Dan Primack

Benchmark Capital has quietly re-invested in a San Francisco-based company called 1Life Healthcare, which operates a network of boutique medical practices. Kind of like concierge medical care for the not-yet-wealthy urban professional. The most recent round was for $8 million, although it’s unclear if Benchmark was joined by fellow existing shareholder Pinnacle Ventures.

Yesterday I wrote about a stealthy new buyout firm, so today it's only appropriate that I write about a stealthy new venture firm (given peHUB's charter to cover both markets, and all). The newbie is Makaira Venture Partners, a Stoughton, Mass.-based shop that will focus on early-stage medical device and other non-pharma life sciences opportunities. It's the outgrowth of an in-house incubator/accelerator program at STD Medical Inc., a 50-year-old medical device manufacturer whose clients include Boston Scientific (and whose acronym is quite unfortunate). The STD incubator (wow, that sounds disgusting) was mostly funded by angels and local VC firms, but the independent Makaira plans to raise around $50 million for its debut fund (PPM in process). It will hit up both high-net-worths and more traditional LPs (endowments, foundations, pensions, etc.), with formal marketing expected to begin shortly.

A hearty note of congratulations to Matt Marshall and his team over at VentureBeat, which has signed a deal to begin co-producing the DEMO conference. Matt says the deal is effective immediately, although there will be a transition period since the DEMO ’09 conference occurs next month. For that event, current DEMO executive producer Chris […]

Twitter last Friday announced that it had raised $35 million in Series D funding, from Benchmark Capital ($21m) and Institutional Venture Partners ($14m). The micro-blogging service also raised an undisclosed amount of capital from past backers Spark Capital and Union Square Ventures, and could add even more once existing angel shareholders decide whether or not to exercise their pro rata rights at the $230 million-ish valuation. All together, Twitter is expected to have over $50 million in cash on hand (including some old VC money that has not yet been spent). Some additional notes on this deal after the jump, based largely on a conversation with Todd Chaffee of IVP...

Twitter today announced that it has raised a Series D round of VC funding, from Benchmark Capital and Institutional Venture Partners. It is unclear if existing backers like Spark Capital or Union Square Ventures also participated. No financial information has been disclosed about the round -- per Twitter's obsession with secrecy -- but TechCrunch is reporting that the round came in at $35 million. The site had reported last month that the micro-blogging service was raising at least $20 million at a valuation of approximately $250 million. [Update: Twitter raised the $35 million from Benchmark ($21m) and IVP ($14m). It also secured an undisclosed amount of additional capital from Spark and USV, and is still in talks to raise additional, pro rata funds from angel investors like Jeff Bezos, Mark Andreesen and Ron Conway. Original seed investor Charles River Ventures did not participate in this round, just like it didn't participate in the Series B or C rounds]

Regular readers know my praise for the Venture Capital Investment Competition (VCIC), in which teams of biz school students form faux VC partnerships and are judged on their due diligence, term sheet negotiation, decision-making and ability to present/defend their choices. In fact, I plan to again help judge the finals down in Chapel Hill this April. The entire process, however, relies upon the participation of entrepreneurs. The “teams” listen to elevator pitches, conduct due diligence and negotiate with real companies in search of funding. Not only is this good for the teams, but can provide great experience for entrepreneurs. Imagine getting grilled by a dozen VC “firms” in a day, and then getting to hobnob with actual VCs later on (the judges). Plus, around 25% of presenting companies ultimately get funded.

Hey, who put the placement group in my fund-of-funds? That would be Solution Capital Partners, a cleantech-focused fund-of-funds manager that has been formed in partnership with placement agent Far Hills Group. Specifically, Solution will be run day-to-day by Russell Diamond, who previously ran a smaller cleantech-focused fund-of-funds called R&D Capital Partners. Before that, he was a general partner with Saratoga Ventures. Solution’s investment committee, however, will include members of Far Hills Group – who also will provide due diligence assistance on potential investments, and help raise the actual capital. Furthermore, the two firms are sharing office space.

What follows are ten VC deals culled from recent Regulation D filings with the SEC. They have not been otherwise disclosed: * SolFocus Inc., a Palo Alto, Calif.-based developer of solar concentrator photovoltaic systems, has raised $19.28 million in additional Series C funding, according to a regulatory filing. The round total is now $66.78 million, from firms like Apex Venture Partners, New Enterprise Associates and NGEN Partners. It is unclear if additional capital will be raised, or if the round is closed (it had been targeting between $60m and $70m). SolFocus previously raised nearly $100 million in its Series A and Series B rounds. www.solfocus.com * diaDexus Inc., a South San Francisco-based developer of a blood test for the prediction of cardiovascular disease, has raised around $9.2 million in Series F funding, according to a regulatory filing. Listed shareholders include Scale Venture Partners, GlaxoSmithKline

Some private equity pros might have worried that they'd be scapegoated by the Obama Administration, but so far it seems to be quite the opposite. In fact, some of them are being taken into the fold as confidants. President Obama today signed an executive order establishing an Economic Recovery Advisory Board, which is designed to provide independent advice outside of the Beltway bubble. It's kind of like an economic version of the Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, which was established by Eisenhower. Among the 15 board members are John Doerr, a venture capitalist with Kleiner Perkins, and Mark Gallogly, a former Blackstone Group pro who now runs private equity firm Centerbridge Capital. Even the limited partner community is (sort of) represented, by Yale chief investment officer David Swensen.

The University of Texas Investment Management Co. (UTIMCO) does not publish private equity performance data on its website, but is extremely responsive if you submit an Open Records request. In fact, it even saves you postage by providing this online form. I recently filled it out, and today received a bunch of documents related to the system's investments in venture capital and buyout firms. And because selfishness is ugly, I've posted them after the jump. As always, before the dreaded J-curves...