Author: Mark Boslet

On Deck said it raised $42 million in Series D financing in a deal led by Institutional Venture Partners and joined by existing investors RRE Ventures, SAP Ventures and First Round Capital. The round was oversubscribed.

PRESS RELEASE

ON DECK SECURES $42 MILLION SERIES D FINANCING LED BY INSTITUTIONAL VENTURE PARTNERS

Funding to Fuel Accelerated Growth, Technology Innovation and Marketing Initiatives Aimed at Delivering More Capital to Main Street

(New York, NY) February 13, 2013 – On Deck (www.ondeckcapital.com), the technology-powered Main Street lender, announced today that it has raised $42 million in Series D growth financing led by new investor, Institutional Venture Partners (IVP). Existing On Deck investors RRE Ventures, SAP Ventures and First Round Capital also participated in the oversubscribed round. The financing will enable the company to further accelerate growth through: continued technology innovation; breakthrough new product development; increased marketing to reach more small business owners; and expanded access to wholesale funding sources. Collectively these efforts will bolster On Deck’s ability to connect Main Street businesses around the country with the capital they need.

On Deck’s innovative technology platform is a transformative solution to America’s small and medium sized business lending challenges. The company has successfully deployed $400 million directly to thousands of small and medium sized businesses that make up the growth engine of our economy. The latest funding round follows a year of record performance and the achievement of numerous milestones. In 2012, On Deck doubled its business, raised nearly $100 million in credit facility commitments jointly led by Goldman Sachs and Fortress Investment Group, tripled the number of distribution partners to 1,500 nationwide, expanded its bank partnerships and increased its industry coverage to over 700 vertical markets, serving essentially all types of Main Street businesses.

In conjunction with the financing, On Deck also announced that IVP General Partner, Sandy Miller, has been appointed to the company’s Board of Directors. Sandy has an extensive investor track record across numerous industries, leading investments in AddThis, Care.com, Fleetmatics, ngmoco, One Kings Lane, Vonage and Zynga.

“On Deck will provide more capital to small businesses in 2013 than it did during the previous five years in total. This investment provides On Deck with greater capacity and resources to bring technology-enabled finance to the mainstream of the American small business market,” said Noah Breslow, chief executive officer, On Deck. “We were attracted to IVP’s 33-year track record of collaborating with pioneering technology companies, as well as Sandy’s personal involvement with over 100 technology IPOs. We are thrilled to have Sandy and the entire IVP team supporting our next phase of growth.”

IVP General Partner Sandy Miller commented, “Led by an experienced and cohesive management team, On Deck has developed a unique and differentiated technology platform to streamline the borrowing process so that small and medium sized business owners can get approved for the capital they need in a matter of minutes. We are very excited that our investment in On Deck is the first from our new fund, IVP XIV.”

“Small and medium sized businesses are the lifeblood of the US economy and we are in an environment where 84% of SMBs looking for financing report having unmet financing needs,” said Eric Liaw, principal at IVP. “IVP is excited to partner with On Deck to help provide thousands of small and medium sized business owners with the capital they need to invest in their operations, grow their businesses, and create new jobs.”

To continue to manage its explosive growth, On Deck recently opened regional offices in Atlanta, Sarasota, Chicago and Los Angeles. In 2013, the company will open a western region office in Denver, and move into larger office spaces for its New York City headquarters and Arlington, VA offices.

Victory Park Securities acted as financial advisor to On Deck.

To learn more about On Deck, please visit www.ondeckcapital.com or follow On Deck on Twitter: @OnDeckCapital. If you are interested in speaking with CEO Noah Breslow regarding small business in America, please contact [email protected].

About On Deck
Launched in 2007, On Deck uses data aggregation and electronic payment technology to evaluate the financial health of small and medium sized businesses and efficiently deliver capital to a market underserved by banks. Through the On Deck platform, millions of small businesses can obtain affordable loans with a fraction of the time and effort that it takes through traditional channels. The company’s proprietary credit models look deeper into the health of businesses, focusing on overall business performance, rather than the owner’s personal credit history. The On Deck system also provides a critically needed mechanism for financial institutions and other business service providers to efficiently reach the Main Street small business market.
On Deck is financed by some of the nation’s leading venture capital firms, including SAP Ventures, Contour Venture Partners, First Round Capital, Khosla Ventures, RRE Ventures, Village Ventures and Institutional Venture Partners. For more information, please visit: www.ondeckcapital.com.

About Institutional Venture Partners (IVP)
With $4 billion of committed capital, Institutional Venture Partners (IVP) is one of the premier later-stage venture capital and growth equity firms in the United States. Founded in 1980, IVP has invested in over 300 companies, 93 of which have gone public. IVP is one of the top performing firms in the industry and has a 32-year IRR of 43.2%. IVP specializes in venture growth investments, industry rollups, founder liquidity transactions and select public market investments. Since its inception, IVP investments include such notable companies as ArcSight (HPQ), Buddy Media (CRM), ComScore (SCOR), Concur Technologies (CNQR), Dropbox, Fleetmatics (FLTX), HomeAway (AWAY), Juniper Networks (JNPR), Kayak (KYAK), LegalZoom, LifeLock (LOCK), Marketo, MySQL (ORCL), Netflix (NFLX), Polycom (PLCM), Seagate (STX), Shazam, Synchronoss (SNCR), Tivo (TIVO), Twitter and Zynga (ZNGA). For more information, visit http://ivp.com or follow IVP on Twitter: @ivp

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Big Switch Networks said that Intel Capital has joined the company’s Series B funding, bringing the total raised to date to over $45 million. Big Switch investors include Goldman Sachs, Index Ventures, Khosla Ventures and Redpoint Ventures. The company initially announced a Series B of $25 million in October with Redpoint leading the deal. It raised a Series A round of $14 million in 2011.

PRESS RELEASE

Big Switch Networks Receives Intel Capital Investment for Software-Defined Networking and Network Virtualization

Mountain View, CA – February 8, 2013 – Big Switch Networks today announced that Intel Capital has invested in the company’s Series B funding, bringing the total amount raised to date to over $45 million from investors including Goldman Sachs, Index Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Redpoint Ventures and others.

Cloud computing is driving the convergence of server, storage and network technologies, and there is a growing need for innovative networking solutions to support the dynamic nature of virtualized and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) cloud data centers. Software-defined networking and merchant silicon Ethernet switches will enable all new levels of network agility and cost-effective operations for cloud and enterprise scale-out data centers.

“Data center operators need programmable and cost effective merchant silicon-based networking architectures to meet their data center economic and operational objectives,” said Bryan Wolf, Managing Director of Intel Capital. “At Intel Capital, we’re looking for companies creating the most disruptive data center solutions, and Big Switch Networks Open Software-Defined Networking product suite is a leading solution in data center network virtualization.”

“Dramatic changes in enterprise and service provider data center networks require novel networking architectures and products,” said Guido Appenzeller, CEO and co-founder of Big Switch Networks. “We are excited to have Intel Capital as a strategic investor to help deliver next generation software-defined networking solutions to the market.”

In 2012 Big Switch Networks shipped the first platform independent Open Software-Defined Networking(SDN) product suite, including network virtualization and network monitoring applications. Big Switch Networks products suite enables network programmability, flexibility and new levels of network service delivery. The Big Switch Networks Open SDN suite includes:
•    Big Network Controller (BNC)-the Open SDN platform for network applications which scales to more than a thousand switches and 250,000 new host connections per second
•    Big Virtual Switch (BVS)-a data center network virtualization application that makes the data center network as agile and dynamic as cloud compute resources and enables up to 50% more VMs per rack.
•    Big Tap- a unified network monitoring application which provides cost-effective enterprise-wide network visibility

About Intel Capital
Intel Capital, Intel’s global investment and M&A organization, makes equity investments in innovative technology start-ups and companies worldwide. Intel Capital invests in a broad range of companies offering hardware, software, and services targeting enterprise, mobility, health, consumer Internet, digital media and semiconductor manufacturing. Since 1991, Intel Capital has invested more than US$10.8 billion in over 1,276 companies in 54 countries. In that timeframe, 201 portfolio companies have gone public on various exchanges around the world and 317 were acquired or participated in a merger. In 2012, Intel Capital invested US$352 million in 150 investments with approximately 57 percent of funds invested outside North America. For more information on Intel Capital and its differentiated advantages, visit www.intelcapital.com or follow @Intelcapital.

About Big Switch Networks
Big Switch Networks is the leader in Open Software-Defined Networking. The company’s Open SDN platform embraces industry standards, open APIs, open source, and vendor-neutral support for both physical and virtual networking infrastructure. Big Switch Networks product suite supports a broad range of networking applications, including network virtualization for public and private cloud data centers built upon OpenStack, CloudStack and other platforms. For additional information  visit: http://www.bigswitch.com   or follow   @bigswitch

Big Switch Networks and the Big Switch Networks logo are trademarks of Big Switch Networks in the United States and other countries. Intel and the Intel logo are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States and other countries.
* Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.

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DataXu said it raised $27 million in a round of financing led by Thomvest Ventures and joined by existing investors Atlas Venture, Flybridge Capital Partners and Menlo Ventures. Thomvest Managing Director Stefan Clulow joins DataXu’s board. Thomvest Ventures is a venture capital group headed by Peter Thomson, a director of Thomson Reuters, publisher of this blog.

PRESS RELEASE

DataXu Closes $27 Million of Growth Capital to Solidify its Lead
in Programmatic Marketing

Thomvest Leads Financing In New Transformational Software Market

Boston – February 7, 2013 – DataXu, a provider of digital marketing software for the enterprise, today announced that it has closed $27 million in funding. This new round of financing will reinforce the company’s leadership position, support ongoing global expansion and accelerate additional investment in technology that keeps its customers at the forefront of innovation.

The investment was led by Thomvest Ventures, a venture capital group headed by Founder and Managing Director Peter Thomson, a director of Thomson Reuters. All three current major investors – Atlas Venture, Flybridge Capital Partners and Menlo Ventures – participated in the round.  Stefan Clulow, Managing Director of Thomvest, joins DataXu’s board of directors with this investment.

“DataXu is using data science to redefine the way marketers build brands in a digital world,” said Mike Baker, CEO of DataXu. “In the era of digital and big data, it’s increasingly obvious that legacy ways of working in the advertising industry – including faith-based thinking, lack of transparency, and an inefficient supply chain — no longer make sense.  Our software helps marketers reduce the cost and complexity of marketing across multiple digital channels, while at the same time enabling them to build a much deeper and more actionable understanding of today’s empowered consumer.  This is the catalyst for our record -breaking growth.”

This funding round comes on the heels of a number of milestones:
·       Created a new software category – Programmatic Marketing. (LINK)
·       Grew direct-to-enterprise platform sales revenue more than 700% year over year, now comprising the majority of the company’s revenue.
·       Introduced the first multi-channel Demand Side Platform to include display, tablet, smartphone, video and Facebook Exchange, with 80 percent of revenue coming from customers running multichannel.
·       Tripled staff and customer base, and increased the company’s global footprint with 11 offices in eight countries.
·       Developed the only real-time multivariate decision system that “learns” how consumers engage across channels and manages media investments for optimal return.(LINK)
·       Extended the DataXu platform to optimize media investments in real time based on consumer sentiment shift (LINK) and beyond exchanges on guaranteed media investments. (LINK)
·       Launched a suite of integrated analytics for customer intelligence and media investment analysis.  (LINK)
·       Founded the OpenRTB consortium whose standard for programmatic media was adopted by the IAB and is in use in more than 80 companies.

“Our strategy is to find and partner with entrepreneurs building transformational companies,” said Peter Thomson. “The rise of programmatic marketing is reminiscent of how automation and software also revolutionized the financial services industry. We believe DataXu is in the vanguard of an even bigger opportunity and on a trajectory to become the next great enterprise software company.

About DataXu

DataXu is transforming the way companies build their brands in a digital world through the industry’s only fully integrated programmatic marketing solution. The DataXu Platform offers cloud based software that leverages data and analytics to help enterprise marketers better understand and engage consumers, and optimally manage marketing investments for more efficient and effective customer acquisition strategies. With 11 offices in eight countries, DataXu services more than 700 brands across the globe. For more information, visit www.dataxu.com or follow us at twitter.com/dataxu.

About Thomvest

Thomvest is a venture capital firm committed to the success of our entrepreneur partners. We primarily focus on investments in areas where we have deep expertise and experience, including software, technology-enabled services, and hardware businesses. The capital we invest is our own, enabling us to be more creative, flexible and patient than most venture investors. It takes time to build great companies and we’re committed to supporting our entrepreneurs throughout their journey. That’s why more than two-thirds of the companies that we have funded in the last decade have either gone public, been acquired, or continue to grow as independent businesses. To learn more about Thomvest, please visit www.thomvest.com.

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