Venture Capital

Exclusive: Bloom Energy raises $130 million

Bloom Energy passes $1.1 billion in VC funding.

FORTUNE -- Fuel cell maker Bloom Energy has raised $130 million in new venture capital funding, Fortune has learned from multiple sources.

An unidentified new investor provided the first $100 million, while Credit Suisse (CS) provided the remaining $30 million. Existing investors did not participate in the round, which was structured as an extension to the company's Series G round that originally closed on MORE

Fool's gold in VC-land

Handing out pyrite for the vaunted Midas List.

FORTUNE -- Let's get this out of the way up-front: I write for Fortune, which is a competitor to Forbes. And as writers for either publication can tell you, readers mix the two up as if we were lesser Baldwin brothers at a Long Island barbecue. But my distaste for the Forbes Midas List -- its annual ranking of venture capitalists, which returned yesterday  -- long predates MORE

Donald Trump gets into crowdfunding

The Donald is willing to fund anything (literally).

FORTUNE -- Donald Trump is putting his stamp of approval, but not his name, on a new crowdfunding platform that is scheduled to launch tomorrow. He's also an investor in the site, and each week will personally contribute to one or more projects that strike his fancy.

It's called FundAnything, and was the brainchild of The Learning Annex founder Bill Zanker.

"People in tech and MORE

CrunchFund's future

With nearly 100 portfolio companies and just two remaining partners, what is the future of Michael Arrington's venture capital effort?

FORTUNE -- It has been 20 months since TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington launched CrunchFund, a venture capital firm that had the blessing of AOL, the company that had purchased TechCrunch one year earlier. Until AOL changed its mind, and Arrington was fired. Until it changed its mind again, and he rejoined MORE

Venture capital deals

FoodPanda, a European food delivery service incubated by Rocket Internet, has raised more than $20 million in new VC funding. New investors include Investment AB Kinnevik and Phenomen.www.foodpanda.com

Kinetic Social, a New York-based provider of social media advertising technology to Fortune 500 brands and agencies, has raised $8 million in Series A funding. Blue Chip Venture Co. led the round, while a companion debt facility was provided by Gibraltar Business Capital. www.kineticsocial.com

CircleUp, a crowdfunding platform for consumer product MORE

Exclusive: Glenn Beck's company makes how much?

Glenn Beck doesn't just hawk gold, he mints it.

FORTUNE -- Glenn Beck's right-wing media network TheBlaze is generating between $35 million and $45 million in revenue per year, according to information obtained by Fortune. Beck's broader business empire, which also include his eponymous radio program and speaking tours, brings in more than $80 million annually.

Beck launched TheBlaze as a news and opinion website back in 2010, and later expanded into MORE

Bonuses are toxic at startups

Startups should keep employee upside in equity.

By Eric Paley

FORTUNE -- Venture-backed startups are incredibly ambitious. A startup team comes together to try to create something highly improbable and well beyond what can reasonably be expected given the scarce resources at hand. Once financed, everyone at the startup should have a reasonable salary, but the real compensation for achieving the improbable is equity.

Inevitably, I get into a discussion with my MORE

Exclusive: Three Arch co-founder forms new VC firm

Veteran venture capitalist Wilf Jaeger launching new firm focused on health care services.

FORTUNE -- It's been two decades since Wilfred Jaeger co-founded Three Arch Partners, to make venture capital investments in all segments of the healthcare market. Pharma, services, devices, etc. But he no longer thinks the model works, and is helping to form a new firm focused exclusively on healthcare services.

Jaeger is forming the new effort with three managing directors of CHL MORE

Venture capital deals

Stat-Diagnostica, a Barcelona-based developer of an in vitro diagnostic testing platform, has raised $22.1 million in Series B funding. Kurma Life Sciences Partners led the round, and was joined by Idinvest, Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund, Caixa Capital Risc and return backers Ysios Capital and Axis. http://www.stat-diagnostica.com

Clustrix, a San Francisco-based distributed SQL relational database , has raised $16.5 million in new VC funding from return backers Sequoia Capital, U.S. Venture Partners, MORE

What a VC learned from writing about entrepreneurs

What I learned by writing about growth-stage entrepreneurs who are going long.

By Glenn Solomon, contributor

FORTUNE -- Over the past 4 months I've written eight posts in the "Going Long" series. As those of you who have read this material know, I've focused on advice for the growth-stage entrepreneur who wants to build a big company. This has been a very rewarding experience – I've learned a ton and engaged in MORE