iPierian snags $3.7M grant from NIH for cell reprogramming
iPierian, a South San Francisco-based company that’s researching the use of cellular reprogramming for drug discovery applications, has been selected by the National Institutes of Health for a $3.7 million grant to continue work on these topics in tandem with Johns Hopkins University.
The two-year “Great… Continue Reading
Live event ticket search engine FanSnap lands $5M
FanSnap, one of the more visible startups competing with Ticketmaster as a live event ticket destination (even though it doesn’t sell tickets itself, it just aggregates them), has raised $5 million in a new round of funding from Highland Capital Partners. The site says it… Continue Reading
iZumi Bio merges with Pierian to fuel stem cell technology
iZumi Bio, a research firm specializing in stem-cell research used to create a range of treatments, has merged with a similar company, Pierian, to advance development of regenerative medical therapies. At the same time, the new entity — iPierian — has taken in $11.5 million… Continue Reading
Hyperion raises $60M to battle urea cycle disorders
Hyperion Therapeutics, developer of treatments for urea cycle disorders and illnesses, has brought in $60 million in a third round of financing from Bay City Capital, Panorama Capital, Highland Capital Partners, New Enterprise Associates and Sofinnova Ventures.
Based in South San Francisco, the company recently completed… Continue Reading
MokaFive snags $5M for virtualization software
MokaFive, maker of computer virtualization software, says it brought in $5 million of an expected $7.5 million round of debt financing. Based in Redwood City, Calif., the company has not disclosed its recent investors. However, it previously raised a $15 million second round of funding… Continue Reading
Hyperion brings in $13M for gastrointestinal relief
Hyperion Therapeutics, maker of pharmaceuticals to treat hepatology and gastrointenstinal conditions, has raised $13 million of an anticipated $15 million round of debt, according to VentureWire. Contributors have not been disclosed, but the South San Francisco, Calif. company had previously raked in $40 million in… Continue Reading
Redbrick gets a $15M boost for incentive-based health insurance
Redbrick Health, provider of employer insurance that bases employee premiums on their behavior, has scored $15 million in a third round of funding led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. The Minneapolis, Minn.-based firm says the system is designed to encourage insurance recipients to adopt… Continue Reading
Quigo founder launches new ad network with Doclix
The bumper crop of ad networks divvying up the digital landscape just got a new addition: Doclix, provide of a pay-per-click network called AdSide that says its technology will drive more traffic and ensure better ad quality and placement. While this isn’t a terribly original… Continue Reading
Ocarina Networks lands $20M for content compression
Ocarina Networks, maker of software that compresses content to reduce online storage demands, announced today that it has brought in $20 million in a second round of funding to beef up its sales force, refine its technology and forge more partnerships with storage providers like… Continue Reading
VC-backed Cash4Gold attracts complaints (updated)
[Updated: Cash4Gold representative Weronika Cwir has responded, and vehemently denied many of the allegations made in this article. She said the main source VentureBeat quoted was a short-term employee terminated by the company who has malicious intent. Below is her response in italics:]
Virtually every point… Continue Reading
Domain marketplace NameMedia cancels IPO
NameMedia, a popular domain name marketplace, has abandoned its plans to go public. It first filed for the anticipated $172.5 million sale in November 2007, but says current market conditions are too poor to go forward at this time. Formerly called YesDirect, it was going… Continue Reading
Why hasn’t Digg made any progress? It’s worth only $164M now
Has the news site Digg really made no progress in two years?
That’s what you’d have to conclude from the value investors are placing on Digg after their most recent investment: $164 million.
You’ll remember the hyped BusinessWeek article from more than two years ago that reported… Continue Reading
BAROnova pulls in funds for weight-loss tech
Medical technology company BAROnova announced today that it brought in $7.5 million in a second round of funding led by pharmaceutical firm Allergan. It plans to use the money to continue developing a weight loss device called the TransPyloric Shuttle.
Basically, the shuttle is installed at… Continue Reading
Turbine picks up $40 million, keeps mum about its next steps
Jim Crowley, the CEO of Turbine, isn’t an easy man to get a straight answer from. I heard that his company, which makes “massively multiplayer online” games such as “The Lord of the Rings Online,” was raising a new round of venture capital about a… Continue Reading
MMO game publisher Turbine raising $40M; former CEO launches Play Hard Sports
Turbine, a game publisher that makes massively-multiplayer online games but may soon be enacting a major strategic shift, is in the process of taking $40 million in new funding led by Granite Global Ventures, according to Dan Primack.
While its Lords of the Ring Online: Shadows… Continue Reading
Imprivata, a secure access innovator, raises $15M
Imprivata is a Lexington, Mass. company that is working on single sign-on authentication technology, which consolidates all of a corporate user’s accounts to a single password and adds additional security measures to prevent hackers.
The company’s software works together with physical location trackers like keycards, so… Continue Reading
Web analytics company Coremetrics raises $60M
Coremetrics, one of many analytics companies trying to help website owners understand and market to their visitors, has raised $60 million in a fifth round of financing.
Back in 2006, we said there was some real demand in this area, but probably not enough to support… Continue Reading
Roundup: Social network Hi5 launches its developer platform, Facebook does regular old targeted advertising, and more
Here the latest action:
Social network Hi5 publicly launches its developer platform — San Francisco-based Hi5 may be a big opportunity for developers of third-party applications that live on social networks. It is popular in places like Portugal, Thailand and select countries of Latin America. Overall,… Continue Reading
CafeMom cooks up $12M more in funding
While the big names in the social networking world, Facebook and MySpace, get most of the headlines, several niche networks are out there signing up millions of users. One such network is CafeMom, a social network for mothers, that has just raised a new round… Continue Reading
LIfe sciences briefing: Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2007
TODAY’S HEADLINES:
Pervasis Thera pulls in $9.8M for regenerative medicine (release)
Embrella Cardio receives $2.3M for stroke-prevention heart-surgery devices (release)
Vivendy Thera raises CHF 17M for rare-disease drug (Private Equity Europe)
Novacta Bio gets £3.5M grant for anti-infective drugs (release)
Metavante acquires health-plan admin software co. Bensoft (release)
Pharma-marketing analyst ImpactRx… Continue Reading