VC Buzz – $404.35+ Million in Today’s Deals

NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. — Cruise411.com Inc. secured $3.75 million in initial funding to support the development and marketing of its new website, Cruise411.com. Another $9 million in funding is expected. The initial funding has been provided by TL Ventures. Cruise411.com says it provides the lowest cruise prices in the industry and extensive resources to help users research and book cruises on 31 cruise lines.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.– KhiMetrics Inc., a company that enables online retailers to create profitable pricing strategies, received a $3.5 million investment led by Telos Venture Partners. Other investors include RWI Group and Donald L. Lucas. KhiMetrics is introducing a new retail system category — advanced price optimization — that enables e-commerce sites and traditional retailers to predict consumer behavior and then set prices accordingly.

WORCESTER, Mass.– bulbs.com, a secure e-commerce site specifically for the commercial light bulb market, closed $3.5 million in total equity in its first round of venture financing. In 2000, bulbs.com will establish a distribution center, begin business-to-business direct marketing programs and hire key personnel. The private financing was shared by venture capital investors including Arbor Venture Partners II LLC, Ralph Wilson Equity Fund LLC, Hexagon Investments and Grandhaven. Arbor Partners took the lead in this round of funding.

CHICAGO– First Analysis Venture Capital made a $3 million equity investment in Go2Call.com, a comprehensive, one-stop resource for international Internet calling. Go2Call.com delivers free online tools enabling novice and experienced callers to navigate the current tangle of technology, providers and prices.

everage synergies between Earjam.com’s technologies and Oak’s core competencies in optical recording.

YORBA LINDA, Calif.– Anderson Unicom Group Inc., a life sciences business-to-business Internet company, closed its first round of venture financing. Prime Ventures LLC and Edgewater Ventures LLC, Santa Monica, Calif.-based investment companies headed respectively by Internet entrepreneurs Richard Rosenblatt and Anthony Mazzarella, led the round. Anderson Unicom Group in March of 1995 was the first Internet-based company to aggregate catalogs and create an online classification system for products used in research, and to allow scientists and technicians to initiate one-click purchases.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Imageon Solutions Inc., a provider of next generation Internet enabled clinical image management solutions, completed a major round of funding. The company also announced the appointment of Charles Jett as chairman and chief executive officer and Jeff Timbrook as vice president of sales and marketing. Participants in the first round include Paradigm Venture Partners LLC, Finn Partners and private investors. Imageon Solutions, Inc. is an e-Health company specializing in developing and deploying systems that provide cost effective archiving, routing, and viewing of full fidelity digital diagnostic images “real time” over private networks and the Internet.

NEW YORK– MarketMAX Inc., a provider of integrated e-business, merchandise planning and optimization solutions for the $2.7 trillion retail market, received a second round of capital. The investment was led by industry leaders Bernard F. Brennan and Frank J. O’Connell, both of whom will also join the company’s board of directors providing strategic assistance, representing both the retailer and consumer goods manufacturer perspectives. Insight Capital Partners also participated after providing the Company with its first round of capital.

BOSTON — Highland Capital Partners announced its largest investment fund to date — Highland Capital Partners V. The firm’s fifth fund totals $500 million and brings Highland’s total money under management to over $1 billion. Highland will continue to focus on investing in entrepreneurs seeking to build world-class Internet, communications and medical companies. Within the Internet sector, primary investment areas will be business-to-consumer, business-to-business and infrastructure opportunities. Highland will also continue to target both early and late stage investments. Some of Highland’s 25 limited partners in the U.S. include Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Yale, the Ford Foundation, Hewlett-Packard, and the Mayo Clinic. Also represented are three European institutions based in London, Munich and Zurich.

NORTH CASTLE, N.Y.– IBM established a $500 million global fund that will significantly enhance its Net Generation financing program and expand its support to fast-growing business-to-business Internet companies. IBM Global Financing will team with select venture capital firms to provide financing for IBM hardware, software and services to emerging Net Generation companies that have already completed their first round of venture capital financing. IBM inte

nds to expand its relationships with venture capital firms that have Internet companies in their portfolios, and will offer these companies access to additional capital for growing their IT infrastructure.

NEW YORK — Fusient Media Ventures, a full-service content incubator committed to identifying, funding and distributing programming built around the Internet, launched, backed by a team of media, Internet and entertainment industry executives. Fusient’s founding partners are Brian T. Bedol, former Time Warner executive and creator and co-founder of Classic Sports Network, Stephen D. Greenberg, former deputy baseball commissioner and co-founder of Classic Sports Network, and Tom Lassally, former executive vice president of Warner Bros. The founding investors include Redpoint Ventures, whose partner Geoff Yang will serve on the board of Fusient, Allen & Company, Waterview Partners, Grotech Capital Group, Berkshire Partners and Monitor Clipper Partners. Fusient will operate as the early-stage content investment vehicle for its investors, evaluate new content business ideas and first-round investment opportunities, as well as develop new concepts internally that will be funded and packaged with talented management. As its partner companies grow, Fusient will work with its investors and other venture capital companies to provide the later-stage capital for accelerated growth.

NEW YORK — LatinForce.Net, a new Internet incubator company created to develop e-businesses that target Hispanics in the US and Latin America, completed a first round of venture funding from institutional and individual investors and strategic partners. The company’s initial $18 million financing includes $5 million from two strategic partners, Z-Spanish Radio, a Hispanic-serving radio company, and Vista Media, the nation’s largest Hispanic outdoor company. The financing was led by Brown, McMillan & Co., a private equity firm based in San Francisco, which was joined by TSG Capital Group, The Hillman Company, and several individual investors, including Michael Fuchs, the former CEO of Home Box Office. Brown, McMillan’s investors include several institutional investors and current and former principals of Forstmann Little & Co., Integral Capital, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., Robertson Stephens & Co., and The Carlyle Group.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.– Rainfinity, which provides scalable software solutions that improve the reliability and performance of Internet infrastructure and Web-based applications, appointed Steve Wong as chief financial officer. Most recently, he was with SQRIBE Technologies. At the same time, it was announced that company founder, Gil Margalit, will assume the position of executive vice president of strategy and corporate development with acting responsibilities of marketing and business development. Recently, the company completed

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