ZURICH/LONDON (Reuters) – It helps to have rich friends — especially when you are running a biotechnology company in Europe. As traditional sources of venture capital and public equity funding dry up in a global flight from risk, some young biotech firms are turning instead to an informal network of high net worth individuals. Switzerland, […]
GameDuell, an online skills gaming community for the German market, has raised over $17 million in Series B funding from Wellington Partners. The company had raised a Series A round in 2004 from Holtzbrinck Ventures and Burda Digital Ventures. PRESS RELEASE Today Wellington Partners (www.wellington-partners.com), one of the leading international venture capital firms, […]
Geovera Insurance Holdings Ltd., a Bermuda-based residential property insurer, has withdrawn registration for an IPO. It had been planning to sell 5.9 million shares at between $16 and $19 per share. JPMorgan and Merrill Lynch were serving as co-lead underwriters. Shareholders include Hellman & Friedman (65.1% pre-IPO stake) and Friedman Fleischer & Lowe (32.5%).
Food giant H.J. Heinz Co has bought Paris-based sauce manufacturer Benedicta for an undisclosed sum. The company which makes sauces, mayonnaises and salad dressings was sold by private equity firm AXA Private Equity. AXA Private Equity had held the business since 2005, when it acquired it in a secondary management buyout from Barclays Private Equity […]
IBM has acquired Platform Solutions Inc., a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based maker of mainframe clones. No financial terms were disclosed. The deal also represents the end of litigation between the two companies, based on IBM's 2006 lawsuit claiming that PSI had violated patent protections. PSI had raised around $52 million in VC funding sincde spinning out […]
Ozone Media Solutions, an India-based online advertising network, has raised an undisclosed amount of Series A funding from IDG Ventures India. PRESS RELEASE IDG Ventures India, a $150 Million early-stage technology venture capital fund, announced today its Series A investment in Ozone Media, India's leading online advertising network. As part of the investment, […]
Core Essence Orthopaedics, a Yardley, Penn.-based medical device company focused on soft tissue and skeletal repair, has raised $5 million in VC funding led by NewSpring Capital. www.ceortho.com
F-Origin, a Morrisville, N.C.-based developer of touch-screen apps for mobile devices, has raised $5 million in Series C funding. Backers include Keynote Ventures and PVI (Taiwan). www.f-origin.com
Pearl Therapeutics Inc., a Redwood City, Calif.-based drug developer focused on respiratory disorders, has raised $18 million in additional Series A funding. This follows a $15.5 million first close held last September. Return backers include Clarus Ventures, New Leaf Partners, 5AM Ventures and Nektar Therapeutics. PRESS RELEASE Pearl Therapeutics, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company developing […]
Pierre-Andre Meunier has joined Celtic House Venture Partners as a partner, where he will lead the firm's activities in the Ottawa-Montreal region. He previously was a partner with venture firm GTI Capital and, before that, was president and CEO of Codagen Technologies, a maker of automated software development tools. PRESS RELEASE Celtic House […]