Despite the downturn, financing is plentiful for cleantech
By now, most people have resigned themselves to a significant and prolonged recession due to the banking crisis. For many investors and entrepreneurs, there’s a feeling of certainty that the technology industry will also be hurt. But a significant number of others, especially in cleantech, are saying that a recession might not be as damaging as expected.
Cleantech is something of a special case in tech. It’s a new industry, but one that aspires to quickly… Continue Reading
Mobile app maker MobUI acquires Action Engine to extend reach
MobUI Corp., a young mobile application developer, announced today that it has bought peer company Action Engine Corp. The latter has a software platform that streamlines the process of adapting one application to different handhelds and carriers, which could help MobUI scale. The cost of the acquisition hasn’t been released, and it’s unclear whether Action Engine executives cashed out or took equity in MobUI.
Bellevue, Wash.-based Action Engine had raised $65 million in venture capital before… Continue Reading
Roundup: Feds offering short-term loans, presidential debates live online, Silver Spring gets a big raise, and more
Feds now providing short-term debt — The Federal Reserve will provide money for companies to finance their day-to-day activities, in the government’s latest effort to staunch bleeding in the credit markets.
Live presidential debates hit the web — Hulu will stream tonight’s presidential debate live, something of a breakthrough for Internet TV.
Smart grid co. Silver Spring Networks raises $75M — Rapidly growing energy efficiency startup Silver Spring Networks, which makes communications equipment that connects utilities to electricity consumers, has… Continue Reading
Dexterra raises $21.5M to expand mobile platform, carrier partnerships
Mobile business software provider Dexterra announced today that it scored $21.5 million in sixth round financing from existing investors led by New Enterprise Associates and including Canaan Partners, Intel Capital, Mesirow Financial, Motorola Ventures and Sigma Partners. This brings the company’s total funding to $106.5 million.
Bothell, Wash.-based Dexterra develops mobile applications to meet different business needs and the software used to distribute them wirelessly to employees’ phones. One application would let a service company track… Continue Reading
HealthiNation brings in $7.5M to produce online health videos
HealthiNation, a New York-based company that produces videos for television and the web addressing all aspects of personal health, has raised $7.5 million in a second round of funding, VentureWire reports. Contributions came from MK Capital and new investor Intel Capital, which led the round.
Founded in 2005, HealthiNation primarily distributes its videos through cable television networks that reach 20 million homes. Hoping to take its business model online, the company has forged content hosting partnerships… Continue Reading
InMage gets $15M for enterprise data backup
InMage Systems, a data backup and recovery company that serves small and large enterprises, has raised $15 million in a round led by Intel Capital.
DR-Scout is the company’s main product. It allows continuing access to data during “critical” events and provides both regular backup and disaster recovery of data.
Other investors in the round included Hummer Winblad Venture Partners and InMage’s chairman, Kumar Malavalli. The company’s previous round, its second, provided it with $10 million in… Continue Reading
3Leaf Systems raises $35 million round for enterprise virtualization technology
Virtualization technology is still buzzing with activity, as its adoption by large companies remains one of the biggest trends in the economy right now.
Virtualization grabbed headlines 13 months ago, when VMware raised nearly $1 billion in an initial public offering. Now virtualization chip maker 3Leaf Systems has raised $35 million in a third round of funding to expand its offering.
Virtualization technology saves money for big companies, because it reduces the number of machines or other… Continue Reading
MyPunchbowl serves up a $2.1 million second round
Punchbowl Software, the parent company of online event planning site MyPunchbowl has raised its second round of funding. The money comes as the site is growing quickly. The site claims its traffic has grown at least 20 percent each month over the past year and data from Compete seems to back this up.
MyPunchbowl offers a step-by-step way to easily create online invitations. It’s helpful in every aspect of an event from picking a date, to… Continue Reading
Mobile company UIEvolution raises Intel funding as it spins off from Square Enix
UIEvolution, a mobile technology startup that was acquired by video game maker Square Enix in 2004, is making a second go-round as an independent company, and it just raised funding from Intel Capital. The company isn’t disclosing the amount, but the Puget Sound Business Journal reports that it was $5 million.
The Bellevue, Wash. startup offers a number of tools for the creation and delivery of mobile content. UIEvolution claims its platform delivers rich media content… Continue Reading
Envivio raises $25M for video compression
Envivio, a South San Francisco, Calif. company that handles video compression for broadcasting companies, has taken a significant $25 million financing.
The platforms that Envivio is aimed at include most of the largest markets — mobile TV, Internet TV and IPTV. The company works with standard video compression codecs like H.264 and Windows Media Video to make content more easily deliverable.
The funding amount is large, but not surprising. As video grows on the Internet, a number… Continue Reading
Fonality raises $12M for small business phone systems
Fonality, a company that provides Internet phone systems to small- and medium-sized businesses, has raised $12 million in a fourth round of funding.
Dan Rosenthal, the vice president of finance, says Fonality’s goal is to create an open source software application that provides everything that a small business might need in a call center. Services include instant messaging, land-line calling, mobile calling, voicemail, customer relationship management (CRM) and more.
While there are other Internet telephone companies out… Continue Reading
Aicent gets Intel Capital funding for wireless roaming technology
As part of an effort to invest in future phone networks, Intel is announcing that it has invested $3 million in Aicent.
San Jose, Calif.-based Aicent has built one of the world’s largest multimedia messaging exchanges for cell-phone carriers so that consumers can get their messages wherever they roam. It does so by building a bridge between the Internet and mobile phone networks so that messages can be forwarded efficiently and at lowest cost.
The Intel Capital… Continue Reading
From the ashes of the graphics wars, another start-up
It seems obvious that the graphics chip wars are done, as far as start-ups are concerned. Intel is squaring off against Advanced Micro Devices (which bought ATI Technologies) and Nvidia. There is no obvious nook in this multibillion-dollar market where a start-up could thrive.
But somebody forgot to tell that to the folks at LucidLogix Technologies, an Israeli graphics start-up that came out of stealth today. They’re not doing a graphics chip. Rather, they’re doing a… Continue Reading
IDF: Intel gets behind start-up MetaRAM’s server memory solution
Silicon Valley start-up MetaRAM is announcing its second-generation chip set today with backing from Intel. MetaRAM’s technology can quadruple the memory capacity in a server, cutting the server costs as much as 90 percent. The Intel endorsement is a big win for a little San Jose company that has proven more clever than giant memory chip makers.
It’s no surprise that Intel will give MetaRAM some of the limelight at its “digital enterprise” keynote speech today… Continue Reading
Plastic Logic sees flexible, low-power displays coming with $50M funding
Thin, flexible display tech is one of those advances that has been just over the horizon since the Internet bubble started inflating. Remember the promises of e-paper — a crossbreed with the best qualities of both paper and computer screens, used as portable reading material? So far the best we’ve gotten is the Amazon Kindle, but Plastic Logic is hoping to change that, with a plan for commercialization next year.
Plastic Logic, spun off from Cambridge… Continue Reading
Voltaix raises $12.5 million from Intel Capital for hybrid solar/chip fabrication material
Voltaix is in an interesting position as a maker of chemicals and gases that can be used in the production of both solar cells and semiconductor chips. That may explain why it has received $12.5 million from Intel Capital.
The Branchburg, N.J.-based company said today that it will use the investment to accelerate its manufacturing capacity expansion. The company makes materials used to process semiconductor chips and it also makes CVD precursors to make thin-film solar… Continue Reading
Three Indian companies: Yatra.com, BuzzInTown.com and Emnet Samsara Media get funding
Intel Capital is going all over the map both literally and in terms of the types of sites it’s investing in. Three recent ones are all based in India. They include: Yatra.com, an online travel portal, BuzzInTown.com, a social networking Web site, and Emnet Samsara Media Pvt. Ltd., an advertising company, according to VentureWire.
Intel Capital is the investment wing of computer chip maker Intel Corp. The company apparently has a $250 million Intel Capital India… Continue Reading
Microsoft acquires DATAllegro data warehouse appliance company
Microsoft has acquired data warehouse appliance maker DATAllegro in an attempt to strengthen its presence in the enterprise business intelligence market.
DATAllegro specializes in large-volume, high-performance data warehouse appliances with anywhere from 1 terabyte of data to hundreds of terabytes. Microsoft said the addition of DATAllegro means that its SQL Server product will now scale to large-scale data warehouses. Microsoft said it would retain most of DATAllegro’s team in Aliso Viejo, Calif.
Terms of the deal were… Continue Reading
Roundup: Executives leave, hackers move in, robots invade
Microsoft’s Kevin Johnson moves to Juniper Networks — Microsoft’s lead on the failed Yahoo acquisition has called it quits, heading for the top post at software and device firm Juniper Networks. Johnson was the president of Platforms and Services, which meant he oversaw most of Microsoft’s web initiatives.
Xobni’s first employee heads to the Xobtuo — Gabor Cselle, a vice president and the first official employee at email startup Xobni, has resigned, stating that he wants to start… Continue Reading
Fast gene sequencing in two years? Investors bet $100M on Pacific BioSciences making it happen
Representing a potential medical quantum leap similar to, but even more important than the commercialization of X-ray imaging, Pacific BioSciences has taken a whopping $100 million to make it possible to affordably map out an individual’s entire genome in a matter of minutes, and for under $1,000 dollars.
While several startups, including 23andMe and deCODEme, are already offering cheap genetic testing for individuals, the technology Pacific Bio is looking at is about as different from those… Continue Reading