Ozmo takes $7.5M for wireless personal area networks
Ozmo Devices, provider of wireless personal area networks for consumers to run battery-powered devices for cheap, has taken in $7.5 million in a third round of funding targeted at $10 million from Granite Ventures, Intel Capital and Tallwood Venture Capital. The Palo Alto, Calif. company has now raised $32.5 million, including the $3.75 million it raised at the end of July, as part of this recent round.
Pelican scoops up $7M for computational cameras
Pelican Imaging, a company specializing in computational cameras, has brought in $7 million in a first round of funding, according to PE Hub. Recent backers of the Soquel, Calif., company include Granite Ventures and InterWest Partners.
Ozmo snags $3.75M for wireless personal area networks
Ozmo Devices, provider of technology that allows users to create wireless personal area networks for battery-operated devices at low prices, has raised $3.75 million toward an anticipated $10 million round of equity, according to PE Hub. Part of this sum came from the conversion of $750,000 in promissory notes acquired in June. The Palo Alto, Calif., company previously raised $12.5 million. It is backed by Granite Ventures, Intel Capital and Tallwood Venture Capital.
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.
Wireless media delivery co. Digital Fountain sells to Qualcomm
Digital Fountain, a company specializing in sending media over wireless networks — especially streaming video — just sold to San Deigo goliath Qualcomm. It’s unclear whether the flagging economy played a role, but the Fremont, Calif. company may have been running short on funds. It had raised a total of $45 million over several rounds of funding since its inception in 1999, most recently pulling in $5 million in a fifth pass in 2004. Past… Continue Reading
Ocarina-creator Smule raises $3.9M to make iPhones musical
Smule, which makes interactive music applications for the iPhone, has raised $3.9 million in a second round of funding.
The Menlo Park, Calif. company made a splash last year with its Ocarina app, which turns your iPhone into a musical instrument and allows you to share and listen to Ocarina music from around the world. Ocarina was one of the best-selling paid apps in Apple’s App Store and showed up on virtually every year-end top 10… Continue Reading
Lucid Imagination: Open source competition in enterprise search
A San Mateo, Calif. startup called Lucid Imagination is launching today with the goal of supporting (and making money from) Apache Lucene and Solr, open source search products that power high-profile websites like Netflix and Ticketmaster.
The “enterprise search” market, which covers both web site search software and tools for internal search within a business, has some big players — like Autonomy, Microsoft-owned Fast, and search’s 800-pound gorilla, Google. But Lucene (the search library) and Solr… Continue Reading
DecisionView lands financing to optimize clinical trials
DecisionView, developer of software applications that streamline the clinical trials process for biotech and pharmaceutical companies, announced today that it closed a fourth-round of funding earmarked for product development — including additional work on its top offering, the StudyOptimizer.
The San Francisco-based company claims that the StudyOptimizer is the first web-based application for clinical trial enrollment, a cumbersome process that can sometimes stall drugs and devices for months, if not indefinitely. In facilitating the recruitment of… Continue Reading
Former Yahoo executive takes CEO job at Bunchball
In the past few years, Bunchball has figured out how to get consumers more engaged in web sites by making them as addictive as video games. Now it has recruited a former Yahoo executive to move on its game plan.
Peter Daboll, former chief of insights at Yahoo, has joined Bunchball as chief executive, becoming part of the official brain drain at the search giant. Rajat Paharia, founder of Bunchball, will stay aboard as chief product… Continue Reading
PowerGenix gets $30M for electric scooter batteries
Alt-chemistry battery maker PowerGenix has significantly upped its funding with a $30 million fourth round. The company plans to make batteries for electric vehicles, power tools, electronics and other applications.
One of PowerGenix’s most ambitious plans is to crack into the market for electric scooters, which we recently covered. Its nickel-zinc (NiZn) batteries are cheaper than lithium-ion, the best battery type available, yet more powerful than standard lead-acids.
The company also has potential markets in hybrid electric… Continue Reading
YottaMark: Worrying about your tomatoes so you don’t have to
I remember a care-free time when salmonella and E. Coli were confined to rotten eggs, bad meat and the occasional unfortunate fast-food chain. That age of innocence has passed. Now dangerous bacteria could be everywhere, not only in your beef but in your packaged spinach, your green onions — even that innocent-looking jalapeno you’re about to eat. But YottaMark, a Redwood City, Calif. company, has just raised a $10 million second round of funding to… Continue Reading
Arcot Systems pulls down $23 million for digital authentication
As more people handle tasks that require personal verification online, digital signatures are increasingly important.
Arcot Systems, which does digital-based signatures has raised a second round of funding. The money will no doubt be used to expand its operations in digital authentication.
The $23 million round was participated in by Accel Partners, Goldman Sachs, ONSET Ventures, Granite Ventures and Vedanta Capita.
The Sunnvale, Calif.-based Arcot Systems recently developed a token that Google can give business users of its… Continue Reading
PSS Systems gets another $18M for legal document software
PSS Systems, which dubs itself as “the standard for legal hold and management software” (basically document policy software), has closed a fourth round of funding
The plan is to use the money to expand PSS Systems’ legal governance product portfolio and its presence in the US and European markets. The company is not yet profitable, but expects to be this year.
PSS Systems’ retention and prevention software packages are used by several large corporations including Citigroup, Merrill… Continue Reading
Crowd Science offers demographic data for mid-sized blogs, but how big is the market?
When it comes to their audiences, most blogs have a knowledge gap: while Google Analytics is wonderful for determining the sources and volume of their traffic, it tells them very little about the people that constitute it.
Expensive traffic measurement services like ComScore and Hitwise, which analyze audiences by recruiting large groups of people and following their surfing patterns, work well for sites with tens of millions of visitors, but their utility starts to wane for… Continue Reading
PowerGenix hopes to overtake NiMH dominance with alt-chemistry rechargeable batteries
With the market for hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) finally starting to heat up in earnest, several companies are making big bets on advanced rechargeable battery technologies. One of these is PowerGenix, a San Diego, Calif.-based startup that makes nickel-zinc (NiZn) batteries.
Another is ZPower, a startup that hopes to oust lithium ion as the dominant technology by developing advanced silver-zinc (AgZn) batteries. While they offer greater power density, AgZn batteries haven’t been used much because they… Continue Reading
Biz360 gets more funding, says market research business is still wide open
There has been no shortage of attention to market research in the past few years. Established business like Nielsen and J.D. Power have struggled to encompass the Internet and use its information to give their clients a better idea of how new products are seen by consumers. Where they’ve fallen short, multiple startups have bloomed to do a better job.
The innovation has led to plenty of acquisitions: Umbria, Buzzmetrics, Telephia, Audience Analytics and others have… Continue Reading
MK Capital finalizes acquisition of Kontiki from Verisign
MK Capital has completed its previously announced acquisition of content delivery network Kontiki from Verisign for an undisclosed price. The companies plan to announce the deal this morning.
As announced, Verisign is likely divesting Kontiki for a price lower than the $62 million it paid for it two years ago. MK Capital is one of the venture capital companies that provided initial funding to Kontiki before the Verisign acquisition. Verisign started looking for a buyer for… Continue Reading
Fulcrum Microsystems creates alliance for partners and raises $29 million round
Fulcrum Microsystems has created an alliance for its partners to adopt its chips more quickly and has raised $29.2 million in venture capital.
The Calabasas, Calif., chip company has now raised nearly $100 million in five rounds since its founding in 2000. That’s a big chunk of change and it has been able to do so because its esoteric chip architecture has paid off, said Mike Zeile, vice president of marketing, in an interview. The result… Continue Reading
SellPoint creates salesperson for the web
Every part of our visual life is being taken over by video.
SellPoint is just the latest company to conspire with the takeover: The start-up produces online video tours for products, and is replacing that comely sales representative who once greeted you at your neighborly electronics store. To develop the tours, SellPoint studied everything an on-site salesperson might provide, then tried to offer an online equivalent. Potential buyers can look at a product, of course, but… Continue Reading
Bunchball learns from games on Facebook, creates its own for shows like The Office
Bunchball masquerades as a network of casual game widgets that you play within a social network like Facebook — not unlike competitors Zynga and the Social Gaming Network. But it’s really doing much more. It collects data about your behavior when you play, and uses that data to build games and virtual worlds for the web sites of TV shows and movies, such as this one for The Office.
These games are supposed to give media… Continue Reading