Highlights from recent IT venture capital investment activity.

VM Index subscribers see full details of all 45 IT Venture Capital deals from the past week plus profiles and analysis of thousands of investors and venture-backed companies.

 

May 29th, 2012 – Mountain View, CA

MobileIron Raises $40M in Series E Funding

MobileIron, the leader in Mobile IT security and management for apps, content, and devices, today announced its $40 million Series E mezzanine financing round. The investment was led by Institutional Venture Partners which joined existing investors Foundation Capital, Norwest Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital, and Storm Ventures. The round brings MobileIron’s total funding to $97 million. It will be used to accelerate global growth and drive product innovation.

http://www.mobileiron.com/en/company/press-room/press-releases/331-mobileiron-raises-40m-in-series-e-funding

 

May 29th, 2012 – Dulles, VA 

Echo360 Secures $31M

The investment comes from the $450 million Revolution Growth fund, founded by Steve Case, Ted Leonsis, and Donn Davis — all well-known entrepreneurs and executives in their own right and each a veteran of Aol leadership. The four-year-old company already has 1 million students using its blended learning solutions in over 6,000 classrooms and 500 institutions, owns 54 percent of its market, and is seeing annual revenue of $15 million. Of course, all told Echo360 is only currently serving about 10 percent of the colleges and universities in the U.S., and, on top of that, its leadership sees big opportunities abroad.

http://techcrunch.com/2012/05/29/echo360-gets-31m-from-revolution-growth/

 

May 29th, 2012 – New York, NY

Group Commerce Raises $21 Million

Group Commerce Inc., the market-leading e-commerce platform for publishers, today announced its Series C funding of $21 million from Jafco Ventures and existing investors including Spark Capital, Carmel Ventures, and others. The funding will be used to increase support for its growing US client base, further develop its technology platform to enable all forms of e-commerce, and to accelerate its rollout into the UK, Germany and other European countries. 

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/group-commerce-receives-21-million-for-product-development-and-international-expansion-2012-05-29

 

May 29th, 2012 – Marlborough, MA

Qualtre Raises $10M

Qualtre Inc., a leading provider of feature rich and high performance inertial sensors for cutting edge consumer and industrial applications, announced the closing of a $10M round of financing. The new funding will enable the company to launch multiple products targeting both high-volume consumer and industrial applications. The round consists of equity financing from Matrix Partners and Pilot House Ventures, as well as debt financing from Eastward Capital Partners.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/qualtre-gains-10m-in-funding-to-fuel-the-launch-of-multiple-products-based-on-the-companys-differentiated-mems-baw-gyroscope-2012-05-29

 

May 29th, 2012 – Mountain View, CA

Ace Metrix Raises $8M for Smarter TV Ad Testing

Ace Metrix, a company promising brands and agencies a smarter, faster approach to testing their TV ads, has raised $8 million in new funding. The new funding is an extension of the company’s Series C, with investors WPP (whose involvement shows the interest from the ad world), Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, Leapfrog Ventures, and Palomar Ventures.

http://techcrunch.com/2012/05/29/ace-metrix-funding/

 

Europe

 

May 29th, 2012 – Paris, France

Sensee Raises €17.5M in Funding

Sensee, a French online optician, has raised €17.5m in funding. Backers include Partech International, Orkos Capital, Idinvest and other business angels. The company intends to use the funds to accelerate its development. Launched in October 2011 and now led by CEO Marc Simoncini, Sensee offers glasses, sunglasses and contact lenses. It has a customer base of over 200,000 users.

http://www.finsmes.com/2012/05/sensee-raises-e17-5m-funding.html

 

May 30th, 2012 – London, UK

Mindshapes Raises $4M

Mindshapes, a London, New York and San Francisco-based interactive learning company, has raised $4m in funding. Backers include Index Ventures, Richmond Park Partners and existing investors. Founded in 2010 by Chairman Shukri Shammas, CEO David Begg, CTO Sami Lababidi, CCO Christian Dorffer, and CFO Tareq Naqib, Mindshapes is developing multi-platform, interactive educational games for children and adults.

http://www.finsmes.com/2012/05/mindshapes-raises-4m.html

 

May 29th, 2012 – Scotland, UK

Serious Parody Raises over £1M

Serious Parody, a Dundee, Scotland, UK-based games company, has raised over £1m in funding. Backers include private investors, with a further £230k coming from a Scottish Enterprise regional selective assistance grant. The company intends to use the capital to establish a new studio (based in Dundee) and recruit 18 new members of staff including multiple programmers, artists and animators in the coming months.

http://www.finsmes.com/2012/05/parody-raises-1m.html

 

May 28th, 2012 – London, UK 

Glopho Closes £150k Funding

Glopho, a London, UK-based crowd-sourced photo sharing service, has closed a £150k funding. Backers include a syndicate of four London Business Angels, who invested a total of £100k. The company intends to use the funding to launch its product and increase monthly page impressions and unique user metrics.

http://www.finsmes.com/2012/05/glopho-closes-150k-funding.html

 

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