Financial data software co. Vhayu sells to Thomson Reuters
Vhayu Technologies, maker of software and hardware that processes large volumes of financial data to help firms make faster and more effective trading decisions, has been bought by workflow tools giant Thomson Reuters for an unspecified amount, reports VentureWire. Based in Los Gatos, Calif., Vhayu will bring 70 clients with it, as well as $19 million in venture capital raised since 2001 from backers like Menlo Ventures, DB Capital Partners and SVB Capital.
Thomson Reuters has… Continue Reading
VCs raised fewest funds in Q2 since 1996
We’ve already published (unsurprising) data showing a big drop in the funding raised by venture capital firms during the last six months. Now the National Venture Capital Association and Thomson Reuters have released a new set of numbers focusing on the second quarter of the year (April through June), which apparently saw even less venture fundraising than the first.
Here are the basics: VCs raised 25 funds for a total of $1.7 billion. That’s the smallest… Continue Reading
VC performance dips but stays strong through Q2
Venture capital returns have yet to feel the full impact of the capital markets crisis. Payoffs, as measured by the private equity performance index (PEPI), dipped over the first two fiscal quarters, but were still higher than those out of the NASDAQ and S&P 500, according to a new report released by the National Venture Capital Association and Thomson Reuters.
Second quarter saw an 8.2-point decrease in one-year returns, which fell from 13.3 percent to 5.1… Continue Reading
Blackberry awards $150K to three mobile apps
Blackberry Partners Fund has awarded $150,000 prizes to three makers of applications designed to work on the BlackBerry handheld.
And the winners are:
Multiplied Media’s Poynt search service, which uses GPS to connect users with local businesses
Strands’ Social Player, a social-networking music player that connects users and recommends songs based on their tastes, soon to be released
Nobex Technologies’ Radio Companion, an app that tells users what’s playing on 2,700 radio stations and gives them the… Continue Reading
Thomson Reuters’ Calais goes commercial, offering a starting point for semantic web startups
Until about a year ago, you were in an unenviable position if you wanted to build a web site that used or created semantic data: You pretty much had to build all your tools from scratch. Calais, a semantic web service being developed by information giant Thomson Reuters, is offering to help change that with a service it’s rolling out today.
The “semantic web” is a general term for the part of the Internet’s data that… Continue Reading
Venture payoffs falling — but hey, they’re still better than the stock market
With the economic downturn, it’s no surprise that venture capital returns, as measured by the private equity performance index (PEPI), have been falling. But a new report notes that VCs are still doing okay compared to stock indexes like the NASDAQ and the S&P 500.
During the first quarter of this year, PEPI’s one-year returns fell 7.6 percent compared to Q4 2007, according to the report from Thomson Reuters and the National Venture Capital Association. They’re… Continue Reading
Dry times in venture-land: IPOs drop to zero in Q2
If you’re wondering why we haven’t been covering much IPO news recently, it’s because there hasn’t been any — there were literally zero venture-backed IPOs in the second quarter of 2008.
This is the first quarter since 1978 that has gone by without a single venture-backed IPO, according to a new report from the National Venture Capital Association and Thomson Reuters. The figures are also down quite a bit from the high times of 2007, including… Continue Reading