MOUNT LAUREL, NJ — ImpactRx, Inc., the pioneering force in tracking and evaluating the impact of pharmaceutical promotion on the prescribing behavior of the nation’s highest prescribing physicians, today announced that it has closed $10 million in a Series C financing. The financing was led by Mediphase Venture Partners and Oxford Bioscience Partners.
LA JOLLA, CA — Enterprise Partners Venture Capital announced today that Robert W. Conn will join the firm as a managing director on July 1 to help lead the $350 million Enterprise Partners VI fund, which is targeted to provide seed and first round investments in telecommunications, technology-based life science businesses and enterprise software sectors. Conn joins the managing director team of Drew Senyei, Bill Stensrud, Tom Clancy and Naser Partovi in managing one of the top-performing venture capital firms in the United States with over $1 billion in management.
Conn announced in February his plans to step down as dean of the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) Jacobs School of Engineering on July 1. He brings more than 30 years experience as an academic leader, renowned scientist, entrepreneur and business founder, industry consultant, and government advisor. Many of the firm’s portfolio companies have emerged from leading universities. Managing director Drew Senyei says Conn will help Enterprise continue to identify and build world class businesses based on novel core technologies.
CINCINNATI — Tri-State Growth Capital Fund I LP announced today its commitment to two regional venture capital funds that invest in early-stage companies. Tri-State committed to Chrysalis Ventures II LP of Louisville, Ky., which invests in early-stage health and business services companies, and Athenian Venture Partners II LP of Athens, Ohio, which invests in early stage information technology and life sciences/biotech companies. Including its recently announced commitment to Cincinnati-Based Senmed Medical Ventures I LP, the Tri-State Fund has made three commitments to regional venture funds.
NASHUA, NH — GT Equipment Technologies Inc, corporate parent of GT Solar, a worldwide supplier of solar photovoltaic manufacturing system provider, has secured investment capital from the Energy Fund of RBC Capital Partners, the private equity group of Royal Bank of Canada. In connection with the $5 million private placement, Paul McDermott and Bruce Rothstein, Energy Fund managing partners have been elected to GTi’s board of directors.
LAS VEGAS — New Millennium Development Group Inc. (OTCBB:NMDV) is pleased to announce it has signed an agreement with HS 2000, a venture capital group to raise $2,000,000 for research and development of new technology to be used to expand its operations with its merger candidate and strategic partner Daccel.
MENLO PARK, CA — InterWAVE Communications International Ltd. (Nasdaq:IWAV), a pioneer in compact wireless voice communications systems, today announced the completion of a private equity transaction through which all 5.1 million shares of common stock and 2.5 million warrants owned by Nortel Networks (NYSE:NT; TSE:CT:NT) were sold to private investors. As part of that transaction, interWAVE repurchased more than half of these warrants.
According to 13(d) filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Nortel had been selling shares of interWAVE common stock in the open market. By introducing Nortel to parties interested in purchasing the remainder of its stock, interWAVE sought to facilitate the orderly placement of a large volume of shares and thereby mitigate disruption in the market.
NEWS FROM THURSDAY 5/9GALWAY, IRELAND — Am-Beo, an Irish based specialist in real time rating and revenue chain management software, has announced second round funding of USD 9 million from London based, Advent Venture Partners and Dublin based, ACT Venture Capital. The money will be partially used to fund Am-Beo’s launch into the US, including the establishment of a US office.
CALGARY — Salpep Biotechnology Inc. has received a second round of development funding from Canadian venture fund, Milestone Medica Corp. Salpep’s successful completion of preclinical milestones triggered the funding. This latest investment is part of a total investment to date of about $1 million from both Milestone Medica and University Medical Discoveries Inc.
IRVINE, CA — Ponte Nossa Acquisition Corp. (OTCBB:PNSOE) announced that the company has funded the initial stage of its first round of financing of $800,000 in connection with the completion of its merger with Visijet Inc., a privately held ophthalmic medical device company.
The initial funding of $236,000 was provided by Wharton Equity Partners, a New York-based company specializing in emerging growth investments. The balance of the first round funding is due upon completion of the merger.
Wharton also anticipates participating in an additional investment of $5.25 million or an amount required by the American Stock Exchange (AMEX) to satisfy the capitalization listing requirement for listing on AMEX, whichever is greater. Both Ponte Nossa and Wharton acknowledge that there are other conditions required by the AMEX that must be met to enable Ponte Nossa to be listed on the AMEX, and that satisfaction of the capitalization listing requirement by itself may not result in a listing.
NEW YORK — Last Mile Connections, a firm dedicated to helping clients overcome last mile obstacles, has shifted its business plan into high gear with significant funding from Bank One Corporation’s investment arm, One Equity Partners, and the execution of agreements to acquire certain operations of Band-X Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of Band-X Ltd. Last Mile Connection’s business plan is now fully funded, allowing it to bring all of its products and services to the marketplace. The commitment has also allowed Last Mile Connections to execute agreements to purchase the U.S. switched-minutes business of Band-X Ltd, the world’s first bandwidth exchange. The transaction is expected to close later this month.
NEWS FROM WEDNESDAY 5/8SOMERSET, NJ — Derivatives Portfolio Management LLC (DPM), with$10 billion under administration, announced today that the company hasraised $4 million in equity financing from an investor group led by EdisonVenture Fund and including Milestone Venture Partners, as well as otherventure and private investors. DPM services the growing hedge fundmanagement market with a suite of services that includes investmentaccounting, financial reporting, multiple broker and trader reconciliation,risk transparency and fund administration services.
SAN FRANCISCO — David Haynes, 49, has joined Financial Technology Ventures (FTVentures), the San Francisco-based venture firm that primarily invests in technologies that benefit the financial services industry, as its Administrative Partner. He becomes the sixth partner at the firm, which was founded in 1998. Haynes will be responsible for legal, financial and other administrative functions at FTVentures. He comes well prepared, with more than 20 years of experience as an executive, director and general counsel building growth companies in the financial services and technology industries from entrepreneurial visions.
WALTHAM, MA 3i Group today announced that Allan Ferguson, Managing Director, has joined the Board of Directors of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA). The NVCA currently represents 475 venture capital and private equity firms in the U.S. Its aim is to promote and protect the interests of venture capitalists and entrepreneurs and to foster an understanding of the importance of the venture capital to the vitality of U.S. and global companies.
LAGUNA HILLS, CA — Cogent Healthcare Inc., one of the nation’s leading providers of inpatient physician management services to health plans, hospitals and health systems, today announced it has received $15 million in additional funding from four previous investors — Crosspoint Venture Partners, Accel Venture Partners, Mission Ventures and Versant Ventures — and one new investor, Conning Capital Partners.
VANCOUVER, WA — New Edge Networks today announced it has reached an agreement with its principal investors and lenders to add $146 million to the equity base of the national data and broadband services provider. New Edge Expects to close the transaction within two weeks. The new equity infusion includes $15 million cash and $131 million converted from previous vendor and bank debt. Total invested capital in the three-year-old upstart company now is $395.1 million, which includes $35 million in total debt with no principal or interest payments due until late 2004.
TORONTO — Ventures West, one of Canada’s largest privately owned venture capital companies, has announced that Aaron Davidson has joined the firm as Vice President. Mr. Davidson will be based in Ventures West’s Toronto office and will focus on deal generation and portfolio management in the Biotech Sector, particularly for early stage companies in Ontario and Quebec. Davidson is a 12-year veteran of the health care industry, most recently as the Vice President of Corporate Business Development at SYN-X Pharma, a fully integrated proteomics research and development company in Mississauga, Ontario. Davidson also spent a decade with Eli Lilly Company in various management roles in Canada and the U.S. including business development, sales, market research and financial planning.
TORONTO — Trilon Financial Corp. (TSE: TFC.A) today announced it has raised an additional $15 million in capital for the Tricap Restructuring Fund through GE Capital Funding Canada, the most recent participant to join the Fund. This latest infusion of capital increases the Fund base to Cdn$415 million.
NEWS FROM MONDAY 5/6MINNEAPOLIS — Gearworks, a Minneapolis-based provider of mobile and Web-based applications that improve business at the point of delivery, announced today that it has received $11 million in Series B financing. New investor IGNITE Group co-led the round with BlueStream Ventures. DRW Venture Partners, an affiliate of RBC Capital Markets, also participated in the round. The new investment builds upon momentum generated by Gearworks’ flagship product, etrace(TM), which automates and manages business activities carried out by workers in the field. etrace consists of a wireless application that runs on off-the-shelf handheld devices, a Web-based system for dispatchers and a real-time connection back to enterprise systems. The product can be easily configured for multiple vertical industries, as well as the specific needs of individual customers without the high costs typically associated with customizing a product.
CUPERTINO, CA — Vocera Communications Inc., a wireless communications company specializing in network-based software and hardware systems, today announced it has raised $12 million in its third round of funding. The round was led by Venrock Associates with additional funding provided by RRE Ventures, Vanguard Ventures, Avalon Ventures, and IDEO.
ITHACA, NY — Advion BioSciences Inc., a privatelyheld developer of automated, chip-based mass spectrometry tools andresearch-service provider to the pharmaceutical industry, today announced aplacement of Series B preferred shares in excess of $15 million. SkylineVentures and Perseus-Soros BioPharmaceutical Fund led the investment round,with significant funding from Polaris Venture Partners and additional capitalfrom Soros Private Equity Partners. Concurrent with completion of this financing, John Freund, of Skyline Ventures, Steven Elms of Perseus-Soros BioPharmaceutical Fund, and Christoph Westphal of Polaris Venture Partners have joined the company’s Board of Directors.
SAN FRANCISCO — CMEA Ventures, a venture capital firm focusing on information technology and life sciences companies, announced that Faysal Sohail, previously a CMEA Venture Partner, has been named General Partner. Mr. Sohail has more than a decade of senior executive experience in engineering, marketing and business development. He was CEO of Cadabra Design Automation and managed its acquisition by Numerical Technologies (NMTC) where he served as Senior Vice President of Worldwide Field Operations. Prior to Numerical Technologies, Faysal was Senior Vice President of Corporate Strategy for Synopsys Inc. (SNPS). In 1990, he co-founded Silicon Architects, which was acquired by Synopsys in 1995. Earlier in his career, Faysal spent several years in integrated circuit design engineering and marketing positions with Actel Corporation (ACTL) and LSI Logic Corporation (LSI). Mr. Sohail holds a Bachelor of Science degree in computer engineering from the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign) where he also serves on the College of Engineering Advisory Board (CEAB).
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Venture Partners (UV Partners), a leading early stage venture capital firm, announced the appointment of Blake Modersitzki as a Venture Partner. With more than 13 years of Fortune 500 operating and investment experience, Modersitzki will specialize in attracting information technology start-ups and will operate from the firm’s Salt Lake City office. Modersitzki will be working with former Lehman Brother’s analyst Stead Burwell, who joined UV Partners late last year.
As Vice President of Novell Ventures and Global Strategic Alliances, which allocated $300 million toward venture activity, Modersitzki oversaw Novell’s entry into venture capital. He was instrumental in driving the company’s venture activities and global strategic partnerships. Today, under his leadership, Novell Ventures is one of the leading corporate venture capital groups with direct investments in 28 IT-focused companies and 17 venture capital firms. Before Novell Ventures, Modersitzki held key positions at Novell in corporate development, product management, and sales and marketing.
SEATTLE — Silicon Valley Bank (the “Bank”), a wholly owned subsidiary of Silicon Valley Bancshares (Nasdaq: SIVB), announced today that it has provided a $3.5 million working capital facility and a $1.5 million equipment facility to Insightful Corporation (Nasdaq: IFUL) of Seattle, WA, a leading provider of enterprise software solutions for search and analysis of data, text and images.
NEWS FROM MONDAY 5/6SAN FRANCISCO — RBC Capital Partners, the private equity arm of RBC Financial Group (NYSE, TSE: RY), announced today that it has hired veteran life sciences executive Nandini Tandon as a partner based in the firm’s newly opened San Francisco office at Two Embarcadero Center.
Dr. Tandon has more than a decade of experience leading all critical stages of strategic planning, business operations, mergers and acquisitions and commercialization of scientific technologies and products in the biotechnology and pharmaceuticals sectors. Dr. Tandon most recently served as president of Bay Bio Tech Link, a consulting firm focusing on technology partnering. Earlier she worked at Zyomyx, a proteomics company, Hyseq Inc., a genomics company, Chiron Corp., a biotechnology company; Glaxo, Inc., a predecessor company to GlaxoSmithKline PLC, and MCNC, Center for Microelectronics, a semiconductor think-tank.
AUSTIN, TX — CenterPoint Ventures today announced the addition of Bill Bock and Eric Jones as General Partners. Both will office at CenterPoint’s Austin location and will play an integral role in the firm’s investment activities. CenterPoint invests in early-stage technology companies where the partners can best leverage their operational experience in assisting entrepreneurs in building their businesses. Targeted market segments include business software technologies, communications infrastructure, semiconductor products and new industrial technologies.
As Chief Executive Officer of Dazel Corp., Bock led the company from early growth through its sale to the Hewlett Packard Co. (HP) where he remained as an HP Vice President overseeing both Dazel and HP’s Digital Workplace Services business. Before Dazel, Bock was Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Tivoli Systems. Bock’s move to Tivoli followed 10 years at Convex Computer Corp. proceeded by the launch of his career at Texas Instruments.
Eric Jones is a seasoned venture capitalist with an on-going partnership role in Memphis-based SSM Ventures’ Funds I and II, where he will continue his responsibilities to help maximize returns from its current portfolio of companies. He will also serve as an Advisor for Verity Ventures, a follow-on fund to SSM Ventures in Austin. Previously, Jones served eight years as a Special Limited Partner with Sevin Rosen Funds. Prior to his venture capital career, Jones was a 26-year veteran of Texas Instruments, heading various business units as a TI corporate vice president and serving as President of the Data Systems Group.
NEW YORK — Giuliani Partners LLC today announced that former New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani has agreed to chair the board of advisors of Leeds Weld Equity Partners IV, L.P., the largest private equity fund in the United States focused on investments in the education, information and training industry. Leeds Weld and Co.’s principals include Jeffrey T. Leeds and William F. Weld.
REDWOOD CITY, CA — Recourse Technologies, a leading provider of threat management solutions, today announced a strategic round of venture funding totaling $11 million. The round was led by Mesirow Financial’s Private Equity Division with additional participation from major corporate investors including Itochu. Additional investors include Canaan Partners, Doll Capital Management (DCM), Intel Communications Fund and Menlo Ventures. The investment will enable Recourse to expand product and market development activities in efforts to increase market share and extend its position as a leader in the rapidly growing threat management and intrusion detection markets.
REDWOOD CITY, CA — Nominum, a pioneer of Internetname and address management solutions, announced today the closing of $10million in series B venture capital funding. Bessemer Venture Partners andMorgenthaler Ventures led the round, which brings Nominum’s total raisedcapital to $15 million. Formed by the team of engineers and scientists who created the Domain Name System (DNS) and many of the standards on which the Internet is built, Nominum provides integrated and scalable solutions for managing the names, addresses, resources and services critical to an organization’s online operation. Nominum’s enterprise customers include AT&T, Bear Stearns, Bloomberg, New York Times, Social Security Agency, Sprint, Wal-Mart, and Yahoo!. Nominum wrote and maintains the current open source versions of BIND (Berkeley Internet Name Domain), and Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) software. Global Name Service, Nominum’s ICANN-certified DNS hosting platform, provides the naming infrastructure for generic top-level domains, country top-level domains, and large enterprises.
PALO ALTO, CA — Alloy Ventures, a venture capital firm, today announced the closing of its$300 million Alloy Ventures 2002 fund. The firm will continue to focus on seedand early-stage investing in a balanced portfolio of information technologyand life science companies. Alloy traces its lineage back to 1977 when Craig Taylor joined Franklin”Pitch” Johnson at Asset Management Company, one of the oldest Silicon Valleyventure funds. The current team has raised funds as Alloy Ventures in 1996,1998 and 2000.
CHICAGO — Ken Leonard, Andy Marek, and Al Ricchio have joined Cerberus Capital Management L.P. as Managing Directors. The executives, who spent the majority of their careers at Heller Financial and most recently worked in GE Capital’s Merchant Banking Group, will manage a newly formed affiliate named Dymas Capital Management, which will focus on middle market corporate lending. Operating nationally, Chicago-based Dymas Capital will offer cash flow and asset-based senior debt, subordinated debt and equity capital primarily to the private equity community to facilitate acquisitions, recapitalizations and refinancings.
Ken Leonard previously led GE Capital’s Merchant Banking Syndications team. He began his career at Heller Financial in 1986 and was involved in various positions within the Corporate Finance, Business Credit and Turnaround Equity Groups of Heller. Mr. Leonard is a graduate of The University of Iowa and received his M.B.A. from Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management. Andy Marek and Al Ricchio were co-managers of a $1 billion portfolio and a 22-member team of professionals responsible for originating, underwriting and managing loans to, and investments with, middle market private equity sponsors at Heller Financial. Mr. Marek is a graduate of the University of Illinois and received an M.B.A. from Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management. He is a Certified Public Accountant. Al Ricchio joined Heller Financial in 1984. He is a graduate of DePaul University and received his M.B.A. from Purdue University. He is also a Certified Public Accountant.
PALO ALTO, CA — Novacept, developer of the NovaSure Impedance Controlled Endometrial Ablation System for the treatment of excessive menstrual bleeding (menorrhagia), today announced it completed its $30 million round of private financing. The funding was co-led by Three Arch Partners of Portola Valley, California and New Enterprise Associates (NEA) of Menlo Park, California. Also participating were previous investors including Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation, Hambrecht & Quist Capital Management, Brentwood Associates, Prospect Ventures, Vector Fund Management and members of the Company’s Board of Directors.
MINNEAPOLIS — Adaytum, the leading provider of enterprise business planning (EBP)solutions, today announced it has completed an $11.1 million round ofmezzanine financing. Cargill led this round, with participation from existinginvestors, including, St. Paul Venture Capital, Accenture Technology Ventures,3i Group, JPMorgan Chase H&Q, and Dorsey & Whitney Ventures. Proceeds from the financing will further drive Adaytum’s growth in worldwidesales and marketing. This financing will also help product development of theAdaytum e.Planning platform, which provides Global 2000 companies withreal-time insight into future operating performance by combining modeling,budgeting, forecasting, analytics, reporting and performance management.
BOSTON — IDG Ventures, a global venture capital and private equity firm affiliated with International Data Group (IDG), today announces the appointment of Chip Hazard, formerly a General Partner of Greylock Partners, as General Partner. In addition, Asa Aulin Ahlberg also joins as a Principal. Both Hazard and Aulin Ahlberg join Michael A. Greeley, General Partner, who established the IDG Ventures office in Boston in September 2001. IDG Ventures also has offices in San Francisco, Seattle, London and Beijing.
Hazard joined Greylock in 1994 and led its investments in The Vincam Group(acquired by ADP), Narrative Communications (acquired by @Home), and InternetBusiness Advantages (acquired by ServiceSoft). He currently serves on theboards of eForce, Idiom, Inc., Trusecure, iPhrase and NewView Technologies.Prior to Greylock, Hazard was with Company Assistance Ltd., an investmentand consulting firm in Warsaw, Poland; and previously was a consultant withBain and Company, an international management consulting firm. He holds a BAwith honors from Stanford University and an MBA with Highest Distinction fromthe Harvard Business School.
Prior to IDG Ventures, Aulin Ahlberg worked for Masthead Venture Partners,an early stage venture capital firm focusing on information technology andbiotechnology. Before Masthead, she worked for the technology investment bankSoundView Technology Group, focusing on public offerings for Internetinfrastructure and software companies.
AUSTIN, TEXAS — NANOTECHNOLOGIES, a leading manufacturer of custom engineered nanomaterials, announced today that it closed its second round of funding with a $6.3 million investment from venture capital firms Techxas Ventures, Castletop Capital, Convergent Investors VI, Harris & Harris Group, and Capital Conceptions. With this second round of funding, NANOTECHNOLOGIES will expand its manufacturing capabilities, continue its material research, pursue additional market opportunities and continue to expand the company with key hires. In April 2000, NANOTECHNOLOGIES closed a $4 million Series A funding round.
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA — Launched by leading experts in the physical design of integrated circuitsand systems-on-a-chip, Apache Design Solutions today announced that AndrewYang, Ph.D., an electronic design automation (EDA) entrepreneur and angelinvestor, has been named chief executive officer of the company. Dr. Yang co-founded Apache in March 2001 with Dr. Shen Lin and Dr. NormanChang to develop solutions for the physical design integrity problems thatplague subwavelength chip designs in the consumer, communications, networkingand semiconductor markets. The physical design integrity tool suite thatApache is developing will include solutions for power, timing, and I/Ointegrity. Apache’s solution will be interoperable with all commerciallyavailable physical design tools at the early stage of the design flow.
NEW YORK — TD Capital Mezzanine Partners announced its investment in Crown Media Holdings, Inc. (majority owned by Hallmark Cards, Inc.). Crown Media is a niche network operator dedicated to providing high quality, broad appeal, entertainment programming. The Company currently provides the Hallmark Channel to 88 million subscribers worldwide. TD Capital invested $35 million of a $265 million privately placed preferred security. The funds will be used to provide the company with additional liquidity to drive distribution, improve ratings and leverage the Hallmark brand domestically and internationally.
NEW YORK — The New York New Media Association (NYNMA) Angel Network announced that members of its network have made a significant investment in StatCard Entertainment (“StatCard”) (http://www.statcard.com), the first provider of web-based gaming and entertainment for children and adults incorporating state-of-the-art smart card technologies. The round, which totals $1,600,000, was financed by individual members of the New York New Media Association (NYNMA) Angel Investors Program and other private investors, venture funds and strategic partners.
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