Funding Daily: investment news best served with a glass of wine

Now that we have survived the bad luck of Friday the 13th, the fireworks and wine-saturated festivities of Bastille Day, and the ides of July, it is time to dive back into the world of venture capital. There was quite a bit of funding news today, although most of it was rather dry. If you need a little something to sweeten these deals, open a bottle of Bordeaux and remember the French motto that wine makes everything better. Or was it Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity?

Either way, send your funding tips to tips@venturebeat.com. For more funding news as it happens, subscribe to our Deals Channel feed. You can also follow VentureBeat on Twitter, @venturebeat, to view funding news as it’s published.

Zadara completes $7M for VPSAs (not to be confused with vespas) 

Zadara Storage has completed a $7 million first round of funding that will be put towards getting the word out on its service, which gives companies more control, speed, and security over their portion of the cloud. Zadara buys or rents hardware within the data centers of Amazon, Rackspace, and OpSource. It then sells that storage, along with proprietary software, to its customers as “Virtual Private Storage Arrays” that connect to cloud servers. The round was led by Genesis Capital Advisors and Platinum Management. Read more on VentureBeat.

BV Capital unifies 5 international funds onto one global platform called E.ventures

Investment firm BV Capital launched a global venture platform today, unifying its five funds around the world under one heading and rebranding itself as E.ventures. The integration is in an effort to emphasize the firm’s global perspective and promote international collaboration. With the unification, portfolio companies will be able to access financial and technological resources from all over the world as well as see increased opportunities for international growth.

BV Capital focuses on early-stage startups. It has invested in companies such as Groupon, Angie’s List, Shopping.com, and Sonos. Since 1997, it has invested nine funds totaling over $750 million in capital. It is headquartered in San Francisco and has offices in Berlin, Hamburg, Beijing, Tokyo, and most recently, Sao Paulo. Read more on VentureBeat.

aPriori secures $5 million for cost reduction software far more effective than penny pinching

aPriori, a company that creates software to help manufacturing companies cut costs, secured $5 million in new venture capital from existing investor Sigma Partners. This announcement followed the latest release of its platform in April and record results from the past fiscal year.

aPriori will use the money to expand the company’s sales and service teams to Europe and accelerate development in the Asia Pacific region. It will also be put towards a new Supplier Network initiative that will address demand from the automotive, aerospace, and industrial machinery industries by giving them greater access to aPriori’s quote generating technology. The company is based in Concord, MA. Read the press release.

LockPath brings in $6M to help companies stay on the straight and narrow

Security software company LockPath raised $6 million in its second round of funding. Its Keylight platform provides governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) applications to companies that need assistance managing regulatory compliances and risk factors. The technology correlates security information from multiple sources with current regulations and policies to gauge risk.

The round was led by El Dorado Ventures, an entrepreneur-focused, early-stage venture capital firm, with participation from Vesbridge Partners and the Webb Investment Network. This round follows the $2 million LockPath raised in 2011, also led by El Dorado. The company is headquartered in Kansas City, Kansas. Read the press release.

Live Nation buys Rexly to help get its groove back

As part of an ongoing effort to bring innovation back to ticketing conglomerate Live Nation, the company’s months-old investment vehicle, LN Labs, has acquired social music discovery startup Rexly. Rexly is the San Francisco–based, angel-backed startup that makes an iPhone application by the same name for discovering music through friends. The terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but two of Rexly’s cofounders are joining Live Nation and opening up a new LN Labs office in San Francisco to focus primarily on mobile. Read more on VentureBeat.

Brammo raises $13M to make motorcycle racing a green sport

Brammo Inc., a leading developer of electric vehicle technology recently announced it closed $13 million in a third round of funding. This capital is the first tranche of a $45 million round and brings the total funding to $53.5 million.

Brammo manufactures electric motorcycles that are well-known in the world of motor sports. This first chunk of investment is intended to spur the company’s development plans. It was led by Polaris Industries, a company that manufactures off-road vehicles like ATVs, snowmobiles, and golf carts, as well as powersport vehicles.

The investment is part of a strategic partnership with Polaris that will provide Brammo with opportunities to integrate its electric vehicle technology into more sporting platforms. In October of last year, Polaris invested $28 million in Brammo. That Series B was intended to help Brammo solidify its position in the market. Read more on VentureBeat.