Series B
Banjo, called “The Live Internet,” has realized a $16 million Series B funding led by Balderton Capital. New and current investors such as BlueRun Ventures and Vegas Tech Fund contributed. Total backing behind the Redwood City, CA company comes to $21 million. The company, which allows users to experience breaking news and live events in real time, recently debuted its first web version.
Series C
Biopharmaceutical company Sage Therapeutics, which concentrates on neuroscience, has realized an oversubscribed Series C investment round. Funding came from OrbiMed Advisors, LLC; Foresite Capital Management; EcoR1 Capital Management; two blue-chip public investment funds that weren’t disclosed; and prior backers ARCH Venture Partners and Third Rock Ventures, according to a press release. Sage Therapeutics advances medicines for the treatment of “rare and orphan diseases of the central nervous system,” the release says.
Funding
Education technology company Smart Sparrow has gained $10 million in funding led by Yellow Brick Capital. Prior backers OneVentures and Uniseed also participated. The Sydney startup, which emphasizes focus on professors over institutions, headed to San Francisco this month.
SteelBrick, which delivers apps for Salesforce.com consumers, has received $5 million in funding. SteelBrick’s new chief executive, Godard Abel, and Matt Gorniak, who will act as senior advisor to the Palo Alto company, invested. Abel and Gorniak served as former co-founder and CEO and SVP sales/alliances, respectively, at BigMachines. Cloudera and Nimble Storage are SteelBrick customers.
San Francisco-based MuleSoft, a software company that leverages an integration platform, has raised $50 million in funding. NEA and Lightspeed Venture Partners (which have invested before), plus Meritech Capital Partners, led the round. Cisco, a new investor, joined previous ones SAP Ventures, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, salesforce.com, Bay Partners, and Morgenthaler Ventures. Total backing behind MuleSoft now comes to $131 million.
Financial technology company Azimo has completed a $10 million Series A funding. Greycroft Partners led the round, which saw contributions from Accion’s Frontier Investment Group, eVentures, TA Ventures, KRW Schindler Investments and RI Digital Ventures. The U.K.-based company allows consumers to transfer money internationally. Andreas Huag of eVentures puts the money transfer market at $500 billion in a press release.
According to reports, Eventbrite has confirmed it has raised $60 million in fresh funding. The company’s valuation hit $1 billion, says Fortune. T. Rowe Price and Tiger Global, both of which had invested last year in a $60 million round. The company handled gross ticket sales of $1 billion in 2013, according to reports.
M&A
Helsinki, Finland-based Applifier, which offers Everyplay (for instant gaming replays) and GameAds solutions, will be bought up by San Francisco’s platform for content development, Unity Technologies.
Tel Aviv-based Wix, a web development platform, has revealed its acquisition of Israeli mCommerce apps platform Appixia. Wix, which only recently went public, served more than 42 million registered users globally at the end of this year. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Renaissance Learning, the Wisconsin Rapids provider of assessment and learning analytics, has agreed to be bought by San Francisco PE investment firm Hellman & Friedman. The Permira Funds are selling the company. The transaction will cost $1.1 billion. Google Capital, which invested $40 million in Renaissance Learning in February, is anticipated to stay on as an investor.
New York-based Cupcake Digital, Inc., which develops “award-winning children’s enhanced storybook, interactive play and gaming apps,” has picked up zuuka, Inc. the Santa Barbara, CA-based company behind iStoryTime Library. Cupcake Digital newly leverages an app library with more than 250 titles and a download base at upwards of more than 8.5 million, according to a press release.