Fusion Corporate Partners

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Last Week’s Fund Raisings

1. Autoquake has raised £6 million

• Details : Autoquake, the online retailer set up to sell used cars from large corporate fleet and leasing companies to consumers,  has raised £6 million is a mixture of venture capital and venture debt financing.
• Investors:  The capital was provided by previous investors Accel Partners and Highland Capital Partners , who put in £4 million raised last year. The debt came from Kreos Capital.
• Contacts: Dermot Halpin, CEO Autoquake: Fredrik Skantze, co-founder and CMO Autoquake: Ross Ahlgren, General Partner at Kreos Capital
• Location: UK, London
• Category: Auto, Retail
• Link: Autoquake Blog Announcement, Twitter

2. Chomp.com has raised £2 million

• Details: iPhone apps review site Chomp.com has raised £2 million in funding. Launched just 8 weeks ago, Chomp has 300,000 users and 1.5 million reviews.
• Investors:  BlueRun Ventures, SV Angel partners Ron Conway and David Lee and former SV Angel, now CEO of DailyBooth, Brian Pokorny.
• Location: USA, San Francisco, CA
• Category: Apps, Reviews

3. DataXu Secures $11 Million in Series B Funding

• Details: DataXu, provider of the leading real-time bidding platform for online display advertisers, today announced it has closed $11 million in Series B funding. The proceeds will be used to fund new product development, sales and marketing, and international expansion. John Jarve, Managing Director of Menlo Ventures, will join DataXu‘s board of directors.
• Investors:  Led by Menlo Ventures. Atlas Venture and Flybridge Capital Partners, who provided DataXu‘s Series A funding in April 2009, also participated in the round.
• Contacts: Mike Baker, President and CEO of DataXu: John Jarve, Managing Director of Menlo Ventures.
• Location: USA, Boston, MA
• Category: Advertising
• Link: Press Release

4. DoubleVerify Raises $10 Million in Series B Funding

• Details : Online advertising verification company DoubleVerify has closed a $10 million series B financing round
• Investors:  Led by Institutional Venture Partners (IVP). The round included participation from existing DoubleVerify investors. DoubleVerify had previously closed a $3.5 million Series A financing in May 2009 led by Blumberg Capital, with participation from First Round Capital, Genacast Ventures and private investors.
• Contacts: Oren Netzer, Co-Founder and CEO of DoubleVerify: David Bell, a DoubleVerify board member: Dennis Phelps, General Partner of IVP: David Blumberg, Managing Partner, Blumberg Capital
• Location: USA, New York, NY
• Category: Advertising
• Link: Company Announcement

5. FirstRain raises $7.3 million

• Details: FirstRain, a business that offers a research engine that intelligently filters information and trends from the web about companies, the markets they operate in, and the business trends impacting their market, has raised $7,296,727 of a $8,815,242 equity round.
• Contact: Penny Herscher, President and CEO
• Location: USA, San Mateo, CA
• Category: Research, Search
• Link: Regulatory Filing

6. LivingSocial Raises $25 Million

• Details: LivingSocial, the social commerce business behind LivingSocial Deals and Facebook applications Visual Bookshelf and Pick Your Five, has completed a $25 million Series B round of venture funding. With this round of funding, LivingSocial Deals is launching in four additional cities: Chicago, Denver, Raleigh Durham and San Diego, making the program live in 13 markets across the USA
• Investors:  Led by U.S. Venture Partners, with Grotech Ventures and Steve Case’s Revolution, LLC participating
• Contact: Tim O’Shaughnessy, CEO of LivingSocial
• Location: USA, Washington D.C.
• Category: Ecommerce
• Link: Company announcement

Competitor news on Fusion DigiNet: Groupon has raised a Series B financing round of $30 million, 2^nd December 2009.

7. Plancast has raised $800,000

• Details : Worldly Developments, the consumer internet startup behind Plancast has raised $800,000. The founders are Mark Hendrickson (who previously worked at TechCrunch) and Jay Marcyes.
• Investors:  SoftTechVC, True Ventures, Founders Fund Angel, and Zelkova Ventures. As well as individual angels, Aydin Senkut, Saul Klein, David Cohen, Joshua Schachter, Dave McClure, Dan Martell, Ron Bouganim, and Paige Craig.
• Location: USA, San Francisco, CA
• Category: Social Network
• Link: TechCrunch

8. SeaWell Networks Secures $7 Million in Series A Funding

• Details: SeaWell Networks Inc., an emerging provider of Internet video distribution products, today announced that it has secured a $7 million Series A round of investment, including the conversion of seed funding. SeaWell will use the funds to expand development and marketing efforts of their Internet video streaming solutions that will redefine how video content is delivered over the Internet.
• Investors: Led by BDC Venture Capital, the round also included Northwater Intellectual Property Fund and Ontario Centres of Excellence.
• Location: Canada, Toronto
• Category: Video
• Link: Company Announcement

9. Todacell secures additional $1 million funding from existing investor

• Details: Todacell, the mobile display ad network for optimizing publisher ad performance, has raised an additional $1 million round of funding. Monies from this round of funding have been earmarked for sales and marketing, with five new sales offices opening in New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, London and Bombay.
• Investors:  Raised from existing investor AfterDox. Previously Todacell has secured $2 million from AfterDox and others, including $350,000 seed funding from the Fore Group.
• Location: Israel, Tel Aviv
• Category: Advertising, Mobile
• Link: Company Announcement

10. TripIt receives $7M third round of funding

• Details: TripIt, the trip management company, has closed a third round of funding, receiving $7 million from a group of investors. These funds will be used to accelerate TripIt‘s cloud-based web service to reach more business travellers, as well as new services for mobile and enterprise collaboration at global companies.
• Investors:  Led by Azure Capital Partners and O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures. TripIt has now received $13.1M in total investment, including $1M when it launched in 2007, $5.1M in 2008, and $7M in this third round of funding, which was oversubscribed by interested investors.
• Location: USA, San Francisco, CA
• Category: Travel
• Link: Press Release

Fund Raising News

1. Berlin: Team Europe Ventures starts €6 million investment fund for Internet start-ups, Reported on Fusion DigiNet on 10^th March 2010.
2. Battery Ventures Closes $750M Fund

• Details: Battery Ventures, a multi-stage investment firm focused on technology and innovation worldwide, today announced that is has closed its ninth fund, BV IX, at its $750M target. BV IX Will focus on Technology-Related Investments from Seed to Growth Equity and Buyouts. The firm invests worldwide, with the majority of its investments in North America, Israel and India.
• Location: Battery Ventures invests out of offices in Waltham, MA, Menlo Park, CA and Herzliya, Israel. 
• Link: Press Release