Kosmix issues $238K more in stock after CruxLux buy
Kosmix, a search engine that provides comprehensive pages of information in response to queries, has brought in $238,000 from a new stock issuance related to its recent acquisition of CruxLux, a startup that determines connections between people, places and things. Based in Mountain View, Calif., Kosmix is backed by Accel Partners, DAG Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Time Warner. It raised $20 million last December.
This post corrects an earlier one published today reporting that Kosmix… Continue Reading
Engine Yard’s Rails app support gets another $19M
Engine Yard, a company that helps developers deploy and manage web applications built with the Ruby on Rails programming framework (which is popular for fast web development), has raised $19 million in a third venture round.
This brings the San Francisco company’s total funding to $37.5 million. As a point of comparison, to about 10 times the money raised by competitor Heroku. Both companies offer services to take the pain out of launching a Rails app… Continue Reading
Amyris racks up $41.8M for renewable biofuels
Amyris Biotechnologies, one of the most generously-funded startups using microorganisms to produce synthetic biofuels, has added to its third round of funding, taking it from $24.7 million to $41.8 million. But Amyris is not going to stop till it hits its $60 million target, hopefully later this fall, it says. Achieving this amount would boost its total capital raised to more than $165 million (to put this in context, it’s lead competitors LS9 and Coskata… Continue Reading
Oorja nabs $500K for methanol fuel cells
Oorja, maker of methanol fuel cells used to charge batteries for forklifts, pallet loaders and other industrial vehicles, has landed $500,000 in convertible promissory notes, according to a filing with the SEC. Methanol is an alcohol-based fuel that produces zero greenhouse gas emissions. Based in Fremont, Calif. the company markets primarily to large retailers and manufacturers, aviation companies, and distributors, like truckers.
According to the company, many companies in these sectors have taken note of the… Continue Reading
oDesk Challenge gives startups a staffing kickstart
oDesk, a site that helps companies recruit and coordinate online workers, has launched the oDesk Challenge, a program to help young startups piece together teams of staffers quickly and efficiently. It is promoting it today at TechCrunch50, a conference in San Francisco.
The first 20 venture-backed startups to upload their job openings to oDesk will win free, premium services from the company — making it more of a challenge for oDesk than anyone else. Account managers… Continue Reading
DisplayLink raises $8M for network display chips
DisplayLink, maker of semiconductors that allow computers to connect to more than one monitor through USBs, has brought in $8 million in a fourth round of venture funding, according to an SEC filing. The Palo Alto, Calif. company did not list investors in the recent round, though it previously received financing from Atlas Venture, Balderton Capital, DAG Ventures and DFJ Esprit. It has raised $51 million to date.
Amyris takes $24.7M for renewable biofuels
Amyris Biotechnologies, one of the best-funded companies deriving biofuels from synthetic microorganisms, has raised $24.75 million of a targeted $62 million third round of venture financing, according to a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Emeryville, Calif. company has raised an impressive $120 million before now.
Both Khosla Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers have invested in Amyris — also setting it apart as one of the companies to watch in the… Continue Reading
Adamas scores $40M, Navy funds to tackle the flu
Adamas Pharmaceuticals, one of Mohr Davidow Ventures‘ key life science investments, has raised $40 million in a fourth round of funding to develop antiviral treatments for the flu virus. Based in Emeryville, Calif., the company also just signed a research agreement with the U.S. Navy to accelerate drug development in this area.
The funding is significant not only due to its size in a lean time for life science companies, but also because the flu has… Continue Reading
3VR finds $12M for searchable surveillance
3VR Security, maker of video surveillance equipment with a built-in search engine and more detailed motion and facial recognition, has brought in $12 million in a fourth round of funding led by Menlo Ventures, according to PE Hub. Based in San Francisco, the company will continue to expand its client base, now numbering 600 across a wide array of sectors, and diversify its portfolio of surveillance products for different needs. One of the selling points… Continue Reading
Mint.com rakes in $14 Million in third round of funding
Personal finance site Mint.com raked in another $14 million in funding, bringing its total to $31 million. The round was led by DAG Ventures, with new financing from Founders Fund and a top-up from existing investors Benchmark Capital, Shasta Ventures, First Round Capital and Sherpalo.
Although the valuation wasn’t released, “it is a decidedly up-round” and it was “pre-emptive,” meaning Mint.com didn’t raise the funding because it was running out of cash. The company now has… Continue Reading
YuMe takes $2.9M for broadband video ads
YuMe, an advertising network specializing in broadband video, has brought in $2.9 million of a $4.5 million round of equity. In the past, it raised about $16 million in capital from Accel Partners, BV Capital, DAG Ventures and Khosla Ventures, reports VentureWire. It is very similar to video ad network Blinkx.
Oil co. Terralliance finds funds despite risky business
Oil and gas exploration company Terralliance has raised an undisclosed amount of funding mostly from existing investors, despite reports that it squandered almost $300 million in capital on questionable purchases — Russian jets not least among them — before laying off more than half of its employees.
The company is not taking money from just anyone, either, naming Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Goldman Sachs and Passport Capital among its backers. It has raised $450 million… Continue Reading
Marin Software raises $13M to help brands manage paid search campaigns
Marin Software, which offers software to advertisers and agencies to manage ad campaigns across search engines, has raised $13 million in a third round of funding.
The software, delivered online (SaaS), manages these paid search ad campaigns across sites such as Google, Yahoo and MSN. VentureWire reported the news this morning.
DAG Ventures led the round, with includes participation from new investor Focus Ventures and existing investors Benchmark Capital and Amicus Capital. Chris Lien, chief executive of… Continue Reading
Stoke, the fixed-wireless convergence company, raises $15M more
Stoke, the company that wants to let you use your mobile phone or other device on your wireless carrier while on the go, but let you switch to your broadband connection at home, has raised $15 million more in a fourth round of financing.
The company recently partnered with WiFi Internet access provider Trustive, which has roaming agreements with more than 70 hotspot operators in more than 65 countries. The partnership will seek to enable a… Continue Reading
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
Oil co. Terralliance runs out of cash — should have reconsidered the Russian jets
[Update: After speaking to a source close to the situation at Terralliance, some of the information in this post merits correction. The company turned to layoffs only after spending the money received from Kleiner and Goldman, not before. Additionally, chief executive Erlend Olson was not fired, rather he resigned of his own accord. Lastly, there is no evidence that Temasek pulled its investment due to the results of Terralliance’s audit. The source suggests that the deal… Continue Reading
Direct2Silicon nabs $9M to lower cost of chip production
Direct2Silicon, the San Jose, Calif. maker of direct-write e-beam lithography software used to create system-on-a-chip integrated circuits, has filled out its second round of funding, now totaling $9 million. The money will go toward market development for its design-for-e-beam technology, which is said to save semiconductors substantial time and upfront mask costs.
This is great news for the ailing semiconductor industry. Mask budgets hover at $3 million for 40-nm chips, with makers pretty much required to… Continue Reading
AOptix nabs $12.9M for eye-recognition
AOptix Technologies, developer of iris-recognition technology and the wireless communication systems it requires, has brought in $12.9 million in a fourth round of funding to build new products. The Campbell, Calif. company says it is in the middle of commercializing its first product, called the InSight 2 Meter Iris Recognition System. It has also benefited from recent defense contracts for its long-distance and high-bandwidth wireless systems.
Northgate Capital led the round, joined by Kleiner Perkins Caufield… Continue Reading
Arresto lands funds to treat cancer and fibrotic disease
Arresto Biosciences, maker of a drug that targets both cancer and fibrotic diseases, just landed an undisclosed third round of funding to push its lead compound closer to clinical trials. The Palo Alto, Calif. company is taking a new approach to the destruction of tumors. Instead of killing their cells directly, its drug would eliminate elements of the host environment that tumors need to metastasize and survive. This could prove helpful at extremely early or… Continue Reading
Consentry nabs $9.4M for tighter network control
Consentry Networks, a Milpitas, Calif. company that gives network administrators more direct control over computing infrastructure and applications, just raised $9.4 million from DAG Ventures, Invesco Private Capital, Northgate Capital, Translink Capital and Vedanta Capital.
The new money will go toward development of its network management product LANShield, a platform that gives users visibility into and control over all of the various operations and applications active on a system at any given time, the company claims…. Continue Reading