VENTURE CAPITAL POST

Korea-based Kakao Corp, the company behind the highly-popular messaging and social app Kakao Talk, is readying for its initial public offering in May, BeSuccess reported.

Last year was a sleepy one for mergers and acquisitions in the metals sector with only 357 metal deals completed compared to the 507 deals from the previous year, the Financial Times reported citing figures released by PwC.

Limiting conditions like poor infrastructure and the lack of convenient payment systems have not prevented the e-commerce industry from burgeoning in Indonesia, the Financial Times reported.

Jill Zmud, a musician from Ottawa, has launched a crowdfunding campaign for her new album on indiegogo and her perks to get donors to give their donations include her husband, CBC Radio host Alan Neal, the Ottawa Citizen reported.

Lea Lange talked with Magdalena Räth of VentureVillage about Junique, the design-focused platform she founded with Marc Pohl and Sebastian Hasebrink after she left US-based design firm Fab.com.

The behavior of users is the biggest risk factor for mobile threats, according to a report from mobile security firm Lookout entitled "Mobile Threats, Made to Measure," VentureBeat reported.

Smarter Remarketer, an Indiana-based startup focused on behavioral marketing and retail intelligence, has picked up $7 million from Battery Ventures in its most recent funding round, VentureBeat reported.

Venture capital-backed Ezetap, a mobile payment startup in India, raised $8 million for its Series B round from Helion Advisors, Social+Capital and Berggruen Holdings, TechCrunch reported.

Benchling, a startup backed by YCombinator, SV Angel, Founders Fund, Draper Associates and other angels, bridges biotechnology and computer science with their DNA editing software.

Blackstone, Khosla Ventures, Fairhaven Capital and a group of private investors invested $20 million in the Series B round of cybersecurity firm Cylance

Hubub, a startup based in Toronto and New York, obtained $8.5 million in its Series A round participated in by a number of private investors for their platform that enables users to participate in thematic discussions, TechCrunch reported.

Cybersecurity startup ThreatStream has secured $4 million in a Series A funding round led by Google Ventures and participated in by Paladin Capital Group, Cloudera's Tom Reilley and Hugh Nijemanze of ArcSight, TechCrunch reported.

Robert Lamprecht has been named as the South Africa Chief Executive Officer of Renaissance Capital Holdings, a Russia-based investment bank. He replaces Clifford Sacks who now serves as the firm's South Africa Chairman, Bloomberg reported.

Procter & Gamble Co will be rolling out the world's first smart toothbrush, a brush that is connected to a smartphone app that will provide users with real-time advice on how to improve their brushing habits, Reuters reported.

CloudLock, a cloud security startup that has already raised $28.2 million so far, will be launching CloudLock Selective Encryption at the 2014 RSA Conference in San Francisco next week, TechCrunch reported.