AAA August 2012 – Page 16

SCVNGR Levels Up with Deutsche Telekom

US-based games maker SCVNGR has raised $9m in funding from T-Venture, the venture unit of Deutsche Telekom, for its mobile payment service LevelUp. It is the second tranche of a larger Series D round investment, and brings the total raised from the round to $21m. SCVNGR’s first close of the round in June raised $12m.… Continue reading SCVNGR Levels Up with Deutsche Telekom

Google hooks on to MediaSpike

MediaSpike, a California-based company looking to monetise gaming through in-game product placement, has attracted the attention of US-based search engine Google’s corporate venturing unit as a backer in a seed round of funding. Joining Google Ventures in the investment are Raptor Capital Management affiliated venture fund Raptor Ventures, venture fund Venture51, actor Robert Downey Junior’s… Continue reading Google hooks on to MediaSpike

The Big Deal: long-term investing

There was a nice line at the UK government’s venture investment conference last week from a venture capitalist saying that most of the returns from healthcare deals it had done came between 15 and 25 years after the portfolio company had been founded. The point by Tim Haines, partner at venture capital (VC) firm Abingworth,… Continue reading The Big Deal: long-term investing

Burrill bores into $505m fund

US-based merchant bank Burrill & Company has made a second closing of its latest healthcare fund at $505m after corporations joined. The fundraising followed the $2.6bn raised by venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates earlier this year, with more than $700m targeted for life sciences. Although corporations are known to have joined Burrill’s fund as… Continue reading Burrill bores into $505m fund

Intrexon closes at $100m

Intrexon, a US-based synthetic biology company, has closed its series E round at $100m, bringing the company’s total capital raised to more than $259m. New investors took the majority of the round while existing investors, including billionaire Randal Kirk, Intrexon’s executive chairman, through his Third Security venture investment unit, and Sandbox Industries, a venture capital… Continue reading Intrexon closes at $100m

Fidelity preps biotech expansion

US-based mutual fund manager Fidelity Investments’s biosciences venture unit is to launch a UK operation next month. Fidelity Biosciences, which has Fidelity as its limited partner, is one of the largest venture units in life sciences with an 18-strong team and Simon Clark, managing partner of the separate Fidelity Growth Partners, said last week the… Continue reading Fidelity preps biotech expansion