Connie Loizos
London-based Braveheart Investment Group, through its wholly owned subsidiary Envestors Limited, has closed funding from private investors in Monaco as part of a £1.2m funding round for Cipher Surgical, maker of a laparoscopic accessory called OpClear. (It keeps a laparascope's lens clear during surgery.)
Fouriertransform AB, a state-owned venture capital company based in Stockholm, Sweden, is investing a total of SEK 25 million in the eye-tracking technology company Smart Eye AB in Gothenburg, the country's second largest city. The financing comes through a combination of a directed new share issue and a loan. Following the transaction, Fouriertransform`s shareholding will be 15 percent.
Iranian-born entrepreneur-investor Shervin Pishevar has become a well-known brand in Silicon Valley in recent years largely because of his social entrepreneurship, not his startup prowess. His particular cause has been eradicating many of the hurdles that foreign-born entrepreneurs still face in entering and remaining in the U.S. But clearly, Pishevar's social conscience has been good for business.
Last night, PrivCo, a New York-based firm that tracks privately held companies, released a list of what it has determined were the top 20 venture capital firms of 2012, based on the firms' successful M&A exits. We asked for the numbers behind the deals.
Sequoia Capital, whose “stealthy” scouting program first came to light last spring, looks to be formalizing the program by registering its first U.S. Scout Seed Fund with the SEC this morning.
Virool, a year-old San Francisco-based video advertising startup, has closed on $6.62 million in funding from a long list of investors in what the company claims is the biggest seed round raised so far by a graduate of the the Y Combinator incubator program. (Virool came out of the program last summer.) The company's institutional investors include Draper Fisher Juvetson and Menlo Ventures; individuals who contributed to the funding include Paul Buchheit, Dave McClure, and Yuri Milner.
The New York-based media marketing firm Simulmedia has raised another $5 million in funding from Time Warner Investments, Avalon Ventures, and Union Square Ventures, according to an SEC Filing. The investors have collectively invested roughly $32 million in Simulmedia since its 2009 founding.
Eventide Asset Management, a Boston-based investment advisory firm that is "committed to biblically responsible investing," has launched a new fund, the Eventide Healthcare & Life Sciences. The fund's lead portfolio manager is Finny Kuruvilla, who also serves as a principal at the healthcare venture capital firm Clarus Ventures.
Entrepreneurs' access to broader funding sources -- including many former entrepreneurs --continues to pay off hugely when it comes to who controls their company. So one could conclude from a newly released report on financing trends by the storied Silicon Valley law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.
Coalfire, a Louisville, Colo.-based software company focused on risk and compliance, has closed $3.6 million in funding from Baird Capital. It's Baird Capital's second round of venture funding for Coalfire, following a $5 million Series A investment in February 2011.