Episode

TWiVC April 7: Mark Suster

This Week in Venture Capital airs LIVE every Wednesday at 2pm PST / 5pm EST with Hosts Jason Calacanis.

Episode #1 featuring Mark Suster, Investment Partner of GRP Partners will air this coming Wednesday, April 7th at 2pm PST / 6pm EST. Please join us!

FUNDING

General Funding News:
Venture capital fundraising up 41% in Q1, trumping private equity.  VC funds in U.S. raised $4.1B in Q1 2010.

1.  NASA gets $2.4B, President Obama has shuffled budget to dedicate money to study earth from above.

2.  CodaAutomotive taken $100M in direct capital from China’s Bank of Tiankin Joint Stock for their electric cars.  Their battery maker Lishen Power Battery is part of the venture.

3.  Suniva raised $141M loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy for their solar cells that generate more usable energy.  This is the 3rd time the DOE has handed out massive guarantee to a solar company.  This is large amount of money that in the traditional VC world rarely if ever is seen.

4.  Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers raised $100M for the iFund.  Indicative of the move towards a move mobile world, if the VC is raising that much money

5.  Amyris Biotechnologies raised $47.8M from Temasek Holdings for their renewable products devoted to creating a more sustainable world.

6.  Vidyo raised $25M in Series C from Four Rivers Group, Menlo Ventures, Rho Ventures, Sevin Rosen Funds and Star Ventures for their video conferencing technology, aims for mobile.

7.  Altheos raised $20M in Series A funding from Bay City Capital, Novo A/S, Canaan Partners, Life Science Angels, and Atheneos Capital for their topical treatment of glaucoma licensed from a Japanese pharmaceutical company

8.  Cheetah Medical raised $20M in Series B from Ascension Health Ventures, Robert Bosch Venture Capital and MVM Life Science Partners for their non-invasive cardiac output and hemodynamic monitoring.

9.  Genticel raised $17.7M in Series C from AGF Private Equity, Institut Regional de Developpment Industriel, Amundi Private Equity Funds, InnoBio Fund and Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners for their prevention cervical cancer via a vaccine solution.

10.  Antisense Pharma raised $17.5M Series E from MIG Fonds and Global Asset Fund for their Targeted Therapy of Malignant Tumors.

11.  ReadyForce raised $12.2M  Series A from Menlo Ventures, U.S. Venture Partners, Founder Collective and other investors for their On-Demand Labor Marketplace.

12.  Brightcove raised $12M Series D from Accel Partners and General Catalyst for their online video management.

13.  InsideView raised $11.5M in Series B from Emergence Capital Partners, Rembrandt Venture Partners and Greenhouse Capital Partners for their social media and sales tools combination.

14.  Quora raised $11M in Series A from Benchmark Capital for their Question and Answer site.  Valued at $86M.

15.  Sakti3 raised $7 Million in Series B from Beringea and Khosla Ventures for their advanced solid-state rechargeable lithium-ion battery technology.

16.  Stitcher raised $6M in Series B from Benchmark Capital for their personalized mobile radio company.

17.  EcoFactor raised $5.9M Series A from RockPort Capital Partners and Claremont Creek Ventures for their smart thermostat software.

18.Tiny Speck raised $5M in Series A from Accel Partners and Andreessen Horowitz.

19.  LearnVest raised $4.5M in Series A from Accel Capital for their financial content and tools aimed at women.

20.  Timetic closes Seed Funding from LastFM chairman Stefan Glänzer, Alex Zubillaga, Angel Sherry Coutu and Matteo Stefanel, Sean Park and Udayan Goyal of Nauiokas Park for their statistics on speed platform.

M&A

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1. Bid put in by DST of Russia and Tencent of China for AOL’s ICQ approximate value is $300M.

2.  Yellow Media bought Canpages for $225M.  Canpages’s investor HM Capital Partners.

3.  Wilbur Ross bought 21% stake ($152M) in Virgin Money.  Virgin Money in bid to buy 318 branches in The Royal Bank of Scotland.  Virgin Money’s investor is the Virgin Group.

4. Healthcare Trust of America bought the Triad Technology Center for $29M.  Cash acquisition.  Q1 2010 $146M in acquisitions.  Triad Technology Center is 100% leased to the U.S. Government and primarily occupied by the National Institutes of Health (NIH)

5. Yahoo buying Foursquare for $100M?  Let’s check in.  Foursquares investor’s are Accel Partners, Adreessen Horowitz, Khosla Ventures and Redpoint Ventures.

6.  Google bought Episodic, the 5th acquisition this year.  The terms of the deal were not disclosed.  Episodic was a privately held company.

7.  Zapoint bought Jobster. Terms of deal were not disclosed.  Jobster’s investors Ignition Partners, Mayfield Fund, Reed Elsevier Ventures and Trinity Ventures.

8.  Reliance bought 50% Stake in Codemasters.  Existing investors Balderton Capital and Zapak.  Terms of deal were not disclosed.

9.  Facebook bought Divvyshot.  Terms of deal were not disclosed.

10. Graham Packaging Company, Inc. to buy China Roots Packaging, a plastic container manufacturing company based in Guangzhou, China.  Deal was not disclosed.