Caring.com, an online destination for people caring for aging parents and loved ones, has closed USD10m in series B financing, led by new investor Shasta Ventures. Existing investors DCM and Split Rock Partners, also participated, along with support by individual investors. "We’re excited to invest in the large and growing

Private equity firm 3i reduced its net from GBP1.9bn at 31 March 2009 to GBP854m at 30 September 2009. It also reduced its gearing from 103 per cent at 31 March 2009 to 31 per cent at 30 September 2009. Realisations exceeded investment by GBP317m during the six months to

JVP and Giza, two Israeli venture capital funds, have made an A-round investment in XtremIO, an early stage venture developing solid state drive data storage systems. XtremIO’s solutions are designed to deliver high performance in enterprise storage environments, while addressing existing storage device limitations and data network connectivity challenges. Ehud

Maranon Capital has closed a USD38m one-stop financing facility to support the purchase of PKWare by Novacap Technologies III and management. Maranon’s investment consisted of USD28m of senior revolving credit and term debt and USD10m of mezzanine debt. Maranon also invested USD4m of equity in the transaction. Grace Matthews provided

Victory Park Securities has acquired Bowline Group, a Chicago-based middle market advisory firm. Victory Park Securities was recently formed to serve as an advisory platform focusing on debt restructuring, capital raising and M&A engagements for middle to lower middle market private and small cap public companies.  Bowline Group founders Brian

Gotham Private Equity Partners has been formed as a New York-based private equity firm focused on middle-market and lower middle-market companies. Gotham is focused on originating, executing and managing proprietary private equity transactions and providing strategic advisory services. The firm is comprised of a team of investment professionals who have

The Gulf One Buchanan Industrial Technologies Fund, managed by private equity corporation MIT Munich Industrial Technologies, has acquired a 25.7 per cent share of the aluminium refiner Belte based in Delbrück. Belte needs this fresh capital for a further expansion of the company which has grown considerably in the past

US venture capitalists and the chief executive officers of venture-backed companies are spending more time on board activities and do not expect the pressure to lessen in the foreseeable future, according to the second study on venture capital-backed boards from the National Venture Capital Association and Dow Jones VentureSource. The

Venture capital firms Index Ventures and Accel Partners have sold their portfolio company Playfish to Electronic Arts. Playfish, a social gaming company, was acquired for a consideration of up to USD400m including an earnout of up to USD100m and excluding cash balances. Kevin Comolli, board member from Accel Partners, says: