Private Equity Week Wire for Tuesday 5/15

NEW YORK — INVESCO Private Capital, a New York-based venture capital firm, is pleased to announce the closing of the EuroMedia Venture Fund, a $150 million strategic fund focused on early- and expansion- stage venture investments in the information technology, communications, broadband infrastructure, and global commerce industries. The Fund is part of INVESCO Private Capital’s $530 million Chancellor V pool of direct funds that closed on March 31, 2001 and is backed by Fininvest of Italy and a group of European corporate investors in the media and communications industries. The Fund has already invested $41 million in 16 portfolio companies.

SAN FRANCISCO — vVault, a leading developer of platform technology for mobile productivity applications, today announced that it has successfully secured $3 million in the close of its Series C preferred equity financing. Lead investors Bluefish Ventures and Biscom, Inc. were joined by venture capital firms Gerard, Klauer, Mattison & Co., XL Ventures, and Washington Investment Partners. In addition, the financing group included notable private investors Mark Patterson (Vice Chairman, Credit Suisse First Boston), Jack Hennessy (Former Chairman, Credit Suisse First Boston) and Leo Hindery (Chairman, HL Capital).

PARSIPPANY, NJ — Creditek LLC, the leader in Order-to-Cash Cycle Outsourcing and Enterprise Receivables Management, has completed a $30 million investment from General Atlantic Partners LLC, the world’s largest private equity firm with an exclusive focus on investing in information technology and telecommunications businesses globally. The new investment will provide Creditek with additional capital to fund its growth strategy. The funds will be used to complete Creditek’s technology, operating infrastructure and service offerings for the rapidly growing order-to-cash cycle segment of the global Business Process Outsourcing marketplace. Creditek serves Fortune 1000 class clients, and has been the US leader in receivables management outsourcing since its founding in 1982. From its base in the U.S., Creditek is rapidly expanding its international activities with clients in Europe and Latin America. Creditek attributes its competitive success to its focus on quality, and its continuous development of a proprietary knowledge base, best practices, and leading edge technology.

BOSTON & MENLO PARK, CA — TA Associates, one of the nation’s leading private equity firms, today announced the completion of a $57.5 million investment in EYP Mission Critical Facilities Inc., the leading company protecting critical business data, communications, and power systems from failure. As part of the transaction, TA and several EYP management executives purchased the Mission Critical Facilities business from Einhorn Yaffee Prescott Architecture & Engineering, PC. EYP Mission Critical Facilities(R) specializes in supporting the technical needs of high reliability/high uptime facilities for clients including American Express, AT&T, Exodus Communications, Fidelity, Merrill Lynch, Salomon Smith Barney and Schwab.

ACTON, MA — LifeClips Inc., a provider of home Videotape to DVD Conversion Services, today announced it has secured a total of $12.2 million in second round financing led by St. Paul Venture Capital.

REDWOOD CITY, CA — Draper Fisher Jurvetson, a leading early stage information technology venture capital firm, announced today the funding of IQ Labs of Hayward, California. IQ Labs is the leading provider of enterprise software that automates and simplifies provisioning of telecommunication and data communication resources, in the context of the workforce. IQ Labs’ multi-platform, change management software dramatically reduces operating costs by empowering corporations to have greater control and the ability to manage enterprise-wide communications resources in real time. This optimizes resource utilization and increases workforce productivity. IQ Labs software enables seamless transition to wireless communications platforms, IP telephony, and directory service-centric resource management.

MCLEAN, VA — Mohr, Davidow Ventures and Novak Biddle Venture Partners announced a $6.3 million investment today in Zagros Networks, a newly formed company out of the University of Maryland developing technology to break through the performance bottlenecks of packet switched networks. Zagros will use the funding for product development, hiring and related business operations. The company, founded by the University of Maryland?s Dean of the Clark School of Engineering Nariman Farvardin and three University of Maryland PhDs, will address problems associated with data traffic congestion at the backplane or circuit board level.

INDIANAPOLIS — Mezzia, Inc., developers of collaborative supply chain planning solutions, today announced the closing of $5.6 million in second-round funding, bringing total funds raised to date to over $10 million. The lead investor in this round was Chicago-based KB Partners LLC, which also added a member to the Mezzia Board of Directors. Other investors included Mason Wells, Milwaukee, and Gazelle TechVentures of Indianapolis. Proceeds of the round, which was oversubscribed, will be used to expand sales and marketing efforts for Mezzia’s flagship solution, Mezzia Demand Planner(TM). It is the first collaborative supply chain planning solution that helps organizations proactively manage their internal demand for goods and services, resulting in immediate cost reductions and increased operational efficiency.

CUPERTINO, CA — William “Bill” Diamond, President and CEO of WaveSplitter, a producer ofnext generation optical networking equipment, joins FireStarter LLC?sinformal Presidents Circle. FireStarter LLC?s Presidents Circle, an informal network of presidents andCEOs from a wide spectrum of high technology fields, is now forty membersstrong. Voice recognition software, semiconductor capital equipment,enterprise software, healthcare and IT ASP?s, encryption software, internetinfrastructure, computer animation, and advanced chemical managementrepresent a sample of the areas of expertise.

BEDFORD, MA — InteQ Corp., the leading management service provider (MSP) for enterprises, today announced it has completed a $57 million second round of funding from a groupof investors to finance its next stage of growth. The round comprises $40 million in new equity and $17 million in convertible debt financing. Led by affiliates of Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER), one of the world’s leadingequity trading and underwriting firms, the round includes a new investment from Mercury Interactive Corp. (NASDAQ: MERQ), and additional investments from leadingventure capital firms Charles River Ventures and M/C Venture Partners.

LONDON — The Carlyle Group is pleased to announce that John Major, the former Prime Minister of Great Britain, will be joining thefirm as Chairman of Carlyle Europe. In that capacity, Mr. Major will serve as Chairman of Carlyle’s European private equity funds and their advisory boards. Mr. Major will also be involved in providingcounsel and advice to the senior Carlyle investment professionals, now operating in Barcelona, Frankfurt, London, Madrid, Milan, Munich, and Paris. Carlyle’s Europeanprivate equity funds pursue and make investments in management buyouts, venture capital and in real estate. As part of his activities, Mr. Major will serve on the boards of directors of several of the companies in which Carlyle’s European private equity teams make investments. In addition, Mr. Major will serve on Carlyle’s Asia Advisory Board, and will be involved with Carlyle’s investment activities in other parts of the world.

BURLINGTON, MA — Workbrain Inc., the leading provider of employee relationship management (ERM) solutions, announcedtoday that it has closed its second round of funding, totaling $20 million. Participants in the round include ABS Ventures (the U.S. venture capital affiliate of Deutsche Bank),NB Capital Venture Partners, Accenture Technology Ventures (ATV) and additional private investors. This announcement follows the recently announced global alliancebetween Workbrain and Accenture. The funds will be used to further enhance Workbrain’s ERM solution, expand globally, and drive customer acquisition.

WAYNE, PA ? TL Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm investing in information technology, communications and biotechnology, today announced that Sydney Edwards, Ph.D. has joined as a Principal to help drive the firm?s biotech investments. In his role, Sydney will evaluate investment opportunities in biomedical technology companies that develop therapeutic drugs and/or drug discovery tools. He is currently working in the Wayne, PA office and will relocate this fall to the Los Angeles office to focus on investment opportunities on the west coast. Previously, Sydney was a Senior Manager in Corporate Finance for Amgen, Inc., where his work included providing financial and strategic analyses for Amgen?s Executive Committee as well as numerous teams, including those focused on R&D Portfolio Management, M&A and Drug Development.

STAMFORD, CT — 1to1(R) Venture Partners, the venture capital firm focused on early stage investments in Customer RelationshipManagement, is pleased to announce the appointment of Debbie Yaciuk as Controller. Prior to joining 1to1 Venture Partners, Yaciuk served as Controller for Peppers and Rogers Group, the international management consulting firm that specializes incustomer-focused business strategies.
SAN DIEGO — The Titan Corp. (NYSE: TTN) and its subsidiary, e-tenna Corp., today announced that since its formation e-tenna has received financing totaling $7.3 million. These fundings, led by Archery Capital, will accelerate the deployment of e-tenna’s advanced Artificial Magnetic Conductor (AMC) technology with wireless devicemanufacturers worldwide. This technology is expected to enable significant improvement in wireless device integration, performance, size, and cost. The funding will alsoenable e-tenna to accelerate work on 3 additional product lines which will be announced in the coming months.

BILLERICA, MA — EnvoyWorldWide Inc., the leading provider of enterprise application messaging solutions, has secured eight million dollars in second round venture funding, which fully funds the company’s operations. Leading this round of financing is Longworth Venture Partners. Also contributing are previous investors Battery Ventures and Sofinnova Partners. Building on its strong momentum of the past year, EnvoyWorldWide will use the new funds to develop and expand operations, enabling them to provide services that meet the business-critical notification needs of their growing customer base. Jim Savage, partner of Longworth Venture Partners will join the company’s Board of Directors.

SAUSALITO, CA — Dr. Gil Amelio, one of Silicon Valley’s most seasoned and respected operating executives, is eschewing the management suite once again for an expanded role as mentor and coach to early stage companies. He joins Sienna Ventures as a senior partner, using his unique background as inventor, entrepreneur, author and business leader, to identify, develop and build value in early stage companies with pioneering technologies. Amelio is well known in technology circles, having served as CEO of National Semiconductor, Rockwell Semiconductor Products, Apple Computer, and Fairchild Camera and Instrument Corporation. He holds 16 patents on a wide variety of technical innovations, many in commercial use and widely deployed today.
MENLO PARK, CA — HopeLink Corp., a software company that provides products and services to improve the clinical trial development and enrollment processes, today announced the closing of an additional round of funding. KPMG LLP, the global professional services organization, and previous HopeLink investors including Staenberg Venture Partners, a Seattle-based venture capital firm focused on early stage investments in Internet and software companies, Andreas Bechtolsheim, co-founder of Sun Microsystems and vice president and general manager at Cisco Systems, and several private investors participated in this round. Details of the private round of financing were not disclosed.

ROCKVILLE, MD — Aptus Genomics Inc., a biotechnology company engaged in the development of a technology platform used to discover, qualify and utilize important families of human genes for pharmaceutical research, announced today that it closed its first institutional round of funding at $6.2 million in late January 2001. Emerging Technology Partners LLC, a leading genomics venture capital firm, led the round. Also participating in the round were The Grosvenor Funds LLC and VitalBio LLC.