Private Equity Week Wire for Wednesday 1/10

STAMFORD, CT — zUniversity, the premieruniversity-branded network for higher education, announced today that it has secured $10 million in a first closing of its Series Bround of financing, led by Wheatley Partners L.P. and LJH Partners L.P. zUniversity continues to strengthen its marketing andsales efforts with its university partner network, already the largest higher-education affinity network in the country. In addition toannouncing final investors in the round, the company plans to announce additions to its Board of Directors, including theappointment of Vice Chairman to the company.

ANDOVER, MA — Confluent Photonics Corp., a newly formed company developing wafer-scale integrated optical components for telecommunications, has received $11M investment funding in a round led by InnoCal Venture Capital with participation by Rustic Canyon Ventures, Invesco Private Capital and CIT Venture Capital.

PETAH TIKVA, ISRAEL — Commil Ltd. announced today the completion of a $7M round of financing by a consortium of three leading Israeli VCs:Formula Ventures, Tamir Fishman Ventures and Gemini Capital Fund Management. These investors have recognized theenormous potential of Bluetooth wireless technology in providing indoor mobile data and telephony communications for corporateand private users.

RIDGEWOOD, NJ — Ridgewood Capital today announced thatit led a $6 million investment in Gigabit Optics. The company develops,designs, manufactures and markets passive and active micro opticsub-assemblies, which are integrated to create versatile module platformswith a wide variety of applications in the telecommunications and datacommunications fields.Led by Ridgewood, the Series A Round of funding includes equal investmentsfrom Ridgewood and Walden International. Joerg Sperling, managing directorof Ridgewood, and Andrew Kau, general partner of Walden International havebeen appointed to the board of Gigabit Optics.

BOSTON — Greylock, a leading early stage venture capital firm with more than $1 billion of active assets under management, today announced the addition of two new partners, Daniel A. Keshian and Donald A. Sullivan, to its Boston office. Dan Keshian joins Greylock as the firm’s first venture partner. Dan most recently was vice president and general manager of Cisco’s Customer Contact Business Unit. He also was CEO of WebLine Communications, a leading Internet communications company acquired by Cisco in 1999. Don Sullivan joins Greylock as administrative partner, overseeing the operational and administrative aspects of the firm. Don most recently spent three years at Wildfire Communications as vice president and chief financial officer. Wildfire, a former Greylock portfolio company, was acquired by Orange PLC in 2000.

LOWELL, MA — AnVil Informatics Inc., announced today that it has completed its first round of venture capital financing with three leading venture capital firms: Seaflower Ventures, Mason Wells Biomedical Fund, and Applied Genomic Technology Capital Funds. This investment will be used to expand AnVil’s business management team and technical staff as well as to accelerate the development of its software tools and to enhance its data discovery and exploration platform. The expanded staff and enhanced data exploration software will enable the company to meet the rapidly growing demand for AnVil’s data mining, analysis and visualization services and software.

SANTA CLARA, CA — Xporta Inc., an industry leader providing Global Sales Acceleration solutions, today announced that it has received $15.5 million in its second round of funding. Prism Venture Partners, which led the round, was joined by a number of other investors, including Colman Partners; RWI Group, who led the first round of funding; and many of Xporta’s initial investors. Xporta will utilize the funds for sales and marketing activities targeting Fortune 500 companies that are expanding their international sales efforts. Xporta will also continue to extend the company’s Global Sales Acceleration platform and technology leadership.

MUNICH, BOSTON & SAN FRANCISCO — TVM Techno Venture Management, the German-U.S. venture capital firm, announced the promotion of Hans G. Schreck to Partner effective Jan 1st. Previously he was Investment Manager at TVM responsible for investments in the information & communications technologies field.

CAMPBELL, CA — iUniverse.com, provider of the world’s leading digital publishing infrastructure technology, today announced it has secured $21 million in venture capital financing from Warburg Pincus and that Warburg Pincus has reserved additional capital for future investment in the company. The investment, made by Warburg Pincus’ technology group, will support rapid expansion of iUniverse’s digital platform, which is emerging as the key technology for providing mass customization, personalization and print-on-demand (POD) services within the publishing industry and beyond.

ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, NJ — EpiCept Corp., anemerging leader in pain management, announces the closing of a $13 millionSeries C private placement led by Merlin Biosciences with other new investors,including Gold-Zack AG and Bank Vontobel. Existing investors Techno VentureManagement, Alpinvest International BV and Kredietrust Luxembourg alsoparticipated.

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