Venture Capital News
Vernier Networks Secures $21 Million In Oversubscribed Round
Representatives of Vernier Networks announced that it received US$21 million in an oversubscribed Series E financing round. Led by top-tier venture capital firm Venrock Associates, the round included existing investors Foundation Capital, DCM-Doll Capital Management, Allegis Capital, UV Partners, Masthead Ventures and Weber Capital. Named a 2005 Technology Fast 50 Company by Deloitte & Touche, the company also added security industry heavyweight Ray Rothrock to the company’s board of directors.
With an additional $5 million raised in debt financing from Silicon Valley Bank and Gold Hill Capital., the $26 million cash infusion will be used for strengthening Vernier distribution channels, enhancing Vernier’s award-winning EdgeWall platform, as well as expanding Vernier Threat Labs. The strong response for the award-winning EdgeWall network access management appliance will drive Vernier to ramp production in order to meet customer demand and penetrate new markets.
According to leading IT market research and advisory firm IDC, security appliances with strong firewalling capabilities did well in 2004. Total vendor revenue exceeded $2.5 billion for the overall threat management market, representing a 36 percent growth rate when compared with 2003. (Source, IDC, Worldwide Threat Management Security Appliances 2005-2009 Forecast and 2004 Vendor Shares: Security Appliances Remain a Well-Oiled Machine, #33997, September 2005). Analysts expect that growth to continue due to several high-profile security breaches in the last year where poor internal and endpoint security controls exacerbated the problem.
Security industry veteran Ray Rothrock will join Vernier’s board. Rothrock is a managing general partner for Venrock Associates and focuses his investment activities on security information technology companies and energy technology/material sciences companies. He was one of the original investors in Check Point Software Technologies and currently sits on their board, as well as a number of private boards such as Imperva, PGP, Red Seal Systems and Vontu.
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ManiaTV Raises $12 Million in Second Round of Funding
The 24-hour, live Internet music channel ManiaTV has raised US$12 million in its second round of funding, for a total of $17 million raised since its launch in September 2004, a company representative said Monday.
The firms putting up cash this round were Centennial Ventures Inc., Intel Capital and Benchmark Capital, one of ManiaTV's initial investors and a firm that funded eBay. Benchmark general partner Bob Kagle, who sits on eBay's board, also sits on the board of ManiaTV.
The free online channel began offering music videos hosted by live "cyberjockeys" from a Denver warehouse last year. The channel, which sells advertising, says it has almost 2 million viewers monthly, up from about 1 million in February. This summer it added six on-demand channels, where viewers can watch what they want at their leisure.
Founder and CEO Drew Massey said ManiaTV would use the new funding on infrastructure and programming. Its payroll of about 85 employees is expected to grow to about 100 by the spring with the addition of new salespeople, tech developers, programmers and marketers, Massey said.
Revenue for the privately held company will be $7 million in the next 12 months, Massey said.
Massey launched ManiaTV with the idea of changing how people watch video entertainment, a revolution he sees as firmly under way.
The research firm eMarketer Inc. has said it expects advertisers to spend $12.9 billion on the Internet this year. The total U.S. advertising market was about $71 billion during the first half of the year, according to TNS Media Intelligence.
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Chinese Dot-Com Gets $8M
Chinese Internet portal Chinacars.com picked up an US$8-million first round of venture investment from Granite Global Ventures on Wednesday.
The startup, founded in 2001, said it expects to book 100 million Yuan (US$12.4 million) in revenue for 2005. It employs 300.
Chinacars provides a variety of services including an informational web site, traffic data, positioning systems, and an auto trading market.
The startup collected a seed round in 2001 from the Wanxiang Group, a Chinese auto part manufacturer. Wanxiang CEO Lu Weiding said his firm believes the Internet has great potential to help consumers in the auto market.
Menlo Park, California-based Granite Global, backers of Alibaba, believe in the company’s potential to exploit opportunities in China. “The auto industry and the Internet industry share a very important trait: they are both liberating forces for people’s lives,” said Jenny Lee, an executive director at Granite Global.
Granite Global General Partner Thomas Ng likened Chinacars to services such as the American Auto Association, eBay Motors, Autobytel, and Edmunds.com.
Granite Global’s investment announcement comes on the heels of an announcement that key Chinese regulators would recant regulations aimed at keeping foreign capital out of the Middle Kingdom.
Chinese investment fell during the first half of 2005, thanks in part to stricter regulations regarding offshore companies with Chinese operations.
Granite Global has been investing in China since it was founded in 2000. It is currently investing out of a $225-million second fund, according to CapitalIQ. The firm invests about 30 percent of its portfolio in Chinese companies.
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Ty Miller, Former President and CEO of Bank One Global Treasury Services Joins Austin Ventures
Representatives of Austin Ventures announced that Ty Miller, a financial services industry veteran, will join the firm as a Venture Partner to pursue investments in the transaction and payment processing sectors. Austin Ventures and Miller are actively evaluating numerous opportunities in this space.
Miller's industry experience includes 28 years at Bank One, where he served as President and CEO of Bank One Global Treasury Services (GTS) until the business merged with JPMorgan Chase in the summer of 2004. He reported directly to CEO Jamie Dimon and served on the Planning Group, Bank One's 13-member executive management committee. GTS provides a comprehensive range of payments and transaction processing services to businesses across the globe. Prior to GTS, he was Chairman and CEO of Bank One, Texas NA. Mr. Miller served as a director of Paymentech LLC, a leading merchant processing and electronic payments company, Visa USA, and was on the Executive Committee of The Clearing House, New York. He currently serves as Chairman of Paymetric, Incorporated and of eCommLink, Incorporated and is a director of Corillian Corporation (NASDAQ:CORI).
Mr. Miller will be based in Dallas, Texas and will evaluate potential deals throughout the United States.
