TODAY ON FOUND3R - Venture Capital STORIES

Zynga's big IPO winners

finance.fortune.cnn.com — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 22:37:51 UTC

Zynga this evening raised around $1 billion in its IPO, by pricing 100 million shares at $10 per share. That puts a whopping $7 billion valuation on the social gaming giant (of $8.9 billion, if you include unexercised options and warrants), which will begin trading tomorrow on the Nasdaq under ticker...

NanoH2O Raises $14.8M

www.socaltech.com — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 20:24:00 UTC

El Segundo-based NanoH2O, the UCLA spinout which is developing reverse osmosis membranes for water desalination, has raised $14.87M as part of an ongoing, $30.6M fundraising effort, according to a regulatory filing from the firm. No details of the funding have been announced by the company yet. NanoH2O...

Cerulean Pharma Closes Series D

Angela Sormani — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 20:18:16 UTC

Cerulean Pharma, a developer of nanopharmaceuticals, has closed a $15 million Series D financing with participation from new investor, CVF, an affiliate of Henry Crown and Company of Chicago, Illinois, as well as full participation from all other existing investors, including Polaris Venture Partners,...

Third Rock Ventures Launches Ember Therapeutics with $34M

Connie Loizos — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 20:10:31 UTC

Boston-based Third Rock Ventures has unveiled a new company, Ember Therapeutics, a product-focused company that's trying to harness breakthroughs in brown fat biology and insulin sensitization to revolutionize the treatment of metabolic disease. Third Rock, a venture firm that helps incubate life sciences...

The world needs more crazy billionaires

finance.fortune.cnn.com — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 19:41:28 UTC

Paul Allen, Elon Musk, Peter Thiel....they're all dropping bushels of cash on things they think are cool that won't likely ever make money. Good for them.

Aiming To Be The 'Groupon Of Groceries', SavingStar Passes 1 Million Users In Under A Year

Rip Empson — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 19:11:45 UTC

It's been a pretty good ride so far for digital couponing startup SavingStar . The company launched its beta last August behind $2.3 million in financing from Flybridge Capital Partners , First Round Capital , and Founder Collective , with participation from angel investors like Ron...

Brad Burnham Explains Why SOPA Must Be Stopped

Erick Schonfeld — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 18:27:32 UTC

Erick Schonfeld is the Editor of TechCrunch. He oversees the editorial content of the site, helps to program the Disrupt conferences and CrunchUps, produces TCTV shows, and writes daily for the blog. He is also the father of three adorable children. He joined TechCrunch as Co-Editor in 2007, and helped...

Prezi's zoomable presentation software locks in on $14M

Krystal Peak — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 13:43:00 UTC

The Series B round also includes renewed participation by Sunstone Capital, who led the company's $1.5 million Series A in syndication with TED Conferences in 2009. With its focus on creating zoomable presentations to add to the connection and discovery of different slides and graphics, the San Francisco-Based...

Sotera Completes Series D

Angela Sormani — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 11:39:01 UTC

Medical device company Sotera Wireless has closed a $12.2 million Series D financing led by Singapore-based global fund, EDBI. The round also included new investor Cerner Capital and existing investors Sanderling Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures, Intel Capital and West Health Investment Fund. PRESS RELEASE Sotera...

Prezi lands $14 million to save us from death by Powerpoint

Ciara Byrne — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 08:28:45 UTC

Zooming presentation tool Prezi just landed an investment of $14 million from Accel Partners and previous Danish investors Sunstone Capital. Prezi is one of those rare startups which actually has revenue. The company has been cash flow positive since 2010. Known primarily for its online presentation...

Accel Leads $14M Round In Cloud-Based, Visual Presentation Software Prezi

Leena Rao — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 07:59:44 UTC

Cloud-based presentation software Prezi has raised $14 million in Series B financing led by Accel Partners with Sunstone Capital participating in the round. Accel's Andrew Braccia will be joining Prezi's board of directors. Prezi, which was founded in Budapest, Hungary in 2009 by Adam Somlia-Fischer,...

KKR & IFC-backed Magma Fincorp Entering Gold Loan, Housing Finance Biz

bhawna — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 07:38:26 UTC

Seven months after raising funds from private equity giant Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. L.P. (KKR) and International Finance Corporation (IFC), Kolkata-based non-banking finance company Magma Fincorp is now entering gold loan and housing finance business. Gold loans has been a hot business with rising...

Should VC's Be Blogging?

Paul Jozefak — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 06:03:43 UTC

Chris Dixon started my thinking about whether VC's need to be blogging. He posted a quote from Marc Andreessen, which is actually quite good, but not relevant to this post. What is relevant is Chris's quote at the end: "Man, I wish Marc still blogged!" I, too, miss Marc's regular blogging. He wrote great...

Highland Capital may sell European unit

Jeff Bounds — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 21:39:48 UTC

Highland Capital Management LPHighland Capital Management LPLatest from The Business JournalsBest Corporate Counsel Awards: Finalists, Community serviceDallas: a future in health care, energyHouston lawsuit against Highland Capital dismissedFollow this company, a Dallas purveyor of hedge funds and other...

Carlyle Buys 42% of Alamar Foods

Luisa Beltran — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 21:09:17 UTC

The Carlyle Group has bought a 42% stake in Alamar Foods . The seller is the the Al Jammaz family of Saudi Arabia , which will continue to hold a majority stake. The deal closed on Dec. 14. Alamar is a franchise operator of Domino's pizza and Wendy's hamburgers in the Middle East and North Africa...

LA-based Amplify launches $4.5M accelerator

Bambi Francisco Roizen — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 20:19:40 UTC

Amplify announced Wednesday its debut, with some pretty high-profile backers, including Mark Burnett, well-know television producer of the Apprentic and Survivor, as well as other entertainment executives, Brian Grazer and Jarl Mohn. Notable tech backers include Accel Partners, BC Capital, Greycroft...

Eisner Backs TaskRabbit

www.socaltech.com — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 20:06:00 UTC

Michael Eisner, the former CEO of the Walt Disney Company, has backed TaskRabbit, the operator of an online marketplace to help connect people with workers to do any number of tasks. According to TaskRabbit, Eisner has agreed to become an advisor to the company, and also invested in the company via The...

PowerCloud raises $6 million

Patrick Hoge — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 19:09:43 UTC

PowerCloud Systems, a spinout from XeroxXeroxLatest from The Business JournalsPowerCloud Systems gets M in Series B funds PowerCloud Systems raises M in Series B fundsAppleton office products distributor acquired by Xerox unitFollow this company's PARC that makes software for providing networking as...

Xeround Gets $9M

www.nwinnovation.com — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 18:37:00 UTC

Xeround, a developer of cloud-based, MySQL database services, said today that it has raised $9M in a Series C found, which included local investors Ignition Partners and Trilogy Partnership. The firm--which had previously had its U.S. headquarters in Bellevue--also has moved its headquarters to Mountain...

Tech Bigwigs: New Law Would Make The U.S. Like "China, Malaysia, and Iran"

Matt Rosoff — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 17:14:04 UTC

A group of bigshots in the tech industry, including Marc Andreessen , Sergey Brin , Jack Dorsey , and Arianna Huffington , say that the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA ) would let the US government use censorship techniques "similar to those used by China, Malaysia and...