Ennovate Networks

Jul 31, 2018

VC Buzz New in the News ENGLEWOOD, Colo., and DALLAS -- Rhythms NetConnections Inc. (Nasdaq: RTHM ) agreed to terms for a $250 million financing in new equity capital to continue expansion of its U.S. network and facilitate growth of its subscriber base. Rhythms, a provider of digital subscriber line-based, high-speed Internet access and networking solutions, will receive this funding from an affiliate of Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst. As a part of the agreement, Hicks Muse received warrants to invest up to an additional $280 million in Rhythms common stock over a multi-year period. At closing and assuming conversion of the Preferred Stock, Hicks Muse will own approximately 8 percent of Rhythms' outstanding common stock. Hicks Muse partner Michael J. Levitt will become a member of Rhythms' board of directors. Catapulse Secures $75 Million Investment CUPERTINO, Calif., -- Catapulse Inc. raised a total of $75 million -- $25 million from Benchmark and $50 million from Rational Software (Nasdaq: RATL ). Bruce Dunlevie, Benchmark general partner, will join Catapulse as a board director. Catapulse was co-founded by Paul Levy and Mike Devlin, who also co-founded Rational Software eighteen years ago. Catapulse says it will deliver a set of web-based services that provide the project infrastructure and collaboration framework to create the next generation of large-scale web applications. Ennovate Networks Raises $59 Million in Mezzanine Funding BOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Ennovate Networks, a provider of carrier-class IP service provisioning products, received $59 million in mezzanine funding. This brings total investment in the company to $81.5 million. The latest round of funding was led by Lehman Brothers Venture Partners and Pequot Capital Management and includes new investors Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co and Tudor Investments as well as strategic partners PSI Ventures and Enron Ventures. Existing investors who also participated in this round include The Sprout Group, Marquette Venture Partners and Spectrum Equity Investors. Ennovate's products help next-generation carriers and network service providers increase revenues from existing networks by enabling a new class of differentiated frame relay and business IP services. Jamcracker Secures $30 Million in First-Round Equity SUNNYVALE, Calif. -- Jamcracker, a Net IT provider, announced its first round of equity and debt financing totaling $42 million. First round participants, led by Internet Capital Group (Nasdaq: ICGE ) and Fleet Equity Partners, contributed a total of $30 million in the new company. First Analysis Venture Capital, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., a handful of angel investors, and Jamcracker management round out the group of equity investors. In addition, Jamcracker has entered into a $12 million equipment financing line from Meier Mitchell & Co., Western Technology Investment and Silicon Valley Bank. Jamcracker aggregates and web-based applications and services from a variety of ASPs into a single, secure and scalable platform, giving customers the flexibility to select the services that work best for them. LivePerson Closes $18 Million Round of Strategic Financing NEW YORK-- LivePerson Inc., a provider of real-time sales and customer service technology, received approximately $18 million in strategic financing from Dell Computer Corp. (NASDAQ: DELL ) and NBC (NYSE: GE ). On January 28, 2000, the company filed a registration statement with the SEC for an initial public offering of its common stock. With the investments from Dell and NBC, the company's total financing to date has reached $41.5 million, following a $19 million financing round in August 1999, preceded by two initial rounds of financing totaling $4.6 million in early 1999. The LivePerson service enables online businesses to communicate with Internet users in real-time, thereby enhancing the online shopping experience. MDeverywhere Adds $11 Million in Working Capital DURHAM, N.C. -- MDeverywhere, a provider of mobile Internet-based automation tools for physicians, raised an additional $11 million in equity from Advent International, Acacia Venture Partners, and its first venture investor, Monarch Capital Partners. The company is receiving $5 million each from Advent International and Acacia Venture Partners. Monarch Capital Partners is adding an additional $1 million to the previous $2 million invested in 1999. MDeverywhere's lead application, EveryCharge, is a Personal Digital Assistant-based electronic charge capture tool with over 100,000 billing rules that can be applied at the point-of-care. With EveryCharge, physicians carry hand-held digital devices to capture real-time diagnoses, treatments and other billing information that is verified for compliance through an onboard rules engine. notHarvard.com Raises $8.5 Million in First Round Financing AUSTIN, Texas-- notHarvard.com attracted more than $8.5 million in its first round of financing led by Austin Ventures with additional investment from TL Ventures as well as a number of internet angels including Patrick McGee, founding partner of Brazos Investment Partners, Daniel Jinich of Hicks, Muse; Dan Routman of Yahoo/Broadcast.com, Gene Lowenthal, partner at Sanchez Capital Partners and David Kahn, executive vice president of Grupo TeleCable. The financing also included $2 million of venture financing by Silicon Valley Bank. The company says it uses free online education as a permission-based, sales and marketing weapon. MedCenterDirect.com Receives First Round Financing ATLANTA -- MedCenterDirect.com, a health care e-procurement company, completed its initial $8 million round of equity financing and established strategic business partnerships with both for-profit and not-for-profit health care networks. MedCenterDirect.com's fully integrated cost management platform links clinicians and administrators with suppliers in a clinically focused, efficient procurement process. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Glyphica Receives $8 Million in Financing MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- Glyphica, a pioneer of business-to-business Internet workplace solutions, announced that the company closed an $8 million round of financing during the company's second quarter, ending December 31, 1999. The financing was led by Viridian Capital and included H&Q Venture Associates, SAP Ventures and Dain Rauscher Wessels. Previous investor Adobe Ventures also participated in this round. Willa Seldon, general partner at Viridian Capital, joined Chris Hollenbeck of H&Q Venture Associates on Glyphica's board of directors. Digital Fountain Closes $7 Million in Initial Investment SAN FRANCISCO -- Digital Fountain, developers of innovative technologies for high-volume digital content delivery, closed $7 million in venture funding. Initial investors, led by Hambrecht & Quist Venture Associates, include Adobe Ventures, Cisco Systems, Sony and Texas Instruments. Digital Fountain develops technologies that enable massively scalable and highly reliable distribution of digital content over IP multicast networks, to an almost limitless number of recipients -- whether consumers on the Internet, corporate users on an intranet or extranet, or multiple caches or mirrored servers. Cliff Meltzer joined the company as chief executive officer and president after seven years at Cisco Systems where he held numerous senior positions, including senior vice president of Cisco Systems' IOS technologies division. AUSTIN, Texas -- Perficient (Nasdaq: PRFT ) completed a private placement of common stock in which six institutions participated. A total of 400,000 shares of common stock were newly issued, resulting in gross proceeds to the company of $5.6 million. Certain shareholders sold the remaining 180,000 shares of common stock. Perficient enables Internet software companies to achieve success by providing them dedicated virtual professional services organizations to deploy their software. Cendex Closes First-Round Financing FALLS CHURCH, Va. -- Cendex Corp., a developer of NetMarkets, closed its first round of financing for $2.25 million. The funding enables Cendex to further develop its recently announced for-profit, joint venture, Packexpo.com, an online packaging marketplace. The venture capital was placed by Mid-Atlantic Venture Funds and Hickory Venture Group. Packexpo.com is a for-profit, joint venture between Cendex and the Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute. PMMI also contributed an additional $2 million to the joint venture. Sorcity.com Announces Strategic Investment DALLAS-- Gearing up for a first round of venture financing, Sorcity.com announced a strategic investment made by Paint Management Co., a hedge fund manager located in the Cayman Islands, British West Indies. This investment, the size of which was not disclosed, will allow Sorcity.com to process higher transaction volumes and make ongoing systems enhancements. Sorcity.com is an all-inclusive reverse-auction service for the business-to-business market. Internet Fact of the Day The worldwide market for information appliances will exceed 89 million units, or $17.8 billion, in 2004, up from a market of 11 million units and $2.4 billion in 1999, according to new research from IDC. Reader's Digest Invests in Chinas Markets PLEASANTVILLE, N.Y. -- The Reader's Digest Association (NYSE: RDA , RDB), acquired an equity interest in Chinas Markets Ltd., a Hong Kong-based Internet company whose flagship online product, e-finet.com, is one of the most popular Web sites in the region and a primary online source of financial and investment information. Under terms of the deal which were not disclosed, Reader's Digest, the lead strategic investor, acquired 12 percent of the company. Other major investors include GE Equity. Human Code Acquires Top Drawer Productions AUSTIN, Texas -- Human Code, an interactive media developer, is acquiring Top Drawer Productions, an Austin-based multimedia developer of custom e-learning applications for educational publishers and corporate training. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Human Code received venture investments from Austin Ventures and Applied Technology in 1995 and 1999. CITIC Joins ChinaWeb Investor Group BEIJING -- ChinaWeb Ltd., China's largest online provider of bilingual financial news and services, announced that China International Trust and Investment Corp. (CITIC) has taken a 10% equity position in the company. CITIC is China's largest diversified financial institution. Other investors include the Stock Exchange Executive Council of China; the South China Morning Post; Talisman Capital; the China Foreign Exchange Consulting Company, Central State Bond Registration and Clearance LLC, and China Merchants Bank. MADRID, Spain -- Terra Networks S.A. (Nasdaq: TRRA ), the Internet subsidiary of Telefonica S.A., and DeRemate.com, the biggest on-line auction company in Latin America, signed a strategic alliance through which Terra Networks acquires 30% of the company. Terra currently provides Internet access services in Spain, Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Peru, Guatemala and the United States and operates Internet portals serving those countries and Argentina. Terra plans to launch new portals in other Latin American countries. DeRemate.com has raised $12 million in capital from Merrill Lynch, E-Quest, Newbridge and SLI. Creative Planet Acquires Animation World Network Site NORTH HOLLYWOOD, Calif. -- Creative Planet, a network of business-to-business Web sites for creative professionals, acquired Animation World Network. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Animation World Network serves as the largest professional animation community on the Internet, providing visitors with comprehensive services and information, focusing on animator profiles, independent film distribution, commercial studio activities, CGI and other animation technologies, as well as in-depth coverage of current events in all fields of animation. ROSH HAAIN, Israel -- Internet Gold (Nasdaq: IGLD ), an internet services provider in Israel, announced that Super Pharm, a major Israeli drug store chain, will join Internet Gold's e-commerce joint venture and will hold 20 percent of the joint venture's equity. Super Pharm has acquired its 20 percent from Eurocom. The new equity split between the partners is Internet Gold 50.1 percent, Super Pharm 20 percent, Isracard 10 percent, Bank Hapoalim 10 percent, and Eurocom 9.9 percent. The e-Commerce company, which is managed by David Bichovski, will offer consumers products and services through a virtual shopping mall. Zhone Acquires Roundview OAKLAND, Calif.-- Zhone Technologies, a company that builds total-delivery solutions for voice, data, and content services, acquired Roundview, a premier engineering firm developing project-oriented software for Internet networking technologies. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Zhone's initial investors include Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., Texas Pacific Group, and New Enterprise Associates. Media Technology Ventures Closes $170 Million Seed Fund SAN FRANCISCO-- Media Technology Ventures, a family of early and mid-stage venture capital funds investing in digital commerce and enabling technology companies, closed Media Technology Ventures III LP, the company's third corporate partnering venture fund. MTV III includes investments from 20 major multi-national corporations including new investors Dow Jones & Co., Procter & Gamble, JP Morgan, A&E Networks, Marks & Spencer, Diageo, Rogers Communications and Best Buy. The new MTV III fund brings the total capital under management to $400 million. Twelve of the corporate investors in MTV III are return investors that have participated in the earlier Media Technology Ventures funds. MTV III will be managed under Allegis Capital, the management company for the family of Media Technology venture funds. WAYNE, Pa. -- Safeguard Scientifics (NYSE: SFE ), an Internet-centric holding and operating company, acquired an equity interest in TechSpace, a New York-based "one-stop shop" for entrepreneurs that offers technologically advanced full-service office environments and associated services to early and expansion stage Internet-centric companies. Additionally, Safeguard and TechSpace have created TechSpace Ventures to provide funding for promising start-ups associated with TechSpace to accelerate their growth. Initially, TechSpace Ventures will have $15 million for investment purposes, with plans to bring on other strategic partners to quickly grow the fund. TechSpace houses 40 start-ups in 40,000 square feet of cutting-edge space in Manhattan's Silicon Alley. TechSpace isexpanding nationally with sites under construction in San Francisco and Boston. Another site in New York and a site in Toronto are expected to begin construction next month. ATLANTA -- UPS (NYSE: UPS ) has formed a new wholly owned subsidiary, UPS e-Ventures, to be the research, development and incubation arm of UPS e-commerce. UPS e-Ventures is designed to identify and rapidly develop entirely new businesses related to supply chain management and e-commerce. Mark Rhoney, president of the new group, is a 25-year veteran at UPS, most recently as vice president of electronic commerce marketing. SOFTBANK and I-Group Announce Boston-Based Internet Incubator BOSTON-- SOFTBANK Corp., a leader in Internet business, and the Intercontinental Group, announced the formation of I-Group, a SOFTBANK Affiliate. I-Group,an incubator, features "mentor capital" services, which include management, partnership, investor, and recruitment mentoring; access to SOFTBANK's powerful "netbatsu" network; and a sustained evergreen venture capital fund. Ron Schreiber is the managing director of I-Group. ProcureNet Names Reuven Battat President and CEO FAIRFIELD, N.J. -- ProcureNet Inc., a provider of B2B solutions and services, named Reuven Battat, a former top Computer Associates International executive, as president and CEO. At the same time, the company noted that Battat has acquired a significant minority stake in ProcureNet, joining an investor team that includes Thomas H. Lee Partners; Paul Montrone, chairman and CEO of Fisher Scientific and also chairman of ProcureNet; Paul Meister, vice chairman of Fisher Scientific; Fisher Scientific; DLJ Merchant Banking; Chase Capital Partners; and Merrill Lynch. The company was spun off from Fisher Scientific last year. R. Scott Jones Named President and CEO of HealthAnswers AUSTIN, Texas -- HealthAnswers appointed R. Scott Jones as president and CEO of its U.S. operations. Prior to joining HealthAnswers, Jones was chief operating officer of PharMerica's Chronic and Catastrophic Care Division; a division of Bergen Brunswig Corp. HealthAnswers is a diversified e-healthcare company providing healthcare solutions via traditional and new media -- including web-based technologies -- to reach theconsumer and professional community. The company is backed by Vulcan Ventures, Toronto Dominion Capital, Prime New Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Psilos Group, Texas Growth Fund, Sandler Capital, Waller-Sutton Media Partners, Union Bancal Equities, CIBC Wood Gundy Capital and CODITEL, S.A. GET BUZZED! VC Buzz, that is. 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