Private Equity Week Wire for Monday 11/12

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO — Fluidigm Corp. (formerly Mycometrix), an innovator in the rapidly emerging microfluidic technology market, today announced it has raised $34 million in Series C financing from venture capital investors. Fluidigm also has commitments for up to an additional $4 million.

Lehman Brothers, a global investment bank, led the round with additional investments from Euclid SR Partners, U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray, and GE Equity. The latest round also included follow-on investments from prior investors, including Versant Ventures and InterWest Partners. MOUNTAIN VIEWCA — Visto Corp., a leading provider of enterprise and carrier mobility software and services, today announced the completion of a $31 million financing round led by new investors, WaldenVC and Rustic Canyon Ventures. The funding will support Visto’s growth plans, including sales force expansion, product enhancements, and partnership developments.

LONDON — Dow Jones is reporting that Schroders Ventures Europe will change its name to Permira. The funds advised by the company will also be renamed to reflect the change.

PALO ALTO, CA –Worldview Technology Partners, a leading emerging technology, telecommunications and infrastructure software venture capital firm, with $1.75 billion under management, announces the addition of Jim Strawbridge as Chief Operating Officer and Partner. A 14-year veteran of Silicon Valley, Strawbridge will broaden Worldview’s services to portfolio companies as well as expand and manage the operating infrastructure required to scale a rapidly growing firm. Strawbridge spent 12 years at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, one of the premier legal firms serving the high tech industry. As a partner in the firm, Strawbridge specialized in corporate securities and mergers and acquisitions. He also worked extensively with emerging growth companies in corporate formation, strategic investments, joint ventures, and in public and private equity and debt financings. He represented firm clients such as Netscape, Xilinx, NeXT Software, Pixar Animation Studios, Polycom, C/Net, Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse First Boston.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA — Satmetrix Systems, a provider of software solutions that set the standard for real-time customer satisfaction measurement, analysis, and improvement, today announced that is has received $8 million of funding from Sutter Hill Ventures and Stanford University. The financing includes the appointment of James C. Gaither, a managing director at Sutter Hill Ventures, to the board of directors at Sametrix Systems. Gaither is a former chairman of the Board of Trustees of Stanford University and serves on the Boards of Levi Strauss & Co., nVidia and Siebel Systems, as well as the Boards of the Hewlett and Irvine Foundations.
MENLO PARK, CA — Morgenthaler, a leading venture capital and buyout firm, today announced Krish Prabhu as venture partner. As such, the former chief operating officer of Alcatel (NYSE: ALA) will be responsible for identifying, nurturing, and helping guide early-stage technology companies, particularly those in the communications arena. Prabhu, based in Dallas, began his career with Bell Labs in 1980 and joined Alcatel in 1991, serving as chief operating officer from October 1999 to August 2001. Previously, Prabhu was Alcatel USA’s chief executive officer, where he was responsible for growing Alcatel’s US business. He has also held a number of executive and research and development positions at Rockwell International and AT&T Bell Laboratories. He currently sits on Alcatel’s board of directors. Prabhu has a Master of Science degree in Physics from the Indian Institute of Technology, and Master of Science and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh.

WALNUT CREEK, CA — Softface Inc., an enterprise content automation company, announced today that it has successfully completed the closing of an oversubscribed Series C equity round with a total amount of $10.4 million, bringing the total amount of equity financing issued, raised, and committed to more than $17.9 million since the company’s inception in July 1998.

The round was led by a $4.5 million commitment from Norwest Venture Partners (NVP), and included investments from RWI Group. Series A and B investors Telos Venture Partners and prominent Silicon Valley executives including Don Lucas, Sr., Dave Duffield, Peggy Taylor, Ray Bingham and Alberto Sangiovanni-Vincentelli also participated in the latest round. Also announced today, Venkat Mohan, Venture Partner at NVP has joined Softface’s Board of Directors.

SAN MATEO, CA — Biz360, the leading provider of analytic applications for external information, today announced that it has raised $6.25 million from both new and existing investors in its Series B round of funding. The company also announced that Bill Elmore, a partner at lead investor, Foundation Capital, is now a member of the Biz360 board of directors. In addition to Foundation Capital, the lead investor, Adobe Ventures, Granite Ventures (formerly Hambrecht & Quist Venture Associates), and Geneva Partners also participated in this Series B round of funding.

NEW YORK — J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) announced that the merger of its two lead banks, The Chase Manhattan Bank and Morgan Guaranty Trust Company of New York, became effective November 10, 2001. The name of the merged bank is JPMorgan Chase Bank. The bank, with assets of approximately $600 billion, will operate across both the retail and wholesale businesses.

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