Raine Group, an investment bank operated by Hollywood talent agency William Morris Endeavors, has led financing rounds for US startup firms Parchment and textPlus.
Raine Group, as a new investor, led a $18m Series D round for Parchment, a startup service specializing in web based transcript exchange between educational institutions. The round included venture capital firms GSV Capital Corp, and repeat investors Novak Biddle, Salmon River Capital and the publicly traded Internet Capital Group.
Prior to this latest round Parchment underwent two publicly disclosed rounds of financing. Its Series B round concluded in 2011 at $4.5m and included Novak Biddle and the Internet Capital Group. While the company’s Series C round concluded earlier this year and involved Salmon River Capital and an individual investor in addition to all previous participants.
With the conclusion of this latest round Parchment states that it has raised more than $34m since it founding in 2010.
Raine Group, again as a new investor, led a Series D round for TextPlus raising $18m in conjunction with previous contributors venture firms Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Matrix Partners and GRP Partners.
TextPlus formerly known as GOGII was founded in 2007. The Californian startup operates free and low cost ad supported telephony services over wireless mobile internet via a smartphone application.
Previous backers as listed in this round have all made financial contributions to TextPlus’ from Series B and onwards with the exception of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers which made initial investments during the firm’s Series A round and GRP partners, whose participation began from Series C.
In all TextPlus has raised roughly $46.3m to date from its Series A to D rounds, with Series A, B and C taking place in 2007, 2009, and 2011, raising $5.18m, $8.2m and $15m respectively.
According to the company press release textPlus plans to use it’s latest financial infusion will be channeled towards “international expansion, product development and strategic acquisitions.”