The funding round is being led by General Atlantic Partners, LLC, a leading global private equity investment firm focused exclusively on investing in information technology and communications businesses at all stages of development, and features a group of strategic financial and industry investors including Hong Kong-based Cheung Kong Limited and Hutchison Whampoa Limited, and global technology enterprise builder Vectis Group. Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa, jointly invested in this round of funding and are both companies of the Cheung Kong Group, one of Hong Kong’s most diverse conglomerate businesses ranging from property development to infrastructure, port operations to retailing, telecommunications and e-commerce. Vectis Group includes strategic partners Banco Santander, JH Whitney & Company, and K1 Ventures, a Singapore-based venture firm whose shareholders include Singtel Group and Keppel Corporation.
THORNHILL, ONTARIO — Camilion Solutions Inc, a provider of innovative software solutions for the Insurance industry today announced the completion of its second round of financing, raising an additional $5 million.
The company’s current investor, Celtic House led the round.
ANDOVER, MA — CMGI Inc. (Nasdaq: CMGI) and majority-owned subsidiaries AltaVista Company and NaviSite, Inc. (Nasdaq: NAVI) today announced the completion of transactions with Compaq Computer Corporation and Compaq Financial Services (CFS, a wholly owned subsidiary of Compaq) to retire, restructure and realign key financial obligations. The agreement was originally announced by CMGI and Compaq on October 30, 2001.
NEWS FROM THURSDAY 11/8
FREMONT, CA — Cradle Technologies, Inc., the creator of the Universal Microsystem (UMS), today announced that it has completed a first close of $10 million toward its Series D round of financing. The financing, led by current investors Charter Ventures and Smart Technology Ventures, will enable Cradle to complete initial production and sampling of its products. This brings the total invested in Cradle to more than $40 million to date.
HELSINKI, FINLAND — Sonera Corp. (HEX: SRA, NASDAQ:SNRA) has today signed a Letter of Intent with 3i, Europe’s leading venture capital company to sell 100 % of Sonera Info Communications Ltd. for a total cash consideration of EUR 125 million. The transaction also includes Sonera’s holdings in Conduit plc (10 %) and 118 Ltd (45 %) as well as Sonera Info Communications Ltd’s holdings in Intra Call Center SA (100%), in Suomen Keltaiset Sivut Oy (30%) and in Suomen Numeropalvelu Oy (40%). The shares of Metro One Telecommunications Inc. are not included in the deal. The parties expect the definitive agreement to be signed by the end of the year 2001. The deal is expected to close during first quarter 2002.
WAYNE, PA — Safeguard Scientifics, Inc. (NYSE:SFE), a leader in developing and operating emerging technology companies, today announced its operating results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2001.
Safeguard’s third quarter results reflect continued strong financial liquidity, with $181 million in cash and public partner company marketable securities of $206 million as of September 30, 2001.
As of September 30, 2001, Safeguard’s cash balance was $181 million and the market value of its ownership in public partner companies was $206 million. As of November 7th, cash balances were $180 million and the market value of public partner companies was $223 million. This compares with $135 million in cash balances at June 30, 2001.
During the third quarter, Safeguard monetized $63 million of interests in partner companies and private equity funds. This includes the previously announced sale of the Novell stock received from Novell’s acquisition of Safeguard’s interest in Cambridge, and the sale of Safeguard’s interest in the Safeguard International Fund.
SUNNYVALE, CA — Peakstone Corp., the pioneer of a new category of eBusiness capacity management solutions that quantify and proactively manage application infrastructure capacity, announced today that the company has received $12 million in Series C financing. The new round of funding, led by J.P. Morgan Partners and joined by existing investors Advanced Technology Ventures (ATV), JAFCO, and Bay Partners, brings Peakstone’s total funding to $32 million. Peakstone will employ these funds to continue to build a world-class marketing and sales organization and to further drive customer adoption of its enterprise infrastructure software solution, Peakstone eAssurance(TM).
NEWS FROM WEDNESDAY 11/7
NEW YORK — Venture-backed mergers and acquisitions activity remained at relatively stable levels in the third quarter, according to statistics from Venture Economics and the National Venture Capital Association.
Seventy deals were closed, down from 78 in the second quarter. However, the total value of disclosed deals increased over $800 million, while the average disclosed deal size increased to $74.6 million from $63.2 million. This represents the first upswing in deal values since the fourth quarter of 2000.
BLUE BELL, PA — Locus Discovery Inc., a new computational drug design biopharmaceutical company, announced today that it has raised a total of $40 million in the company’s third round of preferred stock financing. The financing was completed in two phases. On September 7, 2001 Locus announced that it raised $28 million in the first closing of this Series D financing, and yesterday completed the second closing for an additional $12 million. A previous investor, Prism Venture Partners, made the major investment in this second close, with other existing and new investors also participating. Locus has now raised $88 million in three rounds of financing since September 1999.
DALLAS — White Rock Networks, a leading provider of next-generation optical transport systems for the local metro transport market, today announced the completion of $60 million in third-round venture funding.
This round brings the total funds raised by White Rock Networks to $102 million since its inception in 1999. In previous rounds, the company raised $12 million in February 2000, followed by $30 million in June 2000.
The latest round included pro-rata funding from previous round investors: Oak Investment Partners, Mayfield Fund, Meritech Capital and Hook Partners. New investors include Fremont Communications, Fremont Ventures, Investor AB (through its wholly owned subsidiary, Investor Growth Capital), Gulf International Bank, Cypress Semiconductor and Pacesetter Capital Group.
KIRKLAND, WA — Radiant Research Inc., one of the country’s largest site management organizations (SMO), today announced the successful completion of $28 million in total financing.
Led by ABS Capital Partners, the funding includes all previous investors including Mayfield, Oak Investment Partners and Salix Ventures as well as the company’s senior lender, Heller Healthcare Finance.
WESTFORD, MA — Captivate Network, Inc., North America’s largest elevator media network, delivering programming and advertising to business professionals, today announced that it has closed a fourth round of equity financing for $17 million, bringing the total investment to $100 million. Recognizing Captivate’s solid record of achievement, ABS Capital Partners and OVP Venture Partners took the lead on this latest investment round.
SAN DIEGO — Ambit Biosciences Corp., a privately held drug discovery and development company, today announced the completion of its Series B round of financing, raising $10 million. The investor group was led by Forward Ventures and included the Perseus-Soros Biopharmaceutical Fund LP, Avalon Ventures and Baker-Tisch Investments. This latest round of financing follows a $2 million seed round completed in December 2000. The capital raised will be used to further develop and commercialize ProteomeScan(TM), the Company’s proprietary chemistry-directed discovery platform.
AUSTIN, TEXAS — Surgient Networks, the leader in the convergence of networking, storage and computing functions, has secured an additional $18 million in equity and debt funding. Current investors, who continue to see the tremendous market potential of Surgient’s new eQualibrium(TM) architecture and eQ2500(TM) product platform, provided the additional equity. To date, Surgient has raised some $85 million in series A and B Funding.
NEW YORK — eDevice, a New York based start-up with R&D;
in Bordeaux, France specializing in embedded technologies for Internet
connectivity, today announced that it has completed $11.5 million in
additional equity financing. 3i, Europe’s venture capital leader, led the
round with $6 million, joined by another new investor, French venture
specialists ABN AMRO. Initial investors Vertex Management and LCF Rothschild
also participated in the round.
NEWS FROM TUESDAY 11/6
SUNNYVALE & MENLO PARK, CA — Epicor Inc., a medical device company leading the development of new technologies to treat patients with atrial fibrillation, announced today that it closed a Series C $20 million private round of financing. The Sprout Group, a venture capital affiliate of Credit Suisse First Boston, led the institutional placement, with additional participation by InterWest Partners, Coral Partners and Johnson & Johnson Development Corp.
LOS ANGELES — Arcturus Capital today announced the launch of the Arcturus Capital Core Technology Fund to capitalize on fundamental and disruptive technologies developed in collaboration with HRL Laboratories, The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and other world-class research labs.
The Los Angeles based venture capital firm unveiled its partnership with technology development company X-Laboratories, through which Arcturus will have the exclusive opportunity to finance operating companies addressing large commercial markets and based on technologies developed by top scientists from HRL Laboratories, JPL, and other state-of-the-art research facilities.
PLEASANTON, CA — Xign Corp., the leading provider of financial supply chain applications and services, today announced that it has closed $20 million in Series B funding. Leading this second round of funding was Financial Technology Ventures (FTVentures), which manages more than $600 million for some of the largest financial institutions in the world. Other investors participating in Series B funding included Matrix Partners, Charles River Ventures, RDM Corporation, and Charles R. Schwab.
PALO ALTO, CA — 3i, a leading international venture capital company which last week shut down most of its European offices and laid off 17% of its workforce, today announced that J. Sanford (Sandy) Miller has joined 3i’s Palo Alto office as Managing Director. Miller will oversee 3i’s later-stage technology investments in the United States.
A co-founder of Thomas Weisel Partners, Miller brings significant experience and expertise to 3i, particularly in the areas of technology and healthcare entrepreneurial growth companies. With more than 25 years of investment related experience, he has financed over 250 technology/growth companies including Siebel, Solectron and Yahoo!
PALO ALTO, CA — Apax Partners Inc. announced today that Alexander Wong, Ph.D. has joined the firm as a Partner in the IT/Telecom group, where he will specialize in semiconductor, optical and emerging technology investments.
Dr. Wong was formerly a Managing Director of Technology Investments at Intel Capital, where he led a technology group responsible for investment and mergers & acquisitions activities in semiconductor technologies, micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS), nanotechnologies, and display technologies.
ARMONK, NY — Op40 Inc. (formerly known as
International Interactive Commerce Ltd.), today announced that it has
received $15 million in financing led by Baker Capital. This brings Op40’s
total financing to $22 million. The company is driving the transformation
of the Internet from a content distribution medium to a business application
platform. Op40’s software improves the performance of Web applications and
enables businesses to optimize their IT investments by increasing the
deployment options for distributing content, data and applications over
existing Internet infrastructures. The company also announced today the
appointment of John Andrews as CEO, an important addition to Op40’s
world-class management team. Andrews was formerly chairman, CEO and founder
of e-MedSoft.com and previously served as chief information officer at CSX
Corp.
MACCABIM, ISRAEL — Glycominds Ltd. today announced thesuccessful completion of a $7.1 Million private placement. Glycominds is abiotechnology company pioneering new glycomics technologies for analyzing theinteractions between complex carbohydrates (glycans) and proteins. Glycominds’technologies have created a breakthrough in elucidating these interactions andare expected to help identify many new drug targets as well as dramaticallyimprove early-stage drug development.
The investment round was led by Israel’s Millennium Materials Technologies Fund L.P. and included the participation of other venture capital funds as well as Germany’s Schott Glas, the high-tech manufacturer of special glass and other special materials.
NEWS FROM MONDAY 11/5
FREMONT, CA — Zambeel Inc., an enterprise-class data management and storage company, today announced it has received $52.6 million in second-round financing (Click here for full story). Amerindo Investment Advisors and Aurora Technology Funds jointly led this round, which includes investments by Armada Venture Group, Integral Capital Partners, Juniper Networks, Merrill Lynch, Mitsui, Morgan Keegan and Sands Brothers. Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and New Enterprise Associates, the two venture capital companies that participated in the first funding round for Zambeel, Inc., also participated in this round. This second-round funding brings the company’s total funding to more than $65 million.
NEW YORK — The Financial Times is reporting today that GE Equity, the private equity arm of GE Capital, is laying off one-third of its investment staff and shutting down its San Francisco office. The report comes less than a week after another major private equity player, 3i, announced major layoffs within its European operations.
SAN FRANCISCO — Telephia, Inc., the leading provider of market intelligence for the wireless industry, today announced that it has secured $38 million in fourth-round funding led by AEA Investors. Centennial Ventures and existing investors also participated in the round.
Telephia will use the new capital primarily to extend its offering of wireless voice-based solutions for carriers, including an expansion into new markets of its unique and proprietary market share, churn and gross additions tracking products. As well, it has planned an aggressive market roll out of its recently launched wireless data monitoring services. Telephia will enlarge the support organization for its growing client roster, maintaining its status as the standard in providing essential intelligence to the wireless industry.
SAN FRANCISCO — Bang Networks, the leading provider of network services that enable businesses to run real-time, enterprise-class applications over the public Internet, today announced that it has closed a $14 million Series B funding round. Investors include Sequoia Capital, which led Series A funding and whose general partner Mark Kvamme is on Bang Networks’ Board of Directors, and Atlas Venture, whose investment principal Jay Shiveley joins the Board. Bang Networks has raised over $32 million in capital to date.
NEW YORK —
White Williams Private Equity Partners announced today the launch of the $250 million European Accession Fund for private equity investment in Eastern and Central Europe. Dave Williams, former Alliance Capital Chairman and Chief Executive Officer and current Chairman Emeritus, and Reba White Williams, a former Director at Alliance, head the firm. The European Accession Fund adheres to the theory, based on past experience, that countries entering the European Union experience substantial economic growth and a greatly improved investment environment, as demonstrated by previous entrants, such as Spain and Greece. The European Accession Fund will invest in the next wave of countries joining the EU, including Poland, the Czech and Slovak Republics, Slovenia, Hungary and certain Baltic states. It will invest $5 million to $20 million in target companies and, in return, will acquire majority interest and participate in management.
REDWOOD SHORES, CA — Woodside Fund has led a $9 million investment round in Intalio, a trailblazing enterprise software vendor developing the first standards-based Business Process Management System. 3i Technology Ventures and prior investors, XML Fund, Dassault Development, and Sippl MacDonald Ventures join Woodside Fund in this round.
MERRIMACK, NH — Ellacoya Networks, a developer of carrier-class, IP-based broadband service platforms for delivering premium Internet services, today announced it has closed on a $25 million third round of venture funding, bringing total cumulative investment to more than $111 million. The $25 million investment was provided by funds affiliated with Bessemer Venture Partners, Centennial Ventures, The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., and Lightspeed Venture Partners. The latest funding provides for new product development and marketing/sales support for commercialization of the Ellacoya Networks product line in North America, Asia and Europe.
MONTREAL — Newtrade Technologies Inc., the travel commerce machinery company, announced today that it has secured a second round of $4 million Cdn financing led, once again, by Canadian venture capital firms Investissement Desjardins and Innovatech du Grand Montreal. The funds will accelerate Newtrade’s strategy to further develop its technology, achieve high growth and expand the market for its online travel technology solutions. The second round of financing was at an increased valuation over the first round which raised $3 million last October. “In today’s difficult economic climate, we are pleased that the initial investors participated fully in this follow-on round. We have demonstrated our ability to attract large industry players and the strength of our solution to provide unprecedented control over supply and distribution networks for the travel, tourism and hospitality industry,” stated Benoit Jolin, President and CEO, Newtrade.
SAN FRANCISCO — Blueprint Ventures, a leading next-generation venture capital firm, announced today the addition of two senior partners to expand the firm’s investments and expertise in communications.
Both partners bring extensive experience in operating and financing venture-backed communications start-ups. Cynthia Ringo, former CEO of CopperCom, joins Blueprint Ventures as general partner. Ann Zeichner, a serial entrepreneur and most recently the founding vice president of sales and marketing at NorthPoint Communications, joins the firm as venture partner.
BELLEVUE, WA — ShareBuilder Securities Corp., a leader in dollar-based online investing and provider of e-finance solutions, today announced it has closed $20 million of financing in its Series D Preferred Stock round to support the continued growth of the company and its increasing customer base.
The financing was led by Madrona Venture Group and included investments from SAFECO Corp. (Nasdaq:SAFC), Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC), Guide Ventures, Benaroya Capital and several other investors. The company also today announced that it surpassed 300,000 ShareBuilder accounts during the month of September and that it continues to be the fastest growing online brokerage in the U.S.
LITTLETON, CO — EchoStar Communications Corp. (Nasdaq:DISH) announced today that Credit Suisse First Boston has joined Deutsche Bank to provide approximately $5.5 billion to finance the company’s announced merger with Hughes Electronics (NYSE: GM, GMH).
Credit Suisse First Boston’s $2.75 billion commitment replaces General Motors’ temporary bridge financing and adds to the previously announced $2.75 billion bridge commitment from Deutsche Bank to provide EchoStar with the total expected $5.5 billion of financing necessary to consummate the merger.
SAN MATEO, CA — Battery Ventures, a leading venture capital firm focused on technology investments, today announced that former Credit Suisse First Boston executive, Stephen Terry, joined the firm as a Venture Partner. Terry will serve as a liaison between the private capital market industry and Battery’s portfolio companies that are seeking additional rounds of funding. As an Investment Banking Director at Credit Suisse First Boston’s Technology Group, Terry was responsible for managing the Communications Software practice consisting of seven investment banking professionals and a research team. Previously, he was with Robertson Stephens & Co., most recently as an Investment Banking Vice President. During his tenure at Robertson, Terry was a member of the Convertible Securities practice, responsible for the Company’s convertible securities origination-new issues and restructurings, and the Information Services practice where he managed all aspects of new business development, client management and deal execution.
CUPERTINO, CA — PostX, a leading provider of secure, personalized electronic communications software and services to large organizations, today announced that it has secured $11 million in new private-equity financing. This brings the total equity investment in PostX to approximately $42 million since its inception in 1996.
The current round of financing was led by Mayfield and included participation by The Charles Schwab Corporation, Alloy Ventures, Sunrise Capital and several private investors.
NEW YORK Castle Harlan Inc., the New York-based private equity investment firm, announced today that its Australian affiliate, Castle Harlan Australian Mezzanine Partners (CHAMP), had acquired Penrice Soda Products Pty. Ltd. in a transaction valued at approximately $85 million (Australian). Equity for the transaction was provided by the CHAMP I funds, which are advised by Castle Harlan and CHAMP. JP Morgan underwrote debt financing for the transaction.