VC Buzz – $172.6 Million In Today’s Deals

SAN FRANCISCO — eve.com announced additional funding, bringing the company’s total financing to date to $28.7 million. Crosslink Capital, formerly Omega Venture Partners, joins previous investors idealab!, Menlo Ventures, Charter Venture Capital, and Weiss, Peck & Greer in the second close of Series C financing.

NOVATO, Calif.–MVX.COM, a provider of Internet-based business-to-business electronic commerce solutions for communications management and integration, announced that it has securedsecond-round funding of $18.5 million from veteran financiers Mayfield Fund and executives of Texas Pacific Group.

Mayfield Fund and Texas Pacific Group executives intend to purchase $18.5 million of MVX.COM Series B Preferred Stock. MVX.COM has also secured an additional $1.5 million in second-round funding from other private investors, raising the total to date to approximately $10 million from private investors.

Following the new investment, MVX.COM will add four new members to its board of directors, including: Kevin Fong, Managing General Partner of Mayfield; Todd Brooks, General Partner of Mayfield; Justin Chang, Partner, Texas Pacific Group; and David Stanton, Founding Partner, Francisco Partners.

CARY, N.C.–Technauts Inc., announced that it has received $7.5 million in the closing of its second round of venture capital funding. Richardson, TX-based Technology Associates Management Co. led the round. Other investors include River Cities Capital Funds, Cordova Capital, Aurora Funds, Timark LP and Gray Ventures.

Technauts closed its first round of venture capital funding at a total of $2 million last July. The first round was led by Aurora Funds and brought together investments from Bass Associates (led by Charlie Bass, co-founder of Ungermann-Bass), Cordova Capital, Timark LP, Gray Ventures and Tom McMurray (former general partner at Sequoia).

Technauts’ award-winning eServer family provides a pre-packaged, yet customizable, entree into email and Web services–both Internet and intranet–with solutions that are affordable and easy to install, set up, maintain and upgrade.

ST. PAUL, Minn.–DirectAg.com, a business-to-business Internet site serving the $260 billion U.S. agricultural industry, announced the completion of a $12.6 million round of private financing led by Sutter Hill Ventures. This represents the second round of private financing completed by DirectAg.com since its founding in early 1999 and brings the total amount of capital raised to date to $15.1 million. Joining Sutter Hill in the current round was Advanced Technology Ventures, as well as prior investors St. Paul Venture Capital and Upper Lake Growth Capital.

The company also announced that Greg Sands, managing director at Sutter Hill Ventures, will join the DirectAg.com board of directors.

FOSTER CITY, Calif.–eALITY Inc., a pure Application Service Provider delivering Web-based, outsourced business application services for small-to-mid-sized companies, announced that it has completed a $10.5 million round of funding. Bessemer Venture Partners and Sequoia Capital led this second round, which included existing investor Foundation Capital. eALITY will use this equity financing to strengthen its applications services offering, extend its sales and marketing initiatives to include a variety of channel programs, and enhance service and support for the company’s fast-growing customer base. eALITY’s customer base spans the technology, healthcare, financial and retail industries. Some recent additions include BabyCenter.com, Confinity Inc., MAYAN Networks and think3.

VIENNA, Va.–Riverbed Technologies announced it received $11.8 million in a second round of venture capital financing led by Mayfield Fund of Menlo Park, CA. Mayfield Fund focuses on emerging-growth companies in the enterprise and Internet software arenas. Existing investors Columbia Capital LLC and FBR Technology Venture Partners LP also participated in this round of funding.

Formed in August 1998, Riverbed Technologies is playing a lead role in driving the adoption and effective use of handheld devices throughout the enterprise. With industry-leading partners including Palm Computing, Symbol Technologies, Computer Associates and Oracle, Riverbed’s software has been successfully deployed by a variety of industry-leading companies including BD (formerly Becton Dickinson), GTE and the U.S. Postal Service to provide mobile workforces with high-speed, real-time access to the enterprise.

SAN FRANCISCO–cSafe Ltd., the company that brought to market the first complete solution for the protection, sharing and sale of digital images and other intellectual property over the Web with its PixSafe product, announced that it has successfully secured $8.5 million in second round funding from a group of leading Internet and high technology investment firms, Attractor and Entertainment Ventures. New investors Attractor and EMV join initial investor IsraelSeed Partners.

Last year, cSafe, a privately-held company founded in Beit Shemesh, Israel, raised nearly $2 million from IsraelSeed Partners, Israel’s leading Internet-centric venture capital firm, who also participated in this second round.

NEW YORK–Avesta Technologies Inc. announced that it has secured $11.5 million for a fourth round of venture funding. The new financing, led by Financial Technology Ventures, also includes significant funding from Peregrine Systems, a strategic partner, as well as KAPPA IT VENTURES, an overseas investor.

The funds from this round reflect strong support for Trinity, Avesta’s flagship solution for Internet Infrastructure Management, and will be used toward the company’s ongoing expansion efforts in sales, marketing and development.

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla.–IntegrationWare Inc., a provider of Web-based computing solutions, announces it has closed on its first round of financing having signed a seven million dollar venture capital funding agreement with William Blair Capital Partners L.L.C. of Chicago, Illinois.

NEW YORK– Vault.com announced that it has raised $9 million in a series A preferred round led by Hollinger Ventures.

Joining Hollinger Ventures as investors are American Lawyer Media, Ingram Book Group, and DB Alex Brown. The new funds will be used for marketing, staffing, and general corporate purposes.

Vault.com (formerly VaultReports.com), The Workplace Network, is an Internet destination for career information. Vault.com’s mission is to help professionals advance their careers through “insider” career information, online networking, online courses and job listings.

SUNNYVALE, Calif.–Adaptive Media Inc., a provider of Web-centric visualization and collaborative e-business solutions, announced that it has received a new round of funding totaling $15 million. Robertson Stephens served as Placement Agent. The company also announced that it plans to change its corporate name to Vuent, Inc. starting November 1999, to more closely reflect the nature of its business as a provider of rich media Internet solutions for the extended enterprise.

SAN DIEGO–@Backup, a provider of online information protection and access for small businesses and home computer users, unveiled its strategy for extending the company’s online backup services to enable the first true virtual desktop. @Backup’s services will provide users easy access to their most valuable information anytime, anywhere over the Internet.

The company also announced $22 million in new venture funding from investors including ADIC, Crest Communications Ventures, EMC and affiliates of Merrill Lynch to finance the strategy, and key agreements with American Power Conversion, Dell, Gateway, Intuit, OfficeMax and PSINet. This new round of investment brings the company’s total raised to date to $37 million.

SANTA MONICA, Calif. — CarParts.com, the largest Internet retailer of automotive parts and accessories, announced a partnership with Comprehensive Automotive Reclamation Services (CARS) Inc. an automotive recycling company specializing in the sale of guaranteed used body and mechanical parts for cars and trucks.

CarParts.com is headquartered in Santa Monica, Calif., and backed by @Ventures, the venture capital arm of CMGI.

SAN MATEO, Calif. — netDialog Inc., a provider of personalized, e-service solutions, announced its “Just-in-Time-for-the-Holidays” program. With this initiative, netDialog enables e-commerce sites to cost-effectively augment existing live interaction customer service with other channels of service and a robust channel optimization capability. This program is designed to support e-tailers preparing for the influx of new web-based customers during the holiday season.

Founded in 1997, netDialog is based in San Mateo, California and is funded by BankAmerica Ventures and Bay Partners.

NEW YORK — Orbit Capital Corp., an Internet Incubation and Venture Capital Fund, announced the launch of OrbitGems.com, the largest online estate and fine jewelry store. OrbitGems.com has partnered with Windsor Jewelers, one of the largest estate jewelry buyers in the world, to bring a new level of quality, information and value to the online jewelry buying experience.

WASHINGTON–The Carlyle Group, one of the leading global private equity firms with approximately $5 billion of capital under management, announces that it has established Carlyle Internet Partners Europe, a E300 million venture capital fund targeted at Internet investment opportunities in Europe.

Carlyle Internet Partners Europe will provide pre-flotation equity capital to European Internet and other information technology and new media companies. It will focus on investment opportunities across all areas of the Internet value chain including network infrastructure, e-commerce and business-to-business focused companies. The fund expects to invest principally in businesses that are based, or are pursuing operations, within Europe.

ATLANTA–ExecuTrain Corp. – a worldwide computer training leader – and Schooner Capital – a $300 million private investment firm – announced that Schooner Capital has acquired a total of five ExecuTrain locations in Boston, Hartford, Conn., New York and New Jersey. Schooner also made a significant equity investment in ExecuTrain Corp. Terms of the agreements were not disclosed.

LOS ALTOS, Calif.– Pensare Inc., a provider of Business Learning Communities for the Internet, announced a strategic alliance with Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business to co-produce and deliver a new accredited Duke MBA program.

The alliance also gives Pensare exclusive distribution rights to the jointly developed curriculum for resale among its corporate customers and other business schools seeking to develop their own degree-granting programs. As part of this agreement, Pensare will provide the Internet-based technology platform, produce the courses in an online format, and provide ongoing support for the program.

Pensare’s financial partners are Battery Ventures, GE Equity, Media Technology Ventures and Associated Venture Investors.

BOSTON–Boston Private Bank & Trust Company launched E-PrivateBanker, a new Internet banking service allowing clients to transfer funds, review account activity, pay bills and supervise their accounts from the comfort of their homes or offices.

PASADENA, Calif.–iExchange.com, the latest creation from Bill Gross’ idealab! and further funded by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, launched the first accountable marketplace for investment ideas and insights.

iExchange.com provides any investor with a public forum where he or she can earn recognition and financial reward for picking the right stocks. This new scores the performance of every investment idea posted to the site and ranks “analysts” accordingly.

HAYWARD, Calif.–Cohera Corporation, a provider of Federation Systems for e-business, announced a partnership and product licensing agreement with webMethods Inc., a provider of open solutions for business community integration, to deliver the integration of key data sources inside and outside of corporate firewalls.

Cohera is backed by top-tier investors including Accel Partners, Sequoia Capital, Sippl-Macdonald Ventures and Merrill Lynch.

Founded in 1996, webMethods is based in Fairfax, Va., with offices nationwide. Early investors include Goldman Sachs, the Mayfield Fund and FBR Technology Venture Partners.

SAN FRANCISCO — Aeneid Corp., the Internet Information Exchange company, announced that Douglas S. Bennett, 40, has been named the company’s CEO and president. Daniel Putterman, 32, Aeneid’s co-founder and previous CEO and president, will assume the role of chairman of the board.

Aeneid is a privately held company and funded by Edgewater Funds, Vision Capital, Sparkventures, Teknoinvest and private investors.

NEW YORK–Caresoft Inc., a provider of next generation online health care services for consumers and the healthcare industry, announced its appointment of John A. Young, retired President and Chief Executive Officer of Hewlett-Packard, as head of Caresoft’s Board of Directors.

SAN FRANCISCO–eGroups.com announced the appointment of Marjorie T. Sennett as senior vice president and chief financial officer.

eGroups.com is headquartered in San Francisco, CA and is funded by premier venture capitalists, including Sequoia Capital and Atlas Ventures.

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