Home News Briefs Private Equity Week Wire for Tuesday 6/19
Private Equity Week Wire for Tuesday 6/19
HOUSTON — Synhrgy HR Technologies, Inc. today announced the completion of a Series B financing agreement, totaling $25 million from
venture capital firms, Richland Ventures and Validus Partners, as well as strategic partners, UnitedHealth Group Corporation and T. Rowe Price.
Synhrgy (pronounced syn-er-gy), a national firm based in Houston, Texas, provides human resources technology and business process outsourcing services to large employers. The
company currently manages outsourcing, cosourcing and consulting engagements for over 50 clients and nearly 500,000 employees through Web-based applications, interactive voice
response technology and dual call centers. Synhrgy's clients include industry leaders such as Enron Corp., Sabre, Inc., U.S. Airways and Bell Helicopter Textron.
CUPERTINO, CA — Luminous Networks today announced the completion of an $80 million equity financing round, one of the largest private
equity financings this year in the telecommunications equipment sector. This significant investment round indicates strong investor support for Luminous' carrier-class optical Ethernet
platform, which provides carriers with toll-quality voice and circuit services, as well as packet-based voice, data and video services for high-growth metropolitan area networks. This
financing provides Luminous with working capital for manufacturing its PacketWave(TM) products, now shipping to major U.S. and international carriers. In addition, Luminous will
use proceeds to expand its sales and customer service resources, and to further accelerate product development. Total equity investment in Luminous now exceeds $148 million.
Pyramid Technology Ventures, with offices in the U.S. and Europe, is the lead investor in the round. Significant new venture capital and cross-over equity investors include C.E.
Unterberg Towbin Advisors, CIT Venture Capital, Crown Advisors, Easton Hunt Capital Partners, Firsthand Capital Management, Inc., Kingdon Capital Management, Pacific Venture
Group, and Sternhill Partners. New strategic investors Hakuto Co., Ltd. and Samsung Corp. provide Asia-Pacific market opportunities. Existing Luminous investors in the financing
include Doll Capital Management (DCM), DynaFund Ventures, Morgan Stanley Venture Partners, and Vanguard Venture Partners, as well as strategic investor Scientific-Atlanta, which
has a development and OEM relationship with Luminous. Robertson Stephens acted as placement agent for the financing.
WALTHAM, MA — Empirix Inc., the innovative provider of test and monitoring solutions for business-critical Web, voice and network applications, today announced that it has successfully secured an
additional $15 million in second-round capital funding from its original investment group, including the venture capital firm of Matrix Partners. Empirix will use the new funds to further
accelerate the introduction of additional testing solutions to help companies ensure the quality and reliability of their customer-facing Web and voice applications.
Created at the end of 2000 by combining Hammer Technologies and RSW Software (both former Teradyne subsidiaries) to form an independent, privately funded corporation,
Empirix provides testing and monitoring solutions to a wide range of Global 2000 companies, including Cisco, Lucent, British Telecom, American Airlines, H&R Block and other
equipment manufacturers, service providers, financial institutions, and online retailers.
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA — Cheng Power Systems Inc. (Cheng) closed a $9 million second round investment with lead investors Mirant
Corp. of Atlanta, GA and Saw Mill Capital LLC of Briarcliff Manor, NY. The funds will be used to accelerate the commercialization of existing technologies and for further development
of new products.
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA — nBand Communications Inc., a broadband access technology company, announced today that Nokia (NYSE:NOK) has made an equity investment in the company. The deal is actually part of a previously-announced rolling Series B investment led by VantagePoint Partners, but Nokia was previously an undisclosed investor.
BOSTON — Concentric Visions Inc. an innovator of rich media
content management software, today announced it has closed $8.1 million in venture
financing from Sigma Partners and GrandBanks Capital, a newly formed venture capital
firm created in partnership with SOFTBANK Venture Capital. Concentric Visions will use
the funds generated from this second round of venture funding to accelerate its sales,
marketing, and product development initiatives. Plans include enhancing corporate
visibility, developing channel partnerships, and expanding its market presence through
aggressive marketing efforts that include a new product launch later this year. Concentric
Visions' series B financing follows first round investments from I-Group/HotBank and
Internet Business Capital (IBCC).
PITTSBURGH — FFWD Inc. (pronounced "fast
forward"), a global provider of marketing and commerce solutions, announced today that it
has secured more than $12 million dollars, completing its third round of funding. PNC
Technology Investors joins returning investors Adams Capital and Mellon Ventures in this
oversubscribed round, which better positions FFWD to fuel continued growth while
focusing on targeted profitability goals.
AUSTIN, TEXAS — Bandspeed Inc., an emerging leader in performance-enhancing signal processing solutions, has raised $15 million in venture
capital (VC) funding.
High-tech VC firms JatoTech Ventures and MSD Capital led the round, with additional participation by Cisco Systems. Bandspeed is delivering innovative signal processing
technology for broadband equipment that elevates performance to a new level — increasing data rates, expanding reach and improving reliability.
NEW YORK — Wasserstein Ventures today announced that it is leading a $4 million series A venture capital round in PetaSwitch Solutions Inc.,
a San Jose, CA-based developer of multi-terabit switch fabric solutions for networking applications.
Well known venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson is also investing.
George Lauro, Managing Director of Wasserstein Ventures, will join the Board of Directors of PetaSwitch Solutions, Inc. He is a director on the boards of eight companies in the
Internet infrastructure, photonics and communications IC space, to which he brings 16 years of experience developing, launching and managing technology businesses for IBM and
Motorola.
DALLAS — CT Holdings Inc. today announced that it has participated in the guarantee of Parago's recent $8 million bridge financing with Comerica Bank — Texas that was
initially guaranteed by TH Lee.Putnam Internet Partners, LP.
CT Holdings has funded its pro rata portion of the required initial contribution to the guarantee escrow account. The terms of the participation interest are described in our Quarterly
Report on Form 10-QSB for the quarter ended March 31, 2001.
For yesterday