth across all economies," said Arvind Sodhani, president of Intel Capital and Intel executive vice president. "New ideas require an ecosystem to take root and grow to encourage the formation of new businesses and creation of new industries. These three investments, ranging from IT infrastructure to digital health and the consumer Internet, reflect the core emphasis Intel Capital places on cultivating the most promising areas of innovation to foster the development of the technologies of tomorrow." Visit the Intel Capital web site for complete investment details

Tesla Motors, electric vehicle manufacturer, files for IPO (Palo Alto)

2010-01-29T16:34:00.001-08:00

Tesla Motors, Inc. today announced that it has filed a registration statement on Form S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a proposed initial public offering of its common stock. Tesla Motors designs, manufactures and sells high-performance fully electric vehicles and advanced electric vehicle powertrain components. The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the offering have not yet been determined.

Goldman, Sachs & Co., Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan and Deutsche Bank Securities are acting as the joint book-running managers for the offering. When available, a copy of the preliminary prospectus may be obtained from Goldman, Sachs & Co., via telephone: (866) 471-2526; facsimile: (212) 902-9316; email:prospectus-ny@ny.email.gs.com; or standard mail at Goldman, Sachs & Co., Attn: Prospectus Department, 85 Broad Street, New York, NY 10004; from Morgan Stanley & Co. Incorporated, via telephone: (866) 718-1649; email: prospectus@morganstanley.com; or standard mail at Morgan Stanley & Co. Incorporated, 180 Varick Street, New York, NY 10014, Attn: Prospectus Department; from J.P. Morgan, c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, New York 11717, or by calling toll-free at 1-866-803-9204; or from Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., via telephone: (800) 503-4611; or standard mail at 100 Plaza One, Jersey City, New Jersey 07311 Attn: Prospectus Department.

Quarterly Venture Breakfast with PricewaterhouseCoopers & Pillsbury Winthrop (Jan. 26 in Palo Alto)

2010-01-19T14:24:00.000-08:00

Through 2009, venture investing had been relatively stable with 7 straight years between $22-30 Billion invested annually in the US. That streak ended abruptly in 2009, with VC investing down roughly 50%. Our panel will examine a number of issues facing the venture industry in 2010. Speakers include Steve Bengston - PricewaterhouseCoopers, Winston Fu - USVP, Ryan Sweeney - Accel Partners, Ann Winblad - Hummer Winblad Venture Partners and moderator Allison Leopold Tilley - Pillsbury Winthrop. Visit the SDForum portal for complete registration and venue details

VigLink Secures Funding From First Round Capital, Google Ventures, Angel Investors

2010-01-12T13:08:00.000-08:00

VigLink has closed a seed investment from First Round Capital, Google Ventures, and individual investors including LinkedIn Founder Reid Hoffman, longtime Google executive and current LinkedIn VP of Product Deep Nishar, and noted technology entrepreneurs Niel Robertson, Hadi Partovi, Ali Partovi, Carlos Cashman, and Micah Adler. The financing, which was co-led by First Round Capital and Google Ventures, will be used to accelerate VigLink's market expansion.

Over 7,500 sites including Amazon.com, eBay, and many others, already pay for traffic on a commission basis totaling approximately $1.5 billion in commissions. Unfortunately, participating in these programs is labor-intensive and error-prone. VigLink research shows that less than half of all qualifying links are properly enrolled. Today, VigLink monetizes the ordinary hyperlink by offering an "install and forget" code snippet that automatically and transparently secures Web publishers revenue from the sites that they already link to without any changes to their customer experience.

VigLink turns this problem on its head. A publisher embeds just a few lines of JavaScript on their page template, and VigLink invisibly modifies the page. Whenever a user clicks away from the site, the destination URL is subtly altered to credit the publisher for any resulting sales. VigLink automatically tracks the clicks and aggregates the resulting commissions for payment to the publisher (www.viglink.com).

Spiceworks Raises $16m in Series C Funding (social IT management)

2010-01-12T12:51:00.000-08:00

Spiceworks™, Inc. announced it secured a $16 million Series C funding round led by Institutional Venture Partners (IVP). The round included participation from existing Spiceworks investors Austin Ventures and Shasta Ventures. A later-stage investor in rapidly-growing media and technology companies, IVP has funded many successful ventures, such as Twitter, MySQL, HomeAway, Netflix, Business.com, Zynga and more.

“Over the past four years Spiceworks has transformed how IT professionals around the world manage technology, get information and advice from their peers, and find the products and services they need,” said Scott Abel, co-founder and CEO of Spiceworks. “We’ve also built a successful business by connecting IT pros with advertisers. This funding will allow us to build a broader range of functionality for our users and more quickly achieve our mission of simplifying everything IT for the world’s businesses.”With more than 850,000 users in 196 countries, and over 1,000 new IT pros joining every day, Spiceworks is the most widely deployed and fastest growing IT management application in the world. Currently more than 25 percent of all businesses with greater than 100 employees rely on Spiceworks to manage their IT operations. Together the Spiceworks user community supports 29 million employees, manages 47 million computers and devices, and spends $145 billion annually on technology products and services.

As part of the funding round, Spiceworks named Steve Harrick, general partner of IVP, to the Spiceworks board of directors. Other board members include Ravi Mohan, co-founder and managing director, Shasta Ventures; John Hamlin, former Dell senior executive; Scott Abel, CEO of Spiceworks; John Thornton, general partner of Austin Ventures; and Mike Maples Jr., managing general partner of Maples Investments.

Angel Capital Expo - Keiretsu Forum (January 22 in Mountain View)

2010-01-09T11:45:00.000-08:00

The expo will feature twelve high-quality, diverse investment opportunities in technology, healthcare/life sciences, consumer products, real estate, and funds. Companies that apply to Keiretsu Forum are typically in their A or B rounds having already secured initial funding of $250k to $1.5 million from founders, friends, family, and individual angels. The expo will be held at the Microsoft campus in Mountain View. Visit the event portal for the complete agenda and registration details

Discera Closes $11M Series D Financing

2010-01-08T13:56:00.000-08:00

Discera announced the successful completion of its Series D financing, having raised $11 million. Investors in this round include previous investors Scale Venture Partners, Horizon Ventures, and Ardesta. In addition, they were joined by new investor Lurie Investments. With the close, Mr. William White, Executive Vice President of Lurie Investments joins Discera’s Board of Directors.

“We are excited to have the support and continued investment from our existing partners. The addition of Lurie Investments as an investor to our team brings valuable expertise to Discera and a shared passion for the future of MEMS technology. We raised additional funds in this difficult economic climate to expand our product portfolio and accelerate the growth of our MEMS timing business,” said Bruce Diamond, Discera President and CEO.

Citing Discera’s technology differentiators as an important factor in their investment, Mr. White also noted, “Discera is poised to enter a period of explosive revenue growth as MEMS timing continues to gain acceptance in the marketplace. MEMS technology offers customers new cost effective solutions to their timing needs including smaller packages with more functionality. Due to the need for special packaging, quartz technology has significant limitations on adding features to oscillator products. We are very excited about Discera’s upcoming new products and we expect Discera to gain a large share of the $5 billion timing market.” Visit BusinessWire to review the complete press release

Meru Networks Files Registration Statement for Proposed IPO

2009-12-21T15:33:00.000-08:00

Meru Networks, Inc., a provider of virtualized wireless LAN solutions, today announced that it has filed a registration statement on Form S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission relating to a proposed initial public offering of its common stock. The shares in the offering will be offered by Meru Networks and certain selling stockholders. The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the offering have not been determined.

BofA Merrill Lynch is acting as sole book-runner for the offering. Baird, Cowen and Company, JMP Securities LLC, and ThinkEquity LLC, are acting as co-managers. The offering will be made only by means of a prospectus. When available, copies of the preliminary prospectus relating to the offering may be obtained from: BofA Merrill Lynch, 4 World Financial Center, New York, New York 10080, Attention: Prospectus Department or by e-mailing: Prospectus.Requests@ml.com, or by calling (866) 500-5408.

Silver Spring Networks Announces $100 Million Preferred EquityFinancing

2009-12-15T14:00:00.001-08:00

Silver Spring Networks, a leading Smart Grid solutions provider, today announced the closing of a $100 million preferred equity round. The financing will be used for development of new smart grid applications, job growth and the continued expansion of Silver Spring’s global footprint.

“We have a terrific opportunity to accelerate the development and deployment of next generation smart grid initiatives,” said Warren Jenson, Chief Financial Officer of Silver Spring Networks. “At a time when world leaders have gathered in Copenhagen, we’re honored to be partnering with some of the most progressive utilities in the world to address energy efficiency by building out the smart grid. We are pleased to have a great set of investors that share our vision.”

The investment round was led by institutional investors and included existing investors Google Ventures, Foundation Capital, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Northgate Capital. Visit Silver Spring's press room for complete financing details

On-Q-ity Expands Series A Funding to $26 Million

2009-12-14T15:00:00.000-08:00

On-Q-ity announced that it has closed an additional $5 million investment from Atlas Venture as part of its Series A funding. This investment brings On-Q-ity's total Series A funding to $26 million. Atlas joins Bessemer Venture Partners, Physic Ventures and Northgate Capital, in this round, led by MDV-Mohr Davidow Ventures. Bruce Booth, a partner at Atlas Venture, will join the company's Board of Directors.

"I am thrilled to add to an already strong investor syndicate for development of our novel predictive biomarker and circulating tumor cell (CTC) diagnostic products," said Mara Aspinall, President and Chief Executive Officer of On-Q-ity. "Atlas will be a great addition to our investor group and our board. We are privileged to have a tremendous group of investors from the east and west coasts and with deep expertise in the life sciences - both in therapeutics and diagnostics as well as personalized medicine."

"We believe On-Q-ity will bring about a paradigm shift in how medical oncologists treat their patients in the near future," stated Bruce Booth, Atlas Venture Partner. "Mara's vision, her track record in bringing new diagnostics to market and the entire On-Q-ity team's singular focus to improve cancer therapy effectiveness while reducing costs is inspiring and we look forward to helping them achieve this goal."

Fortinet Announces Pricing of Initial Public Offering (stock jumps 34%)

2009-11-18T12:39:00.000-08:00

Fortinet® announced its initial public offering of 12,500,000 shares of its common stock at a price to the public of $12.50 per share. The shares will begin trading on Wednesday, November 18, 2009 on the NASDAQ Global Market under the ticker symbol "FTNT." Of the shares in the offering, 5,781,683 shares are being offered by the company and 6,718,317 shares are being offering by selling stockholders. In addition, Fortinet has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 1,875,000 shares of common stock to cover over-allotments, if any. Fortinet will not receive any proceeds from the sale of shares by the selling stockholders.

Morgan Stanley & Co. Incorporated, J.P. Morgan Securities Inc., and Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. are acting as joint book-runners for the offering. Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated, RBC Capital Markets Corporation, ThinkEquity LLC, JMP Securities LLC, and Signal Hill Capital Group LLC are acting as co-managers. Track the FTNT stock via CNBC: http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/ftnt

AlwaysOn Names Top Venture Capitalists in Inaugural VC 100 List

2009-11-18T11:51:00.000-08:00

AlwaysOn has announced the winners of its first VC 100 List, revealing the top venture capitalists with significant exit success in the last four years. Presented by the AlwaysOn editorial team and Sonnenschein Venture Technology Group, selected VCs include Kevin Harvey, Bill Gurley, Bruce Dunlevie, Peter Fenton of Benchmark Capital; Roelof Botha, Michael Moritz, Douglas Leone of Sequoia Capital; Sandy Miller, Todd Chaffee of Institutional Venture Partners; George Still Jr. of Northwest Venture Partners; Tim Draper of Draper Fisher Jurvetson; Mark Gorenberg of Hummer Winblad Venture Partners; and Woody Benson of Prism Venture. AlwaysOn is releasing the VC 100 List in anticipation of its upcoming event Venture Summit Silicon Valley, bringing together the most influential investors, venture capitalists and investment bankers.

To compile the first VC 100 List, the AlwaysOn editorial team sourced data from its research partners Morgan Stanley, VentureDeal and the 451 Group on more than 700 active venture capitalists, 1,400 VC investments and 1,000 technology liquidity events in the last four years, from October 1, 2005 to September 30, 2009. The winning venture capitalists were selected based on total number and dollar amounts of successful M&A and IPO deals from their portfolio companies. For IPOs, AlwaysOn examined opening market capitalization as well as subsequent stock performance, relative to the Nasdaq. For each investment, AlwaysOn counted one lead investor per firm, in order to identify the true dealmakers. Much of the data required for a thorough evaluation remains private and inaccessible, and the VC 100 List ultimately represents the opinion of AlwaysOn’s editorial team. The full VC 100 List can be found on the AlwaysOn website by clicking on the title to this article

TeleNav Files for Initial Public Offering

2009-11-02T14:08:00.000-08:00

TeleNav, Inc. announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, TNAV Holdings, Inc., filed a registration statement on Friday, October 30, 2009 with the Securities and Exchange Commission relating to a proposed initial public offering of TeleNav’s common stock. The shares in the offering will be offered by TeleNav and certain selling stockholders. The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the offering have not yet been determined.

J.P. Morgan Securities Inc. and Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. are acting as joint book-runners for the offering. Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated, Canaccord Adams Inc., Piper Jaffray & Co. and Pacific Crest Securities Inc. are acting as co-managers. Copies of the preliminary prospectus for the offering, when available, may be obtained from J.P. Morgan Securities Inc., c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Ave., Edgewood, NY 11717, Telephone, (631) 254-1735; or Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., 100 Plaza One, Jersey City, New Jersey 07311, Telephone: (800) 503-4611.

A registration statement relating to these securities has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission but has not yet become effective. These securities may not be sold nor may offers to buy be accepted prior to the time the registration statement becomes effective. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction. Visit TeleNav's press room for complete IPO details