Venture Capital funds last year raised the most since 2008, but it’s unclear whether the industry has actually rebounded.

In 2011, 169 funds collected about $18.17 billion. The total is up nearly 32% from 2010 when the same number of funds, 169, raised roughly $13.8 billion, according to data from Thomson Reuters and the National Venture Capital Association. Thomson Reuters is the publisher of peHUB.

European private equity firm Cognetas has given up on the sale of French petrol station equipment provider Tokheim after offers failed to meet its price expectations, writes Reuters. Cognetas appointed JP Morgan to carry out a strategic review earlier this year, after receiving a number of expressions of interest for the business, reports Reuters. (Reuters) [...]

James Seagrave joined Jefferies as an MD in the global financial sponsors investment banking group. He will be based in London and will focus on coverage of UK based financial sponsors. Prior to this, Seagrave spent his whole career at J.P. Morgan where he recently was an MD in their financial sponsors coverage group.

(Reuters) – Intermolecular Inc. filed with U.S. regulators on Friday to raise $200 million in an initial public offering of its common stock. The company develops proprietary technology and intellectual property through paid collaborative development programs with its customers in the semiconductor and clean energy industries. Intermolecular said in its S-1 filing that it has [...]

CardioDx, a company developing cardiovascular genomic diagnostics, has raised $60 million in new equity funding. New investors Longitude Capital, J.P. Morgan, Acadia Woods Partners, Artiman Ventures, and Bright Capital, the venture arm of RU-COM, participated in the round, which also included the company’s previous investors. The company has raised money previously from Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers, Mohr Davidow Ventures, TPG Biotech, Intel Capital, Pappas Ventures, DAG Ventures, Asset Management Group and GE Capital. Funding will be used to expand reimbursement coverage in the United States for the company’s blood-based gene expression test for obstructive coronary artery disease, as well as to continue development of future products. The company, based in Palo Alto, Calif., closed a $45 million round in May 2010.

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Private equity transactions in the financial sector across Asia are receiving heavier scrutiny from regulators worried about handing control of a regulated entity to a foreign buyout firm. A panel of financial institutions’ M&A bankers, speaking at the Reuters Global M&A summit in Hong Kong on Wednesday, cited the increased attention [...]

Healthcare has always been an area of focus in venture capital. In particular, over the last several years, healthcare IT has received a lot of public attention. The recent J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco – focusing on public companies – offers a timely snapshot to compare the healthcare interests of public markets versus [...]

Google: Big news, Schmidt out, but the company’s already shifting gears, prepping a Groupon competitor

Embargoed: Google also apparently managed to talk themselves out of getting scooped

Everyday Struggle: Venture capital works to regain its footing in the Northwest

No Gov, New Gig: Meg Whitman takes a seat on the H-P board, as does Dominique Senequier, CEO of AXA Private Equity

After Congress passed the Dodd-Frank financial reforms last year, newly empowered regulators were given the task of interpreting and enforcing the law’s 2,300+ pages of provisions. The scope of many of the rules has not yet been decided. Among the most controversial of these provisions is the Volcker Rule, named after Paul Volcker, former Federal [...]

Rising Prices: The N.I.H. anticipates cancer costs will grow substantially

Pushed Back: News Corp.’s daily iPad app is delayed

$15B?: That’s what Groupon says its worth

Stocks: U.S. futures mixed, most foreign markets took a slight dive

Back in Business: The GOP looks to regain footing and push its ambitious agenda