Optimizely is an A/B testing company that has raised $28 million in Series A funding led by Benchmark Capital. New investor Bain Capital Ventures participated in this round with existing investors Battery Ventures, InterWest Partners, and Google Ventures. Through the funding, Peter Fenton (Benchmark) has joined Optimizely’s board of directors.
Persado is a data marketing service that specializes in “Marketing Persuasion Technology.” Persado can help advertisers compose better messaging services that they believe will return greater value. Persado has raised $15 million in a round of funding led by Bain Capital Ventures.
Billtrust is a software-as-a-service company that helps manage online billing for companies. Billtrust has raised $25 million from Bain Capital Ventures, bringing them to a total of $30 million in total funding raised.
ScaleBase is is a database virtualization company that helps keep next generation apps and business-critical databases up and running. ScaleBase has recently raised $10.5 million in Series B funding from Bain Capital, Ascent Venture Partners, and Cedar Fund.
Yahoo! has bought mobile recommendations app company Stamped. This is Marissa Mayer’s first acquisition since she became CEO of the company. Stamped is a nine-person company and five of them are former Google employees. They will become a part of Yahoo!’s mobile product team, which will be set up in New York, led by Stamped’s three co-founders. Stamped’s existing mobile app will be discontinued by the end of the year. Mayer and Stamped co-founder Robby Stein worked closely together during their tenures at Google. The Stamped iPhone app launched in November and it allows users to track and share things that they like with their friends like books, movies, restaurants, etc.
Yesterday there was a rumor floating around that Color was shutting down. As of last night, there was another rumor floating around that Apple was going to buy Color in the “high double-digits millions.” What is really going on is that Apple is hiring Color’s engineering team of roughly 20 people through an “acqhire” deal. Apple is paying between $2 and $5 million according to sources with AllThingsD.
Gawker.com published almost 1,000 pages of Bain Capital’s confidential financial records including audits that reveals that Bain employed a potentially illegal tax dodge that is currently under investigation by the New York attorney general. Bain Capital e-mailed Gawker, but it turns out that it was not about the confidential financial records. Bain actually had an interest in exploring an investment opportunity in Gawker Media.
4moms is a company that develops and markets robotic technology to make life easier for moms. 4moms has raised a $20 million round of funding led by Bain Capital Ventures. The funds will be used to expand product development and invest in their supply chain.
