Alastair Goldfisher

Norwest adds new partner from Facebook

Priti Youssef Choksi has joined the consumer internet investment team at Norwest Venture Partners as a partner. Choksi joins Norwest from Facebook where she spent nine years in various executive roles, including leading the company's M&A efforts. Prior to Facebook, she spent six years at Google in strategic partnership roles.

BlackRock leads $93 mln funding of Qumulo

Seattle-based Qumulo, of enterprise file storage technology, announced it has raised $93 million in Series D funding. The oversubscribed round was led by funds managed by BlackRock Private Equity Partners. Goldman Sachs and Western Digital also participated. In addition, all major existing investors, including Highland Capital Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Madrona Venture Group and Valhalla Partners also participated in the round. The company, founded in 2012, has now raised $223 million, according to the company.

Five Questions with Alastair Mitchell of EQT Ventures

Druva acquires venture-backed CloudRanger

Sunnyvale, California-based Druva, a provider of cloud data protection services, announced it has acquired CloudRanger for an undisclosed price. With offices in Chicago and Ireland, CloudRanger provides backup and disaster recovery services for AWS and was backed by Enterprise Ireland. Druva is also VC-backed, having raised about $200 million from Sequoia Capital, Tenaya Capital and other investors.

Fontinalis leads funding in drone tech developer Verity Studios

Zurich, Switzerland-based Veristy Studios AG, a provider of indoor drone systems technology, announced it has raised $18 million in a Series A round of funding led by Fontinalis Partners. Other investors include Airbus Ventures, Sony Innovation Fund and Kitty Hawk. The company was founded in 2014 by Raffaello D'Andrea, who previously was a co-founder of Kiva Systems, which Amazon acquired in 2012.

Menlo leads $60 mln funding of fintech company BlueVine

Redwood City, California-based BlueVine, which provides financing to small and medium-sized businesses, announced that has raised $60 million in equity funding. The Series E funding round was led by Menlo Ventures, and includes new investors, such as SVB Capital. The company, which has raised more than $500 million in debt and equity since it was founded in 2013, said all major existing investors also participated in the round.

Raken rakes in $10 mln Series A

San Diego-based Raken, a provider of an app ffor managing work flows in the construction industry, announced it has raised $10 million in Series A funding. U.S. Venture Partners led the round, with participation from new investor Tao Capital Partners and existing investors Eniac Ventures, Rincon Venture Partners and Spider Capital. The company, founded in 2014, previously raised $2 million in funding.

Union Square Ventures adds another analyst to its team

Dani Grant, an analyst with Union Square Ventures, announced in a blog post she joined the firm two weeks ago. She was most recently a product manager at Cloudflare, a portfolio company of the firm.

Sentry raises $16 mln led by NEA, Accel

San Francisco-based Sentry, provider of APM for developers, announced it has raised $16 million in a Series B round of funding led by existing investors New Enterprise Associates and Accel. The company, founded in 2008, has now raised $26.5 million in total funding.

SignalFx raises $45 mln led by General Catalyst

San Mateo, California-based SignalFx, a provider of real-time operational intelligence for data-driven DevOps, announced it has raised $45 million in Series D funding. General Catalyst led the round with participation from existing investors Andreessen Horowitz and CRV. the company, founded in 2013, has now raised $103.5 million in total funding. As part of the latest round, Stephen Herrod, a general partner at General Catalyst, has joined the board.