Pulse2 Technology and Social Media News » ONSET Ventures

Dr. Ikhlaq Sidhu Joins ONSET Ventures As Advisor

Amit Chowdhry — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 04:02:30 +0000

Dr. Ikhlaq Sidhu is the founding director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology (CET) at the College of Engineering at UC Berkeley. Sidhu was just hired as the venture advisor to the Silicon Valley venture capital firm ONSET Ventures.

Before joining UC Berkeley in 2005, he set up the Technology Entrepreneur Center at the University of Illinois. He also worked as the CTO of Cambia Networks and was a VP at 3Com. Sidhu has over 60 patents under his belt as well. Sidhu most recently is the founding chief scientist at UC Berkeley’s Fung Institute.

VisionCare Ophthalmic Technologies Raises $31 Million In Series E

Amit Chowdhry — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 19:42:50 +0000

VisionCare Ophthalmic Technologies is a company that developers advanced visual prosthetic devices for improving vision for patients that have end-stage age-related macular degeneration. VisionCare has raised $31 million in Series E funding led by Saints Capital. Giza Ventures, General iFinancial Holdings, BSI SA, Pitango Venture Capital, Three Arch Partners, ONSET Ventures, and Newbury Acquisitions Fund/Infinity CSVC Management also joined in this round. Elka Nir, the Managing Director and head of Life Sciences of Giza, will be joining the VisionCare board of directors.

VisionCare’s lead product is the Implantable Miniature Telescope. The product was named in the “Best of What’s New” 2010 by Popular Science magazine. The implant improves visual acuity and reduces the impact of the blind spot caused by end-stage AMD.

Nokia Invests $70 Million Into Mobile Payment Service Obopay

Amit Chowdhry — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 11:55:52 +0000

Obopay.com is a mobile service that allows people to transfer money through text messages. The Redwood City-based company was founded by Carol L. Realini and John Tumminaro. Nokia Corporation wanted to get in early on the company’s success so they invested $70 million into the company. The deal was primarily in exchange for preferred stock.

Obopay currently works in the U.S. and in India. Some of Obopay’s competition includes PayPal Mobile, TextPayMe, and Mpayy.

Now Obopay is over $139 million in funding. The previous round was $69 million from Qualcomm, Essar Communications Holdings Ltd., Alliance Bernstein, ONSET Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Richmond Management, Richmond Global Cellular, Citi, Societe Generale, Promethean, and Olayan America Corporation.

[via VentureBeat]