Venture Capital

Venture capitalists bet big in Q2

Encouraged by a revitalized IPO market, venture capitalists opened up the spigots in Q2.

Venture capital investments hit a three-year high last quarter, with 966 U.S.-based companies raising $7. billion, according to the MoneyTree Report from PricewaterhouseCoopers, the National Venture Capital Association and Thomson Reuters. This represents an 18.7% increase over Q1 volume, and the highest quarterly dollar total since Q2 2008.

All stages of VC investment experienced growth, with both early MORE

Venture Capital Deals

Cvent, a McLean, Va.-based SaaS provider of online event management and venue selection solutions, has raised $136 million in VC funding co-led by New Enterprise Associates and Insight Venture Partners. www.cvent.com

Tango, a Boulder, Colo.-based mobile video communication service, has raised $42 million in Series B funding led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson. www.tango.com

Gaikai Inc., a Los Angeles-based developer of interactive gaming network infrastructure, has raised $30 million in Series C funding. New Enterprise Associates led the round, and was MORE

Would Facebook lie?

Must private companies tell us the truth?

Barry Ritholtz today asked if Facebook has missed its IPO window, under a theory that almost all companies have an expiration date. He quickly concludes that there will still be plenty of public demand, although the strong launch of Google+ may have "shaved some billions off the IPO price."

Near the end of his post, Ritholtz suggests that private companies like Facebook are allowed to MORE

Striving to be General Hospital

When it comes to technology investment, some hospitals need a culture transfusion.

By Lisa Suennen, contributor

General Hospital is the longest-running American soap opera currently in production. What a perfect metaphor this is for the real hospital industry, which is facing more drama than ever.

This week I visited two hospitals, one a very large and well-known academic medical center, the other a very small community hospital.  Fortunately, neither visit was as a MORE

Start-ups should eliminate job titles

Job titles make sense for mature companies, not for start-ups.

By Jeff Bussgang, contributor

There has been a recent dialog around a theme I'll call "hacking the corporation" - creating novel approaches to building young companies, particularly when they are in their formative start-up stage. One of them, reinventing board meetings (or, "Why Board Meetings Suck"), has gotten some attention from leading thinkers like Steve Blank and Brad Feld.

I'd like to submit MORE

EA made an offer PopCap couldn't refuse

Why PopCap Games chose EA over an IPO.

Electronic Arts Inc. (ERTS) today agreed to acquire PopCap Games, a Seattle-based maker of casual games like Plants vs. Zombies and Bejeweled.  The deal is valued at upwards of $1.3 billion, including $750 million up-front ($650m in cash) and up to $550 million in multi-year earn-outs based on financial milestones.

PopCap has been around since 2000, but didn't raise outside funding until a $22.5 million MORE

Web 2.0 hiring binge

Fortune's latest cover story is about the new tech bubble, and whether the dreaded "b" word is really appropriate. One thing for certain, however, is that Silicon Valley's tech community is not sharing in mainstream America's labor doldrums.

Between March 2009 and March 2011, the U.S. economy lost nearly 1.29 million non-farm jobs. During that same period of time, however, a number of private, VC-backed tech start-ups went in the opposite MORE

The illusion of job stability

Innovation comes from those who follow the riskier path.

By Rob Go, contributor

I was having dinner last night with someone that has been in the financial services industry for the last eight years. He remarked that many people go in his field (and others like it) thinking that it would be the "safe and stable" option. But as we've seen in the last few years, that is simply not true.

I grew MORE

The venture capital surprise

New research on the VC industry turns conventional wisdom on its head.

In the world of venture capital, tech is the movie star and life sciences the second banana. The champion and the also-ran. Just look at the most recent Forbes Midas List, in which the first life sciences investor doesn't appear until #16 (Bryan Roberts of Venrock).

But new research suggests that this hierarchy has quietly reversed itself over the past MORE

Venture Capital Deals

Transcend Medical Inc., a Menlo Park, Calif.-based developer of medical devices to treat glaucoma, has raised $16 million in new Series B funding. The round now stands at $51 million. Investor Growth Captial was joined by return backers HLM Venture Partners, Canaan Partners, Latterell Venture Partners, Technology Partners and return backers Morgenthaler Ventures and Split Rock Partners.www.transcendmedical.com

SupportSpace, an Israel-based provider of online IT support services, has raised $12 million in MORE