Private Equity Week Wire

OMAHA, NE & RESTON, VA — Trancentrix Inc., has obtained $3 million in capital financing from Draper Atlantic, the East coast affiliate Venture Fund of Draper Fisher Jurvetson. Draper Fisher Jurvetson is one of the nation’s leading venture capital firms for high tech companies, having invested in more than 150 businesses. As a result of this financing, Trancentrix will be accelerating its growth and expanding its operations for global business-to-business payment solutions.

TORONTO — International Bioanalogics Systems Inc. today announced the appointment of Cindy Gordon, a partner in XDL Intervest, to its Advisory Board.

SAN JOSE, CA — Former FCC Chairman, Reed Hundt, Marc Andreessen, Frontenac Company, Benchmark Capital, Oak Investment Partners, Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV), Capital Research, Salomon Smith Barney, Charter Growth Capital, Epoch Partners, Cisco Systems, Comdisco, and Sand Hill Partners have joined together to fund and launch Sigma Networks. The company is the first independent networking company to offer carriers and hosted application service providers a complete range of broadband fiber optic ‘links’ to interconnect the Internet’s backbone, data centers, Internet traffic aggregation points, and last mile broadband service providers within metropolitan markets. Sigma Networks raised over $435 million in equity and debt financing. The funds will provide the financial resources needed for the company to bring its business to profitability in its initial markets.

NEW YORK — Lazard Asset Management today announced it has expanded its Alternative Investments Group with the hirings of Christian Frei, Christopher Boyatt, and Chris Heasman. They will be involved in the research and development of alternative investments, including funds of funds strategies, as well as alternative investment due diligence platforms. Christian Frei was formerly the head and Chief Investment Officer of JP Morgan Investment Management’s Hedge Fund Group. Christopher (Kit) Boyatt was head of Research for JP Morgan Investment Management’s Hedge Fund Group and led the portfolio management effort for the Group’s Multi-Manager Strategies Funds. Chris Heasman led the development and portfolio management of JP Morgan Investment Management’s Hedge Fund Group’s Structured Hedge Fund products. He was also responsible for manager due diligence and portfolio research.

SAN FRANCISCO — Zinio Systems Inc., a company developing technology that will enable a new form of electronic content delivery over the Internet, today announced the closing of its Series A financing round, totaling $2,000,000. Participants in the round included several Silicon Valley strategic investors.

BRISBANE, CA — Epinions, the place where people make informed decisions before buying anything, today announced that it has closed a third round of financing totaling approximately $12 million. The Company anticipates that with this round it will have sufficient capital to achieve profitability. BV Capital/Bertelsmann Ventures led the round with additional participation from current investors Benchmark Capital, August Capital, and Goldman Sachs. The Company also announced that Jan Henric Buettner, managing general partner of BV Capital, has joined Epinions’ board of directors.

CHICAGO — Clinical trials of the InPath System, a revolutionary screening system for the detection of cervical cancer, will be supported in part by the completion of a $5.3 million international private equity offering for Ampersand Medical Corporation (OTC Bulletin Board: AMPM). In additional to advancing global clinical trials, Ampersand will use the funds to complete its recently announced acquisition of AccuMed International, Inc., support product manufacturing, and repay debt.

NASHVILLE, TN — Smallbusiness.com, the leading knowledge-sharing platform for small businesses, announced today that it has secured $1.5 million in a bridge round of funding. Investors in this latest round include John Ingram, chairman Ingram Book Group, and Solidus Company.

HOUSTON, TX — Taking a major step in its goal to redefine server economics, RLX Technologies today announced that it has closed a $40 million Series B round of financing led by investment affiliates of Soros Private Equity Partners LLC. Additional Series B investors include IBM, Ignition Corporation, Sternhill Partners and ComVentures. Soros, IBM and Ignition are new investors in RLX Technologies. ComVentures and Sternhill Partners both participated in the Series A round. The company also announced that Soros Partner Chris Michalik will be appointed to the RLX board.

HARTFORD, CT — Donnell Segalas has been hired by Phoenix Investment Partner Ltd. to oversee sales and marketing for its new Alternative Financial Products division, where he will be responsible for the distribution of alternative investments to both institutional and retail clients. He was previously managing director at Far Hills Group, where he focused on private placements.

WAKEFIELD, MA — MarketMAX, the innovative provider of multi-channel, collaborative merchandise analysis, planning and optimization solutions to retailers and suppliers, today announced that it recently received more than $20 million in new venture capital. TH Lee.Putnam Internet Partners (THLi) and Palladin Capital Group led the financing round. BV Group Ventures, Bridge East Capital, Axxon Capital and TSG Equity Partners also participated. Renny Smith, managing director of THLi, and Mark Schwartz, president and CEO of Palladin Capital Group, will join the MarketMAX Board of Directors.

TORONTO — PlateSpin Inc., a Toronto-based company that develops software for the secure, centralized and automated management of server software and hardware, today announced that it has closed its Series A funding in the amount of US $7.5 million. The funding comes from a group of venture capital companies and private equity investors, including Altamira Investment Management, the Intel 64 Fund, CastleHill Ventures and A-LIVE Holdings. The funding will be directed towards product development and corporate growth, in particular the first customer shipment of PlateSpin’s software product for automating the management of server software and hardware. PlateSpin works with several companies on technology and development, including EMC(2), Oracle, TurboLinux, VMWare, Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, and Intel. The Intel 64 Fund investment was made in support of PlateSpin’s commitment to develop an optimized version of its software for Intel’s upcoming Itanium(TM) processor family.

CRANBURY, NJ — ExpertPlan announced closing a second round funding of $1.7 million, led by Paddington Venture Capital, New York, NY, a venture capital fund that targets high growth financial services companies. Existing investor Bridge Partners, LLC and several individuals in the financial services industry joined Paddington in this financing. Already selected as a partner by a number of leading brokerage firms, ExpertPlan will utilize this investment to accelerate its growth as the leading provider of web-enabled retirement plan services to financial professionals. ExpertPlan solutions enable financial services professionals to profitably address the previously untapped small to midsize retirement plan market.

CHICAGO — Mediant Technology Partners LLC, a leading Chicago-based business acceleration and technology-focused incubator, announced today that it has secured private equity financing for Epigraph Group, Inc. The round was led by Kettle Partners with participating investment from Michigan and Oak Partners and additional angel investors. Mediant oversaw negotiations and coordinated the process in order to secure the strategic investment in Epigraph.

ALEXANDRIA, VA — YellowBrix Inc., announced the completion of its sale of $8 million of Series C Preferred Stock to Quantum Industrial Partners, a Soros-backed venture fund, ABN AMRO Private Equity, Holland Ventures, and others. In addition to the sale of stock, YellowBrix also arranged the conversion of $6.5 million of existing debt into company equity.