Author: Iris Dorbian

Summit Partners said on Thursday that it has promoted Adam Britt, Robert Hassell and Jack Le Roy to principals on the firm’s credit team. Prior to all three joining Summit’s Boston office in 2010, Britt, Hassell and Le Roy worked at Guggenheim Investment Management as part of the leveraged finance group. Summit Partners has offices in Boston, Menlo Park, London and Mumbai.

PRESS RELEASE

BOSTON, MA (May 23, 2013)—Summit Partners, an investor in growing companies, today announced the promotions of Adam Britt, Robert Hassell and Jack Le Roy to Principals on the firm’s Credit Team. All three individuals joined Summit’s Boston office in 2010.
“Adam, Rob and Jack have each contributed significantly to Summit Partners’ success, and we are proud to recognize their efforts,” said Tom Roberts, a Managing Director of the firm. “Their hard work and significant contributions will continue to benefit our investors and portfolio companies in 2013 and beyond.”
Prior to joining Summit Partners, Mr. Britt worked for Guggenheim Investment Management as a member of the leveraged finance group. He holds a BBA in finance from The College of William & Mary and a JD from Villanova University School of Law.
Mr. Hassell previously worked for Guggenheim Investment Management as a member of the leveraged finance group in the United States and Ireland, and before that at Bear, Stearns & Co. He holds a BA in political science from Williams College, as well as the designation of Chartered Financial Analyst.
Most recently, Mr. Le Roy worked for Guggenheim Investment Management as a member of the firm’s leveraged finance group in the United States. He holds a BBA in finance from The University of Texas.
About Summit Partners
Summit Partners (www.summitpartners.com) is a growth equity firm that invests in growing companies across North America, Europe and Asia. Founded in 1984, Summit has raised nearly $15 billion in capital and provides equity and credit for growth, recapitalizations, and management buyouts. Summit has invested in more than 365 companies globally in technology, healthcare and other growth industries. These companies have completed 130 public offerings, and more than 135 have been acquired through strategic mergers and sales. Summit Partners has offices in Boston, Menlo Park, London and Mumbai.

The post Summit Partners Announces Three Promotions appeared first on peHUB.

Element Power Holdings, a renewable energy developer, said on Thursday that it has named Michael Reynolds chairman of its board of directors. Reynolds replaces interim Chairman Joe Slamm. Element Power Holdings, which has main offices in London, Madrid and Portland, Oregon, is a portfolio company of Hudson Clean Energy Partners.

PRESS RELEASE

LONDON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Element Power Holdings announced today that Michael Reynolds, energy-industry veteran, has been named non-Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors of Element Power Holdings. Reynolds replaces interim Chairman Joe Slamm, who as a Co-Founding Partner of Hudson Clean Energy Partners, Element’s principal investor, will remain on Element’s board and continue in his role as Partner at Hudson.
“Michael Reynolds is one of the most experienced senior executives in the wider energy and renewable energy industry, and I am delighted that he and Element Power have come together now as the company moves into this next phase of growth,” said Neil Auerbach, Founder and Co-Managing Partner of Hudson Clean Energy Partners. “Michael’s acceptance of the Chairmanship as his next endeavour is a firm testament to our collective vision, and we value his leadership and guidance as the company continues to grow.”
Having held senior executive and chairman roles at a number of leading energy companies over his forty-year career, including positions at Carron Energy, Finavera Renewables, Endesa S.A., Sithe Energies/Vivendi, National Power, and his most recent role as Global Advisor on Energy and Renewables for Barclays Capital, Reynolds is ideally placed to steer Element forward.
Of his new role, Michael Reynolds said, “I relish the prospect of working closely with Mike O’Neill and Ty Daul, the CEOs of Element’s European and Americas respective entities, along with an outstanding team of professionals that have built Element Power into a leading global IPP; and one to which I hope to further contribute.”
“Mike and Ty have achieved remarkable success in the clean energy space — and together with Mike Reynolds they will form a leadership team that’s unparalleled in the industry,” said John Cavalier, Co-Managing Partner of Hudson Clean Energy Partners. “We look forward to supporting them as they lead Element toward continued success.”
ABOUT ELEMENT POWER
Element Power is a global renewable energy developer that develops, acquires, builds, owns and operates a portfolio of wind and solar power generation facilities worldwide. Element is present in 16 countries with over 9,000MW of solar and wind projects. Element Power is owned by Hudson Clean Energy Partners, a global private equity firm dedicated solely to investing in renewable power, alternative fuels, energy efficiency and storage.
The company’s main offices are in London, Madrid, Portland (Oregon), with operating bases on the East Coast (US) as well as Ireland, Poland, Sweden and Finland.
ABOUT HUDSON CLEAN ENERGY PARTNERS
Hudson Clean Energy Partners is a leading private equity firm based in Teaneck, NJ that makes privately negotiated investments in the dynamic and high-growth clean energy industry.
Global in scope, Hudson is dedicated to investing exclusively in renewable power, alternative fuels and energy smart technologies in sectors that include wind and solar energy, biofuels, biomass, geothermal energy, energy efficiency and storage. Hudson typically invests in high-growth, asset-based, capital-intensive segments of the clean energy value chain with minimal technology development risk, primarily in control and shared-control positions.

The post Element Power Holdings Names New Board Chair appeared first on peHUB.

WibiData said on Thursday that it has raised $15 million in a Series B funding round. The lead investor was Canaan Partners. Existing investors NEA and Google Chairman Eric Schmidt also participated in the round. Also, Canaan Partners’ Ross Fubini has joined the WibiData board while NEA Partner Jon Sakoda will continue to serve on the board. Based in San Francisco, Calif., WibiData is a provider of data applications.

PRESS RELEASE

SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–WibiData, a pioneer developing and servicing Big Data Applications, announced today it has raised $15 million in a Series B funding round led by Canaan Partners with participation from existing investors like NEA and Google Chairman Eric Schmidt. This investment demonstrates a shift in the Big Data ecosystem toward applications that deliver direct value to businesses. In connection with this investment, Canaan Partners’ Ross Fubini has joined the WibiData board. NEA Partner Jon Sakoda will continue to serve on the board.
With WibiData, organizations across industries can deliver personalized user experiences that evolve based on the data collected. Deploying WibiData’s Big Data Applications enables companies to create better, real-time application experiences without the vast engineering resources required at companies like Amazon, Facebook, Google and Netflix.
“Big Data Applications are transformative, mission critical solutions that companies across industries must deploy in order to stay competitive,” said Christophe Bisciglia, Founder and CEO of WibiData. “Customers and investors agree that WibiData’s talented team can deliver on the promise of Big Data Applications. This capital will allow us to keep hiring exceptional talent, build disruptive technology and help organizations enhance the user experience.”
Canaan Partners’ Ross Fubini is poised to bring leadership and product expertise to WibiData with his experience as a successful entrepreneur and investor. “Christophe and the team have been at the vanguard of the Hadoop movement, providing unparalleled insight into the resources involved deploying Hadoop across Fortune 500 companies,” Fubini said. “WibiData’s Big Data Applications will be essential in delivering on the promise that Big Data offers enterprises.”
WibiData applications are based on the open source Kiji Project, which drastically reduces Big Data Application development and deployment cycles. Because business needs vary in the types of data integration, analysis and predictive modeling required, WibiData is building suites of application solutions for vertical industries. For example, a retail Big Data Application suite allows organizations to personalize content, improve search relevance, deliver targeted recommendations and integrate anomaly detection across web properties, mobile devices and in store.
Early adopters of Big Data Applications like Opower, a SaaS company and WibiData customer, are already realizing the benefits of acting on data in real time.
“WibiData’s technology allows us to create a rich user experience and personalized platform that better serves energy consumers,” said Drew Hylbert, VP Technology and Infrastructure at Opower. “WibiData has saved us considerable time and effort building and deploying applications that empower people to make smarter decisions about their energy use.”
About WibiData
Founded by Christophe Bisciglia, previous founder of Cloudera, and Aaron Kimball, creator of Apache Sqoop, WibiData helps enterprises use data to create better application experiences. Organizations, including Opower, Mobile Posse and Atlassian, can move beyond BI and ETL to power dynamic customer interactions with scalable, real-time, data-driven models. Built on top of Apache Hadoop and HBase, WibiData’s Big Data Application Server bridges the gap between models that data scientists create and the front-end applications customers use. To learn more, visit www.wibidata.com
About NEA
New Enterprise Associates, Inc. (NEA) is a leading venture capital firm focused on helping entrepreneurs build transformational businesses across multiple stages, sectors and geographies. With more than $13 billion in committed capital, NEA invests in technology and healthcare companies at all stages in a company’s lifecycle, from seed stage through IPO. The firm’s long track record includes more than 175 portfolio company IPOs and more than 290 acquisitions. In the U.S., NEA has offices in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area; Menlo Park, California; and New York City. In addition, New Enterprise Associates (India) Pvt. Ltd. has offices in Bangalore and Mumbai, India and New Enterprise Associates (Beijing), Ltd. has offices in Beijing and Shanghai, China. For additional information, visit www.nea.com.
About Canaan Partners
Canaan Partners invests in entrepreneurs and works alongside them to turn visionary ideas into valuable companies. Since 1987, the firm has catalyzed the growth of disruptive technology startups and healthcare companies revolutionizing the practice of medicine. With $3.4 billion under management and more than 94 acquisitions and 54 IPOs to date, Canaan has funded companies such as Acme Packet, Associated Content (acquired by Yahoo), CommerceOne, DoubleClick (acquired by Google), ID Analytics (acquired by LifeLock), SandForce (acquired by LSI), SuccessFactors (acquired by SAP) and Virsto Software (acquired by VMware). Current technology investments include Blurb, Kabam, Lending Club, Performance Marketing Brands, SOASTA, Tremor Video and Zoosk in the U.S. Canaan maintains a presence in the global innovation hubs of Silicon Valley, New York City, India and Israel. For more information visit www.canaan.com.

The post WibiData Raises $15 Mln in Series B Funding appeared first on peHUB.

Redstar Ventures said on Thursday that Gina Ashe is joining Redstar to lead its newest startup as CEO. In her new role, Ashe will direct the development of the yet to be revealed operating company. Prior to joining Redstar Ventures, Ashe was CEO and founder of Krush, a consumer platform for action and outdoor sports brands. Redstar Ventures is a “venture foundry” based in Boston.

PRESS RELEASE

CAMBRIDGE, MA–(Marketwired – May 23, 2013) – Redstar Ventures, the Boston-based venture foundry, today announced that prominent serial entrepreneur Gina Ashe is joining Redstar to lead its newest startup as CEO. Ashe joins veteran entrepreneurs Bill Wittenberg and Andrew Lau on Redstar’s leadership team, and will spearhead the development of the yet to be revealed operating company, which has been in testing and operation for the past year.
The startup offers a new retail and product distribution model for consumer goods, developed within Redstar’s underemployment theme — one of several markets identified by Redstar Ventures where opportunity exists to create new products and services. The social marketing platform helps brands gain loyal customer followings, and simultaneously equips entrepreneurial young people with resume-building skills to brand, market, and sell products that they are passionate about — making them stronger candidates when they enter the workforce.
“Because Redstar Ventures has been testing the business model for a year, we’ve done the major legwork refining the thesis — essentially ‘derisking’ to a degree for the CEO,” said Matt Beecher, co-founder and managing director, Redstar Ventures. “Instead of being mired in that process, Gina can hit the ground running and play to her strengths to rapidly scale the business.”
Prior to joining Redstar Ventures, Ashe was CEO and founder of Krush, a consumer platform for action and outdoor sports brands to preview their upcoming collections to targeted focus groups of young, social consumers. With Krush, she created a new retail model to provide brands with predictive data and initial pre-orders. Previously Ashe founded Sermo, a healthcare hub for doctors to share questions and insight, and held marketing and finance roles across a number of consumer and healthcare companies.
“So many startups are neither addressing problems worth solving, nor kicking the tires on their models to make it worth anyone’s time. Redstar offered me the chance to lead a startup with an existing track record of success and a critical mass of talent in the partners and the team — it was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up,” says Ashe. “Redstar’s approach excites me because it channels the talents and energy of entrepreneurs into scalable, sustainable companies, and this is where I see venture capital headed.”
About Redstar Ventures:
Redstar Ventures is neither an incubator, nor a venture capital firm. We are a “venture foundry” that takes a top-down approach to building companies. Our model is based on identifying significant trends and growing markets, then developing potential products and services for those markets. From there, we find the right staff, partnerships, and sources of investment to launch the enterprise. We were founded in 2012 by ATG co-founders, Jeet Singh and Joe Chung, and Matt Beecher of SCS Financial, and are grounded in the belief that channeling an entrepreneur’s creativity and energy towards fields where fundability, growth, and exit potential are high increases their chances of success.

The post Redstar Ventures Names Gina Ashe as CEO of New Startup appeared first on peHUB.

Reputation Institute said on Thursday that it has accepted a minority equity investment from Catalyst Investors. No financial terms were disclosed. Also, Jonathan Ewert has been named Reputation Institute’s CEO. Reputation Institute, which has headquarters in both New York City and Copenhagen, Denmark, is a global corporate reputation measurement and management firm.

PRESS RELEASE

New York, NY and Copenhagen, DK – May 23, 2013 – Reputation Institute, the leading global corporate reputation measurement and management firm, with a presence in more than 30 countries, has accepted a minority equity investment from Catalyst Investors, a New York based growth equity firm. Reputation Institute is known for creating RepTrak™, the global standard for reputation measurement, and for conducting the annual Global RepTrak™ study, the largest empirical analysis of corporate reputations in the world. Jonathan Ewert, a 25 year veteran of the sector, has been named Reputation Institute’s CEO. Financial terms were not disclosed.

“Partnering with Catalyst Investors will enable us to facilitate our transition from an entrepreneurial company to a global advisory firm building on our long-standing relationships with many of the world’s largest companies,” says Dr. Charles Fombrun, Chairman of Reputation Institute. “We are excited to have found partners who understand and share our vision for the long-term growth of the company.”

“Reputation Institute has created a unique, proprietary platform business with enormous growth potential,” says Tyler Newton, Partner with Catalyst Investors. “In today’s marketplace, corporate reputation has become both a source of competitive advantage and a top business priority for senior executives. Reputation Institute is the global leader helping companies manage their stakeholder relationships and drive performance improvements.”

Reputation Institute has experienced an average annual organic growth rate of 43 percent over the past ten years, and intends to accelerate its growth by bringing Jonathan Ewert into the newly-created role of Chief Executive Officer. Ewert brings 25 years of experience growing global service companies and will provide seasoned leadership to an executive team led by Nicolas Georges Trad and Kasper Ulf Nielsen, co-founders of the company’s advisory business.

Reputation Institute founders Charles Fombrun and Cees van Riel will remain as Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the company, respectively.

About Reputation Institute
Reputation Institute is the world leader in corporate reputation advisory services. From strategic reputation management to stakeholder perception analysis, we enable leading companies to gain competitive advantage, minimize reputation risk, and achieve success in the Reputation Economy. Founded in 1997 by Dr. Charles Fombrun and Dr. Cees van Riel, Reputation Institute is the creator of the RepTrak™ reputation analysis model and publisher of the annual Global RepTrak™ 100 – the world’s largest corporate reputation study. Businesses and executives can discover the latest reputation management best practices through our Knowledge Center’s published research, learning programs and conferences. Today, Reputation Institute operates in more than 30 countries delivering insights and advice to a large segment of the top 2000 companies worldwide. For more information, visit http://www.reputationinstitute.com.

About Catalyst Investors
New York-based Catalyst Investors is a growth equity firm focused on technology-enabled services including cloud computing, wireless infrastructure and digital media. Catalyst was founded in 2000 and is investing its third fund. A proactive investor, the firm draws on its extensive industry expertise to work in true partnership with management to build long-term value. Past and present Catalyst portfolio companies include Aloha Partners – acquired by AT&T; Denali Spectrum – acquired by Leap Wireless; InSite Wireless Group; Latisys; MessageLabs – acquired by Symantec; MediaMath; MINDBODY; Nine Systems – acquired by Akamai Technologies ; WeddingWire; and Xplornet. For more information, visit http://www.catalystinvestors.com.

The post Reputation Institute Receives Growth Capital from Catalyst Investors appeared first on peHUB.

LOYAL3 said on Thursday that it has raised $18 million in Series C financing. The lead investor was DNS-L3, LLC, an entity controlled by the business interests of Michael Pucker and Gigi Pritzker Pucker. Also participating in the round were existing investors Chris Kelly, Facebook‘s former chief privacy officer and Barry Schneider, chairman and CEO of LOYAL3. Based in San Francisco, Calif., LOYAL3 offers fee-free investing on Facebook and the web.

PRESS RELEASE

SAN FRANCISCO, CA–(Marketwired – May 23, 2013) – LOYAL3®, the fee-free investing company, has raised $18 million in Series C financing. DNS-L3, LLC, an entity controlled by business interests of Michael Pucker and Gigi Pritzker Pucker, led the Series C round. Additional investors in the round include existing investors Chris Kelly, former Chief Privacy Officer of Facebook, and Barry Schneider, Chairman & CEO of LOYAL3.
“We are pleased that Michael and Gigi Pritzker Pucker have invested in our vision to democratize the capital markets, making stock ownership possible for millions of people. Given their deep and long-standing expertise with world-class brands, they are an ideal partner,” said Barry Schneider, Chairman and CEO of LOYAL3. “We provide an opportunity for people to buy stock in their favorite brands, including the fifty most popular companies on Facebook, as easily as buying products on the web.”
“We are excited to partner with the existing investors and management team of LOYAL3, a company that is transforming both the capital markets, as well as the marketing and promotional worlds,” Michael Pucker said. “LOYAL3′s ability to offer people fee-free investing and to ‘own what you love™,’ while providing companies with a powerful acquisition, engagement and loyalty currency, is a game-changer and something we want to be a part of,” he added.
ABOUT LOYAL3
LOYAL3 is democratizing the capital markets by offering fee-free investing on Facebook and the web. By making stock ownership easy and affordable, we are dedicated to opening up market access to tens of millions of people.
We enable people to buy stock in their favorite companies in 3 easy steps on Facebook or the web, as easily as buying a product online. People can invest as little as $10 and they pay no fees to buy or sell stock.
The platform currently enables people to invest in some of the most popular brands on Facebook, including Amazon, Apple, Coca-Cola, Dunkin’ Brands, Facebook, Google and Starbucks.
The company also offers an IPO product, called a Social IPO™, that opens up IPO access to everyday people on a first-come, first-serve basis, making IPO stock available at the same price, and at the same time, as institutions.
For more information: Andrea Firpo 415.981.0700. www.loyal3.com

The post LOYAL3 Receives $18 Mln in Series C Financing appeared first on peHUB.

Mformation® Software Technologies said on Wednesday that it has named Kevin A. Wood as its president and CEO. Wood succeeds Todd DeLaughter, who will remain on as strategic advisor. A global provider of mobility management solutions, Mformation is a portfolio company of Clearlake Capital Partners.

PRESS RELEASE

EDISON, N.J.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Mformation® Software Technologies Inc., the leading global provider of mobility management solutions, today announced the appointment of Kevin A. Wood as President and CEO to lead the company through its next stage of growth. Kevin succeeds Todd DeLaughter, who will remain a strategic advisor to the company.
“We want to thank Todd DeLaughter, who led Mformation for the last four years, and who will continue to be involved in the company’s expansion in his role as a strategic advisor and Clearlake executive council member.”
“We are very excited to have Kevin as the CEO of Mformation. We believe Kevin’s combination of operating skill, mobile technology experience, and market knowledge make him a fantastic choice to lead Mformation as it capitalizes on the rapid expansion of the enterprise managed mobility market,” said Behdad Eghbali, founding partner of Clearlake Capital Partners, which owns Mformation. “We want to thank Todd DeLaughter, who led Mformation for the last four years, and who will continue to be involved in the company’s expansion in his role as a strategic advisor and Clearlake executive council member.”
“I am excited by the opportunity to lead Mformation,” said Wood. “We have amazing assets, tremendous talent, and an unmatched legacy of innovation and execution. I look forward to executing on Mformation’s compelling vision for delivering the next generation of solutions for managing mobility. With Clearlake’s backing, and the growing market demand for more robust mobility management solutions that can scale to handle millions of mobile endpoints, Mformation has a superb opportunity to seize market share. We will work to retain and expand the company’s installed base of premiere customers, and to ensure that all of our customers continue to get strategic value from Mformation’s solutions for managing the mobile experience.”
“Mformation is an outstanding company with extremely driven, world-class, talented employees, and it has been an honor to serve as the company’s CEO,” said DeLaughter. “I am proud of what we have accomplished together, and am excited about working with Kevin and Clearlake to take the company into its next phase of innovation and growth.”
Kevin brings more than 20 years of executive leadership to Mformation. He was previously President and CEO of Airwide Solutions, a leader in mobile data, messaging, security and content solutions, where he led the company to dramatic growth, profitability and market leadership, and ultimately a successful exit. Prior to Airwide Solutions, Kevin was President, Americas for Comverse Network Systems. During his tenure at Comverse and its predecessor company Boston Technology, he was part of the management team that grew Comverse from the first few million dollars to over $1.2 billion in revenues, establishing it as a global leader in the communications enhanced services market. Most recently, Kevin was the founder and CEO of Cambria Technology Group, an advisory firm working with private equity firms focusing on mobile-enabled services, including enterprise mobility, mobile security, mobile applications and M2M services.
About Mformation
Mformation Software Technologies Inc. is the pioneer and leading global provider of management solutions for wirelessly connected devices. A private company, Mformation is owned by Clearlake Capital Partners, a middle-market private equity firm. Since 1999, Mformation’s solutions have been deployed by the largest mobile operators and managed service providers worldwide. With over 500 million devices under management, Mformation enables operators, service providers and enterprises to manage and secure wirelessly connected devices and the applications and services on them over any wireless network. Mformation’s award-winning Mformation Service Manager™ and Mformation Enterprise Manager™ software platforms provide solutions for next-generation service enablement, smart customer interaction, M2M device management and enterprise mobility management for operators, managed service providers and enterprises. For more information visit www.mformation.com.

The post Mformation Software Technologies Names New President/CEO appeared first on peHUB.

TowerBrook Capital Partners L.P. said on Wednesday that it has made a majority investment in Kaporal, a French-based wholesaler and retailer of men and women’s fashion. No financial terms were disclosed. The transaction is expected to close in July 2013.

PRESS RELEASE

London, 21st May 2013 – TowerBrook Capital Partners L.P. (“TowerBrook”) has made a majority investment in Kaporal (“Kaporal” or the “Company”), a French-based wholesaler and retailer of men and women’s fashion.
TowerBrook had been in talks with Laurent Emsellem, the founder and majority owner of Kaporal, since the middle of 2012. The transaction was signed on an exclusive basis, demonstrating our mutual understanding of the exciting future of the Company.
Founded in 2003 by Laurent Emsellem, Kaporal began as a Marseille-based denim supplier and has grown into a well-recognised lifestyle brand in France. Kaporal has expertise across both wholesale and retail channels and is known for its quality, fashionable, well-priced products. More recently, the Company has made a number of key strategic hires including the current CEO, Santiago Cuchy, and CFO, Bénédicte Weimar.
Laurent has been integral to the success of the business and will continue as an investor in the Company under TowerBrook’s ownership and in his capacity as board member. He will be joined on the board by the CEO, Santiago Cuchy, as well as Daniel Bernard and Michael Rahamim, newly appointed as Executive Chairman and non-executive director respectively. MBO Partenaires, the existing minority shareholder, will re-invest in the Company following a successful period of ownership since 2008.
TowerBrook has significant retail experience and international expertise to support the Kaporal management team in continuing to expand the business over the next few years. There are particularly attractive opportunities in product development and greater focus across all current channels of distribution including an expansion of the Company’s retail and wholesale strategies and further growth in the online channel. The Company has made important steps recently to support its current management team through key hires across the organisation.
Laurent Emsellem, Founder Kaporal, commented:
“We have worked hard over the years to build our Company and I look forward to taking its growth to the next level with the support of TowerBrook. I strongly believe that TowerBrook, with its extensive retail experience, is the perfect partner to develop specific areas of the business, such as our retail and online strategies, with longer-term potential for expansion outside of our core markets today.”
Karim Saddi, TowerBrook Managing Director, said:
“We have developed a clear plan of operational and strategic improvements for both the retail and wholesale businesses. Our relationship with the Kaporal management team is absolutely fundamental and it is with great confidence that we move forward together.”
Winston Ginsberg, TowerBrook Managing Director, said:
“We are delighted to be able to make a significant investment in Kaporal. As one of the leading French retail clothing brands with a very well established heritage we believe it has strong growth opportunities.”
The transaction is expected to close in July 2013.

The post TowerBrook Capital Partners Invests in Kaporal appeared first on peHUB.

First Aid Shot Therapy (“F.A.S.T.”) said on Wednesday that it has completed a Series A financing round. No financial terms were disclosed. Sofinnova Ventures led the round. According to F.A.S.T., the funds will be used for the company’s U.S. product launch beginning this summer. F.A.S.T, which is headquartered in Burlingame, Calif., is a consumer healthcare company focused on over-the-counter therapies in liquid form.

PRESS RELEASE

BURLINGAME, Calif., May 21, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — First Aid Shot Therapy®, Inc. (“F.A.S.T.”), a consumer healthcare company focused on over-the-counter (OTC) therapies in liquid ‘shot’ (40ml / 1.35oz.) form, today announced it has completed a Series A financing round. New investor Sofinnova Ventures led the round.
The funds will be used to support the company’s U.S. product launch beginning in the summer of 2013.
“We are pleased to welcome premier healthcare investor Sofinnova Ventures, who shares F.A.S.T.’s excitement around the rapidly growing consumer healthcare market,” said Mary Page Platerink, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of F.A.S.T. “Since our seed round of funding, we have developed our launch products, set our go-to-market strategy and built a world class team. We look forward to launching our products this summer with leading retailers.”
F.A.S.T.’s products are OTC pharmaceutical based single serve liquids that meet the applicable OTC monograph and are intended to treat everyday conditions such as pain and upset stomach. Additional products aimed at a broad range of consumer needs are being developed and will be launched in due course. F.A.S.T.’s product portfolio addresses common health conditions that affect tens of millions of Americans every day.
“We are delighted to support F.A.S.T. in commercializing their initial products this summer,” said Garheng Kong, M.D., Ph.D., General Partner of Sofinnova Ventures. “We believe the consumer healthcare segment to be a vital growth area for healthcare investment today, and F.A.S.T. is well positioned to be one of the leaders in this field.”
About First Aid Shot Therapy®, Inc.
Headquartered in Burlingame, California, privately held First Aid Shot Therapy®, Inc. is focused on the development and commercialization of a comprehensive portfolio of OTC pharmaceutical products in liquid ‘shot’ (40ml / 1.35oz.) format. The F.A.S.T. team is comprised of consumer product executives that have been responsible for the launch and commercial success of products such as VitaminWater and Pretzel Crisps. F.A.S.T.’s products are formulated by the Company’s proprietary research and development organization, F.A.S.T. Labs ™. F.A.S.T. was co-founded by Professor Jay Pasricha , M.D., Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins Medicine. In addition, F.A.S.T. has assembled an Advisory Board comprising some of the leading regulatory advisors and consumer marketing executives in the world including Mary Minnick , Partner at Lion Capital and former President of Marketing, Strategy and Innovation at The Coca-Cola Company and Peter Barton Hutt , former General Counsel of the Food and Drug Administration.
About Sofinnova Ventures
Sofinnova Ventures has over 40 years of experience building healthcare companies into market leaders. With $1.4 billion in committed capital, the firm applies capital and expertise to take companies from inception to exit. Sofinnova closed its life science-focused $440M fund, SVP VIII, in late 2011. The firm’s investment team of MDs and PhDs has significant scientific, operational and strategic experience, and specializes in financing later stage clinical products and growth companies. Our team partners with entrepreneurs to address patients’ unmet medical needs and develop innovative products. Sofinnova Ventures has offices in Menlo Park and La Jolla, California. For more information, please visit www.sofinnova.com.
For more information, please visit www.firstaidshottherapy.com

The post First Shot Therapy Completes Series A Funding appeared first on peHUB.

Skyhigh Networks said on Wednesday that it has received $20 million in Series B financing. The lead investor was Sequoia Capital. Greylock Partners, an existing investor, also participated in the round. Also, Aaref Hilaly, a partner at Sequoia Capital, has joined Skyhigh Networks’ board of directors. Skyhigh Networks, a provider of cloud solutions, is based is Cupertino, Calif.

PRESS RELEASE

CUPERTINO, Calif. — May 22, 2013 — Skyhigh Networks, the cloud visibility and control company, today announced that it has received $20M in Series B financing. The round was led by Sequoia Capital, with participation from existing investor Greylock Partners. Aaref Hilaly, partner at Sequoia Capital, has joined has joined Greylock’s Asheem Chandna on Skyhigh Networks’ Board of Directors. The company also unveiled the “30-in-30 Challenge,” which guarantees participants that Skyhigh will uncover at least 30 unknown cloud services in use by their organization in 30 minutes.
“Sequoia Capital’s investment provides significant validation of our ground-breaking approach to addressing the previously ignored issue of shadow IT,” said Rajiv Gupta, co-founder and CEO, Skyhigh Networks. “Customer demand since our launch has been tremendous, and partnering with Greylock and Sequoia will enable us to accelerate our strong growth and build the leading company in the cloud visibility and control market.”
“The rapid spread of BYOD and cloud computing has led to vast numbers of cloud services being adopted, often with no involvement from corporate IT,” said Hilaly. “Skyhigh sets itself apart from other security companies by giving IT a unique ‘searchlight’ to find these cloud services, assess the risks involved in using them, and control the confidential data stored in them — all in a way that’s respectful of the end user. We are thrilled to partner with Rajiv and his exceptional team who have a long history of delighting customers with innovative products.”
“Business users expose organizations to security and compliance risks when they adopt new cloud services without IT involvement,” said Asheem Chandna, partner at Greylock Partners and Skyhigh Networks board member. “Skyhigh enables IT teams to reduce these risks and accelerate the safe adoption of cloud services, allowing CIOs to once again become chief enablers of their businesses.”
With Skyhigh, IT departments discover, analyze, and control the cloud services used by employees on any device and from any network. In typical engagements, Skyhigh identifies over 10 times more cloud services in use than IT was aware of.
“We had no comprehensive way of knowing which services were in use, where outgoing data was headed, and what risks these cloud services implied for our business,” said Steve Martino, vice president, Information Security, at Cisco. “The number of cloud providers we were using was definitely an eyebrow raiser. We knew there would be a number of them, but we were surprised by exactly how many showed up.”
In order to shine a light on shadow IT, Skyhigh also announced the 30-in-30 Challenge. “Give us 30 minutes, and we’re confident we’ll find at least 30 cloud services in use by your organization that you didn’t know about,” said Kamal Shah, VP Products & Marketing, Skyhigh Networks. “If we don’t, you’ll enjoy 30 months of Netflix on us.”
Interested companies can sign up for the 30-in-30 Challenge at: http://www.skyhighnetworks.com/product/evaluation/30-in-30/
The Skyhigh Networks Cloud Services Manager is a zero footprint, multi-tenant service that discovers, analyzes, and controls cloud services in use within an organization:
Discover: See all cloud services in use and their associated security, legal, and business risks.
Analyze: Identify anomalous behavior and opportunities for consolidating subscriptions.
Control: Enforce key security and usage policies such as access control, data encryption, and data loss prevention.
Skyhigh Networks joins a distinguished set of companies, such as LinkedIn Corporation and Palo Alto Networks (NYSE: PANW), where Greylock and Sequoia have partnered with world-class entrepreneurs to build market-leading enterprises. This latest round brings the total investment in the company to more than $26M. Skyhigh will use the new capital to expand its sales, marketing, and engineering teams to meet the increasing demand for its services and to extend its leadership in the cloud visibility and control market.
About Skyhigh Networks
Skyhigh Networks, the cloud visibility and control company, enables companies to embrace cloud services with appropriate levels of security, compliance, and governance while lowering overall risk and cost. With customers including Cisco, Equinix, and Torrance Memorial Medical Center, the company was a finalist for the RSA Conference 2013 Most Innovative Company award and was recently named a “Cool Vendor” by Gartner, Inc. Headquartered in Cupertino, CA, Skyhigh is led by an experienced team and is venture-backed by Greylock Partners and Sequoia Capital. For more information, visit us at http://www.skyhighnetworks.com or follow us on Twitter @skyhighnetworks.

The post Skyhigh Networks Receives $20 Mln in Series B Financing appeared first on peHUB.

Square 1 Bank, a banking partner to entrepreneurs and the venture capital community, said on Wednesday that it has provided a loan and revolving line of credit to Advanced Liquid Logic. No financial terms were disclosed. Headquartered in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, with additional facilities in Grenoble, France, Advanced Liquid Logic is a life science technology company.

PRESS RELEASE

DURHAM, N.C.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Square 1 Bank, the premier banking partner to entrepreneurs and the venture capital community, announced today it has provided a term loan and revolving line of credit to new client Advanced Liquid Logic, Inc., a life science technology company providing unique workflow solutions to laboratories and clinics. Proceeds will aid Advanced Liquid Logic in future growth and product development.
Since its founding in 2004, Advanced Liquid Logic has assembled an impressive patent portfolio and today owns or controls over 100 issued patents in Digital Microfluidics technology. In addition, techniques for cost-effectively manufacturing its lab-on-a-chip have been developed and implemented. A strong pipeline of products and partnerships will ensure rapid revenue and profit growth.
“We look forward to building a dynamic and lasting relationship with Advanced Liquid Logic,” said Evan Travis, Assistant Vice President in Square 1’s Southeast Life Sciences practice. “We are very impressed with the company’s product line and the promising opportunities they have in the life science technologies industry.”
President and CEO of Advanced Liquid Logic, Richard West, added, “We are pleased that Square 1 will play an integral part in our plans for the future. It is a privilege to have such a great bank headquartered locally in Durham.”
About Square 1 Bank
Square 1 Bank is a full service commercial bank dedicated exclusively to serving the financial needs of the venture capital community and entrepreneurs in all stages of growth and expansion. Square 1′s expertise, focus and strong capital base provide flexible resources and unmatched support to meet our clients’ needs. The bank offers tailored products and solutions aided by the latest in technological innovations. Square 1 has offices coast to coast in Austin, Boston, Denver, Durham, Los Angeles, New York, San Diego, Seattle, Silicon Valley and Washington, DC. For more information, visit www.square1bank.com.
About Advanced Liquid Logic
Advanced Liquid Logic is pioneering the next generation of microfluidics – Digital Microfluidics – with easy-to-use, cost-effective products in newborn screening and genomics sample preparation. Advanced Liquid Logic, a rapidly growing, privately-held company, also has products in development addressing in vitro diagnostics and other markets. The company’s proprietary digital microfluidics technology enables precise and flexible manipulation of micro-droplets using electrical fields. Advanced Liquid Logic is headquartered in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, with additional facilities in Grenoble, France. For more information please visit www.liquid-logic.com.

The post Advanced Liquid Logic Receives Credit Facility from Square 1 Bank appeared first on peHUB.

Archer Limited, an oilfield services provider based in Hamilton, Bermuda, said on Wednesday that it has agreed to sell its North American Rental and Tubular division to Clearlake Capital Group, L.P. for approximately $244 million. The all-cash transaction is expected to close in June 2013. Archer’s Rental and Tubular division provide equipment and services to exploration and production operators in U.S. land markets and the U.S. Gulf Of Mexico, in addition to both land and offshore markets in Mexico.

PRESS RELEASE

Hamilton, Bermuda (May 22 2013)
Archer Limited today announced that the Company has agreed to sell its North American Rental and Tubular division to an affiliate of Clearlake Capital Group, L.P. for approximately $244 million. The all-cash transaction is expected to close in June 2013, and is subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions. Archer will use the majority of the proceeds from the sale to pay down outstanding balances on its credit facilities.
Archer’s Rental and Tubular division provide equipment and services to exploration and production operators across key U.S. land markets and the U.S. Gulf Of Mexico, in addition to both land and offshore markets in Mexico. The division’s two primary offerings are (i) rental equipment, which provides primarily drilling and completion equipment such as drill pipe, heavy weight drill pipe, drill collars, tubular handling tools, pressure control equipment and tubing, and (ii) tubular services, which includes casing and tubing running and tubular handling services. For both offerings, the Company is one of the largest providers in the North American market.
In 2012 Archer’s North American Rental and Tubular Division generated $100 million in revenue and contributed $45 million in earnings before income taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA). At the end of December the business had net assets of $244 million and employed approximately 250 employees.
“I am pleased that with Clearlake Capital we have found a new owner for Archer’s North American Rental and Tubular business, who is focused and committed to invest and grow these businesses going forward. The employees and the management team of Archer’s Rental and Tubular division have built an agile organization which has provided high service quality to our customers over the years. I am confident that its employees and management team together with Clearlake will continue to build on that legacy,” said Ronney Coleman, President North America and Executive Vice President of Archer.
“This divestiture will help Archer to focus its efforts in North America on its service and product offering directed towards unconventional resources, while operations in other parts of the world are not impacted by this transaction. It will also help to simplify and further deleverage the company” said Fredrik Halvorsen, CEO and Vice Chairman of Archer.
José E. Feliciano, a founding partner at Clearlake, said: “These businesses are well-positioned to increase their market share and capitalize on continued growth in the North American oil and gas market. They represent a strong platform and we are eager to support their outstanding management team and invest to expand the business.”
Clearlake Capital Group, L.P. is a private investment firm focused on special situations and private equity investments such as corporate divestitures, recapitalizations, buyouts, reorganizations, turnarounds and other equity investments. Clearlake seeks to partner with world-class management teams by providing patient, long-term capital and operational expertise to invest in dynamic businesses. Clearlake currently manages approximately $1.4 billion of equity capital, and Clearlake’s founding principals have led over 50 investments totaling more than $3 billion of capital in sectors including business services, communication, consumer products/retail, defense & public safety, energy/power, healthcare, industrials, media, and technology.
Simmons & Company International served as exclusive financial advisor and Andrews Kurth LLP served as legal advisor to Archer in this transaction. Jefferies LLC served as financial advisor and Vinson & Elkins LLP served as legal advisor to Clearlake in this transaction.
This information is subject of the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.

The post Archer Ltd to Sell NA Rental and Tubular Division to Clearlake Capital Group appeared first on peHUB.

M2fx said on Wednesday that it has raised $3 million in funding. Linnaeus Capital Partner B.V., an existing investor, led the round. The funding will be used to accelerate the company’s worldwide sales and expand its customer base. Headquartered in the U.K. with global sales facilities, m2fx is a fiber optic cable producer.

PRESS RELEASE

New York and London, 22 May 2013 –m2fx, the inventors and producers of the world-leading range of patentedMiniflex™ fiber cables today announced a new US$3m (£2m) funding round, led by existing investorLinnaeus Capital Partner B.V.. The new investment will be used to accelerate the company’s worldwide sales and further expand its customer base, particularly in the Fiber to the Premises (FTTP) market.
The growing global rollout of FTTP networks to deliver high speed broadband to consumers and businesses is providing unparalleled opportunities for m2fx. Its innovative Miniflex range of fiber cable, microduct and protection tube products are ideal for the last 200 feet of fiber installations, dramatically reducing installation time and costs through patented pushable technology. This delivers installation savings of up to 50% in developed markets, enabling operators to deploy networks more cost-effectively than through traditional methods.
“Our technology delivers competitive advantage to organizations where it matters – bringing down the cost of installing vital fiber optic networks through our tough, light, ultra flexible design,” said Joe Byrne, CFO, m2fx. “This additional investment from Linnaeus Capital demonstrates its commitment to m2fx and belief in our strengths. We can now expand our sales efforts across the globe and provide the benefits of our Miniflex products to companies across even more countries and markets.”
m2fx recently announced that it has been used in over 25,000 FTTP installations around the world, a figure that is growing at 1,500 every month. It has manufactured over 67 million feet (20 million meters) of duct and Miniflex cable at its state of the art UK manufacturing facility. m2fx’s end customer list includes over 25% of all telecoms operators within the 52 countries where its products are sold, including both AT&T and BT.
“At Linnaeus we focus on companies with unique technology, high growth potential and experienced management teams,” said Anita Hamilton, Managing Partner of Linnaeus Capital Partners B.V.. “m2fx meets all these criteria, and since our initial investment in 2010 we’ve seen the company and its market expand. This new funding round will enable it to accelerate growth and help achieve its enormous potential.”

As well as broadband telecoms, m2fx also has a substantial presence in the data center, automotive and high technology aerospace/defense markets. It was recently selected for the European Space Agency’s ExoMars 2018 mission, where it will protect fiber optic components within the MOMA instrument. Part of the payload of the ExoMars rover, this will analyze samples on the Martian surface, investigating the possibility of life on the planet.
“The need for ultra fast information is driving global demand for fiber optic networks across a wide range of industries,” said Tom Carpenter, CEO, m2fx. “We are already widely recognized for the benefits that our Miniflex products deliver and this new funding will enable us to take the company to the next level, exploiting this significant and growing market opportunity.”
-ends-
About m2fx
m2fx makes hard plastic flexible through its patented grooved design and process, protecting optical fiber in the last 200 feet of an install. Best known for its innovative Miniflex™ protection tube, cable and microduct products, m2fx specializes in tough yet flexible FTTX cable/microduct routing products that are designed to protect fiber yet still be light and ultra flexible to enable fast and efficient installation in the field. Its patented pushable technology dramatically reduces the time and cost of installations by removing the need for specialist equipment and skills, leading to typical savings of 50% compared to traditional methods.
Headquartered in the UK and with global sales operations, m2fx has already manufactured over 20 million meters (67 million feet) of duct and Miniflex cable at its state of the art UK production facility. m2fx products are deployed in telecoms networks, data centers, cars and aircraft in 52 countries across the world.

The post M2fx Raises $3 Mln in Funding Round appeared first on peHUB.

Zentila said on Wednesday that it has closed $2.1 million in a Series A financing round. The lead investor was Vocap Ventures. Based in Winter Garden, Florida, Zentila is an online meeting planning platform.

PRESS RELEASE

ORLANDO, Fla. — Zentila, the first online sourcing, booking and tracking solution for meetings and conventions, today announced the closing of a $2.1 million Series A investment led by Florida-based Vocap Ventures.
“Zentila excited us as an investment for a variety of reasons,” said Vinny Olmstead, managing director of Vocap Ventures. “The technology is disruptive in that it automates and simplifies a fairly complex process. This has enabled the company to enter a fragmented market with a clever solution that has the potential to capture a significant portion of a multi-billion dollar industry.”
Founded in 2011 by hospitality industry veteran Mike Mason, Zentila provides meeting planning solutions for companies and individuals through a free-to-use, highly intuitive strategic meetings management solution. Since November, the company’s 1,500 corporate users have sent meeting requests with an estimated value exceeding $4 million. Hotels are enjoying close rates more than five times the industry’s average, making Zentila one of the most efficient RFP channels in the market today. Zentila was also recently chosen by Northstar Travel Group, the world’s leading business-to-business media company serving the travel and meetings industry, to offer its dynamic sourcing and booking platform on Northstar’sSuccessful Meetings andMeetings and Conventions online facility search.
“While we were approached by a number of venture capital firms, we opted to move forward with strategic investors who have deep experience in both the technology and hospitality spaces,” said Mason. “This new round of funding will enable us to further advance our offerings and continue to build market share.”
Other investors include Arsenal Venture Partners and venVelo, both of Winter Park, Fla., and Matt Avril, former hotel group president at Starwood Hotels and Resorts. Avril will also join Zentila’s Board of Directors.
“Un-bookable leads, or ‘RFP Spam,’ contributes to unproductive time for hotel sales forces globally,” said Avril. “ Zentila represents an ideal solution by helping hotels sell effectively while improving the experience and efficiency for meeting planners.”
“Zentila’s experienced management team is passionate about the meetings industry, and I share their enthusiasm for providing this new solution.” Avril said. “I am delighted to be a part of this dynamic group working to effect change in this critical way.”

The post Zentila Raises $2.1 Mln in Series A Financing appeared first on peHUB.

Flagship Ventures has named Stephane Bancel as a senior partner. Bancel will also serve as president and CEO of Moderna Therapeutics, a Flagship VentureLabs – founded company. Flagship Ventures, which is based in Cambridge, Mass., is a venture capital firm that focuses on health, therapeutics and sustainability.

PRESS RELEASE

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., May 22, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — Flagship Ventures, a leading venture capital and venture creation firm focused on healthcare and sustainability, today announced the appointment of Stephane Bancel as a Senior Partner. In this role, Mr. Bancel will provide strategic counsel and support to portfolio companies.
In addition to working closely with companies in the Flagship portfolio, Mr. Bancel also serves as President and Chief Executive Officer of Moderna Therapeutics, a Flagship VentureLabs™ – founded company. Moderna is pioneering messenger RNA therapeutics™, an entirely new in vivo drug modality that produces human proteins or antibodies inside the patient, within the patient’s cells. This allows the in vivo expression of virtually any therapeutic protein for intracellular or systemic action. He is also Executive Chairman of the board for BG Medicine, Inc. (NASDAQ: BGMD), a Flagship portfolio company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of novel, biomarker-based diagnostics to improve patient outcomes and contain healthcare costs.
“Stephane brings with him a wealth of management experience and expertise in the development and commercialization of medical diagnostic tools and technologies as well as expertise in the pharmaceuticals industry,” said Noubar Afeyan , Managing Partner and Chief Executive Officer of Flagship Ventures. Under Mr. Bancel’s leadership, Moderna has entered into one of the largest preclinical biotech-pharma deals in the industry’s 35 year history with AstraZeneca. The recently announced partnership agreement involves up to 40 options to drug products and $420M in up front and technology milestone payments. Dr. Afeyan added, “having worked together with Stephane for over three years now at BG Medicine and Moderna, I look forward to seeing his commercial mindset and strategic insights applied more broadly to Flagship’s investment strategy as well as to the growth and success of our portfolio companies.”
Mr. Bancel said “What attracted me to Flagship Ventures was the team’s depth of experience and knowledge in the life sciences industry, as well as the firm’s unique philosophy and approach to realizing entrepreneurial innovation.” He continued, “I look forward to building on Flagship’s growing reputation as one of the preeminent innovators in the life sciences ecosystem.”
Prior to joining Flagship, Mr. Bancel served as Chief Executive Officer of bioMerieux (NYSE Euronext: BIM.PA), a world leader in the diagnostics industry. During his five years leading the company, he accelerated the sales growth rate, enhanced its position as a global leader in clinical microbiology and re-accelerated its immunoassay franchise by focusing on high medical value biomarkers. Under his leadership, the company’s market capitalization nearly doubled despite the broader economic downturn.
Previously, Mr. Bancel was Managing Director of Eli Lilly in Belgium and Executive Director of Global Manufacturing Strategy and Supply Chain at Eli Lilly in Indianapolis. He earned a Master of Engineering from Ecole Centrale Paris, a Master of Science in Chemical Engineering from the University of Minnesota and an MBA from Harvard Business School. In 2009, Mr. Bancel was elected a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. He was elected Best CEO for Investor Relations in France in 2009 and was ranked #1 CEO in the Biotechnology sector according to the 2011 Thomson Reuters Pan European EXTEL Study.
About Flagship Ventures
Realizing entrepreneurial innovation is the mission of Flagship Ventures. The firm operates through two synergistic units: VentureLabs™ which invents and launches transformative companies, and Venture Capital, which finances and develops innovative, early-stage companies. Founded in 2000, and based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Flagship Ventures manages over $900 million in capital. The Flagship team is active in three principal business sectors: therapeutics, health technologies and sustainability/clean technology. Past successful Flagship portfolio companies include: Accuri Cytometers (acquired by Becton, Dickinson and Company), Adnexus (acquired by Bristol-Myers Squibb), Hypnion (acquired by Eli Lilly), AVEO (NASDAQ: AVEO), BG Medicine (NASDAQ: BGMD), Tetraphase (NASDAQ: TTPH), Receptos (NASDAQ: RCPT) and Morphotek (acquired by Eisai). Additional notable portfolio companies include: AeroDesigns, Affinnova, Agios, BIND Therapeutics, Joule Unlimited, Quanterix, and Moderna Therapeutics. For more information, please visit www.flagshipventures.com.

The post Flagship Ventures Names Bancel as Senior Partner appeared first on peHUB.

Urturn, a social platform, said on Wednesday that it has completed Series A funding of $13.4 million. The fundraising round included a $10.7 million investment by Balderton Capital, a European venture capital firm, and a $2.7 million investment from the private equity division of Debiopharm Group, a Swiss-based global pharmaceutical company. And as part of the agreement, Balderton’s founding partner Barry Maloney will join Urturn’s board.

PRESS RELEASE

Urturn, the social platform for self-expression, has today announced the completion of a $13.4 million fundraising round including a $10.7m investment by Balderton Capital, the leading European venture capital firm. In addition, Urturn is announcing the launch of its mobile app. By making Urturn more readily accessible to its users, the mobile app will enable people to spontaneously connect in rich and playful ways.
By simply flicking through Urturn’s range of ready-made templates and choosing an Expression to suit their mood, users can instantly express themselves in an ever-growing variety of ways – from personalising images with doodles, captions or music clips to creating collages or inviting the community to cast votes on sets of pictures. Whether Expressions are shared on Urturn or on other social media platforms and websites, the innovative ‘Your Turn’ button enables users to share new interpretations of other people’s posts and join in with movements spreading across the web.
With the launch of the Urturn mobile app, users will be able to spontaneously capture moments of inspiration on-the-fly. The beautiful app is a powerful way for turning experiences into expressions – users simply select the style, inject an image and instantly personalise it in rich and creative ways. Urturn is fully integrated – so media can be taken from your Facebook, Instagram or even Vimeo feeds and incorporated into any one of the ready-made Expressions.
“While existing social platforms have focused on connecting people and all provide finite ways for interacting online, we’ve focused on how people interact – providing an ever-growing variety of rich and playful ways for our users to express themselves. Born out of the acknowledgement that users want to be more expressive, Urturn is the next natural step for social media,” comments Stelio Tzonis, CEO at Urturn. “We believe our mobile app will make Urturn more accessible and enable people to share Expressions more spontaneously.”
The Series A fundraising includes a $10.7m investment by Balderton Capital, whose past investments include Bebo, Lovefilm, Betfair, wooga and Friend.ly. It comes at a time of increased speculation around waning interest in Facebook among teens and growing interest in social platforms that support more creative ways for users to interact. The private equity arm of Debiopharm Group invested the remaining $2.7m. As part of the agreement, Balderton’s founding partner Barry Maloney will join Urturn’s board.
“When we first met the team behind Urturn, we could see that their idea would transform the way people around the world express themselves through social media and we wanted to be involved,” comments Barry Maloney , founding partner at Balderton Capital. “Using Urturn’s Expressions, users can enjoy sharing unique content in the fastest, clearest and most engaging ways yet. We are excited to watch the progress and continued word-of-mouth endorsements that have earned Stelio and his team the support of many loyal users already.”
The platform has already received significant interest from the music industry, with artists rapidly recognising that it provides fun new ways to connect with their fans. Artists that have already signed up to the platform include Rita Ora , David Bowie , One Direction, Green Day, Union J, Ellie Goulding , The Gossip, Carly Rae Jepsen and Kendrick Lamar .
Urturn also has plans to open up the platform to the community – with an API which gives enthusiasts the opportunity to create their own Expressions, templates that can then be adopted by friends, followers and fans. It is the first time a social platform has let the community shape how they communicate and express themselves online.
“We’re honoured to have the support of Balderton Capital,” continues Stelio Tzonis. “As well as being one of the preeminent VCs in Europe, they have a great track record in taking European start-ups to the US.”
Key features include:
Urturn’s ever-growing library of Expressions – ready-made templates that can be instantly personalised in all kinds of ways. Examples include Bubbles, Pix, Tags, Magnifier, Versus, Doodle and Music Postcard
The ‘Your Turn’ button is totally unique – there is no other platform that lets you take inspiration or join in with online movements in such a rich and interactive way.
Using Urturn’s Bookmarklet, you can grab images from across the web and instantly turn them into expressions. Share your feelings or ask the community for their opinion using the ‘Love it/Leave it’ and ‘Versus’ expressions.
Urturn’s API (which is currently in private beta) will enable enthusiasts to create all sorts of new ways for users to interact and express themselves
Urturn is fully integrated – so media can be taken from your Facebook, Instagram or Youtube feeds and incorporated into any one of the ready-made Expressions.
About Urturn
Urturn (http://www.urturn.com) is a fast and playful way to share your unique view of the world with friends, followers and celebrities. Available on the web or as a mobile app, it comes with an ever-growing range of Expressions – ready-made templates let you spontaneously express yourself in fun and creative new ways. Its Your Turn’ button also lets you take inspiration or interact with other people’s posts like never before. Whether browsing the web or shooting images with your mobile phone, anyone can rapidly post an expression and achieve instant greatness! The company was launched in January 2013 by brothers Alexandre and Stelio Tzonis, Mathieu Fivaz and Vincent Borel . It employs 25 people in Lausanne, London and Silicon Valley.
About Balderton Capital
Balderton Capital is one of the largest venture capital firms in Europe, committed to finding and helping talented entrepreneurs build great companies. Based in London, the firm manages $1.9 billion in committed venture capital. Since 2000, Balderton has invested in over 100 companies, principally in numerous European countries but also in the US and Asia. Notable investments include YOOX Group (the online retailer of leading fashion brands, listed in December 2009), LOVEFiLM (the home entertainment subscription service sold to Amazon in January 2011), Betfair (the online betting exchange floated in London in October 2010), Bebo (sold to AOL for $850m), and MySQL (sold to Sun for $1 billion). For more information, visit: http://www.balderton.com.

The post Urturn Secures $13.4 Mln in Series A Funding appeared first on peHUB.

OurCrowd, a VC-crowdfunding platform, said on Wednesday that it has completed financing for Zula, a mobile communications platform. Although financial terms were not disclosed, OurCrowd said that Zula’s funding pushed OurCrowd’s total raised for early stage companies to above $12 million.

PRESS RELEASE

JERUSALEM–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Israel’s hybrid VC-crowdfunding platform OurCrowd announced today that it closed financing for Jeff Pulver’s latest startup, Zula, pushing its total raised for early stage companies above $12 million. This $12 million is in addition to the $5.5 million in funding OurCrowd raised for its own platform in February this year. Zula is OurCrowd’s 18th completed funding round.
OurCrowd CEO Jon Medved says “Passing this funding milestone makes OurCrowd this year’s fastest-growing vehicle for angels and accredited investors to find and back early stage companies online. From our roots in Israel we have actually taken the global lead in funds raised.”
Zula co-founder Jeff Pulver said, “I am excited about the value that OurCrowd brings to early stage investors who invest in startup companies. Not only did we raise our seed round online in less than a week, but we had people from all over the world invest in Zula thanks to this platform.” Zula provides an innovative cloud-based mobile collaboration platform for teams. It is lead by Jacob Ner-David, who co-founded DeltaThree, and Pulver, who is a well-known early investor in Twitter and FourSquare.
“While initially focusing on the Israeli early stage ecosystem, OurCrowd has now brought together investors and companies from around the world,” explained Medved. “The fact that this year we have raised more money for our companies than our Silicon Valley competitors is a vote of confidence that the Start-up Nation is indeed a global innovation leader.”
OurCrowd identifies companies seeking early stage investment and brings the best of these opportunities online, where only accredited investors may participate in specific venture capital funding rounds. This extensive and active global network of investors and mentors has allowed OurCrowd to also provide critical support to its startups. In order to increase involvement in the platform, OurCrowd has recently completed a series of face to face meetings around the world with thousands participating in meetings held in Israel, South Africa, UK, Norway, and multiple US cities such as Boston, Chicago, Palo Alto in Silicon Valley, Seattle, San Diego and Los Angeles.
About OurCrowd
OurCrowd is a hybrid VC-crowdfunding platform for accredited investors only who wish to invest in Israeli and global early stage companies. Managed by a team of well-known investment professionals and led by serial entrepreneur Jon Medved, OurCrowd selects opportunities, invests its own capital and brings these startups to its accredited membership. Members choose those deals they invest in via OurCrowd-managed partnerships. OurCrowd investors must meet stringent accreditation criteria and invest a minimum of $10,000 per deal. OurCrowd provides post investment support to its portfolio companies, assigning industry experts as mentors and taking board seats.

The post OurCrowd Closes Financing for Zula appeared first on peHUB.

AlephCloud said on Wednesday that it has closed $7.5 million in Series B financing. The lead investor was Handbag, LLC, a venture capital firm founded by former Crosspoint general partner Seth Neiman. AlephCloud also added that Neiman has joined the company’s board of directors. AlephCloud is a Silicon Valley startup that provides new technology for managing cloud content privacy and provenance in public clouds.

PRESS RELEASE

SUNNYVALE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–AlephCloud, a startup developing a new technology for managing content privacy and provenance in public clouds, today announced that it has closed a $7.5 million Series B round of financing. The funding was led by Handbag, LLC, a new wave venture capital firm created by noted Silicon Valley investor and former Crosspoint general partner Seth Neiman. The new investment brings the total amount raised to $9.5 million.
AlephCloud also announced that Mr. Neiman has joined the company’s board of directors. His investing group, which provides institutional investments without the institution, is composed of VCs and CEOs who helped create much of the technology used to build Internet and data center infrastructures.
“With the advent of personal devices and data sharing in public clouds, the traditional ‘moat and citadel’ approach to content protection is broken,” said Neiman. “AlephCloud technology will redefine content and device management for the cloud era.”
Last week AlephCloud was one of only six startups selected from a pool of more than 100 companies for Orange Fab, the technology accelerator program managed by Orange Silicon Valley.
According to a recent report from Gartner, Inc., “Personal cloud services are simple, available free of charge and elegantly solve sync and share problems, which is why smart-device users are adopting these services. They represent a serious security and compliance threat for an IT organization, because employees can share corporate documents with third parties, or store documents on home PCs and other personal devices, completely out of an IT organization’s control.”1
“IT Consumerization, which is characterized by BYOD (bring your own device) and BYOC (bring your own cloud), is making it almost impossible for enterprises to manage the operating systems and devices that employees use to access corporate information,” said Jieming Zhu, CEO of AlephCloud. “To maintain privacy, control, and compliance, organizations must be able to protect their content wherever it resides. We have the opportunity to completely change the dynamics of trust in public clouds.”
AlephCloud was founded by Jieming Zhu and CTO Roy D’Souza. Zhu is a former Chief Technologist at HP Storage and a veteran of several successful startups including Xsigo (acquired by Oracle), LogLogic, machine data analysis for security and compliance (acquired by TIBCO), and Brocade. D’Souza was most recently architect at Microsoft Azure Trust Services, a pioneering effort to implement cryptographically enforced security with federated key management for cloud services. He was also co-founder and CTO of Mimosa Systems, an email compliance vendor acquired by Iron Mountain.
About AlephCloud
Based in Sunnyvale, CA, AlephCloud is a startup developing a new technology for managing content privacy and provenance in public clouds. AlephCloud was founded in 2011 by enterprise technology visionaries who believe that only information owners should decide who sees their content, not cloud providers and not even us. Visit www.alephcloud.com to learn more or follow us on twitter@alephcloud.

The post AlephCloud Closes $7.5 Mln Series B Financing appeared first on peHUB.

Happy Cloud, an online games provider, said on Wednesday that it has raised $4.25 million in Series A funding. The lead investor was Avalon Ventures. Jesselson Capital and Shaman Ventures also participated in the round. The funding will help Happy Cloud beef up its team and prepare the launch of a games-on-demand service offering. Also, Tamir Buchler, an ecommerce veteran, was named Happy Cloud’s CEO.

PRESS RELEASE

NEW YORK – May. 22, 2013 – Today Happy Cloud, Inc. announced its Series A fundraising round of $4.25 million and introduced eCommerce veteran Tamir Buchler as CEO. Led by Avalon Ventures and joined by Jesselson Capital and Shaman Ventures, this round brings Happy Cloud’s total funding to $7 million and allows the company to build out its team and prepare for the upcoming launch of a games-on-demand service offering nearly instant access to demos. Happy Cloud leverages its unique data streaming technology to enable on-demand access to games.
“Game quality and capacity continue to reach new heights, and as the gaming industry evolves, the need for a scalable on-demand technology becomes even more relevant,” explained Rich Levandov, managing director, Avalon Ventures. “We’ve seen many solutions raise lots of capital and fail because they don’t scale. Happy Cloud is the only scalable technology of its kind and will dramatically disrupt the industry while creating value for the entire gaming world.”
“We are excited to have Tamir Buchler on board,” said Michael Jesselson of Jesselson Capital. “He has strong leadership skills and has a proven track record of driving revenue growth for consumer-facing platforms.”
Buchler comes from IAC/InterActiveCorp where he was previously COO and CRO of the comparison shopping network Pronto.com. He will focus on growing Happy Cloud’s licensing business as well as launch its consumer-facing game portal.
“Happy Cloud adds unparalleled value to the gaming ecosystem by eliminating barriers to entry and giving users what they want,” Buchler noted. “By offering free on-demand access to the best high-end games, we can bring new gamers on board, increase conversions and keep gamers engaged. Happy Cloud is a scalable solution that can effect change in the same way iTunes and Netflix have transformed media consumption by offering seamless, instant access.”
Visit www.thehappycloud.com to learn more about Happy Cloud.

About Happy Cloud, Inc.
Happy Cloud is a cloud-based game service that provides distribution to PC, console and Android game publishers and a games-on-demand service for consumers. Its distribution system dramatically reduces abandonment rates and increases paid user conversions. Happy Cloud was founded in 2009 and is based in New York.

The post Happy Cloud Raises $4.25 Mln in Series A Funding appeared first on peHUB.

Cloudscaling said on Wednesday that it has closed its Series B funding at $10 million. Investors included Trinity Ventures, Juniper Networks and Seagate. Cloudscaling is a provider of elastic cloud solutions and is based in San Francisco, Calif.

PRESS RELEASE

SAN FRANCISCO, CA–(Marketwired – May 22, 2013) – Cloudscaling, the elastic cloud company, has closed its Series B funding with Trinity Ventures and two new investors, Juniper Networks, through its Junos® Innovation Fund, and Seagate. The new round raised $10 million.
In April, Cloudscaling announced Open Cloud System 2.5, the world’s most advanced OpenStack-powered cloud infrastructure system. At the same time, Cloudscaling signaled the first step of its partnership with Juniper through the integration of Juniper’s virtual network control (VNC) technology, JunosV Contrail, into Open Cloud System (OCS). OCS is a turnkey, OpenStack-powered cloud infrastructure system for enterprises, SaaS providers and cloud service providers. Cloudscaling and Juniper plan to continue delivering innovative, joint networking solutions that are open and standards-based to support elastic cloud services and a new generation of enterprise workloads.
Cloudscaling also joined the Seagate Cloud Builder Alliance Partner program in April. As part of the program, Cloudscaling and Seagate are focused on the development of optimized storage solutions for OpenStack-powered cloud infrastructure.
Since Q1 of this year, Cloudscaling has secured key customer wins with LivingSocial, EVault, Ubisoft and DataFort, launched a channel partner program and announced support for OpenStack Grizzly in the third generation of OCS technology, Open Cloud System 2.5.
Supporting Quotes
“This financing round caps a tremendous year of momentum for the company. That momentum affirms the voice of the market, clearly stating that customers want more than OpenStack. They want an on-premise, OpenStack-based private or public cloud turnkey system solution that delivers architectural and behavioral fidelity with major public clouds like Amazon Web Services. Our Open Cloud System product delivers on that need to enable hybrid cloud application deployments that span private and public cloud services.”
Michael Grant
CEO
Cloudscaling
“Cloudscaling has executed on a vision of elastic cloud infrastructure as a turnkey solution that many agree with but few have delivered. The team has gained new customers and partners at an accelerating pace, highlighting their success at tapping an emerging, growing need among enterprise, SaaS and service provider segments.”
Dan Scholnick
general partner
Trinity Ventures
“Juniper Networks and Cloudscaling share a vision of how cloud infrastructure should be built and operated to support a new generation of cloud-aware workloads. Collaborating to integrate our technology into OCS was just the first step. We are excited to continue our work with Cloudscaling and support the company as a strategic investor.”
Jeff Lipton
vice president, venture and strategic investments
Juniper Networks
“Seagate and Cloudscaling are working together on innovative solutions of jointly-optimized cloud systems supported by Seagate products. We are pleased to deepen our relationship with them as an equity investor and be part of a collaborative effort to define and promote open source standards for cloud computing.”
Rocky Pimentel
EVP and chief sales and marketing officer
Seagate
About Juniper Networks’ Junos Innovation Fund
The Junos Innovation Fund is a corporate venture capital fund launched in 2010 and backed solely by Juniper Networks. It invests in leading early-stage and growth-stage technology companies that expand and enhance the Junos® ecosystem.
About Cloudscaling
Cloudscaling is the leader in elastic cloud infrastructure. The company’s core product, Open Cloud System (OCS), is the world’s most advanced OpenStack-powered cloud infrastructure system. OCS is designed to meet the requirements of next-generation dynamic applications, delivering the agility, performance, and economic benefits of leading cloud providers, but deployable in the customer’s data center and under the IT team’s control. Cloudscaling is backed by Trinity Ventures and headquartered in San Francisco. For more information, please visit www.cloudscaling.com

The post Cloudscaling Closes $10 Mln in Series B Funding appeared first on peHUB.