Series A
Clean server-cooling company Iceotope has raised $10 million in a Series A round. Investors included Ombu Group and Aster Capital, which led the deal. The funding will bring the Sheffield, England-based company closer to Aster’s sponsors like energy corporation Schneider Electric. According to the company, IDC puts the worldwide server market at $40 billion; Icetope also reports $7.4 billion yearly goes to cooling servers down in the U.S.
Series C
ProNAi Therapeutics of Plymouth, Michigan has closed a $12 million Series C round led by Capital Midwest Fund and others. The company leverages medical technology from nucleic-acids to battle diseases like cancer. On its website, ProNAi lists Apjohn Ventures, Grand Angels, Michigan Strategic Fund/MEDC, Biosciences Research Commercialization Center, Sigvion Ventures, Amherst Fund and BlueWater Angels among its investors, and puts total backing (equity and convertible notes) at $15 million.
Copenhagen-based TrustPilot, which aggregates reviews of online e-tailers, has won $25 million Series C in a round led by DFJ Esprit (London) and DFJ Menlo Park. Index Ventures, Seed Capital and Northzone also contributed. The company, whose reviews are showcased via Google product search and elsewhere, reportedly has $43 million in funding to its name. The company works with 70,000+ e-commerce enterprises; customers include Travelocity and lastminute.com.
Series E
Turn, a Redwood City-based marketing software and analytics solutions company, gained $80 million Series E from investors new (ClearBridge Investments, Firsthand Technology Value Fund, Pine River Capital Management and Northport Investments) and old (Norwest Venture Partners, Trident Capital, Focus Venture and Shasta Ventures). BlackRock and another unconfirmed backer, rumored to be Fidelity Investments, led the late-stage round. Total funding for the company, used by customers like Microsoft and Verizon, has hit $135 million.
Delivery Hero of Berlin has raised a thumping $88 million Series E in a round led by Insight Venture Partners. The newest funding brings total investment behind the company, founded 2010, to nearly $200 million. Delivery Hero has built a global presence from the beginning, and now serves more than 55,000 in 14 countries. 2013 saw more than 100 percent revenue growth and, by its close, profitability. The online ordering industry has seen major activity recently, as Seamless and GrubHub combined last May.
Funding
Dublin-based Brandtone has realized its third funding round at €14 million from Syngenta Ventures, Unilever Ventures and Verlinvest. The mobile marketing company looks to expand its footprint and establish offices in New York and Jakarta. The Mobile Marketing Association reports that by 2015 the global market opportunity for companies like Brandtone will grow to $400 billion.
SoftBank has led a massive funding round for Beijing app solutions company Wandoujia at $120 million. DCM and Innovation Works Development Fund contributed. As users can’t always access app stores like Google Play from China, companies selling application platforms have become extremely popular. Wandoujia reportedly has more than 300 million users and serves companies like Line, Path, and Flipboard. Demand for apps will only increase as Counterpoint Research reported this October that nine of ten phones sold in China were smart.
Silicon Valley Bank has loaned e-commerce facilitator and Shopify competitor Volusion $35 million in debt. The Austin, TX-based company brings business online and allows individuals to build their own shops. Volusion claims that entrepreneurs deploying its products garner 3x more sales, which translates to more than $12 billion in sales for its customers since its founding in 1999. The company will reportedly consider a public offering in 2015.
Newton, MA-based Sonian, a cloud-based solution for archiving emails, has received $8 million in funding from OpenView Partners, Summerhill Venture Partners and Prism Venture Partners, all of whom had backed Sonian before. The company’s last financing took place in May of 2012, when Sonian raised $13.5 million Series C. Sonian has built a presence in 40 countries and serves upwards of 14,000 customers.
M&A
Facebook has bought Branch Media and its link-distribution product, Potluck, for roughly $15 million, according to some sources. Branch’s co-founder Josh Miller revealed the deal on Facebook ahead of reports at media outlets. The company will build a “Conversations” unit at the Menlo Park social media behemoth. This may mark a move from Facebook towards taking on Twitter, perhaps best known now for its use in breaking news.
Fresh from acquiring Ticket Monster for $260 million, Chicago-based Groupon purchased fashion flash-sales site Ideeli for $43 million. The price tag seems a bargain as Ideeli had more than $100 million in backing prior to its acquisition. Groupon’s sales for 2013 neared $600 million but has struggled to break free from its flagship couponing services.
Google has bought Nest Labs for $3.2 billion in cash. Nest, best known for its aesthetically-pleasing thermostats and carbon monoxide monitors, assures customers things at the company will, for the most part, remain the same. Nest CEO Tony Fadell will stay at the helm of the company, which will remain “distinct” from Google, according to a press release. Gartner forecasts that by 2020, Internet of Things products and services will drive $300 billion in revenue, with a worldwide economic, sales-driven value-add of $1.9 trillion.