Freeman had been CEO of Mediabrands Ventures since January last year and will now be global head of innovation for McCann Worldgroup. Jimmy Poon, chief executive of Mediabrands also now leads its Ventures unit.
Month: July 2011
Omnicom promotes Haber
VC@OMD helps its parent manage soft drinks maker PepsiCo’s Pepsi 10 and industrial conglomerate General Electric’s GE/OMD Innovation Incubator programmes and Jonathan Haber has stepped up to be chief innovation officer.
YouMail arrives for Siemer
YouMail said it had answered one billion phone calls for its users, including 500 million since September last year, and raised an undisclosed amount.
Meituan magics up latest round
Alongside Alibaba in the round were venture capital firms Northern Light Venture Capital and Sequoia Capital. Sequoia had reportedly invested $5m in December in Meituan.
Telstra to set up Ventures Group
Deena Shiff will become head of Telstra Applications & Ventures Group on August 1 when she leaves her role as group managing director of Telstra Business after five years.
Huang leaves UMC for DCM
Huang had been at UMC Capital for seven years and said on his LinkedIn page that he had invested in 14 companies in the Greater China technology, media and telecoms sector,
ABB charges into Epyon Power
The deal to acquire LiteOn Technology-backed Epyon Power follows ABB’s purchase last year of US-based Ecotality to help it enter North America’s electric vehicle charging market.
Gemalto to merge two portfolios
Keynectis has entered exclusive talks to acquire peer OpenTrust with both backed by Gemalto, a France-based digital security provider.
Xtreme Power goes beyond BP
Its other new investors are venture capital firm Spring Ventures and US utility Dominion Power.
RWE powers into Vitronet
Ventizz retains 61% of Vitronet, which it acquired last year when the target was known as Conlinet Group, after selling 15% to RWE.
Lockerz fills with AddToAny
In January, Liberty Media-backed Lockerz also acquired photo sharing application Plixi for a reported $10m to $15m.
ResMed sleeps with BiancaMed
BiancaMed will become a part of ResMed’s Ventures and Initiatives unit set up in May.
Google finds its divine beauty
Earlier in the year, Stanford university graduates Tim Su, Astrid’s co-founder and chief technology officer, and Jon Paris, Astrid co-founder and chief executive, joined the start-up accelerator AngelPad, which was set up by a group of ex-Google executives and has previously seen incubees Crittercism and Shopobot receive Google Ventures backing.
Tapjoy dances into $30m
Tapjoy was formerly known as Offerpal until last year and set up a $5m corporate venturing fund just before raising a $30m round.