Internet
Zhaopin.com
Beijing-based Zhaopin.com has completed a $110 million financing to expand its online recruitment in China ahead of an initial public offering expected in 2010. Macquarie Capital and strategic investor Seek Ltd. led the round. Zhaopin.com is a job search portal in China and plans to use the proceeds to improve product development and customer services as well as to promote the company's brand.
Trulia
San Francisco-based online residential real estate publisher Trulia.com picked up $15 million in new funding led by Deep Fork Capital LLC of Menlo Park, Calif., to boost its rise among advertising supported sites dedicated to providing listings, data and user-generated content for buyers, sellers and agents. The investment in four-year-old Trulia was joined by previous investors Sequoia Capital of Menlo Park, Accel Partners of Palo Alto, Calif., and Houston-based Fayez Sarofim & Co. Total investment in the company is now $33 million; the round is expected to be the company's final institutional investment, with proceeds going largely to shore up the company's balance sheet. -- Clifford Carlsen
Graspr
Instructional video Web site Graspr of Mountain View, Calif., has raised $2.5 million in Series A funding. The proceeds came from Draper Fisher Jurvetson of Menlo Park, Calif., and angel investors. Graspr will use the capital to launch a syndication platform and online video editor designed to help instructional video producers edit, promote, track, distribute and market their videos. The company also will roll out an affiliate network which rewards referrals from producers and publishers within the Graspr network with a lifetime share in revenue generated around the video content they feature or produce.
Networking
Milestone Systems
Copenhagen-based Milestone Systems, a developer of IP video management software for surveillance systems, has closed a $27 million first round from Index Ventures of Geneva. The ten-year-old company closed the round in January 2007. The proceeds will be used to open sales offices in new countries, for development of its technology platform and to support its partnerships.
Media
BestofMedia
Online publishing company Bestofmedia Group of Paris has received a $35.7 million investment from Index Ventures of Geneva. Founded in 2000, the company controls 20 buying guide Web sites devoted to new technologies under the brand names of Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide and Tom's Games, and other Web publications. The money will be used for general growth and to expand Bestofmedia's offerings.
Software
Secerno
Amadeus Capital Partners Ltd., a U.K.-based venture investor, has led a $16 million second round financing of Oxford, England-based Secerno Ltd., a supplier of software and appliances which provide security against internal and external threats to databases. Secerno's SynoptiQ technology uses advanced mathematical techniques to understand database instructions, and the company will use the investment to develop its database activity monitoring and security platform and accelerate sales growth internationally. Previous investors Eden Ventures (UK) Ltd. and Spark Venture Management Ltd. also participated in the round. Legal advisers to the investors were Brown Rudnick LLP, while Secerno's legal advice was from Osborne Clarke. --Jonathan Braude
Telecom software
Xeround
Bellevue, Wash.-based telecommunications database software developer Xeround Inc. added hometown investors Ignition Partners and Trilogy Partnership in a $16 million Series B round of venture capital to bring total investment in the recently relocated Israeli startup to $29.5 million. The new lead investors join Series A backers Benchmark Capital of Tel Aviv and Giza Venture Capital of Herzliya, Israel, as the company expands sales and marketing of its first commercial database products targeted at global telecommunications carriers and equipment makers. The round is expected to take the company to positive cash flow within the next 18 to 24 months, and potentially expand its proprietary data virtualization technology to so-called "cloud" computing applications, which leverage distributed low-cost servers, to vertical markets beyond telecommunications. --C.C.
Energy
Sulfurcell
Intel Capital has led an ¤85 million ($133 million) funding for Berlin-based solar cell manufacturer Sulfurcell Solartechnik GmbH with a ¤24 million investment. Other new investors include Climate Change Capital Private Equity, American International Group Inc., Demeter Partners, Zouk Ventures Ltd. and BankInvest Group will contribute another ¤38 million. Existing investors, which include IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft, Vattenfall Europe Venture GmbH and Ventegis Capital AG, will contribute the balance. Sulfurcell plans to use the cash to build a new plant in Germany's capital. Sulfurcell was spun out of the Hans Meitner Institute in Berlin in 2001 and began commercial production three years ago.
Medical devices
TRIA Beauty
Tria Beauty Inc. (formerly SpectraGenics) of Pleasanton, Calif., has received $30 million in new funding for development of its light-based therapeutic beauty products. The round was led by new investors Vivo Ventures of Palo Alto, Calif., and Aisling Capital of New York, along with unnamed existing investors. The company will use the new funding to accelerate the launch of the Tria Personal Laser Hair Removal System in the U.S. and for development of additional skin care products. n
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