Series A
GetYourGuide, which gives customers “things to do all over the world,” has extended its Series A round with a $4.5 million capital influx led by former Booking.com CEO Kees Koolen and founder and former CEO of Qunar.com Fritz Demopoulos. Sunstone Capital also contributed to the funding. The company, headquartered in Zurich, gives guests 23,700+ ideas for tours, activities and more.
Comcast Ventures has led a $4.5 million Series A funding round for Enigma, which operates in the search and discovery space and helps customers peruse public data. American Express Ventures, Crosslink Capital and The New York Times contributed to the investment. The New York-based company and winner of TechCrunch Disrupt in New York had previously raised $850,000 in a seed funding round from a variety of backers including TriplePoint Ventures, Crosslink Capital and angels.
Series B
Marketing company Origami Logic has received $15 million in a Series B funding round led by Jafco Ventures. Accel Partners and Lightspeed Venture Partners contributed to the investment. Total backing behind the Menlo Park, CA company yet to emerge from stealth mode comes to $24.3 million.
Funding
U.K.-based person-to-person lending platform Zopa has raised £15m ($25m) from Arrowgrass Capital Partners. The company, which debuted its services in 2005, has lent upwards of £458 million to consumers in the United Kingdom. Research from the Bank of England and the Open Data Research Institute forecasts the P2P lending market in the U.K. will become a billion-pound opportunity by 2016.
Flat World Knowledge, which operates in the education technology space, has raised $9.5 million in a funding round led by Bessemer Venture Partners. Valhalla Partners, Tribeca Venture Partners, and Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments contributed. According to the National Association of College Stores (NACS), in the last year students bought $662 worth of “required course materials” on average. NACS reports college stores did approximately $10.45 billion in sales for the year 2011-2012.
Dublin card startup Cleverbug, which sends physical greeting cards customers design online, announced today it has gained $6 million in funding. Delta Partners led the round, which brought total equity backing behind the company to $8 million. Cleverbug looks to shake up the $27 billion greeting card market.
San Francisco coffee purveyor Blue Bottle Coffee has raised $25.75 million from a list of Silicon Valley elite that includes Kevin Systrom (Instagram), Evan Williams (Twitter), Google Ventures, True Ventures, as well as investment vehicles and mutual funds advised by Morgan Stanley, according to news sources. The company had received nearly $20 million in funding in 2012.
M&A
Fresh from an $8.25 million Series B funding round, marketing automation company Salesfusion has purchased LoopFuse, a marketing automation software vendor. Both companies are based in Atlanta. Salesfusion anticipates sales, customers, and revenue to more than triple by year’s end.
Beijing-based Lenovo will buy Motorola Mobility of Libertyville, IL from Google for roughly $2.91 billion. According to a press release, the lion’s share of Motorola Mobility’s patent portfolio will stay with Google, though Lenovo will get a license to the portfolio and other IP — plus Lenovo will gain 2,000+ patent assets.
Paris-based 3D design software Dassault Systèmes will purchase Accelrys, a San Diego “scientific innovation lifecycle management” software provider. The deal values Accelrys at roughly $750 million and prices shares at $12.50 each.