VentureBeat

Ad network Ecast raises funds to the tune of $17M

Ecast Network, a San Francisco-based company that disseminates advertising through digital juke boxes, has brought in $17 million in a round of equity, according to a filing with the SEC. It is backed by Crosslink Capital, DCM, El Dorado Ventures, LG Electronics, Foundry Group, Focus Ventures and Mobius Venture Capital. It raised $12.3 million last May, and $20 million in 2006.

E-Cast snags $17M for bar and club entertainment

E-Cast Media, a company that provides interactive media in the form of music, videos and games to display monitors located in bars, clubs and other entertainment venues, has brought in $17 million in equity, according to a filing with the SEC.

Based in San Francisco, the company is backed by Crosslink Capital, DCM, El Dorado Ventures, Focus Ventures, Doll Capital Management, Mobius Venture Capital, LG Electronics, Escalante Capital Partners and Foundry Group. It has raised $29.3… Continue Reading

Force10 lands $30M for networking hardware

Force10 Networks, developer of 10-gigabit networking hardware, has raised $30 million in equity, according to regulatory filings. The San Jose, Calif. company previously raised $125 million in its last, sixth round of funding in 2007. Past backers include Advanced Equities, Crosslink Capital, Meritech Investment Partners, Morgenthaler Ventures, U.S. Venture Partners, Worldview Technology Partners and New Enterprise Associates.

Force10 provides routers and switches to web-based giants like Facebook and eHarmony to help them manage large volumes of… Continue Reading

Newscale lands $2.2M to monitor IT services

NewScale, a provider of software that helps companies track how much they are using IT services — and how much it is costing them — has raised $2.2 million of a targeted $3 million in rights, reports VentureWire.

Almost exactly two years ago, the San Mateo, Calif., company raised $11 million in a fourth round of funding provided by Chess Ventures, Crosslink Capital, Menlo Ventures, Montagu Newhall Associates, New Enterprise Associates, Parker Price Venture Capital and… Continue Reading

Plato Networks rakes in $7.5M for energy-efficient chips

Plato Networks, maker of chips used to make data centers more energy efficient, brought in $7.5 million of an anticipated $10 million round of preferred stock. Based in Santa Clara, Calif., the company previously raised $20 million in a second round of financing from Crosslink Capital, Granite Ventures and STIC International.

Luxim brightens with $12M for efficient plasma lighting

Luxim, provider of high-efficiency solid-state plasma lighting systems, has nabbed $12 million in a third round of funding from Sequoia Capital and others. Based in Sunnyvale, Calif., the company plans to use the money to scale production of its existing products, which are largely used in stadium, city street, commercial and industrial lighting, as well as medical instrumentation. It has yet to roll out products suited to residential use.

The lights are unique not only in… Continue Reading

OpSource scores $10M for on-demand app delivery

OpSource, provider of software-as-a-service and web applications for a variety of functions, just raked in $10 million in fifth-round funding from Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT), Velocity Venture Capital, Key Venture Partners, Crosslink Capital and Artiman Ventures to continue expanding its software portfolio. Its flagship product, called OpSource On-Demand, lets application developers automatically deliver their own products to clients without investing in the expensive infrastructure usually required to deploy them.

The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company also… Continue Reading

Force10 and Turin merge, pool their capital and clients

Network builder Force10 Networks has merged with Ethernet services provider Turin Networks to create a powerhouse in both spaces, with an impressive list of clients, numbering 1,300 (including eHarmony and Facebook), reports peHUB. More significant than that is the marrying of two significant pots of venture capital. Since their nearly simultaneous founding a decade ago, Force10 has raised $400 million, and Turin $250 million.

Combined under the Force10 name, the new entity, based in San Jose,… Continue Reading

Strix strings together funds for wi-fi expansion

Strix Systems, a Calabasas, Calif. provider of wi-fi equipment, announced that it raised an undisclosed round of strategic investments to fuel expansion of its mesh-like wireless networks nationwide and overseas. To this end, it has already established a toehold in Africa with six networks of connected hot-spots, as well as a wireless video surveillance system installed along the route of the Boston Marathon, reports VentureWire.

Specializing in the public safety field, the company has a handful… Continue Reading

Force10 rolls out virtualization products

Force10 Networks, a developer of 10-gigabit networking hardware, will be launching a new line of products over the next half year to help companies set up automated and virtual networks. Currently, it provides routers and switches to web companies like Facebook and eHarmony, to help them manage large amounts of data over their local networks, reports VentureWire.

In this pursuit, Force10 faces a full field of competition including Woven Systems, Foundry Networks, Cisco Systems and Juniper… Continue Reading

SiliconBlue takes $24M for low-power mobile chips

SiliconBlue, a company that provides programmable logic chips for use in mobile devices, has landed $24 million in a second round of funding led by New Enterprise Associates and including BlueRun Ventures and Crosslink Capital.

The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company plans to sink its new funds into scaling its operations. It has raised a total of $40 million in venture capital since it spun off from semiconductor company Kilopass Technology in 2006.

The chips it produces, called field-programmable… Continue Reading

Controversial ad company Jellycloud shuts down

The deteriorating economy, and cloudy horizon for the advertising industry, has claimed one more victim: Jellycloud, the ad company I wrote last month that was the latest incarnation of team that ran the controversial Gator and Claria.

Last weekend, it threw in the towel, sent home its 36 employees, and assigned assets to a liquidator that will sell them off to the highest bidder. The company had raised $5.75M just a few months ago, and will… Continue Reading

The ad network that keeps changing its stripes: Gator, Claria, and now JellyCloud?

Can a tiger change its stripes? JellyCloud, an ad network company with a controversial past, hopes so.

About eight years ago, it operated under a different name: Gator. The Silicon Valley company attracted lots of users with a useful online vault to save all their personal password/login data in a single place. Its logo was a cute little gator head.

Problem was, it extracted a lot of personal information about you and observed your websurfing habits in… Continue Reading

Chip maker SliceX raises $15M, gets new CEO

SliceX, a maker of analog and mixed-signal chips, has raised $15 million in a second round of funding. The round was led by Crosslink Capital, with participation from existing investors Global Catalyst Partners and BlueRun Ventures, and brings SliceX’s total funding to $25 million.

The San Jose, Calif. company also named Yusuf Haque, a semiconductor industry veteran, as its new chief executive. SliceX says its chips will target everything from video imaging to industrial equipment to… Continue Reading

[Update] Confirmed: T-shirt site CafePress buys art marketplace Imagekind

Update: Imagekind has confirmed the purchase.

Imagekind, an online marketplace for original and reprinted artwork, has been bought by online t-shirt and gift seller CafePress, a reliable source tells us, with rival Zazzle losing out on the deal. We hear the acquisition price may have been between $15 million and $20 million, although we’re still looking for confirmation on the amount.

While these days there are seemingly countless sites that let you design and sell your own… Continue Reading

Efficient light company, Luxim, raises $21M more

Luxim, a Sunnyvale, Calif. company that boats it produces one of the most efficient light sources on the globe — 144 lumens per watt — or almost twice as efficient as other sources, has raised $21 million more in financing, we’ve learned.

The money comes from leading Silicon Valley venture firm Sequoia Capital, as well as Crosslink Capital and DAG Ventures.

Lighting currently consumes almost a quarter of the world’s generated power, generating over 700 million tons… Continue Reading

Validity raises $20M for fingerprint scanners

Validity Sensors, based in San Jose, Calif., develops technology for fingerprint sensors used in laptops and other devices.

The company works with partners like Cogent Systems and Synaptics to develop and commercialize its products, which it began selling earlier this quarter.

Crosslink Capital led another $20 million round, alongside Qualcomm Ventures and TeleSoft Partners; all three firms had invested in Validity before. Past investors also include Austin Ventures and VentureTech Alliance, as well as a number of… Continue Reading

LucidEra raises $15 million — to bring lucidity to “business intelligence?”

LucidEra offers a web-based service that helps companies collect and analyze data across their internal software systems to make them more efficient, and has just raised $15.6 million.

LucidEra is another company in the somewhat crowded “business intelligence” industry.

These companies try to help a company’s management get a more granular, immediate view of factors affecting their business. For example, they show a sales manager how quickly potential clients are being converted into paying customers, and which… Continue Reading

Solopower raises $30M more

SoloPower, the Milpitas, Calif., company building a new solar power technology based on “electroplating,” which saves costs by placing expensive carbon material only in areas high voltage potential, has raised $30 million in venture backing.

We reported the round before, but at the time the amount was unknown.

PE Wire confirms that the maker of of thin-film photovoltaics has raised $30 million with Convexa Capital of Norway leading the deal, joined by Crosslink Capital and Firsthand Capital… Continue Reading

Plato Networks, chip company for low-power data centers, raises $20M

Plato Networks, a Santa Clara, Calif. fabless semiconductor company specializing in communications IC’s for the energy-efficient datacenter, said it has raised a $20 million second round of funding. The investment was led by Granite Ventures, who was joined by STIC International and founding investor Crosslink Capital, according to a press release.

Plato Networks will use the $20 million in new funding to accelerate development of low-power 10Gbps Ethernet products.