This week’s Ask A VC show put Bain Capital Ventures’ managing director Ajay Agarwal in the hot seat. Agarwal heads the firm’s recently launched Palo Alto office.

We sat down with Agarwal to chat about how the firm is independent from Bain Capital, the asset management and financial services firm co-founded by Mitt Romney. Agarwal explained that Bain Capital Ventures is under the umbrella of Bain Capital, but has separate operations, management and oversight from Bain Capital. One advantage that Bain has with its relationship with the private equity giant is access to the massive network of companies that are part of the firm’s portfolio.

Agarwal also answered audience questions on how much capital startups should raise, how to divide equity, and whether founders should take money off the table.

Check out the video above for more!

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Editor’s Note: Semil Shah is an EIR with Javelin Venture Partners and has been a contributor to TechCrunch since January 2011. You can follow him on Twitter at @semil.

“In the Studio” turns the corner into the winter months by welcoming a career finance journalist with a widely-read and often-cited daily email newsletter and, in my opinion, is the single best writer covering venture capital and private equity today.

Fortune’s Dan Primack has been covering the world of private equity and venture capital for over a decade. His work speaks for itself, with his daily “Term Sheet” email that reaches nearly everyone in both industries, and his willingness to share his opinions freely and dig and dig to get to the bottom of a story. Primack has a sort of “gumshoe leather” journalistic work ethic, and while he can certainly ruffle feathers (even the feathers of very powerful people) with his work, he has built a loyal following, over many years, that just continues to grow.

In this video, Primack joins me “In the Studio” on one of his recent trips to San Francisco. Because of his deep knowledge covering venture capital, we didn’t really prepare for this session — I just asked him some questions and he filled in all the holes with candid answers. Basically, anyone in venture capital and/or interested in this industry should watch this video. In our talk (originally taped on October 23, 2012), Primack explains why VCs shift from industries, why LinkedIn’s IPO was flawless, the effect of secondary markets on the IPO process, how certain VCs can lose sight of their real customers (limited partners), why it’s unhealthy for founders to take big chunks of money off the table before investors do, and the challenging facing all venture firms, big and small, as the asset class overall continues to shrink, concentrating money in fewer funds and with fewer overall managers.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Many countries are facing a demographic ‘time bomb’, or so we’re told, as people are living longer than ever before. As a result, ‘seniors’ make up a significant (and growing) proportion of the market, and it’s no wonder that startups are beginning to take note notice with products and services designed specifically for them.

Enter: Tapestry (not to be confused with a number of companies/products of the same name), whose Android app, web service, and Tapestry tablet, aims to make it easier for seniors stay to connected to family members online. Today, the company has announced that it’s raised a $600k seed round led by the Sydney Angels group of investors.

The list of investors includes David Greatorex (founding investor ResMed, SecureNet), Su-Ming Wong (CHAMP Private Equity), Brand Hoff (Tower Software, Director NICTA). Meanwhile, Neil Bourne (Nextec Strategic Capital) has joined Tapestry’s board.

Tapestry says it will use the new funds to validate its product in its local market of Australia, before expanding internationally.

Tapestry’s service is about simplifying the sometimes complex and disparate social web to make it infinitely more accessible to less tech-savvy seniors, with the noble aim of bringing families closer together. Or, in the company’s own words, it set out to “bridge the technology generation gap and get families across multiple generations connected again”.

Its solution is to have two different account types for its service — one for “sharing”, aimed at the more tech-savvy family members, and another, dubbed “simplicity”, for the senior(s) in the family who wish to mostly consume content and require the tailored Tapestry experience and Android app/tablet. Yes, that’s right, the company is offering to sell users some actual hardware (a rebadged Toshiba tablet running Android), though you can also bring your own device.

Users with sharing accounts can currently share in one of three ways: By registering their Facebook account with Tapestry so that photos they share on Facebook will be shared with everyone in their Tapestry family (privacy settings, permitting); by emailing photos to a simplicity account directly (Tapestry then extracts the photo attachments and adds them to the Simplicity account holder’s photo album on Tapestry); or by uploading photos to Tapestry from the Tapestry web site itself.

Interestingly, the “sharing” accounts are free, while the “simplicity” accounts start from $5 per month, so it’s here where Tapestry aims to make its money.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Two signs the the European startup eco-system is maturing came in the form of two major events today. The first was the NOAH COnference in London which has now matured after three years growth into a mid-to-late stage tech and investment where you’ll find late stage VCs rubbing shoulders with Private Equity people. This is all too rare an event in Europe given there is so match early stage startup activity, and probably something a number of other event players are eye-ing up with interest given the bulging hallways at the conference venue. The second was literally at the other end of the spectrum, but no less interesting. The API Conference coming to London was evidence that startups and prosperous API businesses, with successful developer programs, are at least as much part of the emerging European scene as any consumer-facing tech startup. In major news, Duedil, the largest source of free private company information in the UK and Ireland, launched the first transversable API for company information – at least in the UK.

This API provides direct access to up to 20 years of information on all companies registered in the UK & Ireland, with additional countries being added soon. The idea is that businesses will use the Duedil API to to find the best customers and shorten their sales cycles. Damian Kimmelman, CEO of Duedil announced that they had partnered with the API aggregator Mashery to deliver the API.

Right now around 99% of all businesses in Europe are small and medium sized enterprises, which contribute more than 50% of total value added to the EU economy. However, finding and cross-referencing information on these companies is a pain in the ass.

Duedil’s API is attempting to address this problem by allowing any company to leverage company information – in effect this is the ‘due diligence’ tag line of Duedil.

They’ve put in place a pricing structure, and developer sandbox for free access to basic company information and traversable calling – which returns multiple linked data sets with a single call, allows company searches by URL, and returns structured data in both machine and human readable formats. Duedil currently carries data on over 9 million companies and 13 million directors, including location details, full accounts, credit ratings, director histories and a lot more.

Meanwhile back at NOAH today, at the other end of the spectrum of startup conversations, the chatter in the hallways was not of APIs but of follow-on fundings. There remains disgruntlement at European companies jumping into Delaware companies too soon or just selling out. But the optimism about the growing scene was palpable. More on that later.

As they say, it’s up to Europe to put its own house in order. But at least the differing ends of the spectrum are finally getting their just dues.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

AdverCar, a startup promising to make it easy for drivers to turn their vehicles into rolling advertisements, has raised a $2 million seed round.

The funding was led by Canaan Partners, with participation from 1-800-Flowers, Branford Castle Private Equity, New Orleans Startup Fund, Jit Saxena, and the TiE Angels Boston. 1-800-FLOWERS CEO Jim McCann and Canaan partner Deepak Kamra are joining adverCar’s board of directors.

Founder and CEO Neil Turner said there are other companies offering to wrap cars in advertising, but only adverCar has a solution that’s easy and affordable for advertisers. Wrapping a car in ads costs thousands of dollars, whereas adverCar mounts its ads as easily removable stickers that are the same size as standard ad units, and it charges around $280 for a monthlong campaign. That’s the same price as advertising on a cab, Turner said.

Turner also pitched adverCar as a way to bring the kind of audience targeting found in the digital world to out-of-home advertising. When an advertiser signs up for a campaign, they identify the audience that they’d like to reach, then adverCar matches them with drivers whose cars are likely to be seen by that audience. Then, if a driver agrees to join a campaign, adverCar installs a GPS in their car for the duration of the campaign so advertisers get a map of where their message was seen. And the company has developed methods based on the Traffic Audit Bureau standards to calculate how many people actually saw the ad.

AdverCar has even created a fleet made up entirely of adverMoms — Turner said that’s the best way to reach other moms.

The company said it has already worked with dozens of advertisers and more than 5,000 drivers. Turner said he’s always driving around in a vehicle decked out with advertising. I asked if it felt strange at all, and he replied: “You notice for your first 20 minutes, but after that you forget they’re on. You do notice if you go to a grocery store, because people will be staring at your car.”

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

After appointing former Lockerz CEO Kathy Savitt as Yahoo’s CMO, the company’s new chief Marissa Mayer is staffing another key role—executive vice president of people and development. Mayer has tapped Jacqueline Reses, a private equity exec, to help lead hiring and HR for the company.

Prior to Yahoo, Reses led the U.S. media group at private equity firm Apax Partners, she focused on investing in media and technology. In addition, Reses was also involved with the firm’s talent initiatives, including recruiting and training. While at Apax Partners, Reses served on the board of directors or led the investments in Cengage Learning, Intelsat, Nelson Education, Hit Entertainment, and NEP Broadcasting. Additionally, Reses was the CEO of iBuilding Inc., a real estate software business that was launched by Tishman Speyer and Benchmark Capital. Previously, she spent seven years at Goldman Sachs.

Reses, who will report directly to Mayer, will be responsible for leading human resources and talent acquisition as well as corporate and business development globally.

“We are very excited to have Jackie join the Yahoo! team, leading our efforts around finding and retaining the best talent,” said Mayer in a release. “Jackie brings two decades of uniquely applicable operational experience around structuring organizations, programs, and strategies to build world-class teams in media and technology. Her tremendous energy will serve our employees well, and we’re looking forward to her fresh perspectives.”

As Allthingsd’s Kara Swisher reported a few weeks ago, Yahoo’s HR head David Windley departed the company shortly after Mayer was appointed as CEO. Perhaps what’s next up in Yahoo’s hiring plans: a COO.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Enterprise cloud file sharing company Accellion has raised $12 million in a new Series 3 round from private equity firm Riverwood Capital. The company will use the additional funding to accelerate growth, invest in enterprise mobile file sharing products, pursue partnerships and international expansion.

Founded in 1999, Accellion’s cloud-based solutions span public, private and hybrid cloud deployment, for secure, any device access to information while providing enterprise security and compliance. The company’s file-sharing solutions are available to users from the Web, iPhone, iPad, Android and BlackBerry devices.

CEO Yorgen Edholm says 2011 was a profitable year with record revenue – something he credits, in part, to the adoption of consumer-grade technologies in the enterprise.

“The adoption of iPads and the resultant use of unmanaged ‘dropbox-type’ applications are creating real security and compliance issues for organizations. Smart companies, proactively meeting the challenge and looking for a solution for secure, mobile access to enterprise content, are fueling our rapid growth.”

Riverwood Capital joins Baring Private Equity Partners Asia as key investors in Accellion.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

IT infrastructure solutions provider Internap this morning announced its acquisition of privately-held Voxel, an enterprise hosting and cloud services company based in NYC, for $30 million in cash. Under the terms of the deal, an additional $5 million in cash could be put on the table over the next two years, subject to certain performance-based criteria.

Founded in 1999 in founder Raj Dutt’s dorm room, the company provides on-demand dedicated hosting and cloud services to enterprises and Web-centric businesses.

Voxel says it currently serves more than 1,000 customers and has approximately 50 employees.

The company was backed by NYC-based private equity firm Seaport Capital.

By adding Voxel’s service locations in Amsterdam and Singapore to Internap’s existing service locations, the combined company aims to offer colocation, managed hosting, dedicated hosting and cloud services to customers around the world. Internap says it will also leverage Voxel’s automation technologies and expertise to enhance existing products.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

As Nokia struggles to establish itself as a worthy competitor to Apple and the Android bulldozer in the smartphone segment, the company is looking to sell off its wholly-owned luxury phone brand Vertu, reports the Financial Times.

Vertu, which sells some of the world’s most expensive ugly phones, was originally started by Nokia back in 1998.

Perhaps surprisingly, its business of selling mobile phones – which are priced higher than your average house or Ferrari sports car – has actually proved to be a good one, with annual revenue estimated to be between $268 million and $402 million.

Vertu’s luxury handsets are available for purchase in more than 60 countries, some with dedicated shops. The phones come with a “concierge” button that lets owners easily to speed dial a team of personal assistants to make all sorts of arrangements and reservations.

Other associated services include Vertu City Brief, a series of independent, curated guides to 200 cities around the world, and Vertu.me, an exclusive email account that enables a user’s phone emails, calendar and contacts to be backed up to “ultra-secure Vertu servers”.

According to the FT, Nokia has appointed Goldman Sachs to oversee the sale of Vertu, which may potentially be interesting to luxury goods brands and private equity firms.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Bain Ventures, the Boston-based venture capital arm of private equity firm of Bain Capital, has recently opened a Palo Alto office, the firm’s first presence on the West Coast.

The new office is being led by Bain partner (and former Trilogy alum) Ajay Agarwal. “We needed to be part of the ecosystem out here, and we want to build a business out here for the long term,” he explains. Agarwal says that the Palo Alto office will focus on sourcing Series A opportunities and growth capital for startups, in the range of $3 to $5 million. The fund will be investing out of Bain’s $525 million fund.

The firm will invest in mobile, commerce, social, software and infrastructure. Past investments include Color, Skyhook, and Inrix.

Agarwal says that because of Bain’s connection with the private equity world, the firm has a lot of relationships with financial institutions and is looking to help startups leverage these connections and broker these relationships. “While many venture firms have a great network up and down the 101 and 280 highways, we have relationships with large companies outside of Silicon Valley.

For now, the Palo Alto office has 6 employees but will be building out the team to a staff of 10 to 12 professionals.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch