Smart grid investments come hot and heavy — SmartSynch gets another $20M for talkative electrical meters
Two days ago it was Optimal Technologies with $25 million toward software for electrical grids; today, it’s SmartSynch with $20 million for wirelessly communicating meters. I haven’t gone back and done an official count, but with well over half a dozen large fundings in the past few months, the efficiency-focused smart grid space looks to have emerged as the hot cleantech venture space du jour.
“Smart grid” is a catch-all term for a number of technologies… Continue Reading
Fast, cheap gene-scanner BioNanomatrix gets $5M
BioNanomatrix, a Philadelphia developer of genome-analysis systems, raised $5.1 million in a first funding round. Investors included Battelle Ventures, Innovation Valley Partners, KT Venture Group, Ben Franklin Technology Partners and21Ventures.
BioNanomatrix is developing a single-molecule imaging and analysis system that the startup says is ideal for reading DNA sequences. The startup still isn’t divulging many details about its system, although the Philadelphia Inquirer suggested that the company’s “nanofluidics” technology could potentially read all three billion bases from a single DNA molecule without chopping it… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2007
TODAY’S HEADLINES:
Cancer stem-cell co. OncoMed strikes GSK partnership worth up to $1.4B (release)
Kosmix pulls in $10M for health, lifestyle search (release)
CDI Bioscience pulls in $3M for protein-production improvements (release)
UroMedica takes in $7M for incontinence devices (VentureWire, sub req’d)
Draths raises $2.5M for flu drugs (PE Hub)
Cancer stem-cell co. OncoMed strikes GSK partnership worth up to $1.4B – Redwood City, Calif.-based OncoMed Pharmaceuticals, a biotech founded to target and destroy the “cancer stem cells” that researchers believe may… Continue Reading
Battelle Ventures invests $8M in cleantech startups
Battelle Ventures and an affiliate fund, Innovation Valley Partners, have together invested $8 million in three cleantech energy companies: Aldis, Ampulse and Planar.
Aldis, a company that manages municipal traffic lights to significantly reduce energy costs, received $1.9 million in its first funding, alongside a commitment for the same amount based on future milestones.
Ampulse, a company spun out from Oak Ridge National Laboratory to commercialize a thin-film photovoltaic technology, received $1 million in initial funding.
Finally, Planar… Continue Reading