Private Equity Week Wire for Monday 2/12

WALTHAM, MA ? Charles River Ventures, one of the nation?s leading early-stage venture capital firms, today announced the closing of Charles River Partners XI, a $1.2 billion venture fund. With its eleventh fund, Charles River has more than doubled its tenth fund, bringing the firm?s total funds raised to more than $2 billion. The firm today also announced that today announced that Santo Politi, former president of New Media for Blockbuster Entertainment, Inc., has joined the firm as an investing partner. He will focus on early-stage investments in the data communications sector.

NEW YORK, NY — Carmichael & Company LLC announced today that it closed $6.5 million of private equity financing for Chatham, NJ based Immedica Inc. Immedica Inc. was founded in 1994 by Chief Executive Officer, Jay Seaton. The Company quickly established itself as a premier manufacturer of high quality orthopedic instruments. Immedica has built a reputation for quality and innovative products for orthopedic medical procedures.

ROSELAND, NJ — Schema Ltd. and its wholly owned subsidiary Schema Inc. (Schema), the leading provider of Telecom Resource Management (TRM) software solutions and services for wireless networks, has secured $25.8 million in third round venture capital financing. Led by BRM Capital (www.brm.com), an active investor in start-up and growth stage infrastructure companies, the round also comprised investments from TL Ventures, a national venture capital firm focusing on information technology, life sciences and communications companies, and EnerTech Capital Partners, a private equity firm specializing in market opportunities in the energy, utility and telecommunication industries. Proceeds from the round will support initiatives including a growing domestic and international presence, sales, marketing, and new product development.

AUSTIN, TX — Simplified Development Corp., a leading software infrastructure company and provider of thefirst open services platform for the communications industry, today announcedthat the company has completed its first round of financing with a $15 millionequity investment from San Francisco-based Vector Capital.
MINNEAPOLIS, MN — St. Paul Venture Capital announcedtoday that William Cadogan, formerly the Chairman and Chief Executive Officerof ADC (Nasdaq: ADCT) has joined the firm as a general partner. Cadogan willfocus primarily on early-stage companies involved in telecommunications,working with St. Paul Venture Capital’s Boston-based team and in Minnesota.He will assume his new position on May 1, 2001. Cadogan has more than 25 years experience in the telecommunications field.He served most recently as Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officerof Minneapolis-based ADC. Under his leadership, ADC grew from $263 million inrevenue in 1990 to approximately $3.2 billion in 2000. Over this same period,earnings grew at better than 28 percent per year.

FRAMINGHAM, MA — Nauticus Networks Inc. today announced it has secured $12.5 million in first round funding from leading venture capital firms Charles River Ventures, Matrix Partners and North Bridge Venture Partners. Nauticus, a startup founded by networking industry veterans, will use the funding to drive the development of next generation Internet infrastructure products.

BAN FRANCISCO, CA — Coremetrics Inc. (www.coremetrics.com), a provider of business intelligence solutions that enable companies to improve interactions with their customers based on a complete understanding of online behavior, today announced the company has secured $31 million in a third round of Venture Capital funding. This third round was led by Accel Partners and Highland Capital Partners and will be used to expand Coremetrics’ research and development, client services, and sales and marketing departments. General Catalyst and Australia-based TiNSHED also participated in this round.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Whatifi Financial, a provider of investment solutions for the mainstreaminvestor, today announced that it has received $8 million in a second round offinancing led by CIBC Capital Partners. The company’s original venturebacker, Shawmut Capital Partners, also participated in the round.

PHILADELPHIA, PA — Ecount, theindustry-leading provider of electronic payment solutions, stored value cards,and virtual accounts, today announced the first close portion on an$11 million round of financing. Cross Atlantic Capital Partners led theinvestment with participation by NewSpring Ventures and Masthead VenturePartners.

MIGDAL HAEMEK, ISRAEL — Tower Semiconductor Ltd. announced today the signing of a definitive agreement withThe Challenge Fund – Etgar II, a venture capital partnership registered in Delaware, USA, under which The Challenge Fundwill invest $5 million in Tower common shares under terms similar to Tower’s recent investment agreement with Israel Corp. The proceeds of this investment will be used in connection with the funding of Tower’s Fab 2. In return, Challenge Fundwill receive corresponding equity in Tower. Under these terms the investment will be made over a period of about two years,upon reaching specified milestones along the project plan. On achieving each milestone, Tower will receive the correspondinginstallment and in return issue the agreed upon common shares. The first installment of $1.33 million is expected today. Inreturn The Challenge Fund will receive 99,115 Tower common shares.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Walden International, a leading global venture capital firm todayannounced the addition of Amos Barzilay as a general partner, responsible for international investments in the Internetinfrastructure and software sectors. Prior to joining Walden International, Barzilay was the vice president and general manager of the worldwide Content andSupplier Solution division of Commerce One Inc., where he was instrumental in winning major emarketplaces and pushing thecompany’s growth. Previously, he served as co-founder, chairman, president and CEO of Mergent Systems, Inc., in additionto top level managerial positions at C*ATS Software Inc. and Informix Software Inc.