Nuon Therapeutics gets $15M second round

Nuon Therapeutics, a San Mateo-based pharmaceutical company, has just received $15 million in its second round of venture funding, we’ve learned.

Nuon markets a drug called Tranilast, which treats diseases such as multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis. It also received a $5 million round of investment last year.

According to the company’s web site, Tranilast is still in the clinical trial phase. The new funding will presumably be used to push Tranilast through its trials … Continue Reading

Emerging radio technology gets first funding, hopes to transform the airwaves

Digital Radio Express, a developer of technology to digitize the FM spectrum, wants to change how radio works. And it’s just brought in up to $3.3 million in its first round of venture funding to do so.

The Milpitas, Calif. company has developed a technology called FMeXtra, which allows for multiple digital programs to be broadcast over the same station at the same time. That means the company could create vast new real estate on … Continue Reading

Proofpoint, email security company, raises $28M more; Breach Security raises $17M

Proofpoint, a Sunnyvale, Calif. email security company, has received $28 million in a new round of venture funding.

DAG Ventures led the round, but all of Proofpoint’s previous investors participated as well.

The company, founded by email guru Eric Hahn several years ago (see our coverage) has now gobbled up a significant amount of cash. Two years ago, the company had already raised $58 million.

Proofpoint provides security for inbound and outbound email traffic. Inbound … Continue Reading

Crossbeam Systems collects $3.5 million for network security

Crossbeam Systems, a company that develops network security platforms, has taken in $3.5 million of venture funding. This was a continuation of their sixth round of investing, which took place last spring.

In a statement to VentureBeat, Crossbeam claims to be growing “as a leader in the market for network security products and services.” One of its most publicized deals took place with Scottrade last April. The company also protects financial data for companies such … Continue Reading

Atrua Technologies gets $4M for touch-based technology for mobile phones

Atrua Technologies, a developer of intelligent touched-based controls for mobile phones, has received $4 million of funding.

This Campbell, CA, company specializes in input systems that allow for both fingerprint authentication and touch navigation on mobile devices. It’s technology can offer the same fingerprint-driven password protection that laptops have featured for the past couple of years.

We wrote about this company when it raised $9 million in its first round.

Earlier this month, Atrua announced … Continue Reading

Renkoo: Turns out, buying someone a cocktail is popular online activity

Renkoo, the Silicon Valley start-up that is lets you do social planning online, has picked up an extra $6 million in their second round of venture investing.

Renkoo, of Redwood City, allows the users of its site to send invites to plan and organize events. You can see our previous coverage of Renkoo here, where we discussed its early use of “Comet” technology that allows a “persistent” connection to facilitate communication when needed.

Aside from … Continue Reading

Novariant draws $4M for GPS systems for agriculture

Novariant, a Fremont, Calif. producer of precision control and location systems for the agriculture, mining, and aerospace sectors, has brought in $4.2 million in a recent round of investing.

Last year’s agriculture industry boom boosted demand for Novariant’s GPS products, which can “automatically steer equipment, map terrain, and land aircraft,” the company said. Their AutoFarm division markets GPS products that more accurately and efficiently perform many farming tasks, such as spreading seed.

Novariant CEO Herb … Continue Reading

TellyTopia, protecting the cable companies from YouTube

TellyTopia is a secretive Silicon Valley startup that claims it can help give cable television providers superior delivery of their content, in the face of increased user generated content from places like YouTube. 

TellyTopia, of Santa Clara, Calif., hasn’t launched yet, but it is signing up companies for trials of its services, according to founder Kshitij Kumar, who said the company had just raised $1.5 million in a second round of funding from Indianapolis engineering … Continue Reading

The Point: Mobilizes people to reach "tipping point" for their cause

Drawing upon Malcolm Gladwell’s concept of the “tipping point,” a Chicago start-up called The Point allows its users to coordinate groups to successfully pull off fundraisers, petitions, boycotts, or any number of other causes.

According to its approach, only once the “tipping point” of the number of members in a campaign has been reached should the members “activate” the campaign and display it to the public, ensuring a nice base of support for that group. … Continue Reading

Ekahau takes in $6M for Wi-Fi tracking tech

Ekahau, a Saratoga, Calif., developer of Wi-Fi based real-time location systems, raised $6 million in a recent funding round. Several large international investors, including Nexit Ventures, Irish Life International, Startup Fund I-Ky and 3M, took part in the round.

Ekahau sells systems that track the location of cell phones, radio transmitters, Wi-Fi enabled devices, and the company’s own “Wi-Fi tags” — small, inexpensive transmitters that can be attached to anything from medical equipment to forklifts … Continue Reading

Ooyala raises $8.5M for new way to advertise in video

updated to add video tour of the product

Ooyala, a company founded by a couple of former high-ranking Google employees that wants to revolutionize advertising within online video, has received $8.5 million in a second round of investment.

Ooyala’s initial investors also took part in the investment, but the round was led by Sierra Ventures.

Ooyala, of Mountain View, Calif., allows you to upload your video to the Internet via a service called Backlot. The … Continue Reading