Random Ramblings
Some notes to kick off your Tuesday:
• Corporate venturing: Last month we reported that longtime Qualcomm Ventures boss Nagraj Kashyap had left for Microsoft Ventures. Now comes news that another Qualcomm Ventures veteran, Jack Young, has left to head up venture capital for Deutsche Telekom Capital Partners, an investment unit of Germany’s Deutsche Telekom that manages more than $2 billion (including a private equity unit). He also has relocated from San Diego to Silicon Valley, in order to open a new Sand Hill Road office for DTCP.
Young had a particular focus on digital health while at Qualcomm, including leading the firm’s investment in Fitbit Inc. and leading a joint investment effort with Novartis called dRx Capital AG.
He says his move was unrelated to Kashyap’s, except that both were seeking new challenges. “We were very much strategic at Qualcomm, but what we’re doing at DTCP is much more financially-driven,” Young says. “It’s kind of modeled on Google Ventures or Norwest Venture Partners in that way… We’re focused on TMT, but that’s a pretty broad category now.”
• Next stop: A decade after co-founding Boston-based .406 Ventures, Larry Begley is moving on to become chief financial officer of .406 portfolio company CloudHealth Technologies. Not terribly surprising, as he wasn’t listed on an SEC filing for the venture firm’s third fund, a $217 million vehicle closed last year.
Begley ― who has past CFO experience at CCBN (sold to Thomson Financial), i-Cube and Razorfish ― says that he had the operational itch and didn’t believe that it made sense to sign up for another 10-year fund at age 60.
“I had wanted to do some things outside of .406 but soon realized I was a bit bored without a full-time thing,” Begley explains. “Ten years ago Dan Phillips was semi-retired but said he might have one more startup in him. I told him to come to .406 if he acted on it, and that’s what ultimately happened when he launched CloudHealth. It’s now one of our most promising portfolio companies.”
• Data: Some interesting new research has been released by Pantheon Ventures, showing that U.S. and European buyout fund performance (in terms of quartile) usually gets locked in early. For example, if a fund is top-quartile by year five of its life, it has just a 13% chance of finishing out below the median performance of its vintage year.
• Quiz Time (no prize): Can you name the Texas-based advisor and investment firm that's being acquired by a larger New York-based boutique? Hint: Both firms are eponymous.
• Quiz time (with prize): This Thursday is the 10th Annual TUGG Wine & Tequila Party in Boston, which is expected to raise $500,000 to help support six local nonprofits. More than 1,500 tickets have already been sold, but Term Sheet has 10 freebies that I'll give to the first readers to correctly answer the following question (by hitting reply to this email): Which VC-backed company employs more ex-Vistaprint staffers than any other in the Boston area?
• Gametime: March Madness is over, and Villanova isn't the only the winner. The champion of our pool is Jon Curtis, a managing director with Bridge Street Advisors, who bested more than 1,400 other Term Sheet readers (including over 30 who also picked the Wildcats to win it all). So big congrats to Jon, who soon will be taking over part of Term Sheet for a morning...
THE BIG DEAL
• Accor Hotels (Paris: AC) has agreed to acquire OneFineStay, a London-based platform for renting luxury homes. The deal is valued at around $168 million, with Accor committing to invest another $73 million into OneFineStay.
OneFineStay had raised around $80 million in VC funding, including a $40 million Series D round in 2014 at around a $224 million pre-money valuation. Backers include Intel Capital, Hyatt Hotels, Quadrant Capital, Canaan Partners and Index Ventures. www.onefinestay.com
VENTURE CAPITAL DEALS
• Persado, a New York-based developer of “digital marketing persuasion” software, has raised $30 million in Series C funding. Goldman Sachs led the round, and was joined by return backers Bain Capital Ventures, StarVest Partners, Citi Ventures and American Express Ventures. Read more.
• Feelunique.com, a British online retailer of premium beauty products, has raised £20 million in new VC funding led by Palamon Capital Partners. www.feelunique.com
• Metabomed Ltd., an Israeli developer of small-molecule drugs directed against targets in the field of cancer metabolism, has raised $18 million in Series A funding. Pfizer Inc. and Arkin Holdings were joined by existing backers MS Ventures, Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund, Pontifax LLC and the Technion Research and Development Foundation. Read more.
• Mintigo, a San Mateo, Calif.-based provider of predictive marketing solutions, has raised $15 million in new VC funding led by Sequoia Capital. www.mintigo.com
• Origami Energy, a UK-based provider of grid-scale energy management SaaS solutions, has raised £13.7 million in Series A funding. Fred Olsen Energy-related companies were joined by return backers Octopus Ventures and Cambridge Innovation Capital. www.origamienergy.com
• Virool, a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based viral video advertising network, has raised $12 million in Series A funding. Backers include Menlo Ventures, Thomvest Ventures, Yahoo Japan, Flint Capital and 500 Startups. www.virool.com
• Jinn, a London-based “shop of your behalf” delivery startup, has raised $7.5 million in Series A funding. Samaipata Ventures led the round, and was joined by Bull Partners, Elderstreet and individual angels. Read more.
• Consensus (f.k.a. DemoChimp), an American Fork, Utah-based provider of B2B demo automation software, has raised $4.2 million in Series A funding. Peak Ventures led the round, and was joined by CEB and Nobutaka Mutaguch. www.consens.us
• Flywheel, an Omaha, Neb.-based WordPress hosting and management platform for designers and creative agencies, has raised $4 million in Series A funding led by Five Elms Capital. www.getflywheel.com
PRIVATE EQUITY DEALS
• Arlington Capital Partners has completed its previously-announced acquisition of the defense and security business unit of iRobot Corp. (Nasdaq: IRBT) for upwards of $45 million. www.irobot.com
• Blue Star Sports, a Frisco, Texas-based provider of youth sports team and league management software, has raised an undisclosed amount of private equity funding from Providence Equity Partners and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. www.bluestarsports.com
• Cotton Creek Capital has acquired Sterling Foods, a San Antonio, Texas-based provider of gourmet baked goods to the food industry. No financial terms were disclosed. Sellers include Austin Ventures and TGF Management. www.sterling-fd.com
• H.I.G. Capital has completed its previously-announced acquisition of the Quicken business line from Intuit Inc. (Nasdaq: INTU). www.intuit.com
• IPS Corp., a Compton, Calif.-based portfolio company of Nautic Partners, has acquired Integra Adhesives, a Canadian maker of specialty adhesives used to permanently bind stone and interior finishes like countertops. No financial terms were disclosed. www.ipscorp.com
• Milestone AV Technologies, an Eden Prairie, Minn.-based provider of audiovisual equipment, has acquired Vaddio, a Minnetonka, Minn.-based maker of cameras and professional auto and visual products. No financial terms were disclosed. Milestone AV shareholders include Pritzker Capital and Duchossois Group, while Vaddio had been backed by Thompson Street Capital Partners. www.milestone.com
• PDC Brands, a Stamford, Conn.-based beauty product platform sponsored by Yellow Wood Partners, has acquired Original Additions, a London-based owner of beauty brands Eylure London, Elegant Touch and Salon System. No financial terms were disclosed. www.parfumsdecoeur.com
• Sterigenics International, a Deerfield, Ill.-based provider of outsourced contract sterilization services, has acquired Nelson Laboratories Inc., a Salt Lake City-based provider of lifecycle microbiology testing services for the medical device, pharma and tissue industries. No financial terms were disclosed. Sterigenics is a portfolio company of Warburg Pincus and GTCR. www.sterigenics.com
• Weinberg Capital Group has sponsored a recapitalization of HoodMart Inc., an Elyria, Ohio-based maker of ventilation systems for the commercial cooking industry. No financial terms were disclosed, except that F.N.B. Capital Partners supported the deal with $10 million in mezzanine funding and equity co-investment. www.hoodmart.com
IPOs
• Yintech Investment Holdings Ltd., a Chinese provider of spot commodity trading services, has filed for an $80 million IPO. It plans to trade on the Nasdaq under ticker symbol YIN, with Jefferies serving as lead underwriter. The company reports around $62 million of net income on $192 million in revenue for 2015.
EXITS
• Ericsson has acquired NodePrime, a San Francisco-based provider of a first software-defined datacenter platform. No financial terms were disclosed. NodePrime last year raised $7 million in seed funding from Ericsson, Menlo Ventures, NEA, Formation 8, Initialized Capital, Crosslink Capital and TEEC Angel Fund. Read more.
• GigOptix Inc. (NYSE: MKT: GIG) has agreed to acquire Magnum Semiconductor Inc., a Milpitas, Calif.-based provider of semiconductor communications components. The deal is valued at approximately $55 million in stock, with the resulting combined company to be renamed GigPeak Inc. Magnum had raised over $100 million in VC funding, including a 2014 recap. Backers included August Capital and Investor Growth Capital. www.gigoptix.com
• InterMedia Advisors and Yucaipa Cos. have agreed to sell the Soul Train franchise to Black Entertainment Television (BET) for an undisclosed amount. Read more.
• Leeds Equity Partners has agreed to sell Evanta, a Portland, Ore.-based provider of executive leadership development and collaborative exchange programs, to CEB (NYSE: CEB) for $275 million in cash. Leeds had paid $94 million to acquire Evanta back in 2012. www.evanta.com
• Salesforce (NYSE: CRM) has acquired MetaMind, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based enterprise AI startup. No financial terms were disclosed. Sellers include Khosla Ventures. Read more.
FIRMS & FUNDS
• DFW Capital Partners, a Teaneck, N.J.-based private equity firm focused on lower middle-market services companies, has closed its fifth fund with $360 million in capital commitments. www.dfwcapital.com
• KKR has closed its second special situations fund with $3.35 billion in capital commitments. www.kkr.com
• PineBridge Investments has closed its second “structured capital” fund with $600 million in capital commitments. The fund will invest in junior capital securities in privately-held, North American middle-market companies. www.pinebridge.com
MOVING IN, ON & UP
• Niles Ho has joined Beijing-based tech media company 36kr.com as a venture partner and member of the company’s investment committee. He previously was an investment director with family office Wu Capital and, before that, was executive director of CDH Investments. www.36kr.com
• Diana Martz has joined TA Associates as VP of human resources. She previously was director of talent for OpenView Venture Partners. www.ta.com
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