Private Equity Week Wire for Thursday 11-15

WALTHAM, MA — Gomez Inc. today announced a financing round of $3.5 million to fund future growth. The round was led by existing investor Dolphin Communications Partners of New York. Also participating were Softbank Finance and Morningstar Japan.

The funds will be used to underwrite the development and distribution of new products and services, according to Alex Stein, Gomez president. Beyond hiring additional sales staff and expanding distribution partnerships, the additional capital will also enable the firm to extend its brand awareness through new marketing initiatives, Stein said.

GREAT BARRINGTON, MA — HotRoof Inc., a software company providing media customization and fulfillment technologies that enable businesses to increase profitability and efficiencies by delivering custom video programming to target audiences, today announced it has received additional financing from its existing investors. The latest round of financing, which totals $825,000, will be devoted to additional product development and sales efforts for HotRoof’s award-winning media customization software, StreamWriter(TM), as well as the launch of an expanded product line of on-demand media fulfillment products. HotRoof’s current customers include Advance/Conde Nast Publications, Lifetime Entertainment/Artisan Entertainment and PRIMEDIA.

Davenport Capital Ventures, a Braintree, MA-based venture capital firm with investments in over 25 emerging high technology businesses, led the Company’s $3.3 million “B” round last October and again leads the group of investors. The round also includes contributions from existing investors Village Ventures and Flavin, Blake & Co.

EL SEGUNDO, CA — iSuppli Corp. announced it has raised its third round of financing, further confirming its unique approach to high-volume electronic component sourcing, procurement, and industry market intelligence services. The funding round, established as a flat valuation to the second round, brings total venture investments in iSuppli to over $61 million. Previous iSuppli investors joined in the third round of funding, giving a major vote of confidence for the iSuppli business model, management team, and business plan execution to date. The principal third round investors include, CMEA Ventures, NeoCarta Ventures, Tyco Ventures and Derek Lidow — iSuppli President and CEO.

SANTA BARBARA, CA — Envenergy Inc., a provider of hardware, software, and networking solutions for energy and facility management, today announced the close of a $13.4 million round of financing. Nth Power, a leading venture capital firm specializing in energy technology, was the lead investor. The Series C round, which was over-subscribed, includes investments from Rustic Canyon Ventures, OPG Ventures (the venture arm of Ontario Power Generation), Summit Energy Ventures (an affiliate of Commonwealth Energy Corp.), SP Capital (the venture arm of Singapore Power), and the Santa Barbara Technology Group.
MUNICH & BOSTON & SAN FRANCISCO — Techno Venture Management, the German-U.S. venture capital firm, announced today that it has closed TVM V Life Science Ventures at ? 336 million. This is significantly above the original ? 250 million target.

From this fund, TVM expects to make investments throughout Europe, with a focus on Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and the United Kingdom as well as in the United States. The sector focus will remain unchanged with a strong emphasis on platform technologies that enhance drug discovery, integrated drug discovery, drug delivery and drug development companies. The fund will have a bias towards early stage investments and will selectively consider late stage deals. A major focus of the fund´s investment activity will be the creation and growth of transatlantic businesses.

PRINCETON, NJ — Dr. Argeris “Jerry” Karabelas, formerHead of Health Care and CEO of Worldwide Pharmaceuticals for Novartis AG,has joined Care Capital LLC, an investment firm focusing on the lifesciences field, as a partner.

DENVER — VeloCom Inc. today announced successful completion of the financial restructuring plan of Vesper, its competitive telecommunications operation in Brazil. A joint venture between QUALCOMM Inc. (Nasdaq: QCOM) and VeloCom, Vesper is Latin America’s largest competitive local exchange carrier.

Designed to infuse capital sufficient to meet Vesper’s future funding needs and significantly de-leverage the company, the restructuring eliminates over US$1 billion in debt and includes an additional cash commitment of $346 million from the shareholders. QUALCOMM and VeloCom are contributing $266 million and $80 million in new equity respectively.

ARLINGTON, VA — Versura, the Education Loan Exchange, announced today that the Ascend Venture Group, LLC has joined Palisade Capital Management, LLC and General Electric Pension Trust as institutional investors in Versura. The Ascend Venture Group will make a $1.5 million investment in Versura. Versura closed a $5 million round in early August and will use the newly added capital to fund business operations.

SAN FRANCISCO — Archetype, the leading provider of mass customization technology and services for the apparel industry, today announced it closed a $6.25 million Series B round of financing. The round was led by Carlyle Venture Partners with participation from strategic investors, Series A investors, and new individual investors. This follows a $1.5 million Series A round of financing that closed in 2000.

BOSTON — Lazard Technology Partners today announced the opening of a Boston office, to be run by former MCK Communications Inc. CEO Woody Benson.

PRINCETON, NJ — Digital 5 Inc., a leading embedded systems developer, today announced the close of $11 million in B-round financing led by the international venture capital company 3i. The round includes strategic investments from the venturing arm of Royal Philips Electronics, Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) and series A investor SpaceVest.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA — NetLogic Microsystems Inc., the leader in network data plane system solutions that enable the global infrastructure of networking and optical communications, today announced it has secured more than $22 million from new and existing investors in its third round of funding. The company expects this final round, which brings total investment in the company to $54 million, to fund operations through to profitability and its initial public offering (IPO).

The round was co-led by U.S. Trust’s Excelsior Venture Partners III and Sevin Rosen Funds. Excelsior Venture Partners III, LLC is U.S. Trust’s newest private equity fund with an investment focus on information technology, communications, life sciences and information services. Sevin Rosen, an existing NetLogic investor, targets financing on pivotal advances in technologies such as optical networks, wireless Internet and e-commerce infrastructure.
CHARLOTTE, NC — Eontec, the global provider of Enterprise JavaBeans(TM)(EJB)(TM)- based multi-channel banking software solutions, announced today that it has secured a $25 million (U.S.) equity investment. The Series B financing is led by Warburg Pincus, one of the leading global IT venture capitalist firms, and also includes ICC Venture Capital and other existing Eontec shareholders.

AUSTIN, TEXAS — VIEO Inc. today confirmed previously published reports that it has named Bob Fabbio, founder of Tivoli Systems and head of TL Ventures’ Austin office, as its new president and CEO. Fabbio succeeds current CEO, Newt Hamlin, and will depart his post at TL Ventures effective in mid-December to take the reins at VIEO. Hamlin had planned to turn VIEO over to a new CEO once the company completed its Series A funding and was established as a leading InfiniBand software provider.

ROCHESTER, NY — Eastman Kodak Co. announced today significant changes to its operating model that will improve the company’s ability to generate profitable growth. Most importantly for the venture community, Ted G. Lewis, senior vice president and director of Digital Business Development, announced his intention to leave the company. Kodak remains committed to the venture capital investments it has made and expects to continue investigating investment opportunities in emerging technology. Yet the economic slowdown has reduced activity in the venture capital community, causing Kodak to change the way it approaches this market. James C. Stoffel, Chief Technical Officer and a Senior Vice President, will assume responsibility for Kodak’s venture activities.

WESTBOROUGH, MA — OpenService Inc. (OPEN), a prominent security management software company, today has the opportunity to become a leader in Network Security Management with the acquisition of NerveCenter(TM). Under the terms of the agreement, VERITAS Software Corporation (Nasdaq: VRTS) is taking an equity stake in OPEN. OPEN also received a second round of equity funding led by Zesiger Capital Group, LLC, and another new investor, 1to1 Venture Partners, LLC, with further participation from current investors in OPEN.

Under the terms of the agreement, OPEN acquires the NerveCenter event correlation and root-cause analysis technology, gains a Fortune 500 customer base and an established reseller channel, and captures a valuable revenue stream. VERITAS Software will actively assist in the transition of the product to OPEN by providing support and development resources.

LOS ALTOS, CA — Co-Design Automation, an Electronic Design Automation (EDA) software supplier, today announced that it has closed its latest funding round. Investors include Andreas Bechtolsheim, vice president and general manager of Cisco Systems, Inc., and Intel Capital. Previous investors include Altera Corporation and Redwood Venture Partners.

NEWPORT BEACH, CA — NextStrat, the leader in providing the market’s first enterprise software application to manage the entire strategy cycle, announced today it has secured the financial backing of Citadel Capital Management Group, an international investment services firm based in Pasadena, Calif.

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