VENTURE CAPITAL POST

Genco Shipping & Trading has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Monday as it planned to restructure the company and emerge immediately from bankruptcy although it did not provide a specific time frame for the move.

First Foundation Inc, a financial services company offering clients in multiple locations in the US, has filed for an intended initial public offering of common stock with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

The deal between Pfizer and AstraZeneca to acquire its London based business were halted with no plans to resume said sources who spoke in condition of anonymity as the matter was held private in nature.

Seven Energy International Limited has received $225 million equity capital from investors including Singapore's Temasek, IFC and the IFC ALAC Fund to be used for corporate affairs and boosting dometic energy markets in Nigeria.

Microsoft's deal to acquire Nokia valued $7.2 billion have been set to close on Friday which is also in time for the company's target saying that the deal was expected to close during the first quarter of 2014.

Avaz AAC has received USD500000 funding round led by Inventus Capital and other investors including Mumbai Angels, Raju Reddy of Sierra Atlantic and Google India MD's Rajan Anandan for the development of an app directed for those who have autism.

Beauty box sampler, Birchbox, has received USD60 million in Series C funding round led by Viking Global Investors and other financiers including Accel Partners, Consigliere Brand Capital, Aspect Partners and First Round Capital.

Oil and gas producer Seplat, the first publicly listed oil and gas firm in the Nigerian bourse, said that it would end its gas flaring activities in the country by September and expects that the practice would be halted in the country by 2020.

CFAO Auto Group has been looking at the potential car market in Nigeria following other multinational companies including Toyota, Nissan and Kia's entrance to the country through local partnership with distributors for car assembly and production.

AdRoll has taken in USD70 million Series C funding round led by Foundation Capital and other new and existing investors including Institutional Venture Partners, Glenmede, Northgate Capital, Performance Equity, Peter Thiel, Merus Capital and Accel Partners.

US-listed fund manager Carlyle has invested USD698 million to the sub-Saharan Africa region aiming to focus in the consumer, transport, ICT and financial sectors and adding to J&J Africa, its current investment in the country.

Doha Bank, a Qatar based lender, has entered into a definite acquisition agreement with HSBC Holdings Plc's HSBC Bank Oman to purchase its lending arm in India pending regulatory approvals in India, Jersey, Qatar and Oman.

The territorial dispute between China and Japan has caused the latter to pull out its investments from the country and redirecting its focus to other South East Asian countries where it has already funded companies with USD22.8 billion last year.

Two coincidental events took place as Weibo executives rejoiced the warm welcome it received from the international financial markets after its IPO on the NASDAQ and the release of venture capitalist and Weibo user Charles Xue.

Today, home-rental Airbnb has received a rare funding that reached a hefty USD500 million from a funding round from investors led by TPG, Dragoneer Investment Group and T. Rowe Price along with other mutual funds.