VENTURE CAPITAL POST

Bikes maker Palo Alto Bicycles, which Silicon Valley startups have often contacted to purchase high-end custom bikes for their employees, have confirmed a decline in sales. The declining sales are likely to be an indicator that startups are being more careful in spending money as investors got tighter in demanding profitability.

Palo Alto, California-based single-page promotional website design platform raised $1.7 million in a seed funding round ledyby Founder's Co-op to expand its market reach, improve its products, and enable mobile content creation.

Palo Alto, US-based analytics and SaaS (Software as a Service) startup PunchTab bagged $6.25 million in its recent funding round led by Mohr Davidow Ventures to run loyalty programs and promotions for its large enterprise clients.

Palo Alto, US-based software-focused venture capital firm Merus Capital formed a special Merus Capital Opporunity Fund just after it closed its second fund at $43 million to support the late-stage development of San Francisco-based ad-tech firm AdRoll.

Venture capital firms in the US have raised a record-breaking total funding amounting to $8.9 billion in the first quarter of 2014, according to Thomson Reuters and the National Venture Capital Association.

Palo Alto, US-based stealthy startup Citizen.VC raised $4 million in funding out of a reported $12-million round, based on a document filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Palo Alto, California-based relationship management software startup RelateIQ bagged $40 million in its Series C funding round led by Redpoint Ventures which values the firm at over $200 million.

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.

Cambridge, US-based venture capital firm Amplify Partners raised $49.1 million for its new fund to back early-stage firms in the storage, networking, and Internet hardware industries.

Palo Alto, US-based video discovery startup Boxfish bagged $7 million in a Series B funding round led by Atlantic Bridge to beef up its workforce and expand into new markets.

Palo Alto, US-based beauty box retailer Memebox, which was imported from South Korea, bagged $1.5 million in venture funding to establish its presence in the US.

San Francisco, US-based startup ClassDojo bagged $8.5M in its first institutional funding round to develop its mobile platform that provides an easier way of managing and monitoring the behavior of students inside the classroom.

Palo Alto, US-based Bluetooth controller ring maker Fin hit its $100,000 funding target on crowdfunding platform Indiegogo, and now wants to stretch its goal to $150,000 to give visually impaired people a discounted price for the product.

In a bid to attract more startups, Walldorf, Germany-based sofware giant SAP planned to open a cafe in Palo Alto, California, where startups companies can hang out, collaborate, and connect to over 1,000 companies worldwide.

Cupertino, US-based smartphone giant Apple considered purchasing Palo Alto, California-based electric car manufacturer Tesla, according to a San Francisco Chronicle report citing an unnamed source.