Chris Witkowsky
Firm was an early investor in smart home appliance maker Nest Labs, which Google acquired last week for $3.2 billion
City pension fund staff will look at venture funds focused on mobile, nanotechnology and genomics, as well as opportunities in China, Israel, Poland and Brazil
Commitment to Hamilton Lane is for a VC-focused account
The senior equity investment officer helped guide the treasury into private equity investments.
SciAps Inc., a Boston-based instrumentation company specializing in handheld and portable analytical instruments, has received $2.5 million investment led by new investor Gefinor Ventures, with follow-on participation from existing investors Rand Capital and Coastal Ventures. SciAps was founded in 2012.
Reverb.com, an online marketplace for new and used musical instruments, has completed a $2.3 million Series A funding round. Investors in the round include author Eric Ries, Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick, David Lowery of Cracker and Camper van Beethoven, and Eric Lefkofsky and Brad Keywell, via Lightbank. David Kalt, reverb.com's chief executive officer, also participated.
Talari Networks, Inc., which works on improving WAN reliability, capacity and affordability, has secured a Series D financing of $15 million led by new investor Four Rivers Group. Existing investors including Menlo Ventures and Silver Creek Ventures, also participated in the funding round. The Series D funding will be used to pay off bridge loans and provide growth capital.
BrightTag, a marketing technology platform, has raised a $27 million round of funding led by Yahoo! JAPAN, and joined by existing investors Baird Capital, EPIC Ventures, I2A, Pritzker Group Venture Capital and TomorrowVentures. BrightTag will use the funds to accelerate development of its technology.
HDmessaging, an enhanced mobile messaging company, has closed $3 million in a funding round led by GrandBanks Capital with participation from IDG Ventures, Nexit Ventures and Lighthouse Capital Partners. HDmessaging processes 1 billion messages a month.
Healthcare messaging company, docBeat, has secured $1.1 million in funding in a pre-Series A round. The company will use the funds to build its sales and marketing infrastructure.