Investment in the green building sector is booming
The green building sector has been awash with VC cash in recent months: Despite there only being a few dozen startups in the nascent field, investors have started paying close attention — helping several raise new rounds of funding.
Newark, California-based CalStar Cement has received $3.4 million from several investors, including Foundation Capital, while Serious Materials landed a hefty $50 million second funding round, led by New Enterprise Associates, Rustic Canyon Partners and Foundation Capital. The… Continue Reading
SiBEAM delivers high-definition wireless adapters this year, raises $40M
SiBEAM, a company developing technology to stream high definition video more quickly than any existing technology, has raised $40 million in third round of funding.
The financing was led by New Enterprise Associates. The other firms backing up SiBEAM are Foundation Capital and U.S. Venture Partners.
SiBEAM, of Sunnyvale, Calif., is developing a technology called WirelessHD. The technology helps you move rich, high-definition data like video wirelessly from one gadget to another, such as from your portable… Continue Reading
NEA abandoning venture capital? Won’t be the last firm to do so
updated
New Enterprise Associates, until recently one of the largest Silicon Valley venture capital firms, is looking less and less like a venture capital firm. It has transformed into a late-stage private equity firm, doing more buyouts and debt. And thus it becomes another protagonist in the tale of the shrinking — or at least, hurting — VC industry.
Look, for example, at NEA’s $50M investment in Simplex, a distributor of diabetes-testing supplies, based in Tennessee, a… Continue Reading
NEA names Rohini Chakravarthy principal, to make wireless investments
Venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates (NEA) has named Rohini Chakravarthy as principal in its Menlo Park, Calif. office, to make technology investments.
She’ll focus mainly on wireless and mobile investments, the firm said in a statment.
Chakravarthy was most recently with Cisco Systems, leading wireless corporate business development, where she set strategy and led an acquisitions and investments team. Prior to Cisco, Chakravarthy spent more than seven years at Intel Capital as an investor. While at… Continue Reading
Oanda gets $100M for online currency trading for masses
Oanda, one of the first companies offering online currency trading for consumers, has received a $100 million second round of investment from firms including Legg Mason, Cascade Investment and NEA.
The currency trading market has been considered somewhat closed to small investors, having long been the haven of banks and large funds. Trading currency, despite its innate risk, can offer several advantages, including better tax rates and superior margins, when compared to trading stocks.
New York City’s… Continue Reading
Yipes sold for $300 million — finally
Sometimes, if you keep plugging away, you can pull something off — even if its daunting during the low points along the way.
Two years ago, we wrote about San Francisco’s Yipes, which provides “managed ethernet services” for corporate customers. At the time, it was raising yet another $24 million more in venture capital. The funding cycles seemed endless. Launched in 1998, it had gone through bankruptcy had raised a whopping $385 million — a seeming… Continue Reading
SiBeam, joins gang offering wireless high-def video transfer
(Updated to correct reference to Artimi’s total funding)
SiBeam, a start-up based in Sunnyvale, Calif. company, has emerged from secrecy with a chip it says transfers uncompressed high-definition video to an HDTV from a set-top box or other source.
Transferring high-definition video wirelessly is something several companies are offering — all of them in various stages of development and each using different technology. This could permanently remove wires from your home. Few of the companies offer the… Continue Reading
Limbo 41414 raises $8M for quirky auction site
Limbo 41414, a Burlingame, Calif. company that offers auctions of goods, and is focusing on mobile phone users, has raised $8 million more in venture capital backing.
The company is different because winners of its auctions are those who offer the lowest unique bid. The idea is that lots of people will offer a low 1 cent for goods, but then they won’t be the only one bidding that price, and so will be disqualified… Continue Reading
Alien Technology, struggling radio tag company, raises $33M more
Alien Technology, the company in Morgan Hill, Calif., that failed in its audacious effort to go public last year, has raised another $33 million in financing.
Alien filed to go public last year, while losing money on every sale of its radio frequency identification (RFID), and was forced to withdraw when markets wouldn’t support it. See our coverage here. Mark Perry, partner with NEA, a backer of Alien said in November he hoped to raise $50… Continue Reading
NEA expands Indian mid- and late-stage investments
New Enterprise Associates, the large venture capital firm with offices in Silicon Valley and the East Coast, said it has expanded its operations in India.
NEA will make up to $200 million in investments into mid- to late-stage investments through its own Indian fund, called New Enterprise Associates (India) Pvt. Ltd, the firm said in a statement. Led by Ben Mathias as Vice President, the Indian operation will work closely with the firm’s U.S. team, the… Continue Reading
NEA adds Richard Whitney as venture partner
New Enterprise Associates, the venture capital firm based in Menlo Park, has added Richard K. Whitney to its healthcare and life sciences group as a venture partner.
Whitney will work from Menlo Park, the firm said in a statement. A venture partner is someone who helps a firm find companies to invest in, though they typically don’t have the same full management responsibilities that a firm’s other members have.
Whitney founded Whitney Capital LLC, a private equity… Continue Reading
Roundup: Cisco sues, Avvenu, Weatherbill, Techdirt, Blue Origin & more
Here’s the latest wrap-up of Silicon Valley tech news:
Cisco sues Apple over iPhone name — Who cares? If Apple loses, it will come up with a different name. Like, ApplePhone, or iPodPhone. Details of suit.
Yahoo signs deal with Akimbo to deliver video to televisions — Just the latest move in a huge number of deals pushing video to your TV. More details here.
Avvenu shares music via link in email — Avvenu, a Palo Alto start-up has been around… Continue Reading
Game publisher Glu Mobile files for $92M IPO
Glu Mobile, a San Mateo publisher of mobile games, has filed for a $92 million initial public offering.
The company, originally known as Sorrent (we wrote about them here), has raised around $57 million in VC funding since 2001 from BA Venture Partners, Globespan Capital Partners, Granite Global Ventures, NEA and Sienna Ventures.