Series A
JumpCloud, which operates in the server management automation space, has secured $3 million in a Series A funding round led by Foundry Group and Bullet Times Ventures. The Boulder, CO company recently appointed a new CEO, Rajat Bhargava. JumpCloud launched out of TechCrunch Disrupt in September.
Series B
San Francisco-based search and discovery app Jelly has now raised two funding rounds: a Series A round led by Spark Capital one year ago and a Series B led by Greylock Partners, with Spark Capital contributing. The company, established last year, shares a co-founder with Twitter, Biz Stone. Notable among Jelly’s investors: Twitter’s Jack Dorsey and Evan Williams, Al Gore and U2’s Bono.
VC
Investment fund CoinSeed, which concentrates on Bitcoin ventures, raised $7.5 million in a month for projects in the cryptocurrency’s space. The fund, based in Las Vegas, hopes to gain $15 million more over 8 months. CoinSeed most recently spent $5 million on mining hardware to develop its commercial Bitcoin mining infrastructure. As of this morning, the Bitcoin industry’s market cap stood at $11.3 billion.
M&A
WyzAnt, an Internet marketplace that links students with private tutors, has acquired defunct Y Combinator tutoring startup Tutorspree. Chicago-based Wyzant, which recently raised $21.5 million in a Series A round, can connect nearly 94 percent of Americans with a tutor no more than 10 miles away from them. Global Industry Analysts, Inc. has forecasted that the worldwide market for private tutoring will clear $102.8 billion by 2018.
Cork, Ireland product developer and supply chain manager PCH International has purchased Toronto-based hardware e-commerce company ShopLocket. PCH International’s interest in ShopLocket was due in part to the latter company’s hardware pre-order portal that functions as a bridge between crowdfunding and sales and production. PCH International has its own hardware-company incubator, Highway1. Deal terms were not disclosed.