Private Equity Week Wire for Tusday 1/23

PALO ALTO, CA — Accel-KKR Inc. announced today that PaulHazen joined its board of directors and will serve as chairman. Mr. Hazenserved as chairman and chief executive officer of Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE:WFC) from January 1995 to November 1998, president and chief operatingofficer from 1984 to 1995 and vice chairman from 1981 to 1984. Mr. Hazenjoined Wells Fargo in 1970 and has served as chairman of Wells Fargo and Co.since November 2, 1998. Mr. Hazen recently announced that he will retire asChairman of Wells Fargo at the April 24th Shareholders meeting.

CAMBRIDGE, MA — Today, the Engineering and Education Products Division of MathSoft, Inc., authors of the market leading Mathcad and StudyWorks product lines, became a standalone private company known as MathSoft Engineering & Education, Inc., following the successful completion of a management-led buyout.In addition to capital provided by management, the buyout of the Engineering and Education Products Division is being supported through investments by Edison Venture Fund and Spring Capital Partners. Grant Thornton Corporate Finance acted as lead advisor to the buyout group on the transaction. The buyout will allow MathSoft Engineering & Education, Inc., to maintain its leading position in key corporate and education markets and to focus on investment in innovation and profitable growth from new products and markets.

POISSY, FRANCE — Webraska, the worldwide provider of wireless navigation services and technologies, today announced that it has secured 52 Million Euros of private equity investments following the successful completion of its second round of financing. Prominent North American and European institutions participated in the round led by Apax Partners’ Funds(1) and its sister company Patricof & Co. Ventures Inc. Other investors are Argo Global Capital, SAIC Venture Capital Corp., Navigation Technologies Corp., Philips Venture Capital Fund, Infineon Ventures and SignalSoft Corp.

NEW YORK — Sunrise Capital Partners LP, an investmentfund affiliated with the international investment banking firm of HoulihanLokey Howard & Zukin, today announced the addition of Lawrence S. Coben as aPrincipal with the fund.Mr. Coben previously served as Chief Executive Officer of Bolivian PowerCompany, Ltd. (NYSE:BLP), Bolivia’s largest private electric generator anddistributor until its recent sale to an American-Swedish utility consortium.

SANTA CLARA, CA — Palm Inc., the world’s leading provider of handheld computers, today announced that Palm Ventures, its strategic venture investment group, has made an investment in ePhysician, a health-technology company based in Mountain View, Calif. ePhysician products are designed to help doctors improve patient care and practice efficiencies through handheld services and information delivery. Palm participated in the $18 million third round of funding for ePhysician, which was led by Dresdner Kleinwort Capital and included Benchmark Capital, a premier Silicon Valley venture capital firm, and CVS Corporation (NYSE: CVS), the largest national pharmacy chain. The ePhysician deal is the latest investment for Palm’s $50 million venture fund, formed last fall.

HUNTINGTON BEACH, CA — TeamFuel Inc., a fuel procurement and supply chain management firm, successfully closed a $5.5 million round of strategic venture financing. Firms participating in the round include Nth Power Technologies; DQE Enterprises, a wholly ownedsubsidiary of DQE Inc.; Energy Ventures Group; Garage.com; and private investors. Also participating in the round is Web infrastructure, application development andmanagement firm Ephibian; who has partnered with TeamFuel to develop the company’s proprietary SmartFuel technology.

MEDFORD, MA — Admetric BioChem Inc., a privately held company, announced today that it has received a cash infusion of $2.25 million from three funding sources: Oxford Bioscience Partners, 2200 Ventures LLC and S R One Limited, the venture capital affiliate of SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals (NYSE: SBH).
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA ? PayCycle, a Web-based provider of fully guided, self-service payroll management services for small businesses and their accountants, today announced it has raised $8.0 million in its second round of funding. August Capital (www.augustcap.com), a premier information technology venture capital firm is the lead investor in the round and is joined by Irwin Ventures, Crescent Ventures, Draper Richards, and Argus Capital. PayCycle will use the funds to expand its staff and operations, for product development, and customer acquisition programs.

SAN FRANCISCO — CommerceFlow Inc. today announced that it has raised $7.5 million in venture capital, with lead funding from Prism Venture Partners. Also participating in this round are Sagus Ventures, Anam Cara Venture Partners and other investors. Founded in November 1999, CommerceFlow enables companies to profitably manage business activities through online marketplaces. CommerceFlow has entered into agreements to make its online channel management service available to millions of businesses through e-commerce partners such as InterShop, Bizfinity, BigPicture and others. CommerceFlow plans to use the new infusion of capital to fund an expansion of its services to support mid-tier manufacturers and distributors.

ROSEMONT, IL–Comdisco Inc. announced an $8 million agreement to provide a full range of equipment lifecycle services to Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc., a biopharmaceutical company specializing in receptor-based drug discovery. Comdisco is combining equipment planning, financing, sourcing, and reselling to help Arena rapidly scale up research and development (R&D), preserve capital, and maintain the right equipment for optimum lab productivity.

ISRAEL — Witcom Ltd., a leader in fixed wireless broadband point-to-point solutions for the worldwide telecom, datacom (IP-based) and internet access markets, today announced it has secured $20 million in a new round of investments. Within this round of financing the investors are ABN AMRO Venture Capital (the investing arm of one of the largest international banks based in Holland), Nomura International plc., the European subsidiary of the leading Japanese Securities company and a major International Finance House US-based East-West Ventures, The Challenge Fund and Clal Electronics. Existing investors Comverse-Soros Fund & Delta, Ascend (a Nortel Networks affiliated fund), Dr. A. Viterbi (co-founder of Qualcomm), RDC, Discount Investment, Elron, also participated in the round.