Private Equity
Paktor Group, a Southeast Asia dating app provider, has appointed Ng Jing Shen as CEO. Jing Shen will succeed Joseph Phua. Also, Paktor has promoted Shn Juay to chief operating officer. Both appointments become effective November 1, 2017. Prior to co-founding Paktor app, Jing Shen was a software engineer at Amazon.com in Seattle. Juay joined the Paktor Group in 2015 as head of marketing. Paktor is backed by K2Global and MNC Media Group.
4 min read · 27 October 2017
Hercules Capital has appointed Brad Koenig and Jorge Titinger to its board of directors. Koenig is the former head of global technology investment banking at Goldman Sachs while Titinger is the former president and CEO of Silicon Graphics International Corp.
4 min read · 26 October 2017
Bethesda, Maryland and UK-based Epidarex Capital, an early-stage life science venture firm, has named Dr. William R Sellers, William Burns and Dr. Frank M Armstrong to its advisory board. Sellers is the former vice president and global head of oncology at the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research; Burns was the CEO of Roche Pharmaceuticals; and Armstrong has led development improvement programs at Merck Serono, Zeneca and Bayer.
5 min read · 26 October 2017
San Francisco-based TuneIn, a live streaming and on-demand audio service, has named Holly Lim as chief financial officer. Prior to joining TuneIn, Lim was CFO at Soundcloud. TuneIn is backed by Comcast Ventures, IVP, Sequoia Capital, Causeway, General Catalyst Partners, Icon Ventures and Marker LLC.
2 min read · 25 October 2017
Chicago-based media company Curiosity.com has named Lisa Weinstein as CEO. Previously, Weinstein was the CEO of Engine Media. Curiosity.com's backers include Pritzker Group Venture Capital.
3 min read · 25 October 2017
RiverVest Venture Partners has named Dr. Ronald T. Borchardt. and Dr. Jared Rutter to its scientific advisory board. Borchardt is a professor emeritus of pharmaceutical chemistry at the University of Kansas-Lawrence while Rutter is a researcher and professor in the biochemistry department at the University of Utah and an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
3 min read · 25 October 2017
Steve Jurvetson, a longtime Silicon Valley investor and co-founder of DFJ, is under investigation by the firm for sexual harassment. The investigation, conducted by a law firm, began during the summer after media outlets began inquiring about allegations regarding Jurvetson's conduct with women. The ongoing investigation was first reported by The Information. The publication's post about the investigation into Jurvetson came a day after entrepreneur Keri Kukral told women in a public Facebook post to be careful when approached by founding partners of DFJ. "Predatory behavior is rampant," she wrote.
1 min read · 25 October 2017
Connatix, a native video syndication and monetization platform for publishers, has secured $15 million in funding. Volition Capital led the round. In conjunction with the funding, Larry Cheng, a managing partner at Volition Capital, will join Connatix's board of directors.
1 min read · 24 October 2017
Nokia Growth Partners has promoted Walter Masalin to partner, according to an announcement on its site. A seasoned entrepreneur who has made investments in such companies as Babbel, Clue, Fyber and MAG Interactive, Masalin first joined NGP in 2007.
1 min read · 24 October 2017
TrackR, a provider of personal item tracking solutions, has named Nathan Kelly as chief operating officer, Matthew Pigeon as chief financial officer and DeAnna Wassom as senior vice president of global marketing. TrackR's backers include Foundry Group, Amazon Alexa Fund, DoCoMo Capital, The Glenmede Trust and Bespoke Strategies.
3 min read · 24 October 2017
