|
|
|
|
March 3, 2010 Pivot 3 Raises $25 Million PALO ALTO -- Pivot3, Inc., a company that develops virtual servers and scalable storage in a single platform, announced that it has raised $25 million in a new funding round led by Focus Ventures, the investor firm behind storage companies EqualLogic (acquired by Dell) and Isilon. Participation in this round also included existing investors InterWest Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Mesirow Financial Capital Partners IX, and Silver Creek Ventures. The investment will be used to expand sales operations beyond the Americas, as well as to develop and promote innovations that open up new markets for the Pivot3 Serverless Computing platform. ' "With this overwhelming investor support, Pivot3 will aggressively expand its sales and marketing efforts to accelerate our already rapid market share growth," said Bob Fernander, CEO of Pivot3. "We now have the resources to expand our lead in the surveillance vertical and also take our product into new markets." Pivot3 Serverless Computing is the first scale-out storage solution offering integrated server virtualization to enterprise customers. Integrated server virtualization consolidates physical servers into Pivot3 storage appliances for high availability while realizing significant savings in power, cooling and rackspace. Pivot3 has more than 140 customers such as the Port of Seattle, the Mall of America, and the City of Trenton. The largest installation at the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma is a regulated installation with four petabytes of SAN storage that simultaneously provides more than 200 virtual servers. Audience Closes $15 Million Series E MOUNTAIN VIEW -- Audience, Inc. announced today that is has closed a new round of financing with $15 million in Series E funding from existing investors New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Tallwood Venture Capital, Vulcan Capital and VentureTech Alliance. This brings total funding to date to $75 million and supports continued product development and rollout of the company's industry-leading noise suppression technology for mobile phones across global markets "This latest round of funding provides a strong endorsement of our business achievements which include expansion of our portfolio of advanced voice processors and rapid market growth through partnerships with leading handset manufacturers and mobile service providers," said Peter Santos, president and chief executive officer, Audience. "Audience dynamic noise suppression technology is redefining the mobile customer experience by providing unsurpassed call clarity even in noisy environments, enabling successful communications nearly anywhere. We see exciting opportunities to continue advancing voice quality, and to enable speech as the next generation interface for mobile phone applications." Audience voice processor chips for the mobile and telecom marketplace are based on reverse-engineering the human hearing system to optimize voice communication and speech-based applications in noisy environments. Designed to mimic the functions of the human auditory pathway, the Audience voice processor can distinguish and identify sounds, isolate the primary voice in conversation and cancel out background noise, intermittent sounds (siren, nearby conversation) and echoes, to improve mobile call quality. It also automatically equalizes and adjusts voice volume to optimize the calling experience, so the user can hear clearly without the need to speak over surrounding noise. In addition, the technology enhances performance for speech-based mobile applications such as voice search and user verification and is applicable across a broad range of consumer products where voice needs to be intelligible in noisy environments. February 5, 2010 UStream Secures $75 Million Series B MOUNTAIN VIEW -- Ustream, the leader in live streaming to Internet and mobile devices, announced a $75 million Series B funding round 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 U.S. and Asia. The funding will help fuel Ustream's growth in the U.S. and Asia Pacific, specifically to pursue opportunities in Asia in Japan, China, Korea and India. "Asia offers a significant, untapped market opportunity for streaming video," said John Ham, Ustream founder and CEO. "SOFTBANK will enable us to develop this opportunity and deliver on our vision of live streaming video everywhere. We look forward to deploying these resources to accelerate our growth in the United States and Asia Pacific." Ustream has gotten some big audiences for videos streamed on the site. More than 3.4 million viewers watched the live red carpet pre-show of the American Music Awards in 2009 and more than 3.8 million watched the inauguration of President Barack Obama via Ustream in January 2009. Glam Media Raises $50 Million BRISBANE -- Glam Media, Inc., a leading site for women online, has raised approximately $50 million in a private equity mezzanine funding. Proceeds of the funds will be used to build a Digital Media Technology Center, expand internationally and for strategic acquisitions. The Series E round is 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. Glam Media has raised private equity mezzanine financing to continue to fund the company's hyper growth as a leading innovator of brand display advertising as the online consumer -- driven by Google Search, Blogs and Twitter -- moves away from portals and large destination sites to vertical niche content and social media. Glam also announced that North America Region business reached EBITDA profitability and the Global business was EBITDA break-even in Q4, 2009. This round brings the net total cash raised by the company directly to approximately $130 million. "In a short 5 years since launch, Glam Media has become a 'must-buy' for the world's leading brand advertisers," said Samir Arora, chairman and CEO of Glam Media. "I am incredibly proud of our employees and the Glam family of publishers and partners that have all worked incredibly hard in the downturn, helping to buck the trends to create the Number 1 Women's Lifestyle Media Company today." Glam has headquarters in Brisbane and New York City. January 28, 2010 Yelp Getting Up to $100 Million SAN FRANCISCO -- Yelp, a leading local review site, announced that private equity firm Elevation Partners has agreed to make a $25 million investment in Yelp through the purchase of Series E preferred stock. Elevation Partners will also seek to increase its total investment in Yelp to $100 million through a planned purchase of shares from vested employees and other eligible shareholders. The details of the offer to purchase are expected to be announced to qualified participants in the near future. "We have been able to grow and scale our business quickly, even in the tough economic environment of the last year -- a clear indicator that we've only begun to realize the potential of local search," said Jeremy Stoppelman, Yelp chief executive officer and co-founder. "This investment in Yelp provides us with even more capital to focus on scaling our already proven business model and we are thrilled to have Elevation as a new partner." "We believe Yelp is revolutionizing how consumers discover local businesses," said Marc Bodnick, Elevation Partners Managing Director and co-founder. "Yelp has visionary leadership and a massive business opportunity ahead and we are excited about participating in Yelp's growth." Yelp plans to use the additional funding to deepen its market leadership position throughout the US, accelerate growth in Canada and throughout Western Europe, and continue the development of innovative mobile applications. The company said it experienced rapid growth in 2009 with the addition of eight new US markets, launches in the UK and Ireland, and the introduction of four new mobile applications (iPhone, Blackberry, Palm Pre and Android). Traffic on the site increased to more than 26 million unique visitors in the month of December 2009 and review content doubled in the last year to more than 9 million reviews. Yelp earns revenues from search and display advertising and also offers free tools for local businesses to market to the Yelp consumer community. January 19, 2010 Flurry Closes $7 Million Series B SAN FRANCISCO -- Flurry, Inc., a leading mobile application analytics provider, announced it has closed a Series B financing round of $7 million. Led by venture capital firm InterWest Partners, the round included existing investors Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Union Square Ventures, First Round Capital and Draper Richards. Since launching its service in January 2009, Flurry has quickly emerged as one of the world's largest mobile application analytics and monetization platforms. The company now tracks over one billion end user application sessions per month across iPhone, iPod Touch and Android devices. Over 15,000 developers have chosen to integrate Flurry Analytics within their applications, which have been downloaded to more than 80% of all iPhone, iPod Touch and Android devices. "Smartphone application download growth is skyrocketing like nothing in recent consumer tech history, dwarfing even early Internet adoption," said Flurry chief executive officer, Simon Khalaf. "With its significant reach, Flurry is positioned to play a significant role in leveraging the measurement of consumer behavior to accelerate the sale of applications and virtual goods." The financing will be used to aggressively build out new services that increase application developer revenue, hire new employees and scale its infrastructure. Flurry AppCircle, currently in private beta, is the first of a series of revenue generating services designed to use data to intelligently target consumers and increase sales in the App Store. December 17, 2009 Silver Spring Networks Scores $100 Million REDWOOD CITY -- Silver Spring Networks, a leading Smart Grid solutions provider, 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. Silver Spring Networks is a leading Smart Grid solution provider that enables utilities to achieve operational efficiencies, reduce carbon emissions and empower their customers with new ways to monitor and manage their energy consumption. Silver Spring provides the hardware, software and services that allow utilities to deploy advanced applications, including Smart Metering, Demand Response, Distribution Automation and Distributed Generation, over a single, unified network. Silver Spring’s Smart Energy Platform is based on open, Internet Protocol (IP) standards, allowing continuous, two-way communication between the utility and devices on the grid. Silver Spring has numerous deployments with leading utilities in the US and abroad, including Florida Power & Light, Pacific Gas & Electric, Pepco Holdings, Inc., Jemena Electricity Networks Limited and United Energy Distribution, among others. December 5, 2009 Zoosk Secures $30 Million Series D SAN FRANCISCO -- Zoosk, the world's largest social dating community, announced it has closed a $30 million Series D round of funding. The round was led by new investor Bessemer Venture Partners, the oldest venture capital firm in the United States. Existing investors Canaan Partners and ATA Ventures also participated. The funds will support the company's rapidly growing user base, continued global expansion, marketing activities in key geographies, and investments in new features and applications. "Zoosk has been redefining the online dating experience since we launched nearly two years ago, and singles around the world have embraced our fun, safe, and social network-driven approach," said Shayan Zadeh, co-founder and co-CEO of Zoosk. "Around the world, online dating is an incredibly popular - and successful - way to find and meet someone special," said David Cowan, partner at Bessemer Venture Partners. "It is clear to us that Zoosk has created the best experience and platform for the social networking generation." Zoosk is the world's largest and fastest-growing online dating service. Since its launch in December 2007, Zoosk has attracted more than 40 million singles from more than 40 countries. Singles can join Zoosk via their social networking sites by adding the Zoosk application on Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Hi5, and Friendster, via Zoosk mobile (http://m.zoosk.com), or by signing up at Zoosk.com. The Series D funding round brings Zoosk's total financing to $40.5 million. Investors include Bessemer Venture Partners, Canaan Partners, ATA Ventures and Amidzad Partners. Branders.com Receives $5 Million SAN MATEO -- Branders.com, the world's largest online seller of promotional items, announced that it has received an additional $5 million in venture funding. The profitable company, which has raised $46 million in venture capital to date, has secured funding from four different firms, Menlo Ventures, DCM, Venture Strategy Partners (VSP) and Altos Ventures, all of whom are returning investors. "Branders.com pioneered the online promotional marketplace, and is now growing it by offering the lowest prices imaginable, online or off," said H. DuBose Montgomery, Managing Director, Menlo Ventures. "Customers have really responded to their value proposition. We are pleased to continue investing in Branders.com's success." In 2008, the promotional items marketplace reached $18.1 billion, according to the Promotional Products Association International (PPAI), which has also seen continued growth in this industry despite the global recession. Branders.com, which is 10 years old, was the first promotional item company to sell online and has built a base of more than 100,000 customers, including The White House. The company offers products at prices that are about 20 percent less than their competitors. November 20, 2009 Chegg Books $57 Million Round SANTA CLARA -- Online textbook rental company Chegg has raised $57 million in Series D financing in one of the largest venture investments this year. Insight Venture Partners led the round of equity financing, and also led a syndicate that provided a $25 million credit facility. Pinnacle Ventures and TriplePoint Capital also participated in the financing. Chegg intends to use the additional capital to further fuel the company’s growth, enhance its commitment to customer service and build more partnerships with publishers, wholesalers and colleges. Chegg launched its Netflix-like textbook service in 2007 and now the company services students at over 6,400 universities and community colleges across the country. With just a few clicks, Chegg students rent as many textbooks as they like; books are delivered in less than a week, and students typically save 60 to 75 percent off their textbook bill. In addition to saving money, students support the environment when they use Chegg.com; the company plants a tree for every textbook rented, bought or sold. To date, Chegg.com has successfully planted close to 1.5 million trees around the world. "Our ability to raise significant capital and attract leading investors during a tough economy is a testament to the quality of Chegg's service," said Osman Rashid, co-founder and chief executive officer for Chegg. November 17, 2009 Playdom Raises $43 Million Series A MOUNTAIN VIEW -- Playdom, a leading social gaming company, announced that it has closed $43 million of financial investments as part of its Series A financing. The investment, led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA), along with Playdom chairman Rick Thompson, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Norwest Venture Partners (NVP), will be used to finance strategic acquisitions and expand the company’s pipeline of market-leading games. “We are focused on growing Playdom into a world-class gaming company. A number of compelling games are in development for 2010, and we’re bullish about our future and the potential to bring people together through social gaming,” said John Pleasants, CEO of Playdom. “Social games appeal to everyone, everywhere. Our players range from ages 13 to 80 and come from more than 150 countries, so the opportunity for growth is tremendous.” Playdom currently runs 13 games on leading social networking platforms including Facebook, MySpace and iPhone. The company is the largest game developer on MySpace and has two of the top five role-playing games on Facebook, including its popular titles Sorority Life and Mobsters 2: Vendetta. Playdom has over 190 employees in offices in Mountain View and San Francisco, CA, as well as a game studio in Eugene, OR. Playdom said it has acquired well-known Facebook developer Green Patch, Inc., and Trippert Labs, an experienced iPhone and social game developer. Both companies were privately held; Green Patch is based in Palo Alto and Trippert Labs is based in Menlo Park. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed. November 11, 2009 SandForce Closes $21 Million Series C SANTA CLARA -- SandForce Inc., the pioneer of SSD (Solid State Drive) Processors that enable commodity NAND Flash deployment in enterprise and client computing applications, has closed $21 million in Series C funding. Led by new investor TransLink Capital, the round also included new investors UMC Capital, LSI Corporation, Red Maple Ventures, Darwin Ventures, and A-Data Technology as well as all of the existing SandForce investors – DCM, Storm Ventures, and Tier-1 storage OEMs. “We have made rapid progress into the marketplace since our launch just six months ago, and we are now shipping silicon to top-tier SSD OEM customers,” said Alex Naqvi, president and CEO of SandForce. “This new funding will help us through our expansion phase as well as accelerate our new products development that will help us maintain our market leadership.” Founded in 2006, SandForce says it is actively hiring. Stretch Scores $10 Million SUNNYVALE -- Stretch Inc., a developer of software configurable processors, announced it has received $10 million in mezzanine funding, co-led by existing investors Worldview Technology Partners, Oak Investment Partners, and Menlo Ventures. "This last round of funding provides Stretch the financial security to scale our operations and attain profitability," said Craig Lytle, president and CEO of Stretch. "Where we have seen many startups fail in this difficult economy, Stretch's success is a testament to our ability to provide increased performance at a reduced cost for our customers." Stretch has been successful in securing design wins with major video surveillance OEMs and ODMs across the world, and those customers are now in production, driving strong revenue growth. A partial list of customers includes Skyvision, EverFocus, Lanner, Advantech, Euresys, Matrox, Provideo, and UDP Technologies. Stretch intends to use this additional funding to support increased manufacturing capacity and tape-out of its third generation of devices. With more than 60 employees, and offices worldwide, Stretch has received 20 patent awards and more patents pending. October 27, 2009 Unity Technologies Raises $5.5 Million SAN FRANCISCO -- Unity Technologies -- a leading provider of multi-platform game development platform for Web, PC, Mac, Wii and iPhone -- announced that it has secured Series A financing of $5.5 million. The investment round was led by Sequoia Capital, the venture investors behind well-known technology brands such as Apple, Electronic Arts, Google and Nvidia. The financing round also included David Gardner, the CEO of Atari and Diane Greene, founder and former CEO of VMware. Roelof Botha, partner at Sequoia Capital, and Greene will be joining the board of directors. Unity is a professional solution that combines a full development platform with a 3D game engine in an integrated software package that enables high performance 3D interactive content including console quality browser games, iPhone and Nintendo Wii games. The Unity platform is currently used in world class games such as Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online by Electronic Arts, the Quest for R2D2 by LEGO and FusionFall by Cartoon Networks. Earlier this year, Unity for iPhone was released and to date, more than 325 games are using the Unity engine to power their iPhone games, including Zombieville USA, one of the top ten iPhone games measured by units sold. When I first saw the quality of games which could be produced with the Unity engine in such a short development time and in a web browser, I was blown away! Pardon the pun, but it is a game changer and the Unity technology can greatly enhance the quality of browser visualization for many content providers!” said David Gardner, Atari CEO and Unity Technologies investor. “Then I met the people behind the technology and that is what turned me from a product fan to a company fan and investor. I believe in the passion and capability of the team, the straightforward business model and long term potential.” Unity Technologies' management team is led by CEO David Helgason, who co-founded the company with Chief Creative Officer Nicholas Francis and Chief Technology Officer Joachim Ante. "We are very pleased with the market recognition and adoption of our products and technology," said Helgason. "It is particularly gratifying to see that our offering can take the pain out of development for industry powerhouses such as Electronic Arts as well as individuals and small development studios.” ResponseLogix Secures $5.6 Million SUNNYVALE -- ResponseLogix, Inc., a developer of automotive digital response management software, announced the closing of $5.6 million in new funding led by Emergence Capital Partners. The round also included existing investors GRP Ventures, Shasta Ventures, Belo Corp. and AH Belo Corp. The funds will be used to further cement ResponseLogix’s leadership in the growing market for internet lead management services to the auto industry. g market-leading technology companies, particularly software-as-a-service (SaaS) businesses. As a SaaS business ourselves, we are delighted to partner with them to accelerate our growth,” said Tom Mohr, President and CEO of ResponseLogix. “We are also pleased that existing investors joined Emergence in this financing. The commitment of all our investors in ResponseLogix further validates our value proposition -- that a rapid quote response and effective ongoing customer follow-up are the keys to driving automotive Internet sales.” ResponseLogix delivers software as a service (SaaS) technology to auto dealers so they can better respond to Internet leads. SmartQuote answers Internet leads within 10 minutes, with a price quote on multiple vehicles based on the customer’s make, model and trim level request. SmartFollow helps dealers stay n touch with the customer with dynamically timed, interactive follow-up emails. SmartFacts™ delivers powerful analytics to help optimize the performance or Internet sales departments. The ResponseLogix’s SmartQuote product recently received recognition by Automotive News Magazine as one of ten featured products in its annual post-National Automobile Dealers Association convention product review, this year entitled “Cool Stuff at NADA”. ResponseLogix products are available in 40 US markets for Toyota, Ford, Lincoln-Mercury, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Honda, Lexus, Audi, Honda, Acura, Nissan, Infiniti and Hyundai dealers across the US. October 9, 2009 Engine Yard Closes $19 Million Series C SAN FRANCISCO -- Engine Yard, A leader in Ruby on Rails automation and management technologies, announced that it has secured $19 million in its third round of venture capital funding, bringing its total funding to date to more than $37 million. The Series C round includes new investors DAG Ventures, Bay Partners, and Presidio Ventures (a Sumitomo Corporation venture investment company). Previous investors Benchmark Capital, Amazon.com, and New Enterprise Associates also participated in the latest financing round. In just a few years, Ruby on Rails has become a leading choice for rapid development among web developers, with as many as half a million Ruby developers worldwide and successes like twitter.com and yellowpages.com taking advantage of its speed of development. The mission of Engine Yard is to give developers and development teams the automation technologies and services necessary to reliably develop, deploy, and manage Ruby on Rails applications at any scale, allowing developers to focus on building great user experiences. With this latest capital investment, Engine Yard will continue to build out the Engine Yard Cloud to meet enterprise requirements, build support offerings for JRuby development teams, and continue to invest in the open source projects that are bringing new levels of productivity to developers worldwide. "We are excited to have our new venture capital partners sign on to the Engine Yard mission to create the leading Application Cloud for Ruby on Rails," said John Dillon, CEO of Engine Yard. "Ruby on Rails continues to drive a revolution in application development. In partnership with infrastructure providers, our goal is to continue to build out the platform and services that combine to make Ruby on Rails the obvious choice for any developer who wants to build a reliable, high performance application at any scale." September 23, 2009 Serious Materials Closes $60 Million Financing SUNNYVALE -- Serious Materials, an energy-saving building materials company, has closed $60 million in Series C financing. The round was led by Mesirow Financial, a financial services firm based in Chicago. Additional new investors included Enertech Capital, Cheyenne, and Saints Capital. Previous investors including New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Foundation Capital, Rustic Canyon Partners, Navitas Capital, and Staenberg also participated in this funding round, bringing Serious Materials’ total raised capital to more than $120 million. The funds will be used to accelerate the rapid growth of the company and complete development of next generation, energy-saving building products. “With a strong management team, vision, and industry-changing technology, Serious Materials is uniquely positioned to drive substantial growth and have a meaningful and positive impact on the environment,” said Tom Galuhn, Senior Managing Director for Mesirow Financial Private Equity. “We’re pleased to be in a position to help fuel the next stage of Serious Materials’ growth.” “We are on an important mission to help dramatically save energy, reduce CO2 emissions and stabilize the climate,” said Kevin Surace, CEO, Serious Materials. “Dramatic and disruptive innovation must happen now and on a broad scale. Windows offer the largest opportunity for improvement – fastest payback and highest energy savings. If all buildings in America were to use super-insulating full-frame high R-value windows of R-5.0 or more, versus standard single or dual pane windows, CO2 emissions would be reduced by some 200 million metric tons annually.” Altius Education Raises $8 Million SAN FRANCISCO -- Altius Education Inc, a San Francisco-based for-profit company that partners with non-profit universities to launch fully accredited online colleges, announced that it has closed an $8 million Series A funding round co-led by Maveron LLC and Spark Capital along with participation from The Noah Fund. “Maveron and Spark are ideal financial partners to help fuel our growth,” said Altius Education CEO Paul Freedman. “Maveron has significant experience in developing high quality consumer brands, and is unmatched in its knowledge of the education market, with its prior investments including online education leader Capella Education Company. Spark has a phenomenal track record in funding technology, consumer and media companies. The pairing of these two firms, which bring tremendous experience and strategic support in the tech, consumer and education sectors, is an enormous advantage for us.” Since its inception in 2007, Altius Education has quickly emerged as an innovator in designing and building high-quality online postsecondary education degree programs in areas that are underserved by incumbent institutions. Addressing the growing gap in the higher education market at the junior college level caused by resource constraints and funding cuts at many community colleges, Altius Education has partnered with Tiffin University to establish Ivy Bridge College. Ivy Bridge College offers an online two-year program that provides students an accredited, affordable, and flexible path to admittance into a high quality four-year university program. In order to ensure the success of its students, Ivy Bridge College offers 24x7 tutoring and pairs each student with an academic coach. In its first year, Ivy Bridge College enrolled students from around the country, affirming the demand for its unique positioning as a low cost community college partner that prepares students for a traditional four-year degree. In addition, Ivy Bridge College currently maintains student retention rates that are significantly higher than those of its largest competitors, demonstrating the value of its student service model. August 28, 2009 Complete Genomics Secures $45 Million MOUNTAIN VIEW -- Complete Genomics Inc., a third-generation human genome sequencing company, announced that it has raised $45 million in private equity financing and closed its Series D funding round with two new investors — Essex Woodlands Health Ventures and OrbiMed Advisors, LLC. Complete Genomics’ existing investors — Enterprise Partners Venture Capital, OVP Venture Partners, Prospect Venture Partners and Highland Capital Management — have all chosen to reinvest in the company, underscoring their confidence in its human genome sequencing technology and unique business model. Complete Genomics allows its customers to purchase the genome data they want without having to purchase and operate expensive and complex sequencing instruments. Complete Genomics provides high-quality, high-throughput and affordable DNA sequencing of human populations that will enable large-scale research of the genetic mechanisms underlying drug responses and complex diseases. The company is currently building the world’s largest commercial human genome sequencing center in Silicon Valley. The company was founded in 2006. One Riot Rounds Up $7 Million BOULDER -- OneRiot, the realtime search engine, announced that it has secured $7 million in Series C funding led by Appian Ventures, Commonwealth Capital Ventures and Spark Capital, the company's existing venture capital firms. The company has headquarters in Boulder, CO with offices in San Francisco. OneRiot delivers realtime web search results to millions of users, both at OneRiot.com and to third parties who utilize OneRiot's Search API. The company will use proceeds of this funding to further enhance its core search product and to support its fast-growing partner network. "This commitment from our existing investors is a big vote of confidence in the realtime search market, OneRiot's product offering, and our team's ability to execute," said Kimbal Musk, OneRiot's CEO. OneRiot's partners include Yahoo and Microsoft, who recently released a version of Internet Explorer bundled with OneRiot realtime search. August 13, 2009 Simply Hired Raises $4.6 Million MOUNTAIN VIEW -- Simply Hired, a job search engine and aggregator, announced that is has secured $4.6 million of new investment funding from IDG Ventures and Foundation Capital. The company also said it was cash flow positive for the past four quarters and has showed revenue growth for the past 16 straight quarters. Simply Hired said it will use the new financing to support future domestic growth, increasing headcount from 50 to 80 in 2009, and accelerate international expansion. Including this funding round, Simply Hired has raised $22.3 million to date. “IDG Ventures focuses on companies with strong financial footing that demonstrate clear, differentiated market positioning,” said Phil Sanderson, managing director at IDG Ventures. “Simply Hired encapsulates an ideal investment partner, with clearly outlined goals and consistent growth over the past four years. Our relationship with IDG enables Simply Hired to expand its footprint globally, and create additional network partners within the IDG family.” Simply Hired recently launched localized job search engines for Brazil, Belgium, Ireland, Italy and the Netherlands. Simply Hired now operates in 13 countries and seven languages across five continents. Other global markets include Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Spain and the United Kingdom. The funding will enable Simply Hired to extend its global reach into new markets, allowing job seekers worldwide to search more than five million job openings. July 28, 2009 Egnyte Secures $6 Million Series A MOUNTAIN VIEW -- Egnyte, a leading provider of on-demand file server solutions, announced that it has secured $6 million in funding from new investor Polaris Venture Partners and existing seed investor Maples Investments. The Series A round will be used to accelerate market adoption of Egnyte’s products and grow channel distribution for the service. “Egnyte has been fortunate to see strong growth and adoption of our service in a very difficult economic climate. In the past six months, we have seen a 15% month over month growth rate as small businesses look for new data infrastructure solutions that are both affordable and efficient,” said Vineet Jain, CEO of Egnyte. “As interest in cloud computing grows, we believe our technology solutions have enormous potential in reassuring businesses – both large and small – that a cloud-based file server can be cost effective, reliable and secure.” Founded in 2006 and launched in 2008, Egnyte provides an On-Demand File Server for small and mid-sized businesses to store all corporate data, securely share files within and outside the company and backup employee computers in the cloud. In March 2009, the company unveiled a complementary solution to its existing On-Demand File Server – Egnyte "Local Cloud". Egnyte’s Local Cloud blends a hosted online solution with an on-premise solution, providing the benefits of unlimited storage, secure access anywhere, easy file collaboration, built in disaster recovery, fast access, off-line access and the ability to run client server applications locally. Since the release of Local Cloud, interest in Egnyte has soared, as businesses seek storage solutions that address issues with reliability, latency and control – solutions that Taneja Group Senior Analyst Jeff Boles describes as “key to increasing adoption for storage services in the Internet cloud.” Mixamo Launches With $4 Million SAN FRANCISCO -- Mixamo Inc. announced its debut as an online character animation gaming developer, with $4 million in venture capital (VC) funding from Granite Ventures and Keynote Ventures. Based on research from Stanford University's BioMotion Lab and co-founded by 3D pioneers, Nazim Kareemi, CEO, and Stefano Corazza, CTO, Mixamo plans to bring to market the first online service for customizing and creating high-quality character animation in a fraction of the time required by traditional methods. Kareemi was the founding CEO of Canesta, a VC funded startup that developed the world's first CMOS 3D sensors. Corazza's research at Stanford produced the first practical markerless motion capture system based on off-the-shelf video cameras. Mixamo's entrepreneurial founders are backed by the company's key advisory board, which includes prominent leaders in the game development and animation industry such as: Jim Levy, founding chairman and CEO of Activision Blizzard; Luc Barthelet, CEO of Tirnua and former CTO/VP of Electronic Arts; and Isaac Babbs, successful mobile gaming entrepreneur and former general manager of Alias. Their collective expertise positions Mixamo to quickly obtain market acceptance for its innovative technological approach. In operational mode for over a year, Mixamo's technology was developed in collaboration with Stanford University, Toronto University and the Max Planck Institute. The company currently employs a team of outstanding computer vision experts, 3D animators, software engineers and serial entrepreneurs from across the world. July 14, 2009 Qik Rounds Up $5.5 Million REDWOOD CITY -- Qik, a mobile phone video company, announce it has closed a round of $5.5 million in funding, comprised of investments from Quest Venture Partners, CampVentures, and strategic individuals. The funds will be used to continue the company's growth. Qik lets users stream live video from cell phones to the Internet. According to San Francisco Business Times, Qik raised $3 million in a second round of venture funding in April 2008 from investors including George Garrick of Jingle Networks, Marc Benioff of Salesforce and Argun Gupta of Telesoft Partners. In August 2008, Netscape veterans Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz also became investors. June 6, 2009 Sugar Inc. Raises a Sweet $16 Million SAN FRANCISCO -- Women's lifestyle media company Sugar Inc. announced that it has completed its Series C funding by securing $16M from existing investor Sequoia Capital. Sugar intends to use the funds for acquisitions and international expansion to support the company’s growth into a major media company targeted to women’s lifestyle. In conjunction with the transaction, the Company has repurchased shares sold in 2007 to NBC Universal. Sugar Inc. is an online media network focused on creating an online community for trendsetting, passionate and smart women. The company owns and operates ShopStyle, OnSugar and the Sugar Network, which includes the insanely addictive flagship website, PopSugar as well as BellaSugar, BuzzSugar, YumSugar, FitSugar, GeekSugar, CasaSugar, TresSugar, TeamSugar and FabSugar. Founded in April 2006, the San Francisco based Sugar Inc. overall receives over 10 million unique visitors a month. May 26, 2009 Daimler Takes 10% Stake in Tesla Motors SAN CARLOS -- Daimler AG has acquired an equity stake of nearly 10 percent of Tesla Motors Inc. Tesla is the only production automaker selling a highway capable electric vehicle in North America and Europe. The exact investment amount was not disclosed. The two companies have already been working closely to integrate Tesla's lithium-ion battery packs and charging electronics into the first 1,000 units of Daimler’s electric smart car. In order to benefit from each other's know-how, the investment enables the partners to collaborate even more closely on the development of battery systems, electric drive systems and in individual vehicle projects. "Our strategic partnership is an important step to accelerate the commercialization of electric drives globally," said Dr. Thomas Weber, Member of the Board of Daimler AG, responsible for Group Research and Mercedes-Benz Cars Development. "As a young and dynamic company, Tesla stands for visionary power and pioneering spirit. Together with Daimler's 120 years of experience in the automotive sector this collaboration is a unique combination of two companies' strengths. This marks another important milestone in Daimler’s strategy for sustainable mobility." "Daimler has set the benchmark for engineering excellence and vehicle quality for more than a century. It is an honor and a powerful endorsement of our technology that Daimler would choose to invest in and partner with Tesla," said Tesla Chairman, CEO and Product Architect Elon Musk. "Daimler is also on the leading edge in the field of sustainable mobility. Among others the lithium-ion pouch-cell battery developed by Daimler and especially designed for automotive applications is of interest to us. We are looking forward to a strategic cooperation in a number of areas including leveraging Daimler's engineering, production and supply chain expertise. This will accelerate bringing our Tesla Model S to production and ensure that it is a superlative vehicle on all levels." April 27, 2009 Stoke Closes $15 Million SANTA CLARA -- Mobile broadband gateway provider Stoke, Inc announced it has received $15 million in fully subscribed Series D funding, bringing the company's total funding to date to more than $65 million. The latest investment will be used to support the rapidly increasing installed base and commercial carrier trials with top tier carriers. Stoke has been shipping its Stoke Session Exchange 3000 for commercial deployments since January, 2008. The financing for the first time includes investment by Net One Systems Co. Ltd, Japan's leading networking and systems integration provider. Also included in this round are existing investors Reliance Technology Ventures Limited (RTVL), the corporate venture capital arm of the Reliance ADA Group, DAG Ventures, Integral Capital Partners, Pilot House Ventures, Sequoia Capital, and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Matt Murphy of Kleiner Perkins said, "We are very pleased with the market success Stoke is achieving. Despite difficult economic conditions, high-speed wireless data is experiencing tremendous growth and has become essential to consumers across the globe. This growth challenges scale, flexibility, and cost containment in carrier networks. Stoke is well positioned with its breakthrough mobile broadband gateway solutions, enabling network operators to reduce cost, adapt to high traffic growth, support new applications, and address quickly changing usage patterns across 3 and 4G networks." March 16, 2009 Auditude Rakes in $10 Million PALO ALTO -- Auditude, a leading online video management and advertising platform, today announced that it has secured an additional $10.5 million in funding. The investment, led by Redpoint Ventures along with existing investor Greylock Partners, follows Auditude's previous financing, led by Greylock in 2007. Auditude enables content owners, publishers and advertisers to benefit from the distribution of video on the web. The company combines their highly accurate and patented fingerprinting technologies with a robust ad platform to simplify video distribution and advertising. "We have been able to drive some big innovations this year and seen tremendous growth in our business," said Adam Cahan, CEO of Auditude. "This investment will help us to further our goals of growing the market for online video by enhancing distribution, advertising and management." Auditude has partnerships with some of the world's largest content and publishing companies including MTV Networks, Warner Bros. Entertainment, and MySpace (Video and Music). Auditude maintains one of the largest indexes of professional content in the world, covering more than 1.3 billion minutes and hundreds of millions of videos. Transera Secures $17 Million SUNNYVALE -- Transera Communications, a pioneer in on-demand virtual contact center software, announced that it has raised $17 million in funding from Accel Partners, Apax Partners, Lighthouse Capital Partners, and Storm Ventures. The funds will be used to accelerate the company's rapid growth and fuel investments in customer acquisition, go-to-market partnerships, service infrastructure, and product development. Transera offers Seratel, the industry's leading on-demand contact center solution enabling organizations to rapidly deploy a feature-rich contact center with agents located anywhere in the world, including in-house or at branch offices, homes or remote locations, with no upfront capital expenditure. The service delivers unparalleled visibility and control over distributed contact center operations while enabling end-to-end management of customer interactions at the lowest total cost of ownership. Moreover, Seratel requires no changes to current contact center environments and fully leverages all existing investments in telephony, hardware, and complementary applications through its efficient and cost effective integration capabilities. Seratel is currently being used by industry leading companies such as American Red Cross, AON Integramark, Logitech, McKesson, Office Depot, Simplexity, and TiVo. "With thousands of agents and millions of customer interactions per month active on our service, we have proven that Transera's software as a service solution for on-demand contact centers delivers considerable business value to enterprises and outsourcers," said Prem Uppaluru, co-founder and CEO. "As an organization, we are committed to continuing our track record of technology innovation and marquee customer acquisition. This new funding will allow us to aggressively capitalize on rapidly increasing enterprise adoption of SaaS contact center solutions." |