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 eldercare category. Caring for an aging loved one is a life stage when consumers need a lot of information, products and services," says Tod Francis (pictured), managing partner at Shasta Ventures. "Caring.com is meeting this need as evidenced by its strong traffic growth and the high demand for site inventory

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 30 September, further strengthening its balance sheet. A total of 33 per cent of the opening non-core portfolio by value was realised and sales were agreed on a further 16 per cent during the period.   3i’s liquidity increased by GBP1.0bn to GBP2.0bn, providing greater capacity to invest in the

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 Rokach, chief executive of XtremIO, says: "We are happy that Giza and JVP share our vision and see the potential in XtremIO’s proposition. During our discussions we got to know the investment teams and we feel we found people who understand what it takes to successfully bring innovative technologies to

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 advisory services to PKWare and also invested in the transaction through an affiliate. “Maranon’s ability to provide all of the senior and mezzanine debt required to complete the transaction was a key reason we selected them as our financing partner,” says Pierre McMaster, a general partner at Novacap. “In addition,

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 Moncrief and Thomas Affolter will lead Victory Park Securities as managing directors. In conjunction with the acquisition of, Victory Park Securities has also retained Daniel Schwartz to round out the team of managing directors. Prior to founding Bowline Group, Moncrief and Affolter spent the majority of their careers as principal

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 worked together continuously since 2001. Gotham’s principals began their careers in CIBC’s leveraged finance and merchant banking group and then helped establish Trimaran Capital Partners, a USD1.0bn private equity fund. Previous investments in which Gotham principals were involved include: El Pollo Loco, a quick-service restaurant chain with over 400 locations;