CHATSWORTH, CA — Sabeus Photonics Inc., a leading provider of high concept optical devices, today announced the second closing of its latest funding round, bringing the total investment in this round to just over $21 million. Recently joining this funding round is Lexington Ventures (Beverly Hills) that invested $5 million. To date, Sabeus has raised approximately $26 million.
PALO ALTO, CA — Sevin Rosen Funds, an early-stage, technology venture capital firm, today announced the promotion of Nick Sturiale to partner. Sturiale has a successful background in managing startups, including Timbre Technologies, which had a ten-fold increase in investment rate of return. Sturiale joined Sevin Rosen Funds as a senior associate in June 2000, where he led the internal investment decision team to fund Green Border Technologies Inc., an enterprise software venture focused on data integrity, and Woodside Networks, a startup that is extending the value proposition for 802.11 networks. Sturiale’s current area of investment interest includes next generation technologies focused on enterprise and wireless infrastructure and applications.
BOCA RATON, FL— Naviant Inc., the leading collector of Opt-in consumer data and industry leader in permission-based email marketing, today announced that the Company has completed a $30 million expansion round. The private placement was led by new investor Austin Ventures and included existing investors TL Ventures and Softbank Capital Partners.
SEATTLE — Vertis Neuroscience Inc., developer of medical devices for treatingdiseases and disorders of the central nervous system, today announced that itis closing on a $37 million round of venture financing. New investors include Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation (J&J’sventure capital company), AEA Investors, CHANNEL Medical Partners, New MedicalTechnologies, SEB Asset Management, Spring Ridge Ventures, and TAT CapitalPartners. Current investors, Canaan Partners, Domain Associates, MayfieldFund, and Foundation Medical Partners, also participated in the financing.With the closing of this round, Vertis has raised approximately $57 million todate.
LOS ANGELES — The Yucaipa Companies is pleased to announce that William J. Clinton, the 42nd President of the United States, will serve as a Senior Advisor to the firm and its investment funds. As Senior Advisor, President Clinton will provide counsel to Yucaipa and its investment funds including the Yucaipa American Fund (YAF) and the Yucaipa Corporate Initiative Fund (YCIF). Mr. Clinton will participate in events related to the funds and provide advice in the development of potential investments.
Yucaipa recently announced the formation of the Yucaipa American Fund. The focus of YAF’s investments is on industries and companies that maintain strong corporate governance practices and are sensitive to the interests of their employees. YAF will control subsidiary funds and businesses that provide financial services to public pension funds, Taft-Hartley pension funds, union and union members. Yucaipa will continue as a trusted investor for public pension funds and Taft-Hartley funds, in order to grow their participation in the private equity market. Additionally, Yucaipa announced last year the formation of YCIF with the mission of bringing Fortune 1000 companies with working capital to underserved markets in the United States.
LOS ANGELES — Herbalife International Inc. (Nasdaq:HERBA) (Nasdaq:HERBB) announced today it has entered into a definitive merger agreement providing for the acquisition of Herbalife by private equity firms Whitney & Co., LLC (“Whitney”) and Golden Gate Capital, Inc. (“Golden Gate”). The transaction is valued at approximately $685 million.
The merger agreement calls for each holder of Class A and Class B Common Stock to receive $19.50 per share in cash, representing a premium of approximately 26.7 percent to holders of Class A Common Stock (April 10, 2002 closing price of $15.389) and a premium of approximately 35.4 percent to holders of Class B Common Stock (April 10, 2002 closing price of $14.40). The Company’s charter requires in the event of a merger that holders of Class B Common Stock be entitled to receive the same per share consideration as the per share consideration received by holders of Class A Common Stock.
STRATFORD, CT — Spine Wave Inc., a developer of advanced materials, techniques, and implant systems for spine surgery, today announced the completion of its $15,000,000 Series A round of equity financing and the simultaneous acquisition by merger of VERTx, Inc. The Series A round was led by Canaan Partners and New Enterprise Associates (NEA). Other Series A investors included Windamere Venture Partners, California Technology Ventures, New Venture Partners, NeuroVentures Capital and Spring Ridge Ventures.
SAN FRANCISCO — Tangent Fund Management, a San Francisco-based private equity firm that provides growth and investment capital to middle market companies and also acquires high quality companies in growing or fragmented industries, announced today that Bob Sick has joined the firm as principal.
He recently served as president of ValueStar Corp., a leading aggregator of ratings for local service providers. During his tenure there, he built a solid management team as well as alliances with the world’s largest financial processing firms, merchant banks, credit card issuing banks and content distributors. Sick also held CEO positions at Colliers International and Jacksonville Sound & Communication, Inc. and he was a senior executive in Ernst and Young’s consulting practice where he specialized in implementing financial and operational improvements within the Firm’s high technology customer base. He worked closely with various high tech clients including Sun Microsystems and Apple Computer and was named Ernst Young’s “Consulting Practice Member of the Year” in 1989.
News From Wednesday 4/10CUPERTINO, CA — BlueStar Solutions, a leading provider of enterprise application outsourcingservices focused on SAP, announced today that it has secured $28 million infourth-round funding led by Trident Capital. Additional investors includedMorgan Stanley Venture Partners, meVC Draper Fisher Jurvetson Fund I,Affiliated Computer Systems, Osprey Ventures and General Motors Pension Fund.
BlueStar Solutions will use the funds primarily for new customeracquisition, working capital, and strategic initiatives as it continues toincrease its market share and extend its service offerings. The Series D Round brings BlueStar Solutions’ total financing to $112million since the company began operations three years ago.
BOSTON & PALO ALTO, CA — The proven management team that led Tucker Anthony to a leadership position in the private equity marketplace is stepping out on its own to leverage that experience, integrity and investment knowledge to form Park Street Capital, LLC, a firm committed to a fund of funds approach to private equity investing. With offices in Boston and Palo Alto, Park Street will continue managing over $800 million in existing investments.Click here for yesterday?s Private Equity Week story on the new Park Street Fund (subscribers only)
IRVINE, CA – HireRight Inc., the leading Web-based background screening provider, today announced that it has completed its second round of private equity financing totaling $7.2 million in growth capital, bringing the company’s total financing to more than $22 million. The funding includes a strategic investment by Baird Venture Partners, a widely respected expert in the human capital services market and an affiliate of Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated, and included two earlier round investors, Mellon Ventures and St. Paul Venture Capital.
SUNNYVALE, CA — ArcSight, a leading provider ofenterprise security management solutions, today announced $9.5 million in second round funding led by the premier venture capital firm, Kleiner PerkinsCaufield & Byers. In addition, SVIC, who led the first round of funding, willbe participating in the second round along with Integral Capital. This bringsthe total amount raised by ArcSight to $25.5 million.
ALPHARETTA, GA — Lancope, Inc., provider of the StealthWatch line of advanced Intrusion Detection System (IDS) security appliances and a leader in the emerging Network Threat Management market category, today announced that it has closed $5.55 million in a Series A round of financing led by venture capital firms H.I.G. Ventures and GMG Capital Partners.
PLANO, TX — SyChip Inc., a fabless semiconductor company that designs, develops and markets Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits (RFIC) and Chip Scale Modules (CSM) for wireless Internet appliances, today announced it has raised an additional $5M from venture capital firms and a corporate investor. New Investors include: Genesis Park, Global Strategic Investment, the Intel Communications Fund, Markpoint Venture Partners, Masthead, and TechQuest. The additional $5M has brought the total funding of this round to $19.3M.
SAN DIEGO — Forward Ventures, Southern California’s largest fund focused exclusively onthe life sciences, announced that its Entrepreneur in Residence program haslaunched its first company, TargeGen Inc. TargeGen last week announced $10 million in Series A financing that was ledby Forward Ventures and included Enterprise Partners Venture Capital. TargeGenwill focus on developing therapeutics for treating cancer, cardiovascular,ocular and inflammatory diseases by regulating the formation of new bloodvessels.
Over the last six months, TargeGen’s acting CEO, Peter Ulrich, workedside-by-side with Forward Ventures’ partners to recruit scientists who arerecognized leaders in the field of angiogenesis, secure patent rights for keytechnology and arrange financing for the new company. Ulrich, who has nearlythree decades of executive management experience with some of the region’smost successful biotech companies, was handpicked by Forward Ventures’partners to initiate the Entrepreneur in Residence program and launch TargeGenwithin that framework.
ZURICH — Esmertec Inc., a leading global supplier of embedded Java( virtual machines for mobile devices, today announced that it has extended its ongoing round of financing to a total of EUR 10 Million. Sofinnova Partners joined Earlybird Venture Capital, Partners Private Equity and four other funds advised by Partners Group in this extended round of financing. Jean Schmitt, Partner at Sofinnova Partners, joined esmertec’s Board of Directors.
ATLANTA & LAS VEGAS — Pathfire, a leading business-to-business provider of digital media content distribution and management services announced today that it has closed on a $27 million round of private financing. The CNN News Group will join other investors and will now hold a minority equity stake in Pathfire. Also participating in this investment round are a number of incumbent Pathfire investors, including: Quadrangle Group, Halpern Denny & Company, US Venture Partners, Bank of America Capital Investors, Reuters Greenhouse Fund, Riggs Capital Partners, Noro-Moseley Partners, AT&T Ventures, Institutional Venture Partners, Monarch Capital Partners and Kinetic Ventures.
VANCOUVER — Green Fusion Corp. (OTCBB:GRFU) announced that it has completed the acquisition of House of Brussels Holdings Ltd., which owns and operates Brussels Chocolates Ltd. (“Brussels”).
In consideration for 100% of the shares of Brussels, Green Fusion will issue 30,000,000 common shares from treasury to the shareholders of Brussels. The shares will be subject to Rule 144 restrictions and have not been registered under the Securities Act of 1933, or any applicable state security laws. In addition, all outstanding loans made to Green Fusion and Brussels will be converted to common shares of Green Fusion, leaving the consolidated company with no debt, other than trade payables. The transaction will close on May 1, 2002, which corresponds with the beginning of a new fiscal year for Brussels.
STOCKHOLM — Lumentis AB, a provider of metro DWDM systems that maximize network utilization, announced additional funding of $19 million. Santec, a leader in state-of-the art DWDM system components and photonic products, has formed a partnership with Lumentis that includes a strategic investment, R&D cooperation and the distribution of Lumentis’ metro DWDM solutions to the Asian market. Further, existing investor Deutsche Bank Industrial Holdings AG, a subsidiary of Deutsche Bank AG in Germany, has contributed additional funds through a mix of financial instruments, which reaffirms its commitment to provide financial backing for Lumentis through to positive cash flow.
ONTARIO, CA — LifePoint Inc. (Amex: LFP), a leader in non-invasive drug and alcohol diagnostic technologies and solutions, today announced the closing of an institutional equity private placement offering pursuant to Regulation D of the Securities Act of 1933. Gross proceeds of the offering were $10.2 million. Two large national mutual fund groups, including the lead investor SAFECO Asset Management Company, purchased approximately 90% of the placement. Gruntal & Co., L.L.C. served as the placement agent for this offering.
News From Tuesday 4/9SAN DIEGO — Ophthonix Inc., a vision care company located in San Diego, today announced that it has secured $7.5 million in Series A funding lead by Enterprise Partners of La Jolla, Calif. and Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers of Palo Alto, Calif. to advance commercialization of its breakthrough vision assessment and correction technologies. With the support of these successful and experienced venture capital partners and the enormous potential of its technologies, it is anticipated that Ophthonix products will gain rapid acceptance in the growing $40 billion vision correction market worldwide.
EXTON, PA — CB Technologies Inc., an industry leader in clinical trials technology, announces today that it has closed on $12.5 million of Series B Preferred equity financing. The lead investor is Camden Partners of Baltimore, MD. Also investing in this round were CB’s Series A investors: JPMorgan Partners, BancBoston Ventures, General Electric Capital, Mediphase Venture Partners, Adams Street Partners, Federated Kaufmann Fund and MedEquity Investors Partners. The proceeds from this Series B financing will be used by CB to further enhance the technology leadership of its MetaTrial(TM) suite of clinical electronic data capture (EDC) products and related services, expand the company’s European operations and for general corporate purposes.
SUNNYVALE, CA — Jareva Technologies Inc. today announced the completion of an $11 million round of Series C financing co-led by Hummer Winblad Venture Partners and JK&B Capital. Other investors in the series include Dot Edu Ventures, Crest Communications Holdings, Labrador Ventures, and Jumpstartup Venture Fund. Jareva Technologies, the Enterprise IT Automation Company, is the developer of the ground-breaking Elemental IT Automation Platform (ITAP(TM), the world’s first extensible platform designed to simplify the rapid provisioning, remote access, automatic asset discovery, and life-cycle management of compute, network and storage infrastructure. Jareva has recently announced a significant customer relationship with Dell, and will shortly be announcing others.
CAMPBELL, CA — Advanced Radio Cells Inc. (ARCi), a leading provider of license-free broadband wireless solutions enabling ISPs and carriers to deploy profitable services for expanding their broadband subscriber base, announced the closure of $1.5 million in its Series B round of financing. Despite the difficult venture funding environment, ARCi’s innovative business model and installed customer base attracted lead investors SBV Venture Partners and China Technology Ventures Management Ltd., as well as other investors.
REDWOOD CITY, CA & LONDON — RadioScape, a leading developer of licensable software and hardware technology for digital wireless baseband communications systems, announced today it has received USD $2.8 million in financing from venture firms iGlobe Partners Fund, LP and Yasuda Enterprise Development of Japan. RadioScape will use the funds to expand operations in key growth markets in Japan, Korea and the rest of Asia and extend the reach of its core offering, the Communication Virtual Machine(TM) (CVM(R)).
NEW YORK — Lava Trading Inc., a leader in providing market data distribution, tradingtechnology, and Electronic Communication Networks (ECN) and exchangeconnectivity for NASDAQ market makers, broker dealers, and large institutionalinvestors, announced it has secured $30 million in financing led by TAAssociates, one of the nation’s leading private equity firms. Lava, as a neutral party, maximizes trader’saccess to multiple ECNs, increases desk productivity, and lowers floortransaction and communication costs. With a narrowing of spreads throughdecimalization, fragmentation of liquidity among ECNs, and regulatory changes,traders are forced to find new systems to trade quickly, access multiple poolsof liquidity, and provide a consolidated view of the market while remaininganonymous.
HERNDON, VA — NETSEC, a leading provider of managedsecurity services, today announced it has secured $7.5 million in new equityfrom some of the industry’s most highly regarded venture investment firms.This round of financing brings NETSEC’s total funding to $25 million, sinceits inception in April of 1998. ArrowPath Venture Capital led the round, with additional funding from Mobius Venture Capital. Proceeds will be used to fund working capital, marketing and both national and international sales force expansion.
GREENWICH, CT — MMC Capital Inc., the private equity investment subsidiary of Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc., today announced that Garrett M. Moran has been appointed a senior advisor to the company. Mr. Moran will provide counsel on all aspects of MMC Capital’s business, with particular emphasis on investment activities in the insurance and other financial services industries.
Mr. Moran, 47, spent 19 years at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette (DLJ), where he held several executive positions including co-head of the investment banking group. Following DLJ’s acquisition by Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) in 2000, he was co-head of the investment banking integration effort and was briefly the head of CSFB’s private equity division.
LEESBURG, VA — AnnuityNet Inc., the nation’s leading eCommerce provider of online solutions for the annuity industry, has closed $7.5 million in third-round funding from a group that includes both new investors and returning investors from earlier funding rounds. Among the new investors are The Phoenix Companies and Ohio National Financial Services. They join Conning Capital Partners, GE Equity, FBR Financial Services Partners, Lincoln Financial Group and AnnuityNet founder and CEO Shane Chalke, who are adding to their earlier investments in the company. This successful $7.5 million third-round funding follows a second-funding round of $20 million closed in May 2000.
HOUSTON — ChevronTexaco Technology Venturestoday announced the acquisition of certain assets of Dais-AnalyticCorporation’s fuel processing and fuel cell group by one of its units,Analytic Energy Systems, LLC, a newly formed subsidiary of ChevronTexaco Corp.(NYSE: CVX). Financial terms were not disclosed. The investment augments ChevronTexaco’s existing capabilities in reforming technology to provide comprehensive fuel processing and fuel cell system integration solutions that meet the needs of fuel cell system developers by providing reliable, cost-effective systems that generate hydrogen — the fuel needed by fuel cells — from readily available hydrocarbons including natural gas, propane, gasoline and diesel.
News From Monday 4/8WALTHAM, MA — Empirix Inc., the leading provider of integrated test and monitoring solutions for Web, voice and network applications, today announced the completion of its third round of equity financing for $29 million. Lehman Brothers Venture Capital joined the round, which also included continued participation from the original investors, including Matrix Partners. This new round of funding represents an increase in the valuation of Empirix and will be used to accelerate and expand product development, fund associated working capital requirements and support future acquisitions as identified.
CHICAGO — Cambridge Capital Partners (“CCP”) announced today that it has partnered with a member of the founding family and management to recapitalize Excelline Foods, Inc. (“Excelline” or the “Company”), a leading manufacturer of ethnic food. Headquartered in Chatsworth, CA, the Company manufactures a wide variety of frozen and refrigerated Mexican food products including quesadillas, taquitos, flautas, tamales and enchiladas. Excelline also produces a number of non-Hispanic products, specialty items and appetizers. Through two facilities, the Company distributes its product into supermarkets, mass merchants, foodservice suppliers and private label accounts in all 50 states.
CHICAGO — Cambridge Capital Partners LLC (“CCP”) is pleased to announce that Wolfgang Schwerdtle has joined the firm as a Principal, effective April 8, 2002. Prior to joining Cambridge Capital, Mr. Schwerdtle worked at Madison Dearborn Partners, a private equity firm with more than $7 billion of capital under management, where he was responsible for sourcing, evaluating, executing and monitoring private equity investments. Previously, Mr. Schwerdtle worked in the investment banking division of Goldman, Sachs & Co., where he completed M&A transactions in a wide variety of industries. Mr. Schwerdtle graduated with a B.A. and M.S. from Oxford University and received an MBA with Honors in Finance and Entrepreneurship from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business.
WEST LABANON, NH — Platypus Technology, the high-performance solid-state storage system developer, today announced that the company has closed its second round of funding, totaling $7 million. The second round of financing is co-led by Washington-based ECentury Capital and Technology Venture Partners, a leader in information technology and communications funds in Australia. Additional key investors include Mitsubishi, The Carlyle Group and JAFCO Asia, the latter two having been investors in the company’s initial round of funding.
NEW YORK — Wasabi Systems, the leading provider of the NetBSD operating system for embedded computing, announced today that it has secured an additional $2.0 million in its Series A round of financing. Praxis Capital Ventures and Himalaya Capital have each committed money to the round, bringing the total Series A investment to date to $4.0 million. Newlight Associates, the initial Series A investor, led the round. Li Lu of Himalaya and Peter Venetis of Praxis will join Newlight’s Robert Raucci on Wasabi’s Board of Directors.
MENLO PARK, CA — Morgenthaler Ventures, a leading venture capital and buyout firm, today announced Ken Gullicksen as venture partner. Gullicksen – the founding CEO of FiberStreet, Inc., and former director of business development with Nortel Networks – is responsible for identifying and helping guide early-stage technology companies in the enterprise computing and broadband communications markets.
Before joining FiberStreet, a Gigabit network service provider serving multi-site corporations with leased fiber and point-to-point microwave infrastructure, Gullicksen drove mergers & acquisitions strategy and deal-sourcing for Nortel’s data products, in areas such as carrier-managed services, Internet Protocol telephony and application software. Previously, he served in a market-development and engineering role at Hitachi-Raychem Display Systems and in engineering management at Sun Microsystems.
SANTA CLARA, CA — Xpedion Design Systems Inc. today announced that it has received a new round of funding totaling $12.5 million. The round was led by Menlo Ventures (Menlo Park, CA), one of Silicon Valley’s most established and successful investment firms. Xpedion’s previous investors, TeleSoft Partners (San Francisco, CA ) and ViVentures Partners (San Mateo, CA), also participated in the funding round. With this investment, Xpedion’s total capital raised to date is $19 million. The investment also adds H. DuBose Montgomery, founder and managing director at Menlo Ventures, as a member of Xpedion’s board of directors.
MINNEAPOLIS — St. Paul Venture Capital today announced that Alex Tosheff has joined the firm as a venture partner. Focusing on the communications technology market, Tosheff will provide business development and product planning support for St. Paul’s portfolio of companies. Additionally, Tosheff will support St. Paul’s investment focus in OSS/Security.
Tosheff, age 35, has 17 years of technology experience in communications networking, next-generation networks, information systems and security. Before joining St. Paul, Tosheff was corporate vice president at Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), a Fortune 500 company with $6 billion in annual revenues. In addition to this position, Tosheff was chief technology officer of SAIC’s Global Telecommunications Group. In this role, he provided technical and business development leadership for numerous projects, managed aspects of minority investments by SAIC Venture Capital Corporation in telecommunications, and lead technical due-diligence efforts for new investments.
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA — Iteration, a new software company focused on next generation reporting and information delivery, today announced that it has secured $4 million in Series A funding. Top venture capital firms, Canaan Partners and Crosspoint Venture Partners, led the financing round with participation from private investors. This investment will support the Company’s efforts to develop and market real-time reporting and information delivery solutions for the enterprise software market.
FAIRFIELD, NJ — Datatec Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: DATC), a leading provider of technology deployment services and software tools, today announced it has received a $2 million investment from two funds managed by The Palladin Group L.P., an asset management advisory firm with over $700 million in alternative investments, through the issuance of Subordinated Secured Convertible Debentures. The Company will utilize the investment to fund working capital in support of anticipated near term sales growth.
BOSTON — Datek Online Holdings Corp. and Ameritrade Holding Corp. (NASDAQ: AMTD), two pioneers in the online brokerage industry, today announced a definitive agreement to forge a merger of equals. Under the agreement owners of Datek will receive 50 percent of the total outstanding capital stock. The value of the transaction is approximately $1.289 billion based on the closing price of Ameritrade stock on April 5, 2002, net of the acquisition of cash plus regulatory capital valued $100 million.
TA Associates led an investment in July 1999 to provide $195 million of growth capital for Datek, which was experiencing spectacular growth across each of its major units. The company has grown significantly to become the 4th largest Internet brokerage as measured by transaction volume. In December 2000, TA increased its investment in Datek and helped to lead a $700 million financing with Bain Capital and Silver Lake Partners to acquire all voting shares of the stock held by a group of original shareholders and provide working capital to the company. Mr. Landry and TA Associates Managing Director Kenneth T. Schiciano are Directors of Datek Online Holdings Corp. LONG BEACH, CA — Apriso Corp. announced today that it has received a $14 million equity investment led by 75 Wall Street Technology Partners LP, a New York-based technology fund of Dresdner Kleinwort Capital, with CMEA Ventures of San Francisco, California. Additional investors include LogiSpring Investment Fund SA of Brussels, Belgium, one of the funds managed by LogiSpring Management Company Sarl of Geneva, Switzerland; and Brentwood Venture Capital of Los Angeles, California, which is making its second investment in Apriso. The company will use the funds to accelerate product research and development, expand its global marketing activities and develop multiple sales channels in each of the vertical markets it serves.
SEATTLE — InterQuest Communications, a leading provider of broadband Internet services to the multi-family real estate industry, today announced that it has received an additional $1.75 million of funding provided by ComVentures, a leading communications venture firm. The money will be used for additional acquisitions, operations and marketing of broadband services to apartments, and condominiums. InterQuest broadband services are now available to apartment and condominium residents in Seattle, Portland, Salt Lake City, Dallas, The San Francisco Bay Area, Phoenix, Tucson, Denver, and Southern California.
MINNEAPOLIS — Goldsmith Agio Helms announced today that Peter E. Bennett has joined the firm as a managing director in its New York office. Mr. Bennett will lead the firm’s private placement advisory services practice. He has over 15 years of experience in private equity and debt placements, having completed over 90 private financings in a broad variety of industries.
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