The University of Southern California said it launched the Viterbi Startup Garage, an early-stage technology accelerator that will provide financial and other resources to USC student and alumni entrepreneurs. The school’s Viterbi School of Engineering said the accelerator was put together in partnership with Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers and the talent agency United Talent Agency. The goal is to provide grants and mentorship to approximately 10 companies for a 12 week session beginning in May 2013.

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, the storied VC, has admitted poor performance and promised to do better. Georges van Hoegaerden takes a look at their mea culpa and whether it’s sincere.

FindTheBest has raised $11 million in Series B financing led by New World Ventures, with participation from Montgomery & Co. and existing investors Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Kevin O’Connor, founder and CEO of FindTheBest and formerly founder of DoubleClick. The funding brings the company’s total capital raised to $17 million.

Check out the latest headlines this morning bringing you news on the latest Latin American PE and VC trends; Life Tech’s potential suitors; the Google of mobile and the top ten rules of designing data centers.

Medical device company Intersect ENT has raised a $30 million Series D round of funding that was led by new investor Norwest Venture Partners. Also participating in the round were existing investors Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, U.S. Venture Partners, PTV Sciences and Medtronic. The company, which develops therapies for ear, nose and throat surgeons, previously raised $30 million in known funding.

CLSA Capital Partners‘ Clean Resources Asia Growth Fund has led a financing round with a US$10 million investment into Scinor Water Limited. Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers, a prior investor, also increased its investment in this financing round.

Enterprise mobile application management business Apperian has received a strategic investment from Intel Capital, Intel’s global investment and M&A organization. The additional capital will build on previous investments Bessemer Venture Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and North Bridge Venture Partners and brings Apperian’s total funding to date to $28 million.

Venture investors pulled back during the fourth quarter with dollars going to startups falling 9% and seed investors becoming more cautious. The quarter saw renewed interest in health care investing and a dip in funding for Internet startups.

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers has appointed Risa Stack as general manager of GE’s Emerging Health Innovations, reporting to Sue Siegel, CEO of healthymagination. Stack has served for two years on the advisory board for healthymagination.

Venture investors put $6.46 billion to work during the year, down from $9.61 billion in 2011, the Cleantech Group reports. The number of deals came in at 704, which was down 15% from a year earlier…