Forbes Media named Mike Perlis its new president and chief executive office. He starts in Dec. 1. Perlis was a general partner for Massachusetts-based SoftBank Capital, a venture capital firm focused on high-growth Internet-based businesses.
3 min read · 16 November 2010
General Electric Co. and its venture capital partners plan to invest $55 million in leading power grid technology companies as part of the $200 million “GE ecomagination Challenge.” The partners in this project include Emerald Technology Ventures (Zurich, Switzerland), Foundation Capital (Menlo Park, Calif.), Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (Menlo Park, Calif.) and RockPort Capital Partners (Boston, Mass.).
9 min read · 16 November 2010
Verastem Inc. closed a $16 million Series A financing round. Founding investor, Longwood Founders Fund, participated in the round. It was joined by Bessemer Venture Partners, Cardinal Partners and MPM Capital. Verastem of Boston, Mass., is a biopharmaceutical company that developing cancer treatments.
2 min read · 16 November 2010
Vizibility Inc. closed its over-subscribed seed round at $1 million. The New York-based company, which launched its personal branding service ten months ago, will use the capital to expand partner integrations and accelerate search platform development. Race Point Capital Group and Boston Harbor Angels participated in the financing. Other investors include Zinc Ventures in Calgary; Waterbridge in New York and HalberdCross, a San Francisco- and DC-based private equity investment boutique.
3 min read · 16 November 2010
Canadian venture capital activity in the third quarter increased 20 percent, according to data Thomson Reuters compiled for the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association. The total investment for the latest third quarter totaled C$261 million ($258 million).
2 min read · 16 November 2010
Virident Systems Inc. secured additional financing through a Series B round led by Sequoia Capital. Globespan Capital Partners, which is a new investor, co-led the round that had participation from existing investors including Artiman Ventures. Financial details of the financing were not disclosed. Virident is a Milpitas, Calif.-based company that makes solutions based on Flash and other storage-class memories.
4 min read · 16 November 2010
Sina Corp. launched a 200 million yuan ($30 million) fund. Reuters reported the capital is for developers to create applications for Twitter-like microblog, Weibo. The fund is supported by Sequoia Capital and IDG Capital. Sina is China's largest Internet portal web site.
2 min read · 16 November 2010
Cerulean Pharma Inc. closed a $24 million Series C financing. Lilly Ventures led the round, with participation from all existing investors including Polaris Venture Partners, Venrock, Lux Capital and Bessemer Venture Partners. Lilly’s Venture Partner Steve Hall joined the board of the Cambridge, Mass.-based designer and developer of nanopharmaceuticals. Cerulean plans to use the capital to advance its CRLX101development candidate into a randomized Phase II trial as a non-small cell lung cancer drug.
4 min read · 15 November 2010
2 min read · 15 November 2010
Celeno Communications Inc. closed a $12 million funding round. The financing came from strategic investor Liberty Global Inc. Existing investors Cisco, Greylock Partners, Miven Venture Partners and Pitango Venture Capital participated in the funding for the Israel-based maker of semiconductors for multimedia Wi-Fi home networking applications.
3 min read · 15 November 2010
