Private Equity Week Wire for Monday 3/26

NEEDHAM, MA — SHYM Technology Inc., provider of plug-in security and trust management solutions for critical business applications, today announced the completion of its Series C funding, which raised $17.75 million in new capital for company operations. 3i Technology Partners led the investment, with participation from previous investors Venrock Associates, North Bridge Venture Partners, and Canaan Partners. SHYM will use the proceeds to continue investing in product development, sales, and marketing. SHYM has also named 3i General Partner Allan Ferguson to its Board of Directors.

NEW YORK — J. & W. Seligman & Co. Incorporated announcedthat it has named Edward Rieger as Vice President in the firm’sinstitutional marketing group. In that position, he will act as ProductManager for Seligman’s new Post-Venture Distribution Management service. Mr.Rieger will report to Rodney Smith, Managing Director, who is responsiblefor the firm’s institutional business in the U.S. and offshore.

MADRID & LONDON — Dresdner Kleinwort Capital is pleased to announce its lead-role in a Euro 18 million investment in Clínica Baviera S.A., a Spanish ophthalmologist with ambitious expansion plans, in exchange for a minority participation in its share capital. The transaction closed on the 5th March 2001.DrKC invested Eur 10 million on behalf of Dresdner Bank. Dresdner Kleinwort Benson Private Equity Limited (DrKBPEL) has also invested Euro 3 million on behalf of one of its client funds. Other investors are Spanish financial institutions with co-investment arrangements with DrKC. The aim of the funding is to help finance the company?s plans to open 30 new clinics throughout Europe. Clínica Baviera hopes to open its first clinic outside of Spain in Milan in June of this year.

ROSEMONT, IL — Comdisco Inc., a global technology services company, announced today it is providing $5 million in equipment lifecycle services to Ingenium Pharmaceuticals AG, a rapidly expanding biotechnology company headquartered near Munich, Germany. By applying a suite of equipment planning, financing, upgrading, and reselling services, Comdisco is helping Ingenium to cost-effectively align equipment lifecycles with research and business imperatives, enhance productivity, and bring innovations to market faster on a global scale.

SO. SAN FRANCISCO, CA — MPM Capital today announced the launch of the MPM BioEquities Fund to invest in biotechnology and life sciences companies worldwide. The fund is the third fund to be launched from MPM Capital and follows the successful launches of the BioVentures I funds in 1997 and the MPM BioVentures II fund in 2000. The MPM BioEquities Fund is headed by veteran biotechnology investor Kurt von Emster, former manager of the Franklin Biotechnology Discovery Fund and the Franklin Global Health Care Fund. The fund utilizes a hedged investment strategy and will invest primarily in the small and mid-cap segment of the biotechnology industries, with about 85% of the fund dedicated to public securities and 15% in late stage private investments. CalPERS, the California Public Employees Retirement System, is the lead investor and has invested $100 million in the fund.

ST. LOUIS — GlobalStreams Inc., a broadcasting solutions and services company, today announced it has secured $22 million in first round financing to support the continued growth of the company and its international client base. The round was led by Highland Capital Partners, with ComVentures, Gateway Associates and several private investors also participating. The company also announced today that it has changed its name from Play Streaming Media Group to GlobalStreams, following the acquisitions of several breakthrough broadcast production and digital content management technology assets. The recent acquisitions included the GlobeCaster(tm) — the first all-in-one production studio for Internet broadcasting.

PALO ALTO, CA — Trident Capital, a national venture capital firm that focuses on information technology, announced today the closing of Fund V, a $725 million venture capital fund. Trident Capital’s investment strategy for Fund V is consistent with earlier funds, concentrating on investments in early stage companies that are well-positioned to become leaders in the business-to-business Internet marketplace. The majority of Trident’s prior investments have been in early stage companies and leveraged buyouts in software, business services, and Internet infrastructure companies. Fund V brings Trident’s total funds under management to over $1.4 billion.

WASHINGTON — Arlington Capital Partners, a $450 million private equity fund focused on telecommunications, technology, outsourcing and information services, announced the addition of Perry Steiner as Managing Director. Mr. Steiner was previously president of the e-commerce firm Digital River, Inc, a NASDAQ listed company.

VIENNA, VA — AperServ Technologies, which enables companies to automatically manage the performance of their IT outsourcers and their Service Level Agreements (SLA), today announced it has successfully raised $1.4 million in its first round of financing. Lycos Ventures, Walker Ventures, Maryland Angels Council and private investor Ed Horowitz, contributed to the first round that will be used for general working capital. AperServ will launch its first product offering in the second quarter of 2001. Also, AperServ named its board of directors consisting of: the company’s founders Greg Keough, CEO, and Tim Keough, chief technology officer; Jim Condon, Entrepreneur in Residence for Updata Venture Capital and former president and CEO of CyberCash; Gina Dubbe, managing partner of Walker Ventures; and Ed Horowitz, the former Chairman of e-Citi and former Chairman and CEO of Viacom Interactive Media.

NORTHBROOK, IL — Ikadega Inc., a provider of rich media content and data storage and delivery solutions, today announced it has secured $8 million in its first institutional round of funding, led by Chicago-based Kettle Partners with participation from BlueStar Ventures, Leo Capital Holdings and OCA Ventures. This round of funding, which brings the total to $15 million Ikadega has received to date from various corporate and angel investors, will be used to expand senior management and engineering and to expedite the development of the suburban Chicago company’s rich media content and data storage and delivery solutions.

LONDON — Advent Venture Partners, the independent technology venture capitalist specialising in the technology and healthcare sectors, has expanded its investment team with the appointment of two new Associates. Frederic Court and Isabelle Irani join Advent as part of its expanding technology investment team. Their appointments bring the total number of investment executives at Advent to 12. Frederic Court joins Advent after having founded Etexx, a French-based e-business solutions provider for the textiles industry. Prior to that he spent over five years at Lazard, firstly in corporate finance and then as part of its telecom and technology team in London, Milan and New York. Isabelle Irani joins Advent having spent five years at Lehman Brothers. Most recently, she was a member of its London-based equity research team focusing on the European internet sector and, prior to that, she was part of the corporate finance technology group based in Silicon Valley.

GRAND RAPIDS, MI— Mercantile Bank Corp., owner of Mercantile Bank of West Michigan, one of the nation’s fastest growing community banks, announced that it has privately placed 446,600 common shares through Stifel, Nicolaus & Company. The private placement raised $5.7 million in capital, net of transaction costs. In February, Mercantile also completed a privately negotiated transaction issuing 70,000 shares and generating approximately $1 million in capital, net of transaction costs. The placements raised a total of $6.7 million in net proceeds, virtually all of which were contributed to the bank as capital. These transactions raise the total number of shares outstanding to 3,112,702 from 2,596,102.