Lawrence Aragon
Investment bank GCA Savvian Corporation announced that it named veteran venture capitalist Richard C. Kramlich as an outside director. Kramlich is co-founder of New Enterprise Associates Inc and chairman of NEA Management Company. He is the second outside director of Tokyo-based GCA Savvian and the first from the United States.
TransLoc, a transit technology company based in Durham, North Carolina, announced it has completed an $8 million round of financing. The round was co-led by SJF Ventures and Fontinalis Partners, with participation from Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff’s venture fund, Efficient Capacity; Thomas McMurray; and Patient Capital Collaborative.
The Hudson Valley Startup Fund (HVSF) announced it has officially launched with more than 30 investors and $700,000 to invest in startups in New York’s Hudson Valley. The seed fund is co-managed by Johnny LeHane, Paul Hakim, Chad Gomes, Noa Simons, and Tony DiMarco. It is seeking additional accredited investors, with a goal of raising $1 million before it holds a final close on June 30. Reach the fund via email at info@hvstartupfund.com.
Playbuzz, which enables publishers to create content optimized for social networks, announced it has raised $15 million in new funding. The round was led by Saban Ventures with participation from a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company. Existing investors 83North, Carmel Ventures and FirstTime Ventures also participated. The new round brings the New York-based company’s funding to date to nearly $35 million. It previously raised $19.8 million over three rounds, including a $16 million Series B round in March 2015, acccording to CrunchBase.
Zavante Therapeutics Inc announced that it closed a $45 million Series A round, which the San Diego company will use to develop an injectable antibiotic to treat multidrug resistant (MDR) pathogens. The round was comprised of $35 million from new investors and $10 million from the conversion of outstanding convertible notes. It was co-led by Frazier Healthcare Partners and Longitude Capital, with participation from Aisling Capital. As part of the deal, Frazier Healthcare Managing General Partner Patrick Heron and Longitude Capital Managing Director David Hirsch will join Zavante’s board of directors.
Data Artisans, which makes software to speed up big data analytics, announced it has raised a Series A round of 5.5 million euros ($6 million) led by Intel Capital with participation from Tengelmann Ventures and existing investor b-to-v Partners. The Berlin-based company has now raised $7.3 million in total funding.
Asana, a maker of project management and collaboration software, announced that it has raised $50 million from a Who’s Who of Silicon Valley tech luminaries, including Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The Series C round values the San Francisco-based company at $600 million, up from a valuation of $280 million for its $28 million Series B in 2012, TechCrunch reported. To date, Asana has raised a total of $88.2 million, according to CrunchBase. The new round was led by Sam Altman, president of tech incubator Y Combinator. In addition to Zuckerberg, other participants included Asana’s founders, Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and early Facebook employee Justin Rosenstein; 8VC, a VC firm led by Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale; Aditya Agarwal and Ruchi Sanghvi, VP and former VP of Dropbox; Priscilla Chan, CEO of The Primary School; Adam D’Angelo, CEO of Quora; Founders Fund; Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos; Andrew Mason, CEO of Detour and founder of Groupon; Roger McNamee, co-founder of Elevation Partners; and Eric Ries, author of the book “The Lean Startup.”
Interior design website Havenly has raised $5.8 million in a Series A2 round, bringing the Denver-based company’s total funding to $13.3 million. The round was led by Binary Capital with participation from existing investors Foundry Group and Chicago Ventures. The company said the new capital will be used to improve its design platform and expand staff by 25 percent. Havenly previously closed on a $7.5 million Series A in November 2015.
Torys LLP has released its latest and much-anticipated M&A Top Trends 2016 report. It explores how deal-makers will work to find new M&A opportunities and close deals in the months ahead. Torys has identified five key trends that will be of particular interest to buyout, private equity and venture capital professionals, and to other readers of PE Hub Canada.
Latest data from the first half of 2015 show that the VCAP program, launched in 2013, has bolstered VC supply