PEI Staff
Blockchain Capital closed its second venture fund at $13 million, surpassing its target of $10 million. The fund has already invested in 23 blockchain technology companies since 2015. Blockchain Capital also partnered with Flight.vc to form an AngelList syndicate focused on bitcoin and blockchain startups.
Saw Mill Capital acquired Wolf-Gordon, a wallcovering and textile company. Financial terms were not disclosed. This is the first investment in Saw Mill’s most recent fund.
Social Leverage led a $2.75 million seed funding round in Civic, a digital protection start-up formed by internet entrepreneur Vinny Lingham. Social Leverage will add its founding partner Howard Lindzon to Civic's board. Lingham is the former chief executive officer of Gyft, an online gift card platform.
Highland Capital Partners promoted Manish Patel to lead the firm's Silicon Valley consumer internet practice. Patel joined the firm in 2010 after nearly seven years at Google. Highland also promoted Jessica Pelletier to chief financial officer. Pelletier worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers before joining Highland in 2005.
Scale Venture Partners led a $20 million Series B funding round in Lever, a San Francisco-based provider of recruitment software to companies including Netflix, Yelp and Lyft. Other investors in the funding round included Correlation Ventures and a syndicate led by Naval Ravikant, chief executive officer and co-founder of AngelList. Existing investors Matrix Partners and Index Ventures also participated.
Latham & Watkins LLP hired Rainer Traugott as a partner in its Munich office to focus on large German corporates and private equity firms on mergers and acquisitions and a range of corporate issues. Traugott was previously a partner at Linklaters, where he led the law firm’s private equity practice in Germany.
The Private Equity Growth Capital Council (PEGCC) named Mike Sommers its president and chief executive officer. Sommers previously worked as chief of staff to former House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner.
panOpen closed a second investment round led by Zen Group, LLC. The company, which provides a learning platform for educational resources, has raised $4.5 million to date.
San Diego-based HCAP Partners promoted Hope Mago to principal. Mago joined the firm, formerly named Huntington Capital, in 2009 from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.
A funding. Anthos Capital, Index Ventures, and United Ventures participated in the round. The company also opened an office in Los Angeles.