Daily funding roundup - April 1, 2016

Berkshire Partners closed Fund IX; LoanLogics raised $10M; Schoold closed $4.5M Seed round

• Slack just raised a big new $200 million funding round. The round was led by Thrive Capital with participation by GGV, Comcast Ventures, and Slack’s existing investors, including major new investments by Accel, Social Capital, Spark Growth and Index Ventures. What's most impressive is that this is an up round for the company, even as down round have become more prevalent, as later stage investors have begun to devalue their investments. The company last raised a $160 million round in April of 2015, which valued it at $2.8 billion. This new funding give it a valuation of $3.8 billion. With this round, Slack has now raised around $540 million in venture funding.
  
  
• Picsdream, an online marketplace for photography, raised an undisclosed sum in angel funding led by Raman Roy, CMD Quatrro and Co-founder of Indian Angel Network.Other prominent investors include Ankit Nagori, former Chief Business Officer at Flipkart and Harish Natarajan, former CEO of Bausch & Lomb India. Surojit Shome, India CEO of an MNC Bank; Vipin Chawla Co-founder Instant Systems;, Baskar Subramaniyan and Madhavan Sreenivasan, Co-founders of Servion; and ex Citibanker Vikram Sud, also co-invested. Ankit and Harish has also joined the company’s Board of Directors. Picsdream will utilise the funds for selective and targeted marketing to build its community of Picsdreamers, and to invest in product and technology development for an enhanced user experience.
  
  
• Schoold seeks to solve a real dilemma that thousands of high school students face every year as they approach graduation: where to go to college? The company, which offers a smartphone app for college and career planning, closed a $4.5 million seed round from FastForward, Lorne Abony (CEO of FastForward and former CEO of Mood Media Corporation), and other private investors.
  
  
• Austrian startup kiweno raised €7 million (approximately $7.97 million) during an Austrian startup TV show “2min2mio”. 7NXT and SevenVentures Austria are both investing into media budget for the startup. Together they will hold 26% of the healthcare company, that specializes in self-tests for food (in)tolerances. kiweno offers at the moment two self-tests and is planing on adding other products to their portfolio.
  
  
• TransLoc, a Durham, N.C.-based provider of transit technology, completed an $8 million Series A financing. The round was co-led by SJF Ventures and Fontinalis Partners, with participation from Marc Benioff’s Efficient Capacity fund, Thomas McMurray and Patient Capital Collaborative (PCC), an impact fund affiliated with Investors’ Circle. The company will use the funds to accelerate growth.
  
  
• LoanLogics, a Trevose, Pa.-based provider of loan quality management and performance analytics technologies for the mortgage industry, raised $10 million in funding. The round was led by Blue Cloud Ventures with participation from existing investors Volition Capital. The company plans to use the funds to accelerate growth, support its expansion into origination technologies, and for research and development to further advance its technology.
  
  
• DNA analytics startup Bluebee closed a Series A funding round of €10 million (approximately $11.40 million) from investors Capricorn ICT Arkiv, Korys, and Biover II. Prior backer Buysse & Partners also participated in the round. The Dutch company specialises in genomic analysis and provide cloud-based performance solutions to researchers, labs, and diagnostic companies. According to the startup, the new funds will be used to further develop its platform.
  
  
• Berlin-based, Rocket Internet-backed online furniture retailer Home24 raised €20 million (about $22.7 million) and reinforced its management team to get to profitability and to try and take on IKEA in Europe. The fresh capital comes from both existing and new investors, the company said in a statement.
  
  

VC's Raising Funds

• Berkshire Partners LLC, a Boston-based investment firm, closed the firm's ninth private equity investment fund, Berkshire Fund IX, with total equity commitments of $5.5 billion. Fund IX's capital was subscribed primarily by institutional investors in previous Berkshire funds. Berkshire seeks to invest in middle market growth companies in partnership with talented management teams. Fund IX's portfolio is expected to consist of companies with acquisition values between $200 million and $2 billion. 

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: valeriepecresse.net