Investment location Saxony-Anhalt: December 2013 / January 2014

Datameer Secures $19 Million to Meet Global Demand. Datameer, the leader in self-service Big Data Analytics for Hadoop, today announced the completion of a $19 million series D round. Investors include Workday, Citi Ventures, and Software AG, and the round was led by Next World Capital (NWC), an international, expansion-stage venture capital firm headquartered in San Francisco with a strong presence in Europe. Existing investors from venerable Silicon Valley funds Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Redpoint Ventures also participated. This investment allows Datameer to meet exploding enterprise demand for Datameer’s Big Data Analytics application plus fuel the company’s rapid expansion into international markets. Datameer also announced that NWC partner Ben Fu will join the company’s board. Read more.

Cargill to invest €60 million in building a new ethanol facility in Saxony-Anhalt. Cargill has announced that it will invest 60 million Euros in building a new ethanol facility in Barby, Saxony Anhalt, Germany. The plant will produce premium ethanol destined for the German and European beverage, cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries. Read more.

Novelis Announces $205 Million Investment to Further Expand Global. Novelis in Nachterstedt/Saxony-Anhalt to invest $85 million to install one new aluminum automotive. The company will invest approximately $85 million to install one new aluminum automotive sheet finishing line at its Nachterstedt, Germany facility. This expansion will create up to 120 new jobs at the plant and increase the company's aluminum automotive sheet capacity in Europe to almost 350,000 metric tons. The expansion will also enhance the developing automotive closed-loop model between the company's recycling operations in Latchford, UK, and what will be the world's largest aluminum recycling center, a $250 million project at Nachterstedt expected to be commissioned in late 2014. The federal state of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany is providing support for this investment. Read more.

Probiodrug Transfers its CDK9 Inhibitor Program to AstraZeneca. Probiodrug AG (Probiodrug) announced today the transfer of its experimental cyclin-dependent kinase 9 (CDK9) inhibitor program to AstraZeneca (LSE: AZN, Nasdaq: AZN). The transaction includes the sale to AstraZeneca of a lead molecule and back-up compounds with the associated intellectual property. CDK9, which has been implicated in the transcriptional regulation of genes involved in proliferation and inflammation, is a promising target for the treatment of both cancer and inflammatory diseases. Read more.