Seed funding
Mobile data startup mParticle has raised $1.5 million in additional seed funding from Bowery Capital, Harbinger Capital and Battery Ventures, TechCrunch reports. The company has now raised $4.5 million to date and plans to use the funding for growth. mParticle plans to raise a Series A round next year.
Series A
BitFury, which produces semiconductors for the bitcoin industry, has secured $20 million in Series A funding, in a round led by Bill Tai, Bob Dykes and Georgian Co-Investment Fund, all previous investors. The company will use the funding to develop more efficient chips and expand its data centers. “Building on the success of our Series A funding, it was great to witness continued investors’ trust and excitement in BitFury,” said Valery Vavilov, BitFury founder and CEO. “The fact that we closed this funding round in less than a week is a testament to investors’ trust in our business model and execution capabilities. We now have ample cash to start rolling out the new chip, without selling down our strategic reserve of mined bitcoins.”
Series C
Wahanda, a hair and beauty marketplace, has raised $26 million in Series C funding and has announced the acquisition of German competitor Salonmeister. RGIP, Fidelity Growth Partners and Lepe Partners provided the funding, which brings the total investment in Wahanda to $38 million. The company plans to expand across Europe with the acquisition. “Acquiring Salonmeister is the first step in our long-term plan to expand the business across Europe,” said Lopo Champalimaud, CEO at Wahanda. “Salonmeister immediately struck us a company that shares the same values as Wahanda – in particular an uncompromising dedication to great customer service, day in day out, with industry-leading software. The German hair and beauty marketplace is a vibrant and exciting one, and is enjoying similar growth opportunities to the UK.”
Funding
BizEquity, a business valuation services provider, has secured a $5.1 million investment from Frost Brooks. The company, which was founded in 2010, provides a cloud-based valuation engine and system to small and medium sized businesses. “We very much look forward to working with Frost Brooks to help further enhance our services and support the company’s international expansion. The group of investors the firm has assembled include some of the most powerful names in British business and they will undoubtedly add significant value, contribute strongly to our future growth, and help reinforce our position as the world’s leading cloud-based business valuation service,” said Michael M. Carter, CEO of BizEquity.