Seed
Cloud solutions provider Kensho has raised $10 million in seed funding from Devonshire Investors ( the private equity arm of Fidelity Investments) General Catalyst, New Enterprise Associates, Accel Partners, Google Ventures, and others. The company, based in Cambridge, MA, leverages a smart computing companion called “Warren,” which deciphers and answers financial questions posited in natural language. Currently, Warren can reply to 1 million queries dealing with asset prices and how circumstances worldwide affect them.
Series A
StyleSeat, which links clients with beauty and wellness professionals, has raised a $10.2 million Series A financing round led by Lightspeed Ventures. Lowercase Capital participated in the round; total funding in the company now stands at $14 million. Since StyleSeat’s founding in 2011, the platform played host to $350 million in services booked. The average beauty professional saw revenues grow nearly 70 percent in their first 15 months in the marketplace, the company said in a press release.
Series B
Greylock Partners has led a $15 million Series B round for open source PaaS company, Docker. Insight Venture Partners, Benchmark, Trinity Ventures and Jerry Yang contributed. San Francisco-based Docker cultivates app containers and has racked up more than 400,000 downloads in its first nine months. The company notes the likes of Yandex, eBay and Baidu use or support Docker. Worldwide, the market for public PaaS could grow to $14 billion in 2017, according to IDC.
MemSQL, which offers an in-memory SQL database, has secured $35 million in Series B funding, in a round led by Accel Partners. First Round Capital, Khosla Ventures and Data Collective also participated. San Francisco-based MemSQL has $45 million total funding and operates in the big data market, which will be worth $32.4 billion by 2017 according to IDC forecasts.
CRM messaging solutions provider Intercom, which is only 30 months old, has added $23 million in Series B funding to the $7 million already raised. Bessemer Venture Partners led the round while The Social+Capital Partnership participated. The company, founded in 2011 and based in San Francisco, helps clients like GitHub and HootSuite to automatically reach out to and keep in touch with clients.
Funding
Telehealth company MDLIVE has gained $23.6 million in funding led by Heritage Group and Sutter Health. Kayne Anderson Capital Investors also participated. Based in Sunrise, Florida, MDLIVE links patients by phone or video with care providers through software and services. Consulting firm Frost & Sullivan reports that in 2012, the telehealth industry drove $1.9 billion in revenue.
Native advertising company and exchange purveyor Sharethrough has raised $17 million in credit and equity from Elevation Partners, Silver Creek, Floodgate and North Bridge. The San Francisco-based company counts $28 million total funding to date, and serves customers like Forbes, Intel, Jim Beam and Pepsi. BIA/Kelsey pinned the American native advertising industry at $2.4 billion in 2013, up 77 percent from $1.4 billion in 2012.
Online shaving and razor company Harry’s has gained $122.5 million in funding from Thrive Capital, Tiger Global, Highland Capital, SV Angel and others. The investment arrives as the New York-based company buys a $100 million razor-blade factory. Founded in 2012, Harry’s goes up against heavyweights Gillette and Schick and approaches a market opportunity which research firm Global Industry Analysts gauges will reach $33.3 billion by 2015.
M&A
Vancouver-based HootSuite, which helps brands interact with social networks, has purchased Cambridge, MA social analytics company uberVU. HootSuite recently announced revenue jumped 110 percent from Q4 2012 to Q4 2013, while the company also added 200 customers in the fourth quarter of this past year. Among HootSuite’s enterprise customers are more than 75 percent of the Fortune 1000 list, according to the company.
Palo Alto software company VMware will buy enterprise mobility manager AirWatch for $1.54 billion: that is, $1.175 billion cash and $365 million installment payments and assumed unvested equity. VMware anticipates Q4 2013 revenues at $1.48 billion, up 15 percent from the same period last year.
Ogden, Utah media company TechMedia Network has picked up Waltham, MA-based BuyerZone, which connects clients with competing small-and-medium-business goods and service providers. More than one million buyers connect with 8,500 sellers on BuyerZone’s platform. Deal terms were not disclosed.