Overall venture-backed M&A activity picks up some in April, led by a few life science deals
2 min read · 20 May 2015
San Francisco-based Switch Communications announced it has raised a $35 million Series C round of funding. Amasia Associates of Singapore led the round, which included Felicis Ventures, SoftBank, Work-Bench Ventures and previous investors Andreessen Horowitz and Google Ventures. Switch Communications, formerly known as Firespotter Labs, previously raised $18 million in funding. The company provides a cloud-based business phone system.
4 min read · 19 May 2015
San Francisco-based Speakeasy, a provider of mobile conference call software, announced it has closed a $4.75 million Series A round of funding from Bessemer Venture Partners and Salesforce Ventures. The company previously raised $1 million in seed funding entirely from Bessemer. Angel investor Kenny Van Zant has joined the board as an independent advisor. Built off of the Twilio platform, Speakeasy is announcing its product and funding launch today at the Twilio Signal Conference.
3 min read · 19 May 2015
Bessemer Venture Partners announced it has promoted Charles Birnbaum to vice president. Bessemer, which in February wrapped up its ninth fund with $1.6 billion in commitments, said Birnbaum will help lead the firm's New York office. Birnbaum joined Bessemer in 2013. He focuses on financial services, education, Internet of Things and consumer Internet sectors. His investments include August Home, Quantopian, OMsignal, Abacus, BrightBytes and Main Street Hub.
3 min read · 19 May 2015
Cyber adAPT, a provider of real-time network-based threat detection, announced its launch and that it has raised a $4.1 million Series A round. Investors include Alvin Fund, Granite Point Capital Partners, Griffin Fund II and Fundamental Capital Management.
4 min read · 18 May 2015
Georganne Perkins, managing director of Fisher Lynch Capital, told Women's PE Briefs that she is retiring from her role at the fund of funds and will likely become a senior advisor. Perkins told the publication that she is in the process of phasing out from her responsibilities and now is “good transition point,” considering the firm's current vehicle is fully committed.
1 min read · 15 May 2015
BootstrapLabs told peHUB that it it has invested in the $2.5 million first close of a $5 million targeted Series A funding round of Trusted Insight. The New York-based company provides a platform to connect LPs with GPs, much like AngelList connects entrepreneurs with investors. San Francisco-based BootstrapLabs is an investor in AngelList, along with Prezi, Zerply and other startups.
1 min read · 14 May 2015
Pipedrive, a San Francisco-based provider of cloud CRM software, raised a $9 million Series A round led by Bessemer Venture Partners. Paua Ventures also participated in the round, along with existing investors Rembrandt Venture Partners and AngelPad, the latter of which incubated the company in 2012. Alex Ferrara, a partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, has joined the board as a result of the funding. Pipedrive previously raised $4.4 million in seed funding from Rembrandt, AngelPad, Monashees Capital, Storm Ventures, TMT Investments and angel investors
4 min read · 14 May 2015
New York-based Percolate, which provides a marketing software platform, announced it has raised a $40 million Series C round of funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. Existing investors Sequoia Capital, GGV Capital, First Round Capital and Lerer Hippeau Ventures also participated in the round. The company, founded in 2011, has now raised $74.5 million in total venture funding.
3 min read · 14 May 2015
Redpoint Ventures announced on its blog that it has closed its sixth fund with $400 million in commitments. Fund VI is the same size as its previous vehicle, which closed in 2013. Partner Satish Dharmaraj writes in the blog post that the fund will focus on seed, Series A and Seris B rounds in consumer and enterprise companies.
1 min read · 14 May 2015
