VentureBeat

TODAY’S HEADLINES:

• Oxford NanoLabs takes in £10M for sequencing tech (PDF release)
• Alure Medical raises $4.5M for plastic-surgery implants (release)
• Bone-disease biotech Therosteon spins out of research institute, raises funds (PDF release)
• Genome-analysis toolmaker BioTrove files for $75M IPO (Edgar)
• RNAi developer Tekmira acquires Protiva, ends litigation (release)

Oxford NanoLabs takes in £10M for sequencing tech – U.K. based Oxford NanoLabs, yet another startup developing high-speed genome-sequencing technology, raised £10 million in a new funding round. The company said only that its backers included institutional and private investors.

Oxford is working on a so-called nanopore technique for DNA analysis, which typically involves chips laced with a lattice of tiny holes. The company says its process can identify the DNA “letters,” or bases, that compose the genetic code by passing DNA molecules through the pores. As each base slides past, it sticks temporarily to the side of the pore, interrupting electricity being conducted through the surface in a characteristic way that identifies whether the base is an A, C, G or T — the four letters of the DNA alphabet.

Of course, Oxford is entering a field crowded with established companies and other startups. In no particular order, we’ve recently covered fundraising and technology developments at BioNanomatrix, Intelligent Bio-Systems and Pacific Biosciences in recent months.

Alure Medical raises $4.5M for plastic-surgery implants – San Diego’s Alure Medical, a startup developing “soft-tissue” implants for cosmetic procedures, raised $4.5 million in a first funding round. Its backers include EDF Ventures and private investors.

The company is working on implants that lift sagging tissues in the breast, neck and elsewhere. Alure also named France Dixon Helfer, a former Medtronic executive and co-founder of Pegasus Biologics, as its new CEO.

Featured companies: DirectFlow, Direvo, Indigo Biosystems, MacroGenics

Direct Flow raises $27M for heart-valve implants — Santa Rosa, Calif.-based Direct Flow Medical, a startup developing heart implants, raised $27 million in a second funding round. Investors included Johnson & Johnson Development, Foundation Medical Partners, VantagePoint Venture Partners, ePlanet, EDF Ventures, New Leaf Venture Partners and Spray Venture Partners.

Direct Flow makes minimally invasive aortic-valve replacements for the heart. This particular field happens to be booming — we’ve previously covered competitors JenaValve, AorTx and Sadra.

MacroGenics signs Eli Lilly pact worth initial $43M for autoimmune disease — MacroGenics, a Rockville, Md., biotech developing antibody-based therapies for autoimmune disease, signed a partnership with Eli Lilly that could be worth more than $600 million. MacroGenics is working on antibodies designed to tamp down autoimmune responses by inducing tolerance to antigens that might otherwise promote strong immune reactions to the body’s own cells. The company’s first drug candidate targets diabetes — specifically “type one” diabetes that results when the immune system targets insulin-producing cells in the pancreas.

OTHER HEADLINES OF NOTE:

• Indigo Biosystems gets funding for lab-data software (VentureWire, sub req’d)
• Germany’s Direvo pulls in €12M for biomanufacturing (release)

Sonoma Orthopedics, a stealthy spinal-device maker in Santa Rosa, Calif., raised at least $10 million in a second funding round, VentureWire reports. The company raised $3 million in a first round last April.

Sonoma Orthopedics is at work on devices that repair or reinforce bones from the inside. MedVenture Associates led the round, and was joined by existing investors EDF Ventures, Asset Management, Halo Fund and Angel’s Forum.

Greenplum, a San Mateo company offering businesses an affordable way to sort though hundreds of terabytes of data to become more intelligent about their customers’ habits, has raised $19 million in financing.

Greenplum is significant because it says it provides a database for speedy data warehousing at a tenth of the cost of leading incumbent, Teradata. It does so by working with the new server built by Sun co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim, billed internally as the “Web 2.0 server.”

Called the Sun Fire X4500, the server has 48 disk drives and 24TB of storage, a significant amount considering the server is the size of two telephone books. (See Bechtolsheim demo the server in YouTube video below). Tim O’Reilly, a publisher who has in recent years become obsessed with collecting and processing business data to make better business decisions, has used it (see here for more details and a video where O’Reilly speaks with the former Greenplum CEO). O’Reilly discusses how Amazon and other Internet companies will need this technology, because they want to measure clicks, and other customers actions — to understand trends and find ways to boost profits. Greenplum has 15 customers, and announces tomorrow (Tuesday) that it has signed up the largest Phillipines wireless service provider, SMART, which also serves the most SMS messages in the world (the Filipinos really like texting).

Sierra Ventures led a $15 million cash investment, and was joined by existing investors Mission Ventures, Dawntreader Ventures, and EDF Ventures. Comerica Bank provided $4 million in debt. Notably, Sierra was the investor in competitor Teradata. Greenplum sells 100 TB hardware and software for $1.8 million, a tenth of Teradata’s price, co-founder Luke Lonergan tells VentureBeat. Teradata had $1.5 billion in sales last year, and revenue growth of 7.5 percent.

The company named Sun executive Bill Cook as chief executive. Greenplum is built on the high-end open source database, PostgreSQL