Chris Witkowsky
Elastifile, which develops storage technology, has raised $8 million in Series A funding from Battery Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners. Along with the funding, Battery general partner Itzik Parnafes and Lightspeed partner David Gussarsky will join Elastifile's board.
uTest, which provides app testing through a community of 'in-the-wild' testers, has closed a $43 million Series E round of funding, led by Goldman Sachs. The funding round had full participation from existing investors QuestMark Partners, Scale Venture Partners, Longworth Venture Partners, Mass Ventures, Egan-Managed Capital and Mesco Ltd. Funding comes as the company plans to expand its offering and change its name to Applause, and brings its total funding to date to $80 million. As part of the round, David Campbell, Goldman Sachs' managing director in the merchant banking division, will join uTest's board of directors.
GetOne Rewards, which helps retailers automate marketing, has raised more than $2.5 million in funding. The financing includes Series B capital from lead investors Fulcrum Growth Fund II and Milestone Venture Partners, as well as Atlanta Technology Angels and other private investors. Also, the company got a growth capital term loan from Silicon Valley Bank.
Activant Capital has completed a growth investment in Austin, Texas-based Upland Software, a cloud provider of enterprise work management applications. Upland will use the new financing to continue its focus on current products and pursue strategic acquisitions.
Ridgewood Energy has closed its Ridgewood Energy Oil and Gas Fund II on its hard cap of $1.1 billion, raising capital from 39 institutional investors. The original target on Fund II was $750 million. The investment vehicle will focus on exploration and production of oil projects in the U.S. deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Eaton Partners worked as placement agent on the fund.
Spindletop Capital Management, a healthcare-focused private equity firm, has promoted Steve Whitlock and Bob McDonald to managing directors. Both Whitlock and McDonald have been with Spindletop since 2011. Spindletop was formed in 2011 to provide expansion capital for commercial stage healthcare companies.
Palladium Equity's Fund IV has surpassed its $800 million target and will likely eye its $1 billion hard cap.
Japanese beverage giant Suntory Holdings Limited has agreed to acquire Beam Inc., which makes among other brands Jim Beam and Maker's Mark, for $83.50 per share in cash, or total purchase price of $16 billion, including the assumption of Beam's outstanding net debt. The share price would represent a 25 percent premium to Beam's closing price of $66.97 on Jan. 10, 2014. The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of 2014.
Ifbyphone, a voice-based marketing automation business, has raised an additional $9 million in funding, bringing its total to more than $30 million. The funding was led by River Cities Capital Funds, with participation from existing investors, Apex Venture Partners, Origin Ventures and I2A, as well as a new investor, SSM Partners.
Trustpilot, a review community for online shoppers, has raised $25 million in Series C funding. The funding round was led by DFJ Esprit in London and DFJ in Menlo Park, with participation from existing investors Index Ventures, Northzone and Seed Capital.