Random Ramblings
Greetings from the home office. Some notes to kick off your Tuesday:
• New firm alert: David Lee, the seed-stage venture capitalist who last year resigned from the firm he had co-founded with Ron Conway, is back with a new firm called Refactor Capital.
The nascent effort was disclosed in an SEC filing, which shows that Lee will partner with Zal Bilimoria (most recently a partner with Andreessen Horowitz) and Rick Barber (ex-chief of staff at Nuna Health). The trio is seeking upwards of $50 million for their debut fund.
Lee had co-founded SV Angel with Conway back in 2007 and effectively led investment efforts beginning in 2010. But he suddenly resigned last May without much explanation.
A source familiar with Refactor says that the plan is to focus on seed-stage software startups on the West Coast, including (but not limited to) healthcare IT. The SEC document lists a Burlingame, CA headquarters, but Lee (who declined comment) is expected to remain based in Los Angeles.
• No hurdle, no problem: Advent International this morning announced that it has closed its eighth flagship private equity fund with $13 billion in capital commitments. That's $1 billion above target, which means that LPs apparently weren't turned off by the Boston-based firm's decision to drop its preferred return (a.k.a. hurdle rate).
• Boom to bust: Jumio, an online credentials authentication startup that had raised around $30 million in VC funding, yesterday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. It also said that its assets would be sold to Facebook co-founder (and existing Jumio investor) Eduardo Saverin (who also will provide $3.7m in DIP financing).
No specifics yet on what happened from the company, except that it was unable to secure new funding due to “certain legacy issues combined with related government investigations and proceedings." Its most recent outside funding round came in early 2014 at around a $189 million post-money valuation (per Pitchbook), co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and Citi Ventures.
• And now for something completely different: I've spent a decent part of the past week working on a piece unrelated to Term Sheet: Social media ties between Donald Trump, some senior members of his campaign and avowed white supremacists. In short, it's more than just a few random retweets. You can read the story I wrote with Ben Kharakh by going here.
THE BIG DEAL
• BigBasket, an India-based online grocery, has raised $150 million in new funding. The Abraaj Group led the round, and was joined by return backers Bessemer Venture Partners, Helion Advisors, Zodius Capital and Ascent Capital. www.bigbasket.com
VENTURE CAPITAL DEALS
• Acutus Medical, a Carlsbad, Calif.-based provider of electrophysiology solutions, has raised $75 million in Series C funding. Deerfield Management and Xeraya Capital were joined by return backers GE Ventures, OrbiMed Advisors and Advent Life Sciences. www.acutusmedical.com
• BYJU, an educational online platform and app for sixth-twelfth graders in India, has raised $75 million in new VC funding from Sequoia Capital India and Sofina. Read more.
• Aerin Medical Inc., a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based medical device company focused on nasal breathing disorders, has raised $16.7 million in Series C funding from backers like Targeted Technology Fund and KCK Group. www.aerinmedical.com
• Sight Machine Inc., a San Francisco-based online data platform for manufacturers, has raised $13.5 million in Series B funding. Jump Capital led the round, and was joined by GE Ventures, Two Roads Group and Pritzker Group Venture Capital. Existing backers include Mercury Fund, Michigan eLab, Huron River Ventures, Orfin Ventures, Funders Club, IA Ventures and OATV. www.sightmachine.com
• Syntimmune Inc., a New York-based developer of treatments for IgG-mediated autoimmune diseases, has secured a clinical milestone-based $10 million tranche of its $26 million Series A round co-led by Apple Tree Partners and Baxalta Ventures. www.syntimmune.com
• Adarza BioSystems Inc., a Rochester, N.Y.-based developer of label-free multiplex assays, has raised $5 million in Series B funding. Backers include Cultivation Capital, Lewis and Clark Ventures and Siemens Venture Capital. www.adarzabio.com
• Medical Departures, a Thailand-based medical services marketplace for those seeking cross-border treatments and procedures, has raised $2.5 million in Series A funding. DMP led the round, and was joined by Hubert Burda Media, CyberAgent Ventures and OPT SEA. www.medicaldepartures.com
• GreatHorn, a Belmont, Mass.-based provider of cloud communication security solutions, has raised $2.25 million in seed funding. ff Venture Capital and SoftTech VC co-led the round, and were joined by Techstars Ventures, RRE Ventures, Walter Winshall and return backers Zelkova Ventures and V1.VC. www.greathorn.com
• ClubReady, a St. Louis-based provider of business management software for the fitness and wellness market, has raised an undisclosed amount of Series A funding from Level Equity. www.clubready.com
PRIVATE EQUITY DEALS
• Benefitexpress, a Schaumburg, Ill.-based cloud platform for employee benefits, has raised an undisclosed amount of private equity funding from LLR Partners. www.benefitexpress.info
• CI Capital Partners has acquired Hero Digital, a San Francisco-based digital consulting firm. No financial terms were disclosed. www.herodigital.com
• Denu Partners, an Ireland-based investment firm, has acquired Boston-based steakhouse chain The Smith & Wollensky Restaurant Group from Bunker Hill Capital. No financial terms were disclosed. www.smithandwollensky.com
• Edgewater Markets, a New York-based provider of electronic foreign exchange aggregation and distribution to institutional clients, has raised $30 million in minority equity funding led by FTV Capital. www.edgewatermarkets.com
• Open Lending LLC, an Austin, Texas-based provider of loan analytics, risk modeling and automated decision technology for automotive lenders, has raised $40 million in private equity funding from Bregal Sagemount. www.openlending.com
• Response Team 1, a Wheeling, Ill.-based provider of property restoration and renovation services, has secured an undisclosed amount of private equity funding from Nautic Partners. The deal also included leveraged financing from Antares Capital and LStar Capital. www.responseteam1.com
• Stellex Capital Management has acquired Morbark LLC, a Winn, Mich.-based maker of wood chippers and deforestation equipment. No financial terms were disclosed. www.morbark.com
IPOs
• The Bank of Tianjin raised $949 million in a Hong Kong IPO, after pricing shares at HK$7.39 each (near low end of HK$7.37-HK$9.58 range). The Chinese commercial lender’s offering is the largest Hong Kong IPO so far in 2016. Read more.
EXITS
• Bio-Techne Corp. (Nasdaq: TECH) has acquired Zephyrus Biosciences, a Berkeley, Calif.-based developer of research tools to enable protein analysis at the single cell level. No financial terms were disclosed. Zephyrus had been seeded by such firms as Life Sciences Angels, Mission Bay Capital, The Angel Forum, BayBio Fast, 5 Prime Ventures and the Stanford StartX Fund. www.zephyrusbio.com
• CRT Capital Group, a portfolio company of Aquiline Capital Partners, has agreed to sell its credit products, credit research, special-situations and emerging-markets units to Cowen Group (Nasdaq: COWN). Read more.
• HGGC has agreed to sell Serena Software, a Redwood City, Calif.-based provider of enterprise IT management solutions, to Micro Focus (LSE: MCRO) for $540 million in cash. HGGC had purchased Serena Software in early 2014 from Silver Lake for approximately $450 million. www.serena.com
OTHER DEALS
• Influitive, a Toronto-based advocate marketing startup, has acquired Triggerfox, a Toronto-based mobile relationship management application. No financial terms were disclosed. Influitive recently closed a $38.7 million Series B round from Leaders Fund, Export Development Canada, Georgian Partners, Relay Ventures, BDC Capital IT Venture Fund and OurCrowd, www.influitive.com
• Marriott International (Nasdaq: MAR) isn’t going down without a fight, in its effort to acquire Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide (NYSE: HOT). The Bethesda, Md.-based hotel operator has raised its cash and stock bid to $79.53 per share, or $13.6 billion. Its previous offer valued Starwood at $13.2 billion, and was effectively matched by a consortium that includes Anbang Insurance Group, J.C. Flowers and Primavera Capital. As part of its new bid. Marriott also increased its breakup fee from $400 million to $450 million, although that’s unlikely to deter a counter from Anbang. Read more.
• Sparkle Roll Group (HK: 970) said that it is in talks to acquire Bang & Olufsen, a listed Danish maker of high-end speaker systems. News of the possible deal caused B&O shares to jump, giving it a market cap of approximately $460 million. Read more.
FIRMS & FUNDS
• Sverica Capital Management, a lower middle-market private equity firm with offices in Boston and San Francisco, has closed its fourth fund with $275 million in capital commitments. www.sverica.com
• Teralys Capital (Montreal) has closed its latest VC fund-of-funds with C$375 million in capital commitments. Limited partners include Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, Fonds de solidarité FTQ, Investissement Québec, BDC Capital, Fondaction CSN, Fiera Capital, Lune Rouge, Bpifrance, National Bank of Canada, La Capitale, Desjardins Group, Knight Therapeutics, OpenText Corp. and Consensus Business Group. www.teralyscapital.com
MOVING IN, ON & UP
• Rick Braun has joined GenNx360 Capital Partners as an operating partner. He previously was Scotland-based managing director of Weir Services Europe and, before that, served in various executive positions with Rolls Royce. www.gennx360.com
• Noah Lichtenstein has transitioned from a partner to venture partner role with Cowboy Ventures. Before joining the Silicon Valley VC firm in 2013, he helped found Homerun (acquired by Rearden Commerce). www.cowboy.vc
• Nomura has named Jan Newman and Ben Lowther, previously of Newman Lowther & Associates, as co-heads of a new South Africa office and team. Read more.
• Pomona Capital has promoted Sebastien Bowen and Ryan Levitt to partner. Bowen joined the firm in 2010 from MetLife Investments, while Levitt joined 2007 from GE Capital. www.pomonacapital.com
Share today's Term Sheet:
http://fortune.com/newsletter/termsheet
