What follows are six VC deals culled from recent Regulation D filings with the SEC. They have not been otherwise disclosed: * Ardian Inc., a Palo Alto, Calif.-based developer of a medical device to treat congestive heart failure, has secured $30 million of a $60 million venture round, according to a regulatory filing. Listed shareholders include return backers Advanced Technology Ventures, Morgenthaler Ventures and St. Paul Venture Capital. It had previously raised over $18 million. * Maskless Lithography Inc. of San Jose, California has raised around $29.5 million in Series A funding, according to a regulatory filing. Backers include TL Ventures and U.S. Venture Partners. The company does not yet have a working website. * Potbelly Corp., a Chicago-based quick-service sandwich shop chain, has secured $10.6 million of a $20 million Series F round, according to a regulatory filing. Backers include Benchmark Capital, Maveron LLC and Oak Investment Partners.
2 min read · 19 January 2009
* Could the global credit freeze have a second act? * An exodus from corporate boards to the Obama Administration. * Morning Call: FTSE up on commodities, other European stocks rise, both the Nikkei and Hong Kong close higher. * Need a way to pay for the auto bailout? We could do it by ending the "war" on marajuana. * Wall Street recruiter Joe Goldsmith is opening up his own search firm. Today. When no one is hiring. Does he know something the rest of us don't? * Scott Kirsner: 10 pieces of advice for an entrepreneur in search of funding.
1 min read · 19 January 2009
* You can't fire me, I'm drunk. * Time to play The Bailout Game. * Morning Call: U.S. futures mixed as JPMorgan profits are tempered by Steve Jobs' medicazl leave of absence, FTSE down in early trading, other European shares edge up, both the Nikkei and Hong Kong keep sinking. * Last week, Erin wrote a post about pending layoffs at GE Capital. It's now become something of a de facto messageboard for worried GE Capital employees (and a few corporate defenders), so we're keeping it outside of the paid archives. 115 comments and counting... * VC-backed Tesla Motors still has major difficulties when it comes to producing cars, so now it's diversifying into making lithium-ion battery packs for other automakers. * Bank of America now wants more TARP money, to basically protect itself from itself (i.e., its acquisition of Merrill Lynch). Yes, this is the same Bank of America that previously accepted $25 billion against its will. Seems if someone gave me $25 billion I didn't want, I might hold onto it somewhere... like in a bank!
1 min read · 15 January 2009
Last November, we reported that former Citizens Financial chief Steve Steinour was in talks with The Blackstone Group to partner on a "multi-billion dollar" fund that would buy distressed banks and other financial services companies. What we didn't know was that, just weeks later, Steinour was approached by Huntington Bancshares (Nasdaq: HBAN) to become its new president and CEO. He accepted, and a formal announcement was made earlier today. "Blackstone was a terrific organization, and I got to work with a number of the team members there," Steinour tells peHUB. "It quite possibly could have ended up different . When we came together late in the summer, it was with the expectation of reaching into their global network. But once October came, it became obvious that it was going to be much more difficult."
2 min read · 14 January 2009
Last week, we got word that a Boston-area venture firm was informally shopping one of its hottest portfolio companies to other VC firms. Not shopping the whole thing, mind you, but just the venture firm’s stake. So I called one of the firm’s managing partners, who was understandably cagey in his response. “We’re always talking to other firms about our companies. Sometimes we call them, and sometimes they call us. And we’re obviously scouring other firms’ portfolios, to see if there’s anything there that we might want to express interest in.” My point here isn’t to report on the specific situation (still not quite comfortable enough, despite the non-confirmation confirmation), but rather to suggest that venture capital may finally be getting around to recognizing sponsor-to-sponsor sales as a viable exit avenue. It’s what helped buyout firms begin their gold rush earlier this decade, and may be venture’s last best hope for juicing wilted returns.
2 min read · 14 January 2009
1 min read · 14 January 2009
Not quite sure what to make of this yet, but I’ve found a regulatory filing for a company that lists eBay founder Pierre Omidyar as an executive. I’d heard rumors that he was engaged in a new venture, and this may well be it. The company is called Peer News Inc., but is operating as Ginx. There is very little publicly-available information but, from what I can tell, Ginx looks a lot like Twitter. There’s sure to be some big differences, and maybe one of the trial users can fill us in… In addition to Omidyar, the company’s management roster includes Randy Ching, a longtime eBay
1 min read · 14 January 2009
Last Thursday, I suggested that 2009 might be a rebound year for publicly-traded private equity stocks. Not because of improvements in the underlying financials, but because such securities had experienced major gains during the year's first five trading days. Really the type of anecdotal daydreaming that would never have seen the light of day before the advent of blogs, and the public markets are already swatting it away. An updated look at public private equity shows that most issuers have flattened back out over the past two trading days. Blackstone Group stock, for example, rose from $7.14 on market open January 2, and got up to $8.10 on January 6. Now it's back down to $7.28. American Capital began the year at $3.68 per share, rocketed up to $7.31 and today finished back down at $5.81. Fortress Investment Group began at $1.27 per share, but has been stuck at around $2.25 for three days running.
1 min read · 12 January 2009
Big personnel move in the cleantech VC world, as Todd Kimmel has left Advanced Technology Ventures to become a partner with Mayfield Fund. For the uninitiated, Kimmel originally joined ATV in 2003 at just 27 years old, and invested in companies like Great Point Energy and CaliSolar. He then transitioned to an entrepreneur-in-residence role in 2006, and co-founded cellulosic ethanol company Coskata (yeah, the one that just got money from Blackstone). Early last year he returned fulltime to ATV, but now is moving on. Last Friday I spoke to Kimmel, who said the move was largely due to Mayfield’s global platform. “Every company I invested in with ATV needed to address going outside the U.S.,” Kimmel explains. “GreatPoint has been in conversations with a Chinese power company about building a factory, CaliSolar built a facility in Germany because it got support from the German government and so on.” He added that it was difficult to leave ATV, because “they gave me my first VC opportunity.” Kimmel has transferred
2 min read · 12 January 2009
It’s been about a year since Jerry Newman left Bear Stearns, where he had been a senior managing director and head of venture capital coverage. Now we’ve learned that he’s reemerged as a co-founding partner of Next-Gen Ventures, a $20 million angel/seed fund focused on digital media and Web-based SaaS efforts. So far, the group has invested in Zogix, True Choice and FiltrBox (run by Jerry’s son, Ari). His partner if John Wander, the founder of GiantStep Angel Network and a former principal with Stonegate Partners. Other team members include associate Adam Gold, who previously was director of business development for a Denver-based energy drink company called Xelr8.
1 min read · 12 January 2009
