Private Equity Week Wire for Monday 6/9

MIAMI — Viajo.com, Latin America’s leading online travel destination, today announced it has closed a third round of financing, led by previous investors JPMorgan Partners and GP Investimentos. Viajo.com will use the funds to further strengthen its position as the online travel leader in Latin America’s three largest markets: Brazil, Mexico and Argentina. Viajo.com expects this round of funding to see the company through to profitability, which is estimated by the first quarter of 2002. In addition to JPMorgan Partners and GP Investimentos, other participants in the round include: TH Lee Putnam Internet Partners, SLI.com Venture, Luna Ventures, GE Capital, Ventech International and Walden Media.

HERNDON, VA — Ikimbo Inc., a leader in enterprise real-time communication solutions, today announced it has closed third-round financing totaling $9.5 million from several strategic and venture capital investors. The round was lead by William Blair New World Ventures (WBNW), a fund that invests in B2B networking and technology infrastructure companies. Ikimbo plans to use the capital to expand sales and marketing efforts for its flagship software platform, Omniprise(TM), and to continue development of its simple, secure, and flexible real-time communication solutions. Cross Atlantic, Draper Atlantic, Exelon Capital Partners, MRW Enterprises, Riggs Capital Investment, Schoffstall Ventures, and Steve Walker & Associates also provided funding.

LONDON — ClarITeam, an expert in quality of IT services, today announces the completion of a third round of private investor equity funding worth Euros 14.4 (£8.7) million.This new step in the development of the company is financed by 3 new investors, the funds managed by Apax Partners Group, Viventures Partners, IDG Ventures Europe, and the former investors Dassault Développement, Innovacom, Sofinnova.The additional capital will enable ClarITeam increase penetration in the already established European market and to fund its expansion into the US.

SAN FRANCISCO ? Genstar Capital LP, a private equity firm specializing in equity investments structured as management buyouts or growth financings, today announced the closing of its third and largest fund, Genstar Capital Partners III, L.P. (?Genstar III?). Genstar III has $221 million of new capital under management bringing Genstar?s total capital under management to over $440 million.  The fund is led by Genstar Managing Directors Jean-Pierre L. Conte, Richard F. Hoskins and Richard D. Paterson. With Genstar III, the firm is continuing its focus on investing primarily in the areas of life sciences, industrial technology and information technology.  Utilizing a streamlined investment approach, Genstar assists companies to execute highly tailored restructuring and repositioning plans by developing and supporting a superior management team, providing focus on the profitability of the core business, and investing in both organic growth and add-on acquisitions.

PALO ALTO, CA — Intransa, a privately held company focused on developing an intelligent storage solution, today announced it has raised over $15 million in venture capital financing, co-led byAdvanced Technology Ventures and US Venture Partners. Intransa products will enable a new generation of cost-effective, high performance, networked storage solutions, rangingfrom workgroup to enterprise solutions.

HAYWARD, CA — Signature BioScience, a development-stage biotech company which is creating a next-generation drug screeningtechnology platform, today announced that it has raised $43 million in its fourth round of funding, led by SG Capital Partners of New York. This self-managed private placementbrings the total amount of funds raised by the company to more than $64 million since its inception in late 1998. Participating in this round of financing were existing investors Prospect Venture Partners, Atlas Venture, Abingworth Management, CIBC Capital Partners and Coral Ventures, aswell as new investors including SG Capital Partners, Vulcan Ventures Inc., MDS Capital Corp., China Development Industrial Bank, Tallwood Venture Capital, Lehman Brothers,Lotus Bioscience Ventures, Ltd., and IRR. Signature intends to use the money raised to fuel expansion in two primary ways: First, acquiring both novel targets and chemical librariesto initiate expansion of the company’s efforts into drug discovery, and second, organically expanding the company’s infrastructure in support of both instrumentation and drugdiscovery partnerships and internal discovery efforts. In addition, the company will be actively seeking out and evaluating potential acquisition targets to complement its existingtechnology and attain critical mass in its drug discovery efforts.

NEWARK, CA — LightConnect Inc., a leading designer and manufacturer of dynamic MEMS-based fiber optic components, announced today that it raised $15.8 million in second roundfinancing. The round was led by Incubic LLC, a venture capital firm focused on photonics and biotechnology. Other first round investors participating in the Series B financing include SevinRosen Fund, Morgenthaler Ventures, US Venture Partners and Optical Capital Group. The new venture capital participant in this round is Excelsior Venture Partners III, LLC, thenewly formed venture capital fund of U.S. Trust. The financing will be used to ramp up manufacturing, expand market penetration and develop new products.

KANATA, ONTARIO — ATMOS Corp., a premier provider of embedded memory solutions to companies that implement system-on-a-chip(SoC) applications, today announced the close of a $US 10 million round of financing. This round was led by investor Virage Logic Corp. (NASDAQ:VIRL) with $US 5 million. MOSAID Technologies Inc. (TSE:MSD.), Ventures West, BDC Venture Capitaland Eastern Technology Seed Investment Fund (ETSIF), all earlier investors in ATMOS, also participated in this round. The investment enables ATMOS to accelerate its product and market development to provide SoC and integrated circuit (IC) designers access to the ATMOS family of embeddeddynamic random access memory (DRAM) products and associated electronic design automation (EDA) tools. This includes ATMOS SoC-RAM memory cores and web-basedcompiler software.

OMAHA, NE — eOneGroup, a leading provider of Internet ecommerce products, announced today their first institutional round of fundingfrom Dreamfield Capital Ventures LLC, a Nebraska based venture capital firm. Proceeds of the investment will be used for closing several in-process and planned strategic partnerships, marketing and sales initiatives and general corporate purposes includingstaffing to accommodate rapid sales growth.

SAN FRANCISCO — Blueprint Ventures announced today that BrianKinard has joined as Partner to lead the firm’s intensified focus on the fiber optics sector. Brian Kinard has a 15-year career in the communications industry and brings deep technology experience in the optics components and systems areas. Prior to joining BlueprintVentures, Brian was vice president of business development and general counsel at Avanex Corp. (NASDAQ: AVNX), a developer of optical components and photonicprocessors for the telecommunications industry. Brian helped build Avanex, a start-up backed by several leading VCs, into a leading public company in the optical communicationssector.

SALT LAKE CITY — Cerberian Inc. Monday announced that it has closed on its second round of funding (1A) totaling $1.6 million. This additional infusion of capital brings the company’s total funding received to $2.7 million. vSpring Capital and Wasatch Ventures co-led the round along with new investorAngel Partners Inc.

CHARLESTOWN, MA — PHT Corp., a leading provider of Web-based electronic data management systems and technology for the biopharmaceutical industry, today announced over $18 million in equity financing. Led by Care Capital LLC, the new investment group represents commitments by Merck Capital Ventures, Merrill Lynch Ventures, Quintiles’ PharmaBio Development, and PAREXEL International Corporation. Returning investors included Boston Millennia Partners, Rho Ventures, U. S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray Ventures, DelTech Ventures, and Kestrel Ventures. The funding will enable PHT to accelerate its rate of new technology investment, expand global outreach, and focus on selective merger, acquisition, and partnership opportunities.

GENEVA — Index Ventures, a leading pan-European venture capital firm, today announced the closing of Index Ventures II, L.P., a $300 million fund. This announcement brings the total amount under advisory at Index Ventures to $500 million. Target investments for Index Ventures II, L.P. will focus on enterprise software, middleware, storage, wireless and optics within the technology sector and post-genomic platforms, therapeutics and nanotechnologies in the life sciences sector. Index Ventures’ strategic corporate investors include some of the world’s leading technology firms, including Cisco Systems. The firm’s investment team works proactively with these strategic partners on mutual areas of interest including business development.

LOS ANGELES — Jefferies & Co., Inc., the principal operating subsidiary of Jefferies Group Inc. (NYSE: JEF), announced today thatBrian P. Friedman and his private equity investment group have affiliated with Jefferies. With over $600 million under management, this twelve-person group is expected to furtherJefferies’ efforts in private equity, complement and expand the firm’s strong position in middle market investment banking, and augment its growing presence in New York. Mr. Friedman, president and founder of the seven-year-old investment group, was previously head of Furman Selz LLC’s investment banking division. The private equity groupinvests in private and public companies through vehicles that include buyouts, buildups, recapitalizations and late stage venture opportunities.

REDWOOD CITY, CA — Enviz Inc., the technology leader in business intelligence for the user experience, today announced the company has raised $4 million in its second round of venture capital financing. This round includes follow-on investments from Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ). The additional capital will be used to expand Enviz sales and marketing, client services, and research and development. To date, Enviz has secured a total of over $10 million in capital, which includes a $5 million first round from DFJ and Stanford University and $1.25 million in financing from Silicon Valley Bank.