VC Buzz – $147.75+ Million in Today’s Deals


For the latest on cool Internet Start-Ups and their VC backers, point your browser to: http://www.internetVCwatch.com/



 


New in the News



AuctionRover.com, Boulder Technology Incubator, Broadband Sports, CarStation.com, CyberSafe, Daily Drill, Darwin Networks, Digital Harmony Technologies, Digital Paper, eHatchery, Experts Exchange, InsureZone.com, ipVerse, Mambo.com, MaterialNet, MessageMedia, Naviant, nQuire Software, Receipt.com, TellSoft Technologies, Tiara Networks, Yodlee.com



 





internet.com Venture Fund I Adds AuctionRover.com to Its Venture Investment Portfolio



WESTPORT, Conn.–internet.com Venture Fund I LLC, the affiliated venture arm of internet.com Corp. (Nasdaq: INTM), announced an investment in AuctionRover.com, an interactive community related to on-line auctions. internet.com joins Draper Atlantic, the East Coast affiliate of Silicon Valley’s Draper Fisher Jurvetson, as a leading investor in the first round of funding for AuctionRover.com. Venture Fund I is now fully invested, with an investment portfolio consisting of nine early-stage content and e-commerce Web site properties.

Founded in July 1999, AuctionRover.com is the one-stop resource for all online auctioning needs, allowing buyers to search for items across various auction sites and sellers to host images and counters.


www.auctionrover.com






MessageMedia Closes $42 Million Strategic Financing



BOULDER, Colo.– MessageMedia Inc. (Nasdaq: MESG), a provider of e-mail-based customer relationship management and direct marketing services, announced that it has closed a private placement of approximately 4.095 million shares of its common stock for $41.975 million. Investors include the company’s existing strategic partners, SOFTBANK Venture Capital and Pequot Private Equity Funds, along with Van Wagoner Capital Management, Essex Investment Management Company, Kingdon Capital Management, Pogue Capital Management and other institutional investment groups. Robertson Stephens acted as placement agent for the stock.


www.messagemedia.com






CyberSafe Completes $33 Million Financing Round



SEATTLE–CyberSafe Corp., a provider of enterprise network security solutions, announced the completion of its most recent round of private equity financing. The company raised $33 million, with investments from Deutsche Bank London, Oak Investment Partners, and Financial Technology Ventures, among others. CyberSafe products and services provide a security infrastructure that enables effective and secure e-business.


www.cybersafe.com






Tiara Networks Secures $21 Million in Third Round of Funding



SAN JOSE, Calif.–Tiara Networks Inc. announced that it has secured an additional $21 million in financing, bringing the total amount raised to more than $32 million since its founding at the end of 1997. Pre-existing investors participating in this round include venture capital companies New Enterprise Associates and the Mayfield Fund. New investors include Bowman Capital, Interwest Partners and MCI Worldcom Venture Fund.

Tiara Networks provides technology and product solutions that supercharge Service Provider’s networks, enabling them to rapidly deploy affordable multi-megabit access and aggregation solutions for next-generation Internet business connectivity.


www.tiaranetworks.com






Yodlee.com Raises $17 Million in First Round of Venture Funding



SUNNYVALE, Calif.–Yodlee.com announced it has completed a $17 million first round of venture funding led by Accel Partners and Sequoia Capital. Yodlee.com is the first, free service that enables users to gather, summarize, and access all their personal accounts — including email, news, travel, shopping, financial accounts, and more — from one central place online. Users can sign up for Yodlee’s new beta service at the company’s website.

Yodlee.com also announced that Bud Colligan, partner at Accel Partners, and Mark Stevens, partner at Sequoia Capital, have joined Yodlee.com’s board


of directors.


www.yodlee.com






ipVerse Secures $16.5 Million in Second Round Financing



MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.–ipVerse Inc., developer of next generation, carrier-grade software switches that enable service providers to offer customer driven voice-data services, announced the completion of its second round of financing. This funding, by Battery Ventures ($10.3 million) and Norwest Venture Partners ($5.7 million), will enable ipVerse to accelerate investments in engineering, sales and marketing and operations as the company readies itself for introduction of the ControlSwitch in early 2000. The $16.5 million round of funding brings the company’s total financing to date to $20 million. ipVerse, based in Mountain View, Calif., will use this funding to launch its product in early 2000 and to build its sales and marketing teams.


www.ipverse.com


www.norwestvp.com


www.battery.com






TellSoft Technologies Announces Venture Capital Investments



COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.– TellSoft Technologies Inc., a media services and software company that is giving voice on the Web to worldwide corporations and individuals alike, announced that it has completed a $7.3 million round of venture capital financing led by SOFTBANK Technology Ventures with participation from earlier investors, Morningside Ventures and Catalyst Venture Management. In addition to the announced closing, TellSoft indicated that it expects to complete an additional institutional round of financing within the next 60 days.


www.tellsoft.com


www.sbvc.com






J.P. Morgan Capital Backs Experts Exchange Inc.



SAN FRANCISCO–Experts Exchange Inc., the Internet’s largest network of qualified technology experts, has received a $5 million first round investment commitment from J.P. Morgan Capital, Inc. Experts Exchange plans to use the funds to expand its knowledge sharing community and expert advice services to become the leader in the rapidly emerging arena of knowledge commerce. Experts-Exchange.com offers its members fast, qualified answers to questions in over 80 information technology categories from a network of qualified technology experts.


www.experts-exchange.com


www.jpmorgan.com






Digital Harmony Scores $2.45 Million in Venture Funding



SEATTLE– Digital Harmony Technologies Inc. announces the receipt of $2.45 million in funding via a second round of capital investment. DHT received $1.7 million from Hong Kong-funded venture capital firm Anderson Information Technology Ltd. DHT is concentrating this funding on refining the company’s technology Digital Harmony, which is based on the high-bandwidth digital data bus technology called IEEE-1394.


www.digitalharmony.com






MaterialNet Secures $2.2 Million from All-Star ‘Angels’; Begins Beta Testing



Great Neck, N.Y.– MaterialNet Inc., the first buyer-centric business-to-business Internet marketplace for raw materials, announced the closing of its $2.2-million seed funding. Proceeds came from a group of private individuals, including: D.R. Grimes, CEO of Net.B@nk; separate groups of managing directors from Bear Stearns, Goldman Sachs, and Lehman Brothers; and individuals from Global Crossing, as well as venture-capital firm Hudson River Partners.

MaterialNet also announced commencement of formal beta testing of its site, which will be fully functional in November 1999.


www.materialnet.com






The Daily Drill Receives Additional $1.3M From New Horizons Venture Capital



ARLINGTON, Va.–The Daily Drill, a free online calendar for “regular folks,” announced that it has received an additional $1.3 million in funding from New Horizons Venture Capital, a Washington, DC-based private equity firm, as well as from a private consortium of industry professionals. This is the second major investment of New Horizons.


www.dailydrill.com






Digital Paper Corp. Receives a $750,000 Line of Credit from Silicon Valley Bank



ALEXANDRIA, Va.–Digital Paper Corp., an Internet software company, announced that it has secured a $750,000 line of credit from Silicon Valley Bank. The Bank’s regional office in Reston, Virginia extended the line of credit to support Digital Paper’s exponential growth and penetration in key markets. Digital Paper recently raised $2 million in venture capital from two D.C.-area firms, Edison Venture Fund and Columbia Capital.


www.digitalpaper.com






Internet Fact of the Day



Forrester Research predicts that $4.1 billion in insurance policies will be sold online by 2003, with auto insurance leading the way.






Naviant and eData.com Sign $56 Million, 5-Year Agreement



TORONTO– Naviant, a precision marketing company, announced its strategic alliance with eData.com, an Internet-based information technology solutions company. The alliance will allow instantaneous access and delivery of Naviant’s High Tech Household File, the fastest growing and most accurate list of Internet-enabled households, greatly accelerating Naviant’s customers’ speed-to-market. eData.com will design and implement a customized Internet delivery system for Naviant.

Naviant is backed by Excite@Home, 24/7 Media, and XL Ventures, the venture capital subsidiary of Big Flower Holding, Inc., as both strategic and financial investors; and TL Ventures, GE Equity, First Union Capital Partners, BCI Partners, Inc., Catterton Partners, and Citigroup as financial investors.


www.naviant.com


www.edata.com





UPS, eHatchery in Strategic Alliance



ATLANTA — eHatchery LLC, a next-generation e-business incubator, announced a strategic alliance with UPS, the world’s largest package distribution company, to provide Internet start-ups with top-tier e-commerce logistics programs. The alliance marks the first UPS investment in an Internet incubator. Through its relationship with UPS, eHatchery will gain the logistics consulting expertise of UPS Professional Services. As members of the eHatchery team, these UPS consultants will play a key role in the development of logistics programs customized towards the specific e-commerce needs of each individual start-up.

eHatchery institutional investors include idealab!, United Parcel Service, Donsldson, Lufkin & Jenrette and Botts & Company


www.ehatchery.com


www.ups.com






Mambo.Com Launches Marketplace for Planning and Promoting Activities and Events



MENLO PARK, Calif.– Mambo.com launched its online marketplace for planning and promoting activities and events. Mambo.com will offer a suite of community and commerce services to help individuals and organizations easily coordinate and prepare for all kinds of social gatherings. Founded in 1999, Mambo.com is funded by Hummer Winblad Venture Partners and angel investors.


www.mambo.com






Darwin Networks & Bass Hotels and Resorts Ink Worldwide Deal



LOUISVILLE, Ky.–Darwin Networks announced that they have received a letter of intent to be a preferred provider of high-speed Internet access to Bass Hotels & Resorts Properties worldwide. Darwin will provide high-speed access to guestrooms and meeting rooms, as well as internal networking solutions. Additional services include public kiosks and laptop docking stations in conference and lobby areas, and portal content programs, including on-line purchasing, and Internet music and movies.

Darwin Networks’ venture capital investors include Broadband Solutions, LLC (led by Chrysalis Ventures), Paul Allen’s Vulcan Ventures, Richland Ventures, River cities Capital and associates of Moore Capital Management.


www.darwin.net






Lexica’s InsureZone.com First to Use Advanced XML-Based Insurance E-Commerce Standard



SAN FRANCISCO– Lexica announced that its InsureZone.com Internet insurance Web site will be the first to use its advanced Extensible Markup Language (XML) standards specifically designed for comparing and buying auto insurance on the Web. The company also announced that it plans to publish its XML standards with the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) for other vendors to adopt and use.

Buena Venture Associates, the venture capital firm led by Texas financier Sid R. Bass, is providing the funding for Lexica.


www.lexica.net or www.insurezone.com






Who’s Who & Where



 


Boulder Ventures Managing Partner Joins BTI Board of Directors



BOULDER, Colo.–Boulder Technology Incubator announced the addition of Kyle Lefkoff to the BTI Board of Directors. Boulder Technology Incubator is a not-for-profit corporation funded by Colorado businesses, public sources and entrepreneurs to help technology-based start-up companies succeed.


www.bouldertechincubator.org






Experienced Industry Leaders Join nQuire



nQuire Software Inc., a provider of decision-making software products that give large enterprises and data-intensive e-Businesses self-service access and analysis capability of structured data, announced that Dan Metzger has joined the company as the vice president of marketing, and Duane Cologne has been appointed as the vice president of business development.

nQuire has received financial backing and support from top technology investors and venture capital firms including RWI Group, Donald L. Lucas and Sand Hill Financial Group, St. Paul Venture Capital, Telos Venture Partners, Doll Capital Management and the law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.


www.nquire.com






CarStation Names Ford Executive to Top Post



SAN FRANCISCO — CarStation.com, the e-commerce hub for the automotive services industry, named senior Ford Motor Co. executive Ronald E. Goldsberry chairman and chief executive officer, effective Jan. 1. Goldsberry is retiring Dec. 31 from Ford where he currently serves as vice president of Ford’s Global Service Business Strategy

CarStation’s investors and business partners include Weiss Peck & Greer, New Enterprise Associates and Marsh and McClennan Capital.


www.carstation.com






Receipt.com Names New CEO, David J. Rynne



MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Receipt.com (formerly Differential Inc.) announced the appointment of David J. Rynne, a senior executive with more than 30 years experience in high technology, as Chief Executive Officer. Rynne joins Receipt.com from Bay Networks, where he was CFO.

The company has launched the first-ever Digital Receipts for e-commerce transactions and messages. The XML-based solution issues highly secure electronic notarized receipts that give companies irrevocable proof that an online transaction has occurred. Based on emerging XML standards, Receipt.com builds the infrastructure that helps businesses replace costly legal paper processes, limiting private networks, and inflexible EDI systems. Digital Receipt issues tamper-proof, electronically notarized receipts.

receipt.com has financial backing from U.S. Venture Partners and SoftBank Holdings.


www.receipt.com






Richard Nanula Named CEO of Broadband Sports



LOS ANGELES — Broadband Sports Inc. announced that Richard Nanula, former chief financial officer of Walt Disney Co. and president and chief operating officer of Starwood Hotel & Resort Worldwide, has been appointed chairman and chief executive officer of the privately owned Internet media company, operator of such web properties as Athlete Direct.

Sequoia Capital along with Institutional Venture Partners are lead investors in the company.


www.athletedirect.com






 


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