Series A/Series B
Online creative community and bazaar Visual.ly has received $8.1 million in Series A funding. The investment consists of a $2 million convertible note revealed a year prior and $6.1 additional VC money. Crosslink Ventures led the round, while Correlation Ventures, Giza Ventures, SoftTech VC, 500 Startups, Kapor Capital and Quest Ventures participated. Total investment in the San Francisco-based company comes to $10.1 million. Customers active with Visually include industry heavyweights like Twitter and NBC.
Berlin-based Quandoo, a restaurant solution provider, has raised $8 million Series B. DN Capital and Holtzbrinck Ventures co-led the round which saw participation from CRES Columbus Internet Group, Atlantic Capital Partners and Sixt. The company offers reservation and cash register systems, among other solutions. A 2012 report by Germany Trade & Invest called the country’s food and beverage retail market the biggest in Europe, pegging 2011’s total food retail revenue at €170 billion (upwards of $232 billion).
Bessemer Venture Partners has led $14 million in Series B equity financing for social marketer Main Street Hub. Harrison Metal Capital also contributed to the round, which brought total financing behind the Austin-based company to $20 million. The company serves almost 3,000 businesses and enhances their presences on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Yelp.
Series C
SaaS business solutions company Chrome River, which helps companies manage expenses and log invoices, raised a $17 million Series C led by Bain Capital Ventures. First Analysis and Argentum also participated in the funding for the Los Angeles-based company. Funding at the company exceeds $20 million, as Chrome River had raised a $3 million Series B in 2012.
Inbound call marketing SaaS company Invoca obtained $20 million Series C in a round led by Accel Partners. Rincon Venture Partners and Upfront Ventures contributed. The Santa Barbara company helps marketers manage the 30 billion inbound sales calls consumers make to American enterprises each year. Invoca’s revenue growth rate approaches 200 percent in an industry worth more than $5 billion.
Series D/Series E
San Jose-based Nutanix has announced the biggest funding round for a converged infrastructure company ever, a $101 million Series D co-led by Riverwood Capital and SAP Ventures. Existing investors Lightspeed Venture Partners, Battery Ventures and Khosla Ventures participated along with new ones, Greenspring Associates and Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital. The funding comes as the company reportedly ramps up for a public offering. According to Nutanix’s CEO, Dheeraj Pandey, the hybrid computing market opportunity stands at $100 billion today.
App test-drive company uTest anticipates a name change with a windfall of funding: $43 million Series E. Goldman Sachs led the round, with all existing investors participating — among them, Scale Venture Partners, QuestMark Partners, Mesco, Ltd., Longworth Venture Partners, Mass Ventures, and Egan-Managed Capital. Total funding behind the Boston-area company that will soon become Applause now clears $80 million. Microsoft, Google and Amazon all use uTest, which serves 2,000 companies.
Funding
Vancouver-based ResponseTek has raised $6 million in funding from Beedie Capital Partners and GrowthWorks. The company’s software listens to, catalogs and analyzes what customers tell companies over the phone or Internet. Research company MarketsandMarkets predicts that by 2017, the customer experience management industry will hit $6.61 billion.
Los Gatos-based SuVolta, which works in energy-saving semiconductor tech, has added $10.6 million to its funding pot, valued at $50.4 million. Backers in the round included Fujitsu Semiconductor, August Capital, Kleiner Perkins, New Enterprise Associates, DAG Ventures and Northgate Capital. Q3 2013 saw the highest-ever quarterly sales for the international semiconductor industry at $80.92 billion, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association.
M&A
AOL has sold off two struggling assets, media player Winamp and streaming service Shoutcast, to radio network and station creator, Radionomy. A source told TechCrunch the deal was valued at between $5 and $10 million, and that AOL would acquire 12 percent of Radionomy.
Real estate web portal Homefinder.com has bought Open Home Pro, the app for professionals in the real estate industry. HomeFinder.com, a Chicago company, reportedly purchased Open Home for about $1 million. HomeFinder.com reports Open Home Pro had more than 35,000 downloads since its inception in 2010.