Series A
Art and tech venture VSCO (Visual Supply Company) has secured $40 million in a Series A funding round. Accel Partners led the investment, which saw contributions from Goldcrest Investments. Backing will go towards boosting VSCO’s Artist Initiative scholarship fund to $1 million among other purposes, says a press release. VSCO is based in Emeryville, CA.
Collaborative design software company Flux has secured $8 million in a Series A round led by DFJ. Borealis Ventures contributed to the investment. Flux, having emerged from Google[x], serves the construction industry, which will need to provide housing and workplaces for more than 3 billion people in the next three decades, says a press release. According to its website, San Francisco-based Flux will be “busy developing and testing our product until early 2015.” The company lists Andreessen Horowitz and Google Ventures as investors in addition to DFJ and Borealis Ventures.
Series B
Top Hat has gained $10 million in a Series B investment round. Georgian Partners led the financing, which saw participation from current backers iNovia Capital and Emergence Capital Partners. Those two investors led the company’s $8 million Series A funding in 2012, says a press release. The Toronto-based company also received funding this round from SoftTech VC, Version One Ventures, Felicis Ventures and Golden Venture Partners as prior backers.
Funding
Irvine, CA-based PEAR Sports, which provides coaching technologies, has raised $5 million in its second investment round. Innovate Partners and Nordic Ventures led the funding “along with a number of private and family office investors,” says a press release. VIZIO, Inc. contributed as strategic investor. The company leverages more than 500 workout plans, according to the company.
M&A
New York cinema advertising company Screenvision is joining National CineMedia, Inc.. The Centennial, Colorado media venture will drop $225 million in cash and $150 million in common stock. “The merger will create a higher quality and more competitive video advertising network that will cover nearly all 210 Designated Market Areas across all 50 states and deliver to approximately 3,900 theatres with over 34,000 screens, reaching over 1.1 billion annual patrons,” says a press release.
San Bruno, CA-based @WalmartLabs has picked up its twelfth acquisition, Adchemy. The Foster City, CA company will boost @WalmartLabs’ “expertise in areas like semantic search, data analytics and marketing,” says an announcement on @WalmartLabs’ site. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Needham, Massachusetts-based integrated TV, digital and mobile video advertising company Extreme Reach, Inc. has realized its purchase of video ad intelligence venture Emeryville, CA-based BrandAds, says a press release. BrandAds leverages approximately 9,000 customers. Terms of the deal were not revealed.
According to reports, Shenzhen’s Tencent Holdings Ltd. will purchase a roughly 11 percent stake in Beijing-based NavInfo Co. at a price of 1.17 billion yuan ($187.9 million). NavInfo is “[China’s] leading digital map, telematics and dynamic traffic service provider,” according to its web site.
Lexington, Kentucky’s Lexmark International has begun a cash tender offer for the entirety of Helsingborg, Sweden-based ReadSoft’s outstanding shares. The transaction comes to about $182 million in total. ReadSoft delivers software solutions “for document process automation,” according to its website.