Series A
P2P car rental company Drivy has secured €6 million ($8.3 million) in a Series A round. Current funders Index Ventures and Alven Capital invested. Total backing behind Paris-based Drivy comes to €8 million. The company counts 250,000 users in France.
Series B
A/B testing startup Optimizely has revealed a $57 million Series B investment round. Andreessen Horowitz led the funding, while Benchmark Capital and Bain Capital Ventures contributed. Total backing behind the company comest to $88 million. San Francisco-based Optimizely has optimized upwards of 7 billion online experiences to date and leverages more than 7,000 customers, says a press release.
Series D
Kabbage, which delivers working capital for small businesses via the Internet, has realized a $50 million Series D investment. SoftBank Capital led the round, which saw contributions from Lumia Capital and TCW/Craton. Current backers such as David Bonderman, Warren Stephens, Mohr Davidow Ventures, BlueRun Ventures, UPS’ Strategic Enterprise Fund and Peter Thomson’s Thomvest joined in the funding. In all, Atlanta, GA-based Kabbage has raised $106 million in equity.
Funding
Bellevue, Washington-based collaboration technology company Smartsheet has completed a $35 million funding round. Sutter Hill Ventures led the investment, which was joined by prior backers Madrona Venture Group and Insight Venture Partners. Total backing behind Smartsheet comes to $70 million. “Over the past year, Smartsheet increased its enterprise customer base by 5x,” according to a press release. Among its users: Google, Groupon, Netflix and Office Depot.
Mobile advertising company UberMedia has secured $8 million in new funding from investors including Blue Chip Ventures and Gordon Crawford. The Pasadena, California company’s growth rate exceeded 300 percent last year. “Since launching UberAds in May of 2013, the platform has grown to more than 4 billion impressions per month and reaches 400 million devices globally,” according to a press release.
Peer-to-peer lending platform Prosper Marketplace, Inc. has gained $70 million in a funding round led by Francisco Partners. Institutional Venture Partners and Phenomen Ventures participated. More than $1 billion in total loans got their start on Prosper, which seeks to reach $2 billion in total loans in 2014. Prosper is based in San Francisco.
M&A
Framingham, MA’s uTest, which serves the software testing space, has undergone a name-change and re-emerged as Applause. It has also picked up Berlin-based crowdtesting company Testhub. “The multi-million Euro deal consists of a combination of cash and equity and, as part of the acquisition, Berlin Technologie Holding (BTH) becomes a strategic investor in Applause EU,” says a press release.
Newton, MA travel company TripAdvisor has purchased Tripbod, a London-based travel company leveraging a network of local buffs. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. According to Google Analytics in July 2013, TripAdvisor branded sites get accessed by upwards of 260 million unique visitors a month.