Video game streaming company Playcast Media Systems has inked a $10 million Series B round of financing led by Chicago and Los Angeles-based venture firm MK Capital and Israeli venture firm JVP. Existing shareholders Xenia Venture Capital and C.Mer Industries also participated in the round. Playcast has offices in California, Israel and the U.K.
5 min read · 25 January 2011
Solar Universe, which provides residential and small business solar installations, has raised $7 million in a Series B financing round led by RockPort Capital Partners. The company will use the new financing to bolster its product offerings and expand into new markets.
3 min read · 25 January 2011
Sulfurcell, a developer of thin-film solar modules, has raised 18 million euro ($25 million) in a venture round led by Intel Capital. Existing investors including London-based Climate Change Capital Private Equity; Copenhagen-based Bankinvest Group; London-based Zouk Ventures; New York-based Masdar Clean Tech Investments and Paris-based Demeter also participated. Other investors included Vattenfall Europe, GdF Suez and Ventegis Capital AG.
8 min read · 25 January 2011
Lexington, Mass.-based Clean Membranes Inc., a start-up focused on non-fouling membranes, has raised an undisclosed amount from Morningside Venture Investments Limited. The Series A financing will be used to take its technology to a pre-industrial scale-up level, the company said. Morningstar’s Reenie McCarthy will join the company’s board as a result of the funding. Morningside has offices in Boston, Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong.
2 min read · 24 January 2011
Qwiki closed a Series A financing round at $8 million, and to date has raised a total of $9.5 million including money raised in its angel round. Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin, YouTubeco-founder Jawed Karim and Juniper Networks co-founder Pradeep Sindhu led the Series A round. Lerer Media Ventures, Tugboat Ventures and Contour Venture Partners also participated in the latest financing. Saverin and Pejman Nozad will be joining Qwiki's board as observers.
2 min read · 24 January 2011
Independence Equity Management LLC launched Independence Equity I LP. The venture capital fund will invest in early-stage companies that use technologies to improve resource utilization. The Northbook, Ill.-based shop said the announcement follows the first close of capital for the fund. Financial details were not disclosed. A second close is tentatively scheduled for April 30.
2 min read · 24 January 2011
LawPivot secured $600,000 in a seed financing round. Google Ventures of Mountain View, Calif., participated in the round. Silicon Valley and New York angel investors also contributed to the capital raised. LawPivot is aQ&A site that provides crowd sourced and confidential legal advice to companies from legal experts.
3 min read · 24 January 2011
ChaCha secured $3 million in additional financing. Qualcomm Ventures of San Diego, Calif.,is a new investor. It provided $900,000 of the amount raised. The latest amount collected extends the round previously led VantagePoint Venture Partners and Rho Ventures in October 2010. ChaCha is a real-time answers service that has nearly 32 million unique users monthly. It has raised a total of about $75 million.
3 min read · 24 January 2011
Hewlett Packard Co. of Palo, Alto, Calif., named five new board members. The new directors include Booz & Co. CEO Shumeet Banerji, General Atlantic LLC’s Special Advisor Gary Reiner and Alcatel-Lucent’s former CEO Patricia Russo. AXA Private Equity’s CEO Dominique Senequier and eBay Inc.’s former president and CEO Meg Whitman were also appointed as board members. All five new directors will stand for re-election at the next annual meeting in March. The additions raised the director count to 17. The size will be reduced to 13 members after the shareholder meeting.
6 min read · 24 January 2011
Bank Street Holdings, the parent company of Bank Street Group, formed Bank Street Capital Partners. The new group will make growth investments, most notably in the communications, media and technology sectors. Ted Mocarski was hired to lead the group. Mocarski was a co-founder and managing director of Key Venture Partners.
4 min read · 21 January 2011
