Daily funding roundup - March 15, 2016

Couchbase secured $30M; Next Insurance landed $13M; Skyport Systems raised $30M

• Skyport Systems, provider of secure server systems, raised a $30 million Series C funding round led by GV (Google Ventures) with participation from Cisco Investments, Thomvest Ventures, Northgate Capital, and InstantScale, in addition to existing investors Index Ventures, Sutter Hill Ventures, and Intel Capital. The company has raised a total of $67 million to date.
  
  
• Blockai raised $547,000 in seed funding to relaunch as a blockchain copyright service. According to AngelList, Social Starts, Sterling VC and Vectr Ventures contributed funding alongside roughly 15 angel investors including Betfair founder Josh Hannah and Epsilon Records founder Nate Houk.
  
  
• PowerCore Inc, which offers a platform for for independent mobile game companies, raised $2 million in seed funding. East Ventures, 500 Startups, Golden Gate Ventures, and Cherubic Ventures participated in the funding round. PowerCore has offices in Palo Alto, California and Tokyo, Japan.
  
  
• Forge, Inc., a capturing and sharing services for gameplay, raised $4.5 million in seed financing led by True Ventures and Resolute Ventures, in participation with WME Ventures. A syndicate of angels, including Vivek Paul (board member, Electronic Arts), Matt Mullenweg (Automattic), Jason Calacanis (Inside), Ryan Scott (Causecast), Hiten Shah, Jameson Hsu and Bob Ippolito (Mochi Media), Harris Barton, and Kirill Makharinsky also participated in the round. The funding will be used to continue the development of the Forge service.
  
  
• Indonesian news reader app Kurio closed a $5 million series B round from its Japanese counterpart Gunosy.  Gunosy listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange last year, and it now has a market cap of US$263 million. The investment in Kurio is part of its efforts to expand to Southeast Asia. Indonesia is obviously a good starting point, given its 100 million internet users and fast-growing smartphone adoption.
  
  
• Sight Sciences, Inc., a Menlo Park, CA-based commercial stage ophthalmic medical device company, closed a $7 million Series B financing round. The round was led by Hicks Equity Partners, with participation from Series A investors Scientific Health Development, Allegro Investment Fund, and various other institutional and angel investors. The company intends to use the funds to build out the management team, scale manufacturing, support product development, and initiate a series of clinical studies.
  
  
• Terminus raised Series A $7.5 million in funding, including $5 million in equity financing and $2.5 million in venture debt, to accelerate its white-hot B2B marketing business. The round was led by Edison Partners, with participation from existing investors including Hyde Park Venture Partners, Arthur Ventures and Knoll Ventures. Edison's General Partner, Ryan Ziegler, is joining the Terminus Board of Directors.
  
  
• Librestream raised C$11 million ($8.2 million) in financing led by Emerald Technology Ventures. BDC Capital’s Industrial, Clean and Energy Venture Fund also invested. Librestream, of Canada, develops mobile video collaboration solutions for energy, field service, manufacturing, and public sector industries.
  
  
• Next Insurance landed a $13 million seed round led by Zeev Ventures. The startup said that it plans to use the funds to launch its insurance sales platform for small businesses this spring — in a market in which “99 percent of small commercial insurance is sold offline through agents.” TLV Partners and Ribbit Capital also participated in the round.
  
  
• Couchbase, the database for the Digital Economy, secured $30 million in a series F round of funding led by Sorenson Capital with current investors participating in the round, including Accel Partners, Adams Street Partners, Ignition Partners, Mayfield Fund, North Bridge Venture Partners and West Summit. This capital will be used to accelerate sales, and expand technical support and engineering investments as Couchbase extends its leadership as the de facto standard operational database for Digital Economy businesses.

VC's Raising Funds

• HealthQuest Capital, a Menlo Park, CA-based investor in emerging companies in healthcare innovation, closed its latest fund, at $225 million. Investors in HealthQuest Capital II, LP, include endowments, family offices, foundations, fund-of-funds, pension funds, and global healthcare organizations. The fund will focus on commercial stage companies that are optimizing value to the healthcare system and improving the efficiency of healthcare delivery, providing capital towards growing revenues and scaling businesses.
  
  
• Accel, raised a $2 billion fund. Though the firm did not break it out, a report from the New York Times stated that the $2 billion was actually spread across two separate funds, the first being a $1.5 million fund for later-stage “growth” investments. The other $500 million would act as a class venture capital fund, and presumably go for the early and growth-stage companies the firm typically invests in. 

If you are interested in being included in our funding roundup, submit your press release or blog post about your financing round to mitos@vator.tv. 

Image source: bbj.hu