Chelsey Henry, based in Seattle, has closed on $1.2 million of an anticipated Series B round of $1.6 million. The money is earmarked to help the handbag maker make a lot more handbags. Members of angel network Keiretsu Forum Northern California led the round. Chelsey Henry merchandise is sold in more than 500 boutiques across […]
Pacgen Biopharmaceuticals Corp., a Vancouver-based biopharmaceutical company, has raised $7.1 million Canadian dollars ($6.1 million) through an initial public offering on the TSX Venture Exchange in Canada, according to Taiwan Economic News. The company, founded by a Taiwanese professor, is developing drugs for the treatment and prevention of infectious diseases and diseases of the immune […]
UK buyout shop Barclays Private Equity has agreed to sell Buch & Kunst Group, a Dresden-based operator of 44 bookstores, to the Thalia book retailing group, according to Dow Jones. Buch & Kunst had expected to post sales of more than 50 million Euros ($78.8 million) in 2006. It is among the five largest booksellers […]
Bahrain-based Venture Capital Bank has raised more than $75 million in a first closing of the MENA Small & Medium Enterprises Fund I L.P., earmarked for acquisitions in the Middle East and North Africa, according to Middle East Company News. The target for the fund is $250 million. The fund is co-managed by Venture Capital […]
Prosperitas Investment Partners, founded in 2000 to back Kentucky start-ups, failed to prosper and is being liquidated as part of a court settlement, according to The Courier-Journal. Most of the 55 investors are Louisville business people. The U.S. Small Business Administration is taking over management of the fund to try to recoup the $19.9 million […]
Joshua Gotbaum has joined New York-based buyouts shop Blue Wolf Capital Management LLC as an operating partner. The 55-year-old Gotbaum will immediately be put to work as chairman and chief restructuring officer of Platform Learning Inc., a provider of educational services that has been operating under bankruptcy protection since June. For many years an investment […]
David Metzger has been named chief financial officer of Sciona Inc., a supplier of consumer DNA testing services based in Boulder, Colo. Metzger previous was chief financial officer of Sterling Partners, a diversified private equity firm. Sciona provides genetic screening to people who would like to find out how to live longer and prevent health […]
UK buyout shop Cinven has appointed Chris Woodhouse chairman and chief executive of Gondola, owner of PizzaExpress, which the firm acquired in October for Pounds 559m ($1.1 billion), according to The Financial Times. Woodhouse, 45, joins from Debenhams, where he was finance director; he earlier was chief executive of Homebase. www.cinven.com
Angel investor group Venture Farm has closed its debut fund at about $1 million, according to VentureWire. The Mission Viejo, Calif-based group also made its first investment, taking a stake in data center monitoring company TrendPoint Systems LLC. The group was launched about a month ago to make seed investments in wireless, enterprise software, energy […]
Bahrain-based Ithmaar Bank said it intended to set aside $630 million of its $2 billion Infrastructure and Growth Capital Fund for regional infrastructure investments, according to Middle East Company News. Ithmaar Bank and Deutsche Bank are the co-sponsors of the fund, which is managed by Abraaj Capital. The fund is earmarked for minority or majority […]