VentureBeat

GT Solar, a maker of silicon-based solar cell manufacturing equipment and production lines, has files for an initial public offering on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the symbol SOLR. The company, formerly called GT Equipment Technologies, plans to place 30.3 million shares on the market, about a quarter of its total equity, and anticipates [...]

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Plimus, an e-commerce startup that is in the process of establishing itself in Silicon Valley, has taken an $18 million first round of funding. The company makes an e-commerce backbone that other businesses can use to sell their products or services online. Plimus also competes with affiliate program coordinators like Clickbank. Susquehanna Growth [...]

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Cyber-Rain, an Agoura Hills, Calif.-based maker of wireless sprinkler control systems, has raised $1.5 million in first round funding led by Funk Ventures. Its seed funding round last June was led by Momentum Venture Management; it also has several angel investors.
The firm’s control system lets users sync their sprinklers via computer from the comfort of [...]

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Yet another company focused on helping businesses with their accounting — and specifically with regulatory compliance — has received its first funding, with $13.6 million going to Sunnyvale, Calif. startup Corefino. The firm joins a set of similar companies to receive funding in the past couple months: Risk manager Agiliance with $10 million, internal [...]

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IWatt, a Los Gatos, Calif. company that makes power control products, has taken a fifth round of funding for $12.4 million, led by an unnamed strategic investor.The products that iWatt makes include AC-DC and DC-AC power supplies, coupled inductors and other power devices, and it sells into markets including semiconductors, telecommunications, and consumer electronics. IWatt’s [...]

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InSync Software, a startup that makes an application platform for use with RFID, GPD and sensor technologies, has raised $3 million in additional financing for its technology from previous investors Intel Capital, Rustic Canyon Partners and Girish Gaitonde Living Trust. The San Jose, Calif. company is raising the money as part of a slightly [...]

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Innovalight, a San Francisco-based company that makes flexible thin-film solar modules, has taken $5 million in equipment lease financing from ATEL Ventures. The most common substance for thin-film cells is CIGS, but Innovalight uses a printed silicon-ink process. The deposition technique uses less silicon, and allows for the greater flexibility of Innovalight’s modules. [...]

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Eka Systems, a Germantown, Maryland-based utility metering company, has completed a $18.5 million fourth round of funding, led by Flybridge Capital Partners. Returning investors included RockPort Capital Partners, The Westly Group and Metropolitan Investments.
Eka’s scalable smart networking technology allows utilities to monitor and analyze their energy consumption on a near real-time basis. It also helps [...]

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SynapticMash, a Seatte-based startup that offers software tools to the primary school market, has raised a first round of $3 million, according to John Cook. The company’s services tie in with existing record-keeping software to provide online access to student information for parents, educators and the students themselves. Although it is less than a [...]

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The latest fuel cell investment is a United Kingdom company called Intelligent Energy, which has taken $13.6 million toward development of hydrogen fuel cells to power vehicles and airplanes. According to the company’s release (via Earth2Tech ), it’s behind several existing products, including the Suzuki Crosscage fuel cell motorcycle, Peugeot Citroen’s H2Origin hybrid delivery [...]

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ForeScout Technologies, a firm that makes a security platform combining clientless network access control (NAC) and intrusion prevention, has raised $8 million from previous investors. ForeScout’s CounterACT appliance works without software installation by individual devices on a network, thus attempting to remain invisible to users.
NAC has been gaining favor in corporate IT departments, [...]

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Casual gaming startup Playfish has raised $1 million on its way to full venture funding, following its $3 million seed raised earlier this year, according to VentureWire. Playfish is based in London, but is looking to raise money from Silicon Valley firms. The company took the bridge from Accel Partners to help it make [...]

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Agiliance, a San Jose, Calif. startup that offers IT tools to help companies comply with regulations and manage their risk, has raised a $10 million round of funding. In today’s complex regulatory environments, many companies are looking past finance officers and accountants to software that can help out. The growing space is known as [...]

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Iminlikewithyou, a startup that began as something close to a dating site and has become closer to a casual game portal and social network over time, has raised a $1.5 million second round tor expansion. The New York-based company only features its own games on the site, and is based entirely in Flash. Co-founder [...]

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Virgin Green Fund, the first green investment fund set up by U.K.-based Virgin Group, has raised $199 million from two large pension funds — CalPERS, Wolverhampton City Council — and other institutional investors to reach its first close, reports the Financial Times. CalPERS made its investment through PCG Clean Energy & Technology Fund. Macquarie Bank’s [...]

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Updated June 27th, 2008: Levy Family Partners and CMS Platinum Fund have joined this round, bringing the amount to $1.4 million. This story was originally published on June 6th.

Greener World Media, the Oakland, Calif.-based owner of GreenBiz, GreenerComputing and several other media properties dealing with the cleantech and environmental world, has taken a first investment [...]

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Airband Communications Holdings offers fixed-wireless services for businesses (not as the name might suggest, an online game involving virtual bands).

The Dallas, Texas company has raised $2.5 million from Key Venture Partners, M/C Venture Partners, Crescendo Venture Management, Dolphin Equity Partners and The Sevin Rosen Funds.

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Provade offers web-based software to help businesses better manage goods and services procurements. Its software is based on Oracle’s software platform, and like many startups that make their money from serving Oracle’s clients, it is based in San Mateo, Calif., near Oracle headquarters.
It has raised $3.3 million in funding from Altos Ventures, one of its [...]

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