Roundup: Walking robot, MySpace News, Dot-Watt boom and more
Here’s the latest action:
Dexter, the first robot that “walks like we do” — Entrepreneur Trevor Blackwell started a robot company in Mountain View, Calif. called Anybots a few years ago (we wrote about it). He built a robot called Dexter, and had real trouble getting him to walk. It’s tougher than you may think. Well, now Dexter has finally taken its first steps. Click on image and play video. Paul Graham’s account of the challenge is… Continue Reading
Messaging company IP Unity wins backing, buys Glenayre for $25M in restructuring
IP Unity, a private Milpitas company that offers fixed and wireless messaging and other media services, has gone through a major restructuring.
New Enterprise Associates and Anschutz Investment led the investment of more money into the company, injecting it with $25 million so that it can acquire Glenayre Messaging, a division of Glenayre Technologies in New York.
The company will now be called IP Unity Glenayre.
IP Unity previously raised at least $85 million in funding from NEA,… Continue Reading
Wireless email co., Seven, says it raises $42M, and changes chief executive
See our story here. Seven has now raised at least $135 million from investors.
E-commerce search company, Mercado, raises $11M
Mercado Software, a Pleasanton company that provides e-commerce search technology, said it has raised $11.5 million in a third round of funding.
Investors include Israeli-based The Challenge Fund and British investment firm Consensus Group, and existing investors Pitango Venture Capital, Eucalyptus, Star Ventures and Valley Venture Capital (formerly Mofet). The financing includes a line of credit from Lighthouse Capital Partners.
The company, founded in Israel, but since headquartered in Pleasanton, said most of its sales are in… Continue Reading
Water and food cleaning co., Novazone, raises $7M
Novazone, a Livermore start-up that provides a way to clean and disinfect food and water using ozone technology, has raised $7 million in a second round of financing.
Chrysalix Energy led the round with participation from existing investors, Foundation Capital and Grauer Capital. In addition, Greg Sullivan, managing director of Chrysalix Energy, has joined Novazone’s board of directors.
Last year, the company raised $10.6M in a first round. He’s part of what we wrote about the… Continue Reading
Trialplay, an online platform for sales offers, raises $3M
TrialPay, a San Jose developer of a payment platform that allows a company’s customers to access premium content and services by participating in relevant offers, has raised $3.1 million in a first round of funding led by Battery Ventures, according to a regulatory filing cited by PE Week.
Kidaro raises $10M for virtual desktop product for companies
Kidaro (www.kidaro.com), an Israeli company that sells a virtual desktop computing product for enterprises (enabling remote workers to access their files securely) has raised $10 million in venture capital.
This is a hot area right now. We’ve witten about “virtualization” technology here.
The latest round was led by Opus Capital, and included existing investors Genesis Partners and Storm Ventures. Opus Capital General Partner Dan Avida will join Kidaro’s Board of Directors.
From the release:
Kidaro’s flagship product,… Continue Reading
Carbonite raises $3.5 million more for PC backup over Internet
Carbonite, a Boston company, that provides a way to back up your PC over the Internet, raised $3.5 million more in venture backing from 3i and Common Angels.
This is a very competitive sector.
But Carbonite is a useful product, so see below for full press release, sent to VentureBeat yesterday:
Carbonite, Inc., the leading provider of simple, inexpensive, automatic PC backup over the Internet, today announced the close of its Series A, phase 2 investment round. Venture… Continue Reading
Accelergy, advanced catalytic materials co., raises undisclosed round
Accelergy Corporation, a Palo Alto company which says it offers “high throughput solutions for accelerated discovery, development and commercialization of advanced catalytic materials,” has said it raised a second round of financing from Goldman Sachs (which led the round), Sequoia Capital China and Lux Capital. Accelergy’s existing investors, Nth Power, Technology Partners, Mobius VC and Advent International also participated.
It says it helps companies use environmentally friendly fuels and petrochemicals. It has offices in both the… Continue Reading
Realtime Worlds, new gaming company, raises $31M
Realtime Worlds, a Dundee, Scotland video game developer led by David Jones creator of the popular Grand Theft Auto game, has raised $31 million in financing.
The funding comes from New Enterprise Associates, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm that continues to make huge bets like this one. As one of the larger venture capital firms, it is forced to pump more money into each company it invests in — in order to invest all the… Continue Reading
Pay By Touch buys parent of Green Stamps for more than $100M, but why?
updated
Pay By Touch, a San Francisco start-up seeking to allow shoppers to pay with their fingerprint at the register, has bought the company behind S&H Green Stamps.
Pay By Touch will pay more than $100 million in cash and stock to acquire S&H Solutions of Delray Beach, Fla. The Mercury News has a good summary. We’re not sure how S&H, which is a customer loyalty company, fits into Pay By Touch fingerprint go-to-market strategy, but Pay… Continue Reading
Theranos raises $28.5M for device tracking effects of drugs on patients
Theranos, a Menlo Park company developing devices that enable healthcare professionals and pharmaceutical companies to track patients’ responses to drugs, has raised $28.5 million of a $30 million planned third round, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission cited by VentureWire (sub required).
ATA Ventures, Tako Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Continental Properties Inc. were listed as investors in the Form D filing received by the SEC on Nov. 17.
The company raised more… Continue Reading
Mobile Complete, a handset testing service, raises around $10M
Mobile Complete, a San Mateo start-up that lets mobile game and other application developers test their software virtually, has raised around $10 million.
The developers connect to real handsets via emulation software, which gives them a way out of the alternative, which is to buy up to 200 handsets and data plans.
The company says its clients include AOL, Microsoft, Cingular, and Sprint, among 650 other firms.
The funding amount is undisclosed, but the company hinted it was… Continue Reading
Quanlight, a LED chip company for lighting, raises $1M
San Diego’s Quanlight, a company using LED (light-emitting diode) technology to introduce more efficient lighting to the signal, automotive and architectural industries, has raised a $1 million first round of funding from Blackbird Ventures.
Quanlight, founded this year by two UC San Diego specialists in material systems and semiconductor lighting, says its LED chip offers price and performance advantages over existing LED technology. The size of the yellow-amber-red (YAR) LED market it supports is over $1… Continue Reading
Replay, a co. that fixes software bugs, raises around $4.2M
Replay Solutions, a Redwood City provider of technology that tests software for bugs, said it has raised around $4.2 million in a first round of financing.
Here is the company’s statement.
The round was led by Hummer Winblad Venture Partners and Partech International. Replay Solutions’ technology was developed over the past three years.
Mark Gorenberg, managing director of Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, and Nicolas El Baze, general partner of Partech International, have joined Replay’s board.
Replay says its technology… Continue Reading
Mapbar, Chinese maping company, raises $10M
Mapbar, a Beijing mapping and local search company, has raised a total of about $10 million from venture capital firms IDG Ventures and WI Harper in two rounds.
The news was first reported by China Web2.0Review.
WI Harper led the second round of $5 million, with existing investor IDG participating. IDG invested led the first round in 2005
Currently, Baidu’s map search service is powered by Mapbar. Mapbar’s competitors include Go2map from Sohu, Mapabc who powered local search… Continue Reading
NextHop raises $4.8M more for network software
NextHop Technologies, a Mountain View network software company, has raised $4.8 million in a third round of funding.
The funding came from previous investors New Enterprise Associates, Duchossois Technology Partners, Labrador Ventures, and Parker Price Venture Capital, the company said, raising its total funding so far to $41.8 million.
Syndero raises $7M for direct response marketing
Syndero, a direct response marketing company in San Francisco, said it has raised $7 million in a first round of financing.
Trident Capital led the investment.
According to the company’s press release, it is already profitable (or at least was, until it raised this latest batch of money):
Syndero currently has three branded product lines in large consumer categories and has garnered over $15M in revenues in its first full year of operation. Prior to the… Continue Reading
Haggin Marketing acquires Chicago Catalog Group
Haggin Marketing, a Sausalito, Calif. direct marketing agency, has acquired The Chicago Catalog Group, a designer and producer of catalogs and other marketing applications, according to PE Week.