Luisa Beltran
Richard Casey, Square 1 Bank's founder, chairman and CEO, has passed away, according to a statement Thursday. Services for Casey will be held on Saturday. Square 1 Bank is a commercial bank that exclusively serves the financial needs of the VC community and entrepreneurs.
Henry Kravis is not a rock star, but Bloomberg Television is giving him some rock-star treatment.
Kravis, the co-founder of KKR, will be profiled tonight on “Bloomberg Game Changers” at 9:30 pm ET. The legendary investor won’t be on the show himself, but others, including John Mack, chairman and former CEO of Morgan Stanley, and Alan “Ace” Greenberg, former chairman of Bear Stearns, will talk about the LBO god.
mig33 said Monday that it has received $8.9 million in Series C funding, led by Indonesia telecom entrepreneur Pak Sugiono Wiyono and GREE, a Japanese social networking service. Existing institutional investors Accel Partners, Redpoint Ventures and DCM supported the round. migg33, of Singapore, is a mobile community.
H.BLOOM has completed a $2.1 million series A round led by Battery Ventures. H.BLOOM's existing investors also participated in the round. New York-based H.BLOOM is a locally-focused flower subscription service which provides flowers at affordable prices. Earlier this year, the company raised $1.1 million from angel investors. Battery Ventures is a VC Firm that manages nearly $4 billion in committed capital.
Venafi, which is backed by Foundation Capital, UV Partners and Origin Partners, said Thursday that it has appointed Jeffrey Hudson as its CEO. Hudson was previously CEO of Vhayu Technologies. Venafi, of Sandy, Utah, provides digital certificate and encryption key management services.
It seems like the Carlyle Group is announcing a deal, or rumored to be involved in one, just about every day.
The politically connected PE firm disclosed today that it is investing in Sandler O'Neill, the New York investment bank. On Monday, a Carlyle-led investor group agreed to inject up to $200 million in Brand Group Holdings, the parent company of Brand Banking Co. Carlyle was also said to be bidding on Indonesia's Matahari hypermart business earlier this week. South Korea's Lotte Shopping is also bidding, according to my co-workers at Thomson Reuters.
Last week was also a busy time for the mega buyout shop. Carlyle announced two transactions: a $2.9 billion deal for CommScope and $2 billion agreement for Syniverse Technology.
Kelso & Co. and the Carlyle Group are investing in Sandler O’Neill, the investment bank known for advising financial services firms.
New York-based Kelso, a PE firm, and Carlyle are making a “substantial minority investment” in Sandler, according to a statement. Financial terms weren’t disclosed and the deal is expected to close later this year. Sandler’s management team, led by James Dunne and Jonathan Doyle, are expected to remain in place. All of Sandler’s existing 50 partners are participating in the deal. Sandler has also inked multi-year non-compete agreements with the partners to keep them at the firm.
Summit Partners has invested in Central Security Group. Financial terms were not announced. Tulsa, Okla.-based Central Security provides security alarm monitoring services for residential and commercial customers. Summit Partners, of Boston, is a growth equity investor.
LiveU Inc. said Tuesday that it's raised $11 million in third round financing led by Pitango Venture Capital. Carmel Ventures and Canaan Partners, existing investors, also participated. LiveU, based in Paramus, N.J. and Kfar Saba, Israel, develops technology to transmit live video from the field directly to the Intenet and TV. Pitango is a VC firm in Israel.
PathCentral said Tuesday that it has raised $10 million in Series B financing. Okapi Venture Capital, Arboretum Ventures, and Baird Venture Partners co-led the round. Irvine, Calif.-based PathCentral is an anatomic pathology services company. Okapi Venture Capital is a seed and early stage life sciences and information technology investor. Arboretum Ventures, of Ann Arbor, Mich., is an early stage VC firm that focuses on healthcare services. Baird Venture Partners is the VC fund of Baird Private Equity.