VentureBeat

Featured companies: CG Therapeutics, Complete Genomics, ConforMIS, Flexible Medical Systems, LeMaitre Vascular, MAP Pharmaceuticals, ParaPro, Vascular Architects, Zars Pharma

(UPDATED on 10/1/07: See below.)

[NOTE: Posting has been slow recently for personal reasons. I'll be doing my best to catch up today.]

Complete Genomics raises funding for high-speed sequencing — Complete Genomics, a Mountain View, Calif., developer of high-speed genome sequencing technology, said it raised an undisclosed sum in a second funding round, VentureWire reports (subscription required). The company said the funding was significantly larger than its $6 million first round last year, but declined to say by how much. Investors included OVP Venture Partners and Enterprise Partners Venture Capital.

Complete Genomics is one of several companies aiming to bring down the cost of genome sequencing in order to, among other things, eventually make it possible for individuals to base medical and lifestyle decisions on their individual genetic profiles. The company, founded in 2005, hasn’t disclosed many details about its technological approach, although its Web site vaguely describes it as “a novel combination of high-density DNA nanoarrays, sequencing-by-hybridization and combinatorial probe-ligation chemistry, and high-performance computing techniques.”

The high-speed sequencing market has been in a state of flux recently. Cambridge, Mass.-based Helicos Biosciences, went public in May. Solexa, a U.K.-based sequencer that later moved to the U.S., also went public in 2005 via a reverse merger and then was acquired earlier this year by Illumina. 454 Life Sciences was acquired by Roche earlier this year. VentureWire also lists Pacific Biosciences as a recent venture-backed sequencing company.

UPDATE: Complete Genomics announced an interesting new joint venture with BioNanomatrix of Philadelphia ten days after this funding; see our coverage here.

MAP Pharma prices IPO, looks to raise $92M — Mountain View, Calif.-based MAP Pharmaceuticals said it plans to price its initial-offering shares at $14 to $16 apiece, a range that could potentially raise $92 million. That’s up from the $86 million take MAP estimated in June (see our coverage at the time).

MAP makes reformulated versions of existing drugs for delivery via inhalers. Its lead candidate is a new inhaled version of budesonide, a corticosteroid used to treat pediatric asthma.

Implant maker ConforMIS ponders new funding, possible IPO — ConforMIS, a Lexington, Mass., medical-device company, is raising a “mezzanine” round of financing while it plans for an IPO within two years, VentureWire reports. The company, which makes personalized knee implants, raised a $10 million “debt facility” in August (see our coverage in the second item here).

LeMaitre acquires Vascular Architects for $2.8M — LeMaitre Vascular, a publicly traded maker of devices and implants for vascular surgery based in Burlington, Mass., acquired venture-backed Vascular Architects of San Jose, Calif., for $2.8 million in cash. Vascular Architects makes devices for the removal of plaque deposits that can clog arteries and cause life-threatening blood clots. The company had previously raised more than $42 million in equity and $5 million in debt, according to VentureWire.

Lice-drug maker ParaPro gets $2.1M grant — ParaPro, a Carmel, Ind., specialty pharmaceutical company developing a topical cream for treating head lice, received a $2.1 million grant from Indiana’s 21st Century Research and Technology Fund. The company said the funding will finance late-stage trials of its lice treatment, which it calls Spinosad.

CG Therapeutics names Christopher Henney chairman, seeks funding — Chris Henney, who co-founded three of Seattle’s most successful biotechs — Immunex, Icos and Dendreon — is now also the new chairman (PDF link) of CG Therapeutics, a new cancer-vaccine company in Seattle. The company said Henney will play a key role in lining up corporate partners and seeking new funding. CG Therapeutics is currently working on a first funding round intended to support mid-stage trials of its cancer vaccine in lung and colon cancer.

Zars Pharma delays IPO — Salt Lake City’s Zars Pharma, a developer of topical drugs, postponed its IPO until next week. Zars priced its IPO at $14 to $16 a share in August, and was slated to hit the market this week. See our previous coverage here and in the third item here.

At that, Zars is in far better shape than Cumberland Pharmaceuticals, which has been expected to go public on a day-to-day basis since mid-August. We last wrote about Cumberland here.

Flexible Medical Systems raises $1.2M for remote diagnostics — Rockville, Md.-based Flexible Medical Systems, a device and diagnostics maker focused on non-invasive devices that continuously monitor vital signs, raised $1.2 million in a seed financing. “Accredited investors” provided the funding.

FMS is developing diagnostic monitors that continuously draw “interstitial fluid” through the skin without a needle or other punctures. This fluid can theoretically be used to monitor protein levels in blood, although it’s also worth noting that other attempts to do this sort of thing — especially continuous blood-sugar monitoring for diabetics — have had a mixed history.

Expresso Fitness, a Sunnyvale, Calif. company that provides a way for you to interact with a video screen while riding a stationary fitness bike, said it has raised $9.3M in a third round of financing.

The technology is significant because it brings interaction into the huge U.S. fitness services market, estimated by Expresso to be worth $14.39 billion last year. Of that, the majority comes from peoples’ payments to gyms in the form of dues/memberships. About $4.32 billion was made last year from “non-dues” services, i.e., the portion Expresso is targeting.

The company’s software lets you do things like race against a “ghost” on the screen alongside you. You can set the software so that the ghost rides at your personal best on a charted course. That way, you can try to beat it, as you race along the virtual hills, or valleys (you can choose a number of landscapes, and skill levels). You can also connect friends so that they race alongside you; you can see where they are on the course via a little map on the screen.

We tested this product late last year. We liked the experience as far as it went. Expresso lets you log each ride into its system so that you can monitor your progress over time. You can then use any Web browser to view your fitness progress.

However, we believe it should be taken a lot further. This is no Web 2.0 product. It is a relatively closed system, prohibiting full interaction with the Internet. Ideally, Expresso would open its software to let outside developers build programs for it. Also, while interactivity sounded intriguing before we got on the bike to try it out, the experience was less than we’d anticipated. There are realistic parts: If you start climbing a hill, you have to downshift gears and pedal much harder. But there are significant drawbacks: While the course on your screen turns corners, for example, your actual exercise bike doesn’t (it doesn’t lean, and moving handle bars does nothing).

The whole system, including the bike and software, costs $4,995.

The company also faces challenges in its efforts to sell to gyms and other for-profit fitness organizations. Those gyms often have few incentives to allow their customers to become too enraptured of the biking experience, because it means the customers will never leave, making it difficult to bring in new customers. Indeed, this is one reason why Expresso has been slow to open its system up to full interaction with the Web.

We mentioned this company two years ago, when it raised $4.5 million in its second round.

Sierra Ventures, a new investor to Expresso, led the latest round, and was joined by existing investor, San Diego-based Enterprise Partners Venture Capital.

Devicescape releases a software today that connects any of your WiFi devices automatically to a WiFi hotspot or muni network.

This is significant, because more cellphones are being equipped with WiFi, as the cost of WiFI chips hit bottom rates of $2. And by accessing WiFi with a Skype or other Internet (VoIP) phone, you can make cheap calls.

The service, a software download, automatically detects when there’s a Wifi network nearby; you can set the phone to vibrate, for example, to alert you when you’re near one. Phones, music players, or any other WiFi device can use the service. The device can also download subscribed information from Wifi hotspots, without you having to do anything.

The company has just raised an undisclosed amount of “millions” in a third round of capital, it told VentureBeat. This follows $12.2 millon it raised in January 2005 from firms including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Enterprise Partners Venture Capital, JAFCO Ventures, August Capital and Applied Materials.

Glenn Flinchbaugh, the company’s VP of products, said 300 cities across the U.S. are at some stage of deploying WiFi systems, and there are thousands of other hotspot providers, both free and paid. Devicescape lets your device communicate with even paid hotspots, but you have to pay to access it. Both the downloadable and pre-installed versions of the software interact with the Devicescape server to enable things like automatic hotspot login.

Devicescape’s chief competitor is Boingo, which aggregates WiFi networks for subscribers. Like Devicescape, Boingo has realized the promise of increasingly popular dual-mode phones, which work on GSM or WiFi (and thus make free Internet calls). However, Devicescape’s software is smaller, at 35KB, because it updates via communication with the Devicescape server. This gives it an advantage over Boingo’s MB-sized software, which has to store all of Boingo’s network information on the phone, which makes it not merely bulky, but costlier.

Devicescape hopes to make money by licensing its software to device manufaucturers. It will also strike partnerships with hotspot providers, getting a cut if it brings them more customers, said Flinchbaugh.

There will be more than 1 billion WiFi devices by 2010, according to Merrill Lynch.