VCJ Staff

St. Jude Medical Invests $60M in CardioMEMS, With Exclusive Option to Buy

General Atlantic Hires Ex-GE CIO Gary Reiner As A Special Advisor

General Atlantic LLC named Gary M. Reiner as a special advisor. Reiner will also serve as a director of, and offer deep operational expertise to, the firm’s portfolio companies. He previously served as General Electric Co.’s chief information officer.

Kno Inc. Gets $46 Million Via Equity And Debt Financing

Kno Inc., a digital textbook maker, secured $46 million through an equity and debt financing. Andreessen Horowitz was the lead investor of the round. Silicon Valley Bank and TriplePoint Capital participated. Kno plans to use the capital for product innovation and to finance the initial shipments of its product, which is planned for later this year.

NVCA Forms Group To Advocate For Life Sciences Policies And Regulations

tional Venture Capital Association formed Medical Innovation and Competitiveness (MedIC) Coalition. This is an alliance comprised of both venture capital firms and their life sciences portfolio companies. The MedIC Coalition will lobby for policies and regulations that advance U.S. medical innovation and protect the country's global leadership position in the life sciences industry.

Zyngenia Completes $15 million Series A Financing Extension

Zyngenia Inc., a Gaithersburg, Md.-based biotherapeutics company that is developing antibody drugs, completed a $15 million Series A financing extension from New Enterprise Associates.

iPierian Inc. Closes Series B Equity Financing Round At $28 Million

iPierian Inc., a South San Francisco, Calif.-based biopharmaceutical company, closed its Series B equity financing at $28 million. GlaxoSmithKline’s healthcare venture capital arm SR One, Biogen Idec New Ventures and other investors participated in this closing. Existing investors (Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Highland Capital Partners, MPM Capital, Google Ventures, FinTech Global Capital, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital and ATEL Ventures) also participated.

Sofinnova Ventures Names Garheng Kong A General Partner

Sofinnova Ventures named Garheng Kong a general partner. Kong will invest in biopharmaceutical companies from the firm's SVP VII fund. Kong was previously general partner at Intersouth Partners, where he worked for 10 years.

Rhythm Pharmaceuticals Closes Series A Financing At $40 Million

Rhythm Pharmaceuticals completed its Series A financing at $40 million. The Boston, Mass.-based biotechnology company is developing therapies against metabolic diseases, such as diabetes. The round was led by MPM Capital and New Enterprise Associates. The two first held a first close on the Series A funding at $21 million earlier this year. Third Rock Ventures invested in Rhythm Pharmaceuticals. Lou Tartaglia, a partner at Third Rock, was named to Rhythm Pharmaceuticals’ board.

North Bridge Growth Equity Invests In Contact Solutions Inc, Gets Board Seat

North Bridge Growth Equity made an investment in Contact Solutions Inc. and will now hold a minority stake in the Reston, Va.-based provider of on-demand contact automation solutions including IVR, email/text messaging and web transactions, and call center analytics. North Bridge Growth Equity will also receive a seat on Contact Solutions’ board.

Industry Ventures LLC Names Victor Hwang As Managing Director

Industry Ventures LLC named Victor Hwang as managing director. It also promoted Will Quist to managing director and Dan Stevens to associate. Hwang has worked for the San Francisco-based firm as a venture partner for more than a year.