The LBS Entrepreneurship Conference will be held on May 7, 2010, hosting an impressive line-up of speakers such as Dragon Den and serial-entrepreneur James Caan and Lord Davies, the current Minister for Trade, Investment, and Small Business.
Venture capital funding of Israel companies opened strongly in Q1 2010, with 55 deals completed since January 1oth 2o1o, according to Capital IQ.
As every month, VC Cafe is re-posting the “Invest in Israel” Newsletter, published by the investment promotion center of Israel’s Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor, which offers many helpful tools for prospecting investors.
Qlipso, an Israeli startup funded by JVP (see previous VC Cafe post), has announced the acquisition of the assets of Veoh, a user generated video site, on the virge of its declaration of bankruptcy
According to this SEC filing, Varien has raised $22.5 million in an equity deal to an undisclosed investor. According to TechCrunch, it may very well be Paypal, who has been collaborating with Magento on product development since 2008.
The team at Grasshopper.com, a virtual phone system for entrepreneurs (a-la Skype and Gizmodo), created this fun viral video titled "THE NEW DORK - Entrepreneur State of Mind". It's a spoof of Jay-Z and Alicia Keys, worth a watch.
Tel Aviv based startup Snaptu has received an undsiclosed round of funding from Sequoia Capital. Snaptu, previously known as Moblica, brings iPhone-style apps to any phone that can run a Java application (according to Snaptu, most phones do).
Eyeblaster pulled out of its initial IPO filing in October 2008 citing the "market conditions" as a reason for the delay. Today, Eyeblaster notified the SEC of its intention to go public as detailed in the company's S-1 Filing. Eyeblaster is trying to raise $115 million by selling stock. This is the exact amount it was trying to raise two years ago, in the initial IPO.
Amidst a 72% decline in funds raised by Israeli venture capital funds in 2009, Battery Ventures announced the completion of its new fund, BV-9, totaling $750 million. This is one of the largest funds raised in the first quarter of 2010 as VC funds struggle to raise money due to poor performance and low liquidity.
Online advertising verification service DoubleVerify announced second round funding of $10 million. The round was led by Institutional Venture Partners (IVP) and included participation from previous investors Blumberg Capital, First Round Capital, Genacast Ventures as well as private backers.
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