Top Five Venture Plays of the Week

In this week's wrap of the top five VC plays, Eduardo Saverin finds a new place to drop at least some of his millions, while Kleiner Perkins begins scrapping together a new $250 million fund for China investments.

An Accidental Blossom: Here’s one you don’t hear every day. ShopSavvy, which makes a barcode scanning app of the same name, said it “accidentally blossomed” into a viable business, according to VentureBeat. Three years after its first application launched, the Dallas and San Francisco-based startup scored its first round of funding on Wednesday—$7 million, led by Facebook cofounder Eduardo Saverin.

Thanks for the Followup: The most interesting aspect of Coraid’s $50 million Series C funding round on Thursday is that it got followup money from Menlo Ventures, the Silicon Valley-based venture firm that also invested in its Series B round, according to TechCrunch. Coraid is a Redwood-city, California, developer of network storage solutions.

Money to China: Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers is the latest venture firm to jump on the China bandwagon, if you can handle the cliché. The Silicon Valley-based firm is raising a $250 million fund to invest in Chinese companies—its second since 2007, according to the website GigaOM, which reported the news Thursday. (Its first fund was for $360 million.)

Michael Arrington’s Fave: When you win a few prestigious awards, and the former blogger-turned-venture capitalist Michael Arrington calls you one of his favorite new startups, chances are the future is bright. And so it is for Gogobot, the Silicon Valley-based social travel site that raised $15 million in a “very large” series B round on Thursday, according to TechCrunch. The round was led by Redpoint Ventures with—surprise—Arrington’s CrunchFund participating.

Saudi Arabians Enter the Fray: When a large Saudi Arabian chemical manufacturer—70 percent owned by the government—decides it’s interested in U.S. startups, it’s probably worth noting. Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC) announced Tuesday that it is creating a global venture capital arm, SABIC Ventures. The unusual move will allow it to invest in startups in the United States and Europe in the range of $5 million to $100 million, according to Reuters.

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Get more business intelligence from Portfolio.com:

• Groupon Aims High: With its road show for investors now in the rearview mirror, Groupon has reportedly upped it stock price to $20 per share, and it plans to make a debut as a public company Friday.
• Citrix Eyes the Cloud: Software firm Citrix Systems has gotten into the accelerator business as it looks to help develop new technology companies.
• House Passes Crowdfunding Bill: The House passed a couple of bills that will make it easier for entrepreneurs to get startup money, including a much-anticipated crowdfunding bill that allows smaller amounts of funding from lots of people.

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Kent Bernhard Jr. is News Editor of Portfolio.com Kirsten Grind covers venture capital, private equity and money matters for Portfolio.com.