Markets
VC

Late Stage VC Rounds Start Year with Bang

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While fiscal cliff fears and free-floating economic gloom dampened the final weeks of 2012, venture investors interested in up-and-coming companies have been busy in the first weeks of 2013. Companies that saw post-start-up VC investors coming back for more include Versartis, Streetline, Pontiflex, Panaya, LED Engin, Pure Storage, BuzzFeed and Aileron Therapeutics. Versartis, a Redwood City, Calif.-based growth hormone developer, closed a $25 million Series C round. The company is currently enrolling children for a study of VRS-317, a long-acting growth hormone for the treatment of pediatric growth hormone deficiency. Versartis is in clinical trials with both adult and pediatric versions of the hormone.

Deals
Bitcoin

Angel Investors Keen on BitPay

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Another digital currency start-up has grabbed the interest of seasoned angel investors. BitPay has taken their first outside investment by closing a seed round earlier this month totaling $510,000. Investors include Shakil Khan (Spotify), Barry Silbert (SecondMarket), Jimmy Furland (Compricer AB), and Bitcoin evangelist Roger Ver. Except for Ver, this is the first investment in a Bitcoin-related company for this team of angel investors. Khan, who is known for his seed investment in Spotify and current investment in SecondMarket, told Growth Capital Investor he doesn’t invest in a lot of companies but chose BitPay because of the management team.

Legal
Andreas Badian

Second Badian Brother Fined in Sedona Naked Short Selling Saga

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A naked short selling tale that has endured over a decade closed a chapter when regulators settled with parties accused of illegally selling short stock in Sedona Corp. (SDNA) in the spring of 2001. The Securities and Exchange Commission levied financial and administrative penalties against Andreas Badian, former principal of defunct hedge fund Rhino Advisors, along with two other individuals and Pond Securities Corp., which allegedly played a part in the short selling scheme. The settlement sanctions former Pond president Ezra Birnbaum and former Refco trader Jeffrey Graham, whom the SEC's suit alleges was part of an aggressive plan to beat down the price of Sedona stock. Refco traders Mottes Drillman and Jacob Spinner settled with the commission in 2011.

Markets
PIPE Deals Jan 2013

Growth Equity Investors Dominate 2012 PIPE Market League Tables

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Fundamental investment-oriented growth equity investors increasingly replaced trading-oriented funds as leaders in the PIPE market in 2012, according to data released by market monitor PlacementTracker. For the first time since the data service began tracking investment in PIPEs in 1995, a long-only mutual fund manager led the annual PIPE investor league tables in total deals and total investment among active funds, usurping the fast-money hedge funds that had dominated not only the top spot but the entire top 25 rankings in many years. Fidelity Management & Research invested $190.7 million in 45 growth equity private placements in 2012, making the mutual fund behemoth the leading active investor in the market in both number of deals and total investment. But Fidelity was not alone among fundamental-oriented investors making their way up the PIPE ranking list last year. Of the top 25 investors in the market, at least 10 are generally regarded as long-only, fundamental-focused mutual and venture capital fund managers, including insurance and annuity giant TIAA, Wellington Management, Columbia Management, T. Rowe Price, and Orbimed Advisors.