Music streaming company Spotify has secured $1 billion in convertible debt from investors. Private equity firm TPG and hedge fund Dragoneer Investment Group led the round, which also included clients of Goldman Sachs. The news was first reported by The Wall Street Journal. The funding news has spawned various theories of how Spotify will spend the money, including buying rivals such as Pandora or SoundCloud or moving into video streaming.
Zavante Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, has closed a $45 million Series A round of financing. The financing consists of $35 million from new investors and $10 million from outstanding convertible notes. The company will use the funds to develop its lead product, an injectable antibiotic designed for use in hospital settings. The financing round was led by Frazier Healthcare Partners and Longitude Capital, with participation from Aisling Capital. “Closing a $45 million Series A financing is a significant achievement that we believe demonstrates tremendous support for our differentiated, injectable antibiotic as we prepare to conduct the pivotal ZEUS Study,” said Ted Schroeder, founder, president and CEO of Zavante. “We have a strong team in place and now we have the financial backing to accelerate the development of our lead product candidate, ZTI-01, with a goal of providing improved anti-infective therapeutic options in the hospital setting.”
Call intelligence company Invoca has secured $30 million in Series D financing led by Morgan Stanley Alternative Investment Partners. Existing investors Accel Partners, Upfront Ventures, Rincon Venture Partners, Salesforce Ventures and Stepstone also participated. Invoca has now raised a total of $60 million and will use the latest funds to expand its sales and marketing teams and for product development. “The tidal wave of mobile adoption requires a new kind of marketing automation that accounts for the most important customer interaction you can have — a live phone conversation,” said Mark Woodward, CEO, Invoca. “Enterprise companies are using Invoca to move the needle on mobile marketing in a significant way. This new funding round only accelerates our ability to make them successful, from our product and customer service capabilities to our expansion in the market.”
Beamr, a media optimization solutions provider, has raised $15 million in a funding round led by Disruptive Growth. Market and Innovation Endeavors also participated. Beamr also announced the acquisition of Vanguard Video. “Today’s announcement is exciting on many levels,” said Sharon Carmel, Founder and CEO of Beamr. “From an industry perspective, the combination of Beamr and Vanguard Video brings unmatched solutions for the broadcast and OTT content delivery market. For Beamr, the acquisition is an important milestone, and we gladly welcome our new, talented colleagues from Vanguard Video, to the family. On a personal note, it’s no secret that I’m fanatic about quality, and we have found that Vanguard Video’s encoders produce the best visual quality, at the lowest bit rates, with the highest performance levels. Together we will lead the video encoding market by far with unprecedented quality and performance.”