Dan Primack

Greystripe, a San Francisco-based rich media ad platform for mobile, has raised $2 million in additional Series C funding from Peacock Equity Fund, a VC unit of NBC Universal. The two companies had a prior strategic relationship, although the equity funding is structured separately. Worth noting that existing shareholder Steamboat Ventures is a Walt Disney Co. affiliate, which means that Greystripe has effectively raised capital from the parent companies of both NBC and ABC. I asked CEO Michael Chang if this meant Viacom was next on the list, but he laughed it off. What Chang did say, however, is that Greystripe has no plans to follow in the footsteps of rival AdMob, which last week bought mediation company AdWhirl. "I'm still scratching my head over that deal, because

The British Venture Capital and Private Equity Association and state-backed technology fund NESTA today released a study questioning the way UK taxpayer money is used to support startup businesses. It found that six government-backed VC programs created jobs between 1995 and 2008, but that the effect had been small in relation to the amount of money committed: Many of the problems arise from the structure and limitations of government-backed schemes established in the UK to date. Too often they have been too small, too regionally focused, poorly managed, or unable to provide enough capital or effective follow-on funding. You can download the full report here, or read it after the jump:

The big news this morning is that eBay has agreed to sell a 65% stake in Internet calling company Skype to a group of private investors, at an enterprise value of $2.75 billion. The buyers include Silver Lake Partners, Canada Pension Plan, Index Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz. Here’s my question: Does this mean that Index and Andreessen Horowitz are no longer venture capital firms? This might sound like an academic question, but I mean it as a follow-up to Alan Patricof’s op-ed from Sunday’s NY Times. For the uninitiated, Patricof and former regulator Eric Dinallo argued that venture capital firms should be excluded from proposed requirements to register as investment advisors. They argued that VC firms do not pose the types of systemic risks that the rules are designed to guard against, and that imposition of such requirements could damage venture capital firms from a cost perspective. It’s also a case that the NVCA has been making on Capitol Hill. I agree with Patricof and the NVCA, that venture capital does not pose systemic risk. It is true that the economy would be severely harmed if most VC firms went belly-up tomorrow, but there is no

Jeffrey Barnes this morning was asked to resign as a general partner with Oxford Bioscience Partners, after the firm learned that he had not complied with policies governing personal securities trading. An OBP spokesman says that he did so with immediate effect, and that it is not expected to have a "material effect" on portfolio performance or firm operations. The spokesman adds that Barnes' transgression involved personally trading in publicly-held OBP portfolio companies without the knowledge of his fellow partners. Barnes originally joined the Boston-based venture capital firm in 1999, after having spent time in the healthcare M&A trenches with both Robbie Stephens and Needham & Co. Before that, he was co-founder and CEO of cardiovascular device company Biosyss Corp. He was one of five general partners on the firm's $150 million fifth fund, which closed

iWalk, a Cambridge, Mass.-based developer of wearable devices for human augmentation, has raised around $20 million in new VC funding, according to a regulatory filing. General Catalyst led the round, with partner John Simon taking a board seat. Other board members include William Doyle of existing backer WFD Ventures, and William Sahlman of the Harvard Business School. No longer listed is iWalk co-founder Nicholas Negroponte. iWalk's inaugural device is called the PowerFoot One (seen above), and is a self-contained robotic system that serves as a prosthetic ankle and foot for amputees. Company executive Rich Casler declined to comment, saying that the company is holding off on interviews until it puts out a press release next month. www.iwalkpro.com

What follows are seven VC deals culled from recent Regulation D filings with the SEC. None of them has been otherwise disclosed: * ValenTx Inc., a Carpinteria, Calif.-based developer of minimally-invasive treatments for morbid obesity, has raised $20.29 million in new VC funding. The company previously raised around $7 million from firms like EDF Ventures, Affinity Capital Management, Kaiser Permanente Ventures, TGap Ventures and Sapient Capital Management. www.valentx.com * Seeo Inc., a Berkeley, Calif.-based lithium-ion battery developer, has raised over $8.6 million in new VC funding. Return backers include Khosla Ventures. www.seeo.com

There was a time, not too long ago, when readers railed against any mention of politics or government in this space. “They have nothing to do with investing,” was the common gripe (often followed by something about how I was to the left of Castro). Such complaints have since disappeared, of course, since government has become the equal third leg of a stool that once was tilted toward buyers and sellers. Nowhere is that more true than in the burgeoning cleantech space, where issues of government funding and regulation often are central to a startup’s business strategy. With that in mind, I’m pleased to announce the first-ever peHUB event to include actual content (don’t worry, there will still be plenty of time for boozing and schmoozing): Cleantech & Washington: Making Sense of it All The event takes place on the evening of October 27, at the Boston offices of law firm Bingham McCutcheon. We’ll begin with some late afternoon cocktails, followed by a panel discussion that will include: * David Brown: Partner & General Counsel, C Change Investments * Nick d'Arbeloff: Executive Director, New England Clean Energy Council * Pat Cloney: Executive Director, Massachusetts Clean Energy Center * Rob Day: Partner, Black Coral Capital * Scott DePasquale: Principal & Executive-in-Residence, Braemar Energy Ventures * Barry Direnfeld: Partner, Bingham & McCutcheon Yours truly will do the moderating duties. Following the panel, you’ll have plenty more time to network with local cleantech entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, attorneys and assorted hangers-on. Tickets are just $75 if you get yours before September 12. Please go here to register.

Benchmark Capital’s Bill Gurley yesterday wrote on his blog that the VC industry is going to shrink substantially over the next several years. Specifically, he argues that large institutional investors will decrease their allocations to venture, although not abandon it entirely (due to CAPM and contrarianism). The typical reaction from readers -- including many of you who sent me emails -- was appreciative slobbering. I strongly encourage you to read what Bill wrote. Go ahead, I’ll wait. Ok, now let me tell you why I think he’s wrong. Not on describing the overall environment (he's got it nailed), but on what the end result will be. Specifically, I believe that the number of institutional investors cutting back on VC commitments will be small, compared to the number either maintaining or increasing their allocations. It’s easy for us to get caught up in the doings of big-name, liquidity-challenged endowments like Harvard and Yale, but they really are just a tiny drop in the overall LP bucket. In fact, all the Ivy Leaguers combined probably have less committed to venture capital than does CalPERS alone (and it recently increased its alternatives allocation)…

A quick video segment with Reuters Insider, about the new breed of VC-backed companies app developers. Get it after the jump.

A bunch of thoughts with in particular order, for the 183 of you actually working today... *** The prospects for KKR portfolio company IPOs are not related to KKR’s inability to price its own IPO. Apples and oranges. A more legitimate question, however, is if a rush of PE-backed IPOs would be welcomed or viewed as too much too fast (the “glut” scenario)… *** Was on the phone last week with a fund-of-funds partner who is in a bunch of brand-name buyout funds. I asked about Q2 marks, and if portfolio valuations had jumped in line with the public markets. After all, mark-to-market should cut both ways. What he said, however, was that most of his GPs had only written their portfolios up modestly in the quarter. Five or six percent, compared to the DJIA increase of nearly 9 percent. Not sure if this reflects conservative accounting or was a byproduct of this LP’s particular portfolio…