GE Ventures

Xage Security, a blockchain-protected security platform provider for the industrial internet of things, has raised $12 million in Series A funding. March Capital Partners led the round with participation from GE Ventures, City Light Capital and NexStar Partners.

General Electric has named Sue Siegel as chief innovation officer. Her appointment becomes effective immediately. Currently, Siegel is the CEO of GE Ventures, a role she will continue in addition to her new responsibilities.

San Francisco-based Ascendify, provider or a talent acquisition platform, has raised $11 million in a Series A round led by Canaan Partners. GE Ventures and Cisco Investments, who were customers of Ascendify prior to investing, also participated in the financing. As part of the funding, Deepak Kamra, general partner at Canaan, has joined the board.

Ambyint Inc, a Calgary-based energy-focused artificial intelligence (AI) startup, has raised about $14 million (US$11.5 million) in a Series A financing. U.S. venture capital firm Mercury Fund led the round and was joined by GE Ventures, Statoil Technology Invest and Cottonwood Venture Partners. Launched in 2015, Ambyint has developed an AI-driven, artificial-lift optimization solution that helps oil and gas companies reduce costs and improve production. It will use the funds raised to expand deployments of the technology in Canada and the United States and pursue further innovation. Ambyint was founded by COO Nav Dhunay and is led by CEO Alex Robart.

Aras, a provider of product lifecycle management software, has secured $40 million in funding. Silver Lake Kraftwerk led the round with participation from GE Ventures.

Gravie, a provider of a reinvented health benefits marketplace, has secured $14.1 million in Series C funding, according to a blog post. http://blog.gravie.com/press-release-gravie-raises-14.1-million-in-series-c-funding GE Ventures led the round with participation from other investors including FirstMark Capital, Aberdare Ventures and Split Rock Partners. In addition to the financing, Lisa Suennen, a senior managing director at GE Ventures, has been appointed to Gravie’s board of directors.

The firm is led by Jessica Owens, a former Kleiner Perkins partner, and Iana Dimkova, previously a director in the healthcare technology investing group of GE Ventures.

The Houston-based firm is targeting $150m for its debut fund.

The Michigan firm closed on $50m for its second fund, nearly twice the size of its debut, as it seeks companies outside of traditional tech hubs.

Ironspring Ventures targets early-stage investments in construction, manufacturing, transport and logistics, and alternative energy.

Apollo Global Management has committed $150 million to FlexGen Power Systems, an integration services and software technology provider for energy storage solutions.

Canadian clean technology venture capital firm Cycle Capital Management has launched the BleuImpact Fund, a new water technology impact fund.

Quantum is bigger and more profitable than its competitor Accolade - whose performance in the public markets has only accelerated PE interest in the Great Hill-backed business.

Pure Storage has agreed to acquire Los Altos, California-based Portworx, a provider of container data services for DevOps, according to an online announcement.