Series A
New York City’s Handshake, a sales order management platform that serves wholesalers, has received $8 million in Series A funding. Emergence Capital Partners led the round, which saw participation from seed-round backers, MHS Capital, SoftTech VC and High Peaks Venture Partners. The company’s CEO, Glen Coates, reports in a press release that Handshake’s customers have experienced boosts in operational efficiency and average order values, anywhere from 37 percent to 100 percent.
Series B
Russia’s version of Square, 2can, has gained $5 million in a Series B funding led by InVenture Partners. Almaz Capital Partners and the ESN Group invested. The company has secured $7.3 million total funding. In 2013, Gartner reported that global mobile payment transaction values would exceed $235 billion that year.
Intelligence provider ClearStory Data has secured $21 million in a Series B investment round led by DAG Ventures, a new backer. Andreessen Horowitz, Google Ventures, Kleiner Perkins and Khosla Ventures joined the funding. Total backing behind the Palo Alto company comes to $31.5 million.
New York City-based Kitchensurfing has raised $15 million in a Series B funding led by Tiger Global Management. Spark Capital and Union Square Ventures contributed to the round. The investment brings total backing behind Kitchensurfing to $18.7 million. The company leverages a community marketplace for chefs, according to a press release.
Series C
Resistive RAM technology company Crossbar, Inc., has realized an oversubscribed, $25 million Series C investment round. Current backers Artiman Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Northern Light Venture Capital and the University of Michigan were joined by new funders such as Korea Investment Partners, CBC Capital, Tao Invest. and SAIF Partners. Total backing behind Crossbar, based in Santa Clara, comes to $50 million. The company debuted from stealth in August.
Funding
London’s BIZZBY has gained $10 million from a U.S. investment fund. The company leverages a place to connect with cleaners, plumbers, handymen, man & van, beauty professionals, electricians and more in less than 10 seconds, according to a press release. “Since BIZZBY’s ‘soft’ launch in January 2014 over £1 million of jobs have been placed,” the release states.
Connecticut-based CÜR Media has gained $9.6 million in equity funding via the sale of 9.63 units at $1 per share. The company had originally intended to secure up to $7.0 million as part of its alternative public offering (APO), according to a press release. CÜR Media was known as “Raditaz” in early 2012.
LeapFrog Investments has pumped $29 million into IFMR Capital, a non-banking finance enterprise. The Chennai, India-based company leverages more than $1 billion of financing “enabled across 150+ market transactions,” according to a press release. LeapFrog’s investment in IFMR Capital is its first out of its Fund II.
Alizila, the media outlet Alibaba Group funds, reports Alibaba Group will pour roughly $692 million into Intime Retail Group, a department store chain based in China. Hangzhou-based Alibaba will purchase a 9.9 percent equity stake in Intime for $214 million and subscribe to Intime-deployed convertible bonds valued at $478 million. Should those bonds become stock, Alibaba’s share of Intime could jump to 25 percent at minimum.
Palo Alto-based Cloudera has realized a $900 million financing round. Top tier institutional and strategic backers contributed to the investment. The round counts the $160 million funding announced earlier in March from investors such as T. Rowe Price, Google Ventures and Intel, according to a press release. Intel’s contribution grants the company a stake in Cloudera amounting to 18 percent. Gartner has gauged the data management infrastructure market for 2014 as $74 billion, according to a press release.