Connie Loizos
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers is teaming up with the talent and literary agency United Talent Agency and USC's Viterbi School of Engineering to create what's being called the Viterbi Startup Garage, an accelerator that will provide financial and other resources to select USC students and alumni. Applications will be accepted through Monday, April 22. Ten teams will then be chosen; they'll work out of USC’s Information Sciences Institute in Marina Del Rey for twelve weeks beginning May 28.
Neuralstem, a Rockville, Md., company whose technology is aimed at fostering hte production of human's neural stem cells in commercial quantities, has secured $8 million in debt financing with Hercules Technology Growth Capital to fuel the company's capital budget through late 2014. Hercules is a specialty finance company focused on providing senior secured loans to venture capital-backed companies in technology-related markets.
Earlier this month, venture capitalist Tim Draper announced he was launching "Draper University," a boarding school for entrepreneurs aged 18 to 26, who will come to San Mateo for one of the school's four eight-week-long sessions each year. Now, Draper University has announced a Heidi Roizen scholarship for female applicants. Roizen, a longtime venture capitalist and former Stanford classmate of Draper, will fund the scholarships. The "university" opens its doors April 17.
Vista International Technologies, a Denver-based company whose technology ostensibly converts waste, biomass, tires and other solid carbon based materials into electricity and thermal energy, while capturing the pollutants, has raised a letter of interest from Intercapital Partners Limited, a U.K.-based private equity firm that's looking to invest up to $6 million in Vista, according to the company. Vista says terms and conditions of the investment are "currently being finalized."
Amy Andersen doesn’t have a degree in psychology, but she has interviewed 4,500 people since founding her Menlo Park, Calif.-based matchmaking service Linx Dating ten years ago. And that collective experience has given her the kind of pattern recognition that comes in handy when trying to divine who her well-heeled clients – some of them venture capitalists – want to date or, in some cases, marry.
New Enterprise Associates, the venture capital firm, has launched NEA Studio, a new, New York-based 12-week program program for designers who found mobile and Web startups and who will work alongside NEA investors and design experts, including IDEO founder David Kelly. According to NEA, designers best suited for the program will be able to "take a side project to a full company with the three-month period."
Omaha, Neb.-based Transgenomic, a biotech company, has secured an $8 million term and revolving credit facility from Third Security LLC, a life sciences investment firm with offices in Radford, Virginia, Palm Beach, Fla., and San Francisco.
Medigus, an Israel-based medical device company, has raised $8 million from OribMed Israel Partners LLC, an affiliate of the healthcare investment firm OrbiMed Advisors. In exchange, OrbiMed was issued 30.7 percent of Medigus's shares.
Spiral Genetics, a Seattle-based bioinformatics company, has raised $3 million led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson.
IMS Health, a Parsippany, N.J.-based healthcare industry data firm, has acquired Appature, a Seattle-based software company that had raised roughly $10 million, including from Madrona Venture Group and Ignition Partners. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.