Private Equity Week Wire for Monday 3/5

WASHINGTON, DC — The Carlyle Group, a leading global private equity firm, today announced two additions to its US Venture Team. Allan C. Thygesen joins the firm’s San Francisco office as Managing Director and Brian W. Hayhurst joins the Washington, DC office as Principal. Prior to joining Carlyle, Mr. Thygesen worked for almost five years at Wink Communications, Inc., a leading interactive television company, where he last held the position of Executive Vice President for Sales and Business Development.

HAYWARD, CA — White Pajama, a provider of customer contact solutions for small to medium-sized organizations that debuted its service earlier this year, announced today that it has secured more than $43 million in financing from a blue-chip group of venture capitalists and corporate partners in its bid to redefine the size of organizations able to provide world-class customer care. Norwest Venture Partners led White Pajama’s second round of financing, with participation by Mayfield Fund, Sofinnova Ventures, and other high-tech investors. The latest financing increases the total private funding for White Pajama to more than $53 million since its inception. White Pajama will use the financing to increase its sales and marketing efforts and expand its technology and service offerings.

WAYNE, PA — Planalytics Inc., a provider of supply chain planning technologies, today announced it has completed a $15 million round of funding led by Exelon Capital Partners. Also participating in the round as co-investors were Meridian Venture Partners, TL Ventures, and Wynnefield Capital Advisors.

PALO ALTO, CA — Gemfire, an integratedphotonics company, today announced that it has raised over $63 million in itsSeries C round of funding, bringing the total investment in the company todate to over $85 million. Industry leaders Cisco Systems, Corning, Finisar,Intel Capital and TriQuint Semiconductor participated in the company’s mostrecent round with additional investments from venture capital firms HookPartners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Mohr Davidow Ventures and SpringCreek Partners. Specific terms of each investment were not disclosed. Gemfire, which was formally introduced today, is focused on providingintegrated array-based components for fiber optic applications. Gemfire’smission is to eliminate the primary roadblocks to optical network expansion byintegrating component functions through products that deliver disruptivevalue, performance and functionality.

REDWOOD SHORES, CA — Escalate Inc., provider of theindustry’s most complete enterprise e-commerce application for integratedselling, today announced that it has closed its series C round of fundingtotaling $38.1 million. The financing led, by Charter Growth Capital,enables Escalate to step up marketing and sales efforts. Also providinginvestment capital to Escalate is eVenture at Bank of Singapore, as well assome of the existing investors including Accel Partners and Norwest VenturePartners. Charter Growth is also invested in Commerce One, Agile,Interwoven, and Alteon Web Systems.

NEW YORK — Vaultus, a mobile platform company forthe enterprise, announced today that it has closed $32 million in second roundfinancing, with an anticipated second closing on additional funds to occur bythe end of March. The Series B round, led by First Union Capital Partners,brings the total invested in the company to over $57 million. The round alsoincludes Research In Motion Limited (Nasdaq: RIMM) (Toronto: RIM), (212)Ventures, Investcorp, China Industrial Development Bank and @Ventures asparticipants.

SAN MARCOS, TEXAS — Pixel Magic Imaging, adigital imaging technology and photo kiosk solutions company, today announcedthat Southeast Interactive Technology Funds is leading the series B round of$10.5 million. Southeast Interactive, which also led Pixel’s initial funding,joins repeat investor Sony Electronics,CIT andBarnard & Co. LLC.

ENCINO, CA — Eve Kurtin, managing director of Pacific Venture Group, has beennamed a founding member of the RAND Health Board of Advisors. Comprised of national leaders from both the public and private sectors, the board will work to improve the nation’s healthcare system by advancing an understanding of how the organization and financing of care affects cost, quality and access. Kurtin brings to the board more than two decades of experience as a health care executive. She was the founder and chiefexecutive officer of Physician Venture Management, a joint venture of UniHealth and Columbia/HCA that developed andoperated physician networks nationwide.

SANTA CLARA, CA — Ishoni Networks, the developer of Broadband Engines for the New Internet, today announced that it has raised approximately $35 million in financing from several leading venture capital firms, investment banks, venture lenders and strategic partners. meVC Draper Fisher Jurvetson Fund I (NYSE:MVC) led the venture funding round, and new investors include Brad Peery Capital, Credit Suisse First Boston, Deutsche Banc Alex Brown, PacRim Venture Partners, SinoStar Capital and several other strategic investors. All of Ishoni’s previous investors — Bessemer Venture Partners, Information Technology Ventures, INVESCO Private Capital and Lucent Venture Partners — also participated in the venture-funding round. To date, Ishoni has raised approximately $65 million through three financing rounds.

NEW YORK — Creditex Inc., the leadingglobal electronic trading and information platform for the creditderivatives market, announced today that Thomson Financial Ventures, theventure arm of Thomson Financial, has become an investor and strategicpartner.

CAMBRIDGE, MA — Applied Genomic Technology Capital Funds announced today that it has closed on total capital commitments of $150 million for its first venture funds. AGTC Funds will focus on early- stage companies developing applications of genomic discoveries, information, and technologies. Founded by NewcoGen Group and OneLiberty Ventures, the new funds expect to leverage their partners’ expertise in new venture creation and venture capital investing, and to tap the vast opportunities enabled by the completion of the human genome project.

BEAVERTON, OR — Oresis Communications Inc., a developer of carrier-class, next generation switching products for the global telecommunications marketplace, today announced the closing of a $65 million round of venture funding, bringing the total private capital raised to date to over $100 million. UBS Capital Americas led Oresis’ third major round of funding. Other key investors include Sands Brothers, Silver Creek Fund, U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray, NTT Leasing and Comdisco, as well as existing investors, Bessemer Venture Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, ComVentures, JAFCO America Ventures, and Blueprint Ventures.

BOSTON — Astrum Software, a leading provider of storage resource management (SRM) software, today announced that it has closed its second round of venture capital by securing $5.3 Million in Series A funding. Led by JMI Equity Fund, other strategic investors include Ironside Ventures and Morgan Keegan. Astrum plans to use the investment to aggressively expand its SRM development efforts and strengthen sales and marketing initiatives.

ROWAYTON, CT — Canaan Partners, a national venture capital investment firm, today announced that Andrew Firlik, MD, has joined as Venture Associate in the firm’s Rowayton, Conn. offices. Dr. Firlik joins Canaan’s healthcare investment team to assess and manage investments in the healthcare field. Dr. Firlik is a physician specializing in neurological surgery. Prior to his involvement with Canaan, he served as a consultant to Mayfield Fund and several early stage healthcare companies. He is a co-founder and scientific advisory board member of Vertis Neuroscience, Inc., a medical device company in Seattle. He also co-founded LaunchCyte, LLC, a Pittsburgh-based healthcare seed-stage investor and business accelerator.

BOSTON — Salesnet, the leader in sales process assessment and automation, announced today that it has raised $6.1 million in Series D private equity funding. The Boston-based company’s new round of venture funding was led by Prism Venture Partners and joined by Phoenix Investment Partners and Juniper Ventures. The new capital will support Salesnet’s focus on increasing the sales revenue of their customers by offering the only turnkey solution that benchmarks and identifies problematic selling processes and codifies an organization’s best sales practices.
AUSTIN, TEXAS — Salion, provider of the industry’s first platform for suppliers, announced that the company closed $7 million in first-round funding this month. Austin Ventures, one of the largest venture capital firms in the country, led the round with AV Labs and several individual investors also contributing. Salion will use the cash infusion to build its sales and development teams as the company prepares to launch its offering in the coming months.
INVERNESS, IL — Enable Systems, Inc., a leading provider of web-based, business-to-business procurement systems, marketplaces and catalog content services, announced today that it has received $22 million in of new equity and debt capital. The equity component of the financing was led by Saunders Karp & Megrue, a Stamford, CT-based private equity firm. CIT Business Credit led the senior debt financing. Also participating in the round were members of the company’s senior management team and other private individuals.