Five-year-old PaxVax Corp., a Menlo Park, Calif.-based company that develops oral vaccines against infectious diseases, is announcing numerous appointments today, including: Nima Farzan as executive vice president and chief operating officer; Thomas Monath as chief technology officer; and Jonathan Smith as executive vice president and chief science officer. Farzan joins PaxVax from Novartis, where he [...]

Online reputation company Klout has acquired Blockboard. This is Klout’s first acquisition. Klout’s backers include Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Greycroft Partners and ff Venture Capital. PRESS RELEASE We’re only a few weeks into 2012 and already have more great news. Klout has acquired Blockboard! This is Klout’s first acquisition, and it’s a very important [...]

Mobile broadband innovator Stoke has named Charles Corbalis as vice president of engineering. Corbalis joins from RGB Networks. He was previously co-founder of optical switch company Calient Networks and StrataCom where he led the development of communications industry technologies. Stoke is backed by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Sequoia Capital, Focus Ventures, and NTT Docomo. [...]

Glori Energy, the sustainable oil recovery system developer, has taken a $20 million Series C round that was led by Gentry Venture Partners. Advantage Capital Partners joined Energy Technology Ventures (a GE, NRG Energy and ConocoPhillips joint venture), GTI Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), Oxford Bioscience Partners, Malaysian Life Sciences Capital Fund, and The Omzest Group on the transaction and Piper Jaffray served as placement agent.

Elance, an Internet platform used by businesses to gain instant access to independent workers online, has secured $16 million in expansion capital. The investment was led by the Stripes Group with existing investors, New Enterprise Associates and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, participating. PRESS RELEASE Elance, the Internet platform used by businesses to gain instant [...]

Eye-popping late-stage rounds that went to a handful of smart grid companies from 2008 to 2010 have been replaced with smaller fundings, but VCs say that’s no reason to get down on the space. If big strategics keep helping VCs rack up billion-dollar exits, expect cash to keep flowing and growing into smart grid startups. [...]

3VR, a video intelligence company, has added chief marketing officer Joe Boissy to the company’s leadership team. Boissy joins 3VR from IBM. Based in San Francisco, CA, 3VR is privately held with funding from DAG Ventures, Focus Ventures, In-Q-Tel, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Menlo Ventures and VantagePoint Ventures. PRESS RELEASE 3VR, the video intelligence [...]

Everyone knows cloud tech, storage, this & that, has come to the forefront of the consumer economy and many VCs’ attention. Before his passing, Steve Jobs planned Apple’s iCloud strategy and every streaming entertainment company is trying to host as much as they possibly can remotely—to say nothing of the enterprise possibilities for the space, [...]

AppDynamics, a San Francisco-based maker of application performance management software, has raised $20 million in Series C financing. New investor Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers led the round, which also included participation from founding investors Greylock Partners and Lightspeed Venture Partners. The money will go toward growth efforts.

California-based solar power energy company Amonix Inc. and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers announced that Jan van Dokkum will be the company’s interim CEO, following the unexpected and tragic passing of CEO Brian Robertson, who passed away in late 2011 as a result of an aircraft crash.