VENTURE CAPITAL POST

Granada, Spain-based gifting startup Giftri mines web consumers' Facebook data, including Likes and Interests, to come up with personalized gift recommendations that gift-senders can buy from Amazon.

After issuing a recall and full refund for the involved product, San Francisco, California-based fitness tracker maker FitBit is now facing a class-action lawsuit filed by a customer over the rash issue caused by the latest version of its Force fitness band.

Boston, US-based application programming interfaces (APIs) provider MachineShop Inc emerged from stealth mode and got $3 million as its first capital from a group of its customers to enable businesses to create their own middleware for Internet of Things.

Munich, Germany-based app crowdtesting startup Testbirds picked up €2.1 million in its Series A funding round led by Seventure Partners for its expansion across Europe.

Gurgaon, India-based e-commerce firm Ibibo Group purchased Bangalore-based online bus tracking and analytics startup YourBus for an undisclosed sum to integrate the latter's tracking function into its travel services.

Bangalore, India-based mobile payment startup Ezetap Mobile Solutions is raising an unknown amount of additional capital from credit card giant American Express just a month after it had closed $8 million in its Series B round.

Waltham, Massachusetts-based data security firm Verdasys landed $12 million in a new venture round for its market and product expansion as it named former McAfee executive Kenneth Levine as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

Palo Alto, US-based late-stage investment firm Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV) raised $2.23 billion for its eighth growth equity fund from European and Asian private and public pension funds, financial institutions and other investors.

Facebook Secutiry Director Ryan McGeehan annouced that he is leaving in early April to take a security-related position at San Francisco, US-based Bitcoin startup Coinbase.

Portland, US-based startup PayRange was launched by former VendScreen chief Paresh Patel to offer a simpler way of making mobile payments using a device that can be easily installed in vending machines.

Oregon, US-based wedding planning site WedBrilliant wants to give brides-to-be a simpler way of finding wedding vendors by functioning as an online one-stop shop for them.

Sydney, Australia-based e-commerce startup Bigcommerce is expanding to the US with a new office in San Francisco and will go on a two-month hiring spree in search of 40 new engineers.

GoPeppers.com, an Indian startup that has been operating for more than a year, is already making waves in the e-grocery market of Noida by achieving 300 daily clients that provide an individual volume of INR1,500.

Investment management firm Blue Ocean invested $5 million in Fort Collins, Colorado-based dental firm St Renatus for the latter's drug application for its needle-free anesthetic.

New York, US-based data management platform Lotame acquired San Mateo, California-based mobile audience management startup AdMobius for an undisclosed amount to beef up its publishing and marketing services.