Series A
Kinnek, a marketplace for small businesses to find suppliers, has raised a $10 million Series A round led by Matrix Partners. Existing investors such as Sierra Ventures, Version One Ventures, CrunchFund, TriplePoint Ventures, Richard Chen, Naval Ravikant and Benjamin Ling all participated. The company will use the new funds to expand into new industries and grow its marketing and engineering capabilities. “Helping small businesses was the impetus for starting Kinnek,” said Karthik Sridharan, co-founder and CEO of Kinnek. “SMBs are stuck in a no-man’s land when it comes to purchasing – they can’t go to Amazon to find what they are looking for, and they also don’t have the resources of a Fortune 500 company with complex software systems and dedicated purchasing teams. Our goal is to build a marketplace that empowers small businesses to find suppliers as easily as their larger counterparts.”
Technology product rating app Product Hunt has raised $6 million in Series A funding, led by Andreessen Horowitz, according to Tech Crunch. SV Angel, Slow Ventures, Naval Ravikant and Ashton Kutcher previously participated in a seed round investment in the Y Combinator graduate. The company was founded in spring this year and aggregates reviews of technology that its users can share and discover. TechCrunch also claimed that it was not worried about the threat Product Hunt poses to its own business.
Series D
Kateeva, an OLED technology production company, has raised $38 million in Series D financing. Samsung Venture Investment Corporation (SVIC) was joined by existing investors including Sigma Partners, Spark Capital, Madrone Capital Partners, DBL Investors, New Science Ventures and VEECO Instruments. Kateeva’s main product is the YIELDjet platform, which uses inkjet printing to mass produce large-sized OLED panels. The company has now raised more than $110 million since it was founded in 2008. “Kateeva is a technology leader and has built a significant business in the OLED space,” said Michael Pachos, Senior Investment Manager at SVIC. “The company has demonstrated both a technical and business vision in driving adoption of OLED displays and lighting, and we look forward to contributing to its progress.”
Funding
Payments company Square has completed a $100 million funding round which values the company at nearly $6 billion, according to reports. Rumors suggest the funding came mainly from the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation with participation from existing investors. Both Forbes and TechCrunch reported the investment was confirmed, after weeks of speculation. Square has raised nearly $450 million to date and will apparently use the funds for acquisitions and product development.