Venture Capital Update

Brand Affinity Technologies (BAT), an Irvine, California-based multimedia company that reinvents endorsement and celebrity marketing has closed a $20 million Series C funding from Miramar Venture Partners and was joined by CGI Opportunity Fund II and return backers RimLight Capital, Fulcrum Venture Capital, Ad Pepper Media International.

The funding will be used in extension of BAT’s Endorsement Platform into music and other celebrity categories, and international expansion.

Visual IQ, a Needham, Massachusetts - based provider of enterprise software for marketing investment decisions has raised $3 million from Fog City Capital. Visual IQ plans to use this funding for expansion and growth, including building its team, advancing strong partner relationships and advancing its technology infrastructure.

PocketGear, Inc., a Durham, N.C.-based and the world’s largest open app store and content marketplace announced the closing of its $15 Million Series B funding from Trident Capital and BlackBerry Partners Fund. PocketGear will use the funding to expand its technical operations, expand the sales and marketing team and cater new customers around the world.

Moonfruit, a London-based Do-It-Yourself website building company Moonfruit has raised $2.25 million (£1.5 million) to invest in further international expansion. The funding came from US-based investment bank Stephens. Stephens Inc. also has a branch located in London. The new funding will be used for a worldwide sales and marketing drive.

SpaceCurve, a Seattle-based provider of massively parallel analytical database technology raised $1.1 million in equity led by Reed Elsevier Ventures and was followed by Seattle-based Divergent Ventures according to regulatory filing.

DriverSide, a San Francisco-based website for buying, servicing, maintaining, accessorizing or selling cars and car parts has secured $2 million of a $3 million VC round. VC firms include California based Allegis Capital and Catamount Ventures.

Clickfree also known as Storage Appliance Corp., a Toronto-based provider of automatic backup software raised US$15 million in Series C funding from fellow Canadian VC Tandem Expansion Fund.
The new funds will be used to drive the rapid worldwide retail rollout by the company of its product line.

“Clickfree is driven by an exceptional team that has built an extraordinary product to address a near ubiquitous consumer pain point - simple file backup and restore,” said Christopher Legg, Managing Partner Tandem Expansion Fund.

Cardlytics Inc., an Atlanta-based provider of banking rewards solutions has raised $18 million in a series C Funding. ITC Holdings and Kinetic Ventures lead the round of new funding and were joined by return backers Canaan Partners, Polaris Venture Partners and Total Technology Ventures.

Campbell B. Lanier of ITC Holdings and Kinetic Ventures has joined the Cardlytics Board of Directors.

SaveWave, a Belmont, Massachusetts-based provider of digital promotion, distribution and rewards solutions raised $2.3 million in Series A funding. Flybridge Capital Partners and First Round Capital both lead the rounds and were followed by top VC firms Founder Collective, IA Capital and some angel investors like Ron Conway.

SaveWave waves out from Sallie Mae's Upromise and will continue to manage Upromise’s grocery operations.

PlaySpan Inc., a Santa Clara, Calif.-based provider of game-based eCommerce has raised $18 million in Series C funding.

Vodafone Ventures and Softbank Bodhi Fund co-led the round and were joined by return backers Menlo Ventures, STIC Investments and Novel TMT Ventures.