Mario Schmidt has agreed to join Willkie Farr & Gallagher as a partner in the firm's Frankfurt office. He currently is a partner with Clifford Chance, and focuses on European private equity transactions.
Fluidigm Corp., a South San Francisco-based provider of integrated fluidic circuits for the life sciences market, has raised $37 million in Series E funding. Wasatch Advisors, Cross Creek Capital and an undisclosed public funds manager were joined by return backers like Versant Ventures, Alloy Ventures, Bio*One Capital, Lilly Ventures, EuclidSR Partners and InterWest Partners. www.fluidigm.com
David Livingstone has been named head of European M&A with Credit Suisse. He previously had served as head of European I-banking with HSBC. www.credit-suisse.com
GE Oil & Gas has agreed to acquire Vetco Gray, a division of Vetco International, for $1.9 billion from Vetco owners Candover, 3i Group and JPMorgan Partners. Vetco Gray is a Houston, Texas-based provider of drilling, completion and production equipment for on and offshore oil and gas fields. www.vetcogray.com
Innov-X Systems Inc., a Woburn, Mass.-based provider of elemental analyzers to the industrial, transportation, security and energy end-markets, has raised $27 million from Summit Partners. www.innov-xsys.com
Amobee Media Systems Inc., an Israel-based developer of ad-serving solutions for mobile operators, has raised between $15 million and $20 million in second-round funding, according to Globes Online. Globespan Capital Partners was joined by return backers Accel Partners and Sequoia Capital. www.amobee.com
Semafore Pharmaceuticals Inc., an Indianapolis-based, has raised $9.5 million in Series B funding led by return backer Twilight Venture Partners. www.semaforepharma.com
ChaCha, an Indianapolis-based search startup, has raised $6 million in first-round funding led by Bezos Expeditions, with additional participation from Rod Canion (founding CEO of Compaq) and Jack Gill (partner at Maven Ventures). http://www.chacha.com/
LoadStar Sensors Inc., a Mountain View, Calif.-based maker of capacitive load sensors, has raised $5 million in its first round of institutional funding from AIG SunAmerica Ventures and Needham Capital Partners, according to VentureWire. The company is expecting to expand the round to $7 million, and previously raised $1 million in seed funding from angels […]
Digital Media Group Company Ltd., a Shanghai, China-based operator of digital media networks inside subway systems, has raised an undisclosed amount of Series B funding. Oak Investment Partners led the deal, and was joined by Sierra Ventures and return backers NIF SMBC Ventures and Gobi Partners. www.dmgtv.com