Online ad network Brand.net raises $10 million
Brand.net is an online ad network that claims to be the first of its hundreds of competitors to focus “exclusively on brand advertising.” Unlike many ad networks, it doesn’t “own or ‘rep’” web site publisher inventory. The San Mateo, Calif. company has raised $10 million… Continue Reading
InterWest closes $650M fund
InterWest Partners has closed its tenth fund at $650 million. The firm plans to invest in early-stage life science and information technology companies, with the new money backing between 25 and 30 startups in each sector.
The Menlo Park, Calif, firm has also promoted three team… Continue Reading
Alvine Pharmaceuticals raises $26 million for disease research
San Carlos, Calif. company Alvine Pharmaceuticals recently added $5 million to its first venture round, bringing total funding to $26 million, according to VentureWire.
Alvine’s research focuses on treatment for autoimmune and gastrointestinal diseases, and it started clinical trials in February for its treatment of celiac… Continue Reading
RockYou between a funding rock and an acquisition
RockYou, the fast-growing online widget company — that lets you post images and slideshows in social networks and other web sites — has apparently hit a major juncture in its decision to raise funding or not. And I’m wondering if it may have decided to… Continue Reading
Price-setting company SignalDemand gets $20M
SignalDemand, a startup that delivers software-as-a-service to help manufacturers set their prices, has raised a hefty $20 million second round of funding.
Chief executive Michael Neal says the money will go toward international expansion and to continue SignalDemand’s “march across verticals.” The company focuses on “disassembly”… Continue Reading
Life-science briefing: Tuesday, March 25, 2008
TODAY’S HEADLINES:
Antibody-discovery startup Adimab raises new funding (release)
Lung-device maker Spiration gets $19M (release)
Sample-prep startup Protein Discovery pulls in $10M (release)
Inogen takes in $13M for portable oxygen device (VentureWire)
Healthcare IT concern Medaptus raises $11M for expansion (VentureWire)
Contract lab Synexis raises $14M (peHUB)
Medical-device VC firm BioStar Ventures takes… Continue Reading
Life-science briefing: Monday, March 24, 2008
TODAY’S HEADLINES:
Trius Therapeutics raises $30M for new antibiotics (release)
Genomas gets $1.2M grant for genomic side-effect tests (release)
Provasculon receives $500K, enters Biogen Idec incubator (VentureWire)
Animal diagnostics firm Quadraspec aims for $5M round (VentureWire)
MPM Capital names two executive partners (release)
Trius Therapeutics raises $30M for new antibiotics – Trius… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Friday, Feb. 15, 2008
TODAY’S HEADLINES:
Q Thera takes in $15M for neural stem-cell treatments (release)
Stroke clotbuster Concentric Medical withdraws IPO (IPOhome)
Avera recaps with $9M to relaunch human tests of GI drug (VentureWire)
Tissue repairer Nerites raises $5.7M (release)
Semafore Pharma aims for $7.5M to launch new cancer-drug trials (VentureWire)
Triage Wireless gets… Continue Reading
Achates Power, a clean diesel engine startup, funded by Sequoia
Investments in clean-burning combustion engines are picking up, as VCs bet that batteries and exotic fuels like hydrogen won’t be the end of the story for powering automobiles.
The latest is Achates Power, a San Diego, Calif. startup working on a clean diesel. Although details are… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2008
TODAY’S HEADLINES:
CyberHeart pumps in $9M for cardiac-arrhythmia treatment (release)
Incubator ForSight launches third device company with $6M funding (release)
Primera Biosystems raises $21M for molecular diagnostics (release)
Biogen Idec, PDL BioPharma take stakes in Ophthotech (release)
Technitrol acquires medical-device component maker Sonion for $385M (release)
DLJ Merchant Banking takes control… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Friday, Jan. 4, 2008
TODAY’S HEADLINES:
Follica pulls out $5.5M for hair loss (release)
WuXi PharmaTech to acquire AppTec Lab for $151 million (release)
U.S. Venture Partners names Laurence Lasky a venture partner (PDF release)
Burrill & Co. promotes several life-science VCs (release)
SV Life Sciences promotes Darren Black to partner (release)
Follica pulls out… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2007
TODAY’S HEADLINES:
Gene-silencing developer Santaris raises €20M (PDF release)
Consumer-driven healthcare manager RedBrick Health prescribed $15M (release)
Cardiac Dimensions takes in $36M for heart-valve device (release)
TcLand Expressions gets €8.2M for biomarkers (PDF release)
TheraQuest Bio gets $3M for pain drugs (release)
Brain-software maker NeuroTrax visualizes $1.5M (VentureWire)
ActivBiotics selling off assets… Continue Reading
Roundup: Invidi funded by WPP, Amazon, Google and more
1. Invidi gets $25 million from WPP, the world’s second largest ad conglomerate
2. Amazon building out its webs services
3. Atheros Communications buys micro GPS company
4. Google may be looking at wireless spectrum in the UK
5. Tiny Pictures, a mobile photo-sharing company, adds international language support
Invidi… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Monday, Nov. 26, 2007
Featured companies: Biospace Med, Carbylan BioSurgery, GVK BioSciences, IntraSafe Medical, InViragen, Medingo, ParadigmHealth, Precimed, SV Life Sciences
UPDATED: Expanded items on Carbylan, Medingo, and GVK Biosciences.
Carbylan raises $20M for arthritis, sinusitis drug implants — Palo Alto, Calif.-based Carbylan BioSurgery, a medical-device maker focused on polymer-based drug-delivery technologies, raised… Continue Reading
Staccato raises $17.5M for wireless device technology
Staccato Communications, a San Diego, Calif. maker of semiconductors and equipment that wirelessly connect devices to personal computers, has raised $17.5 million in financing, bringing its total to $53 million.
Investors include Allegis Capital, Bay Partners, Charles River Ventures, Formative Ventures, Interwest Partners and Vision Capital.
Life sciences briefing: Friday, Sept. 28, 2007
Featured companies: Imalux, Sagent Pharmaceuticals, Sequel Pharmaceuticals, Sinexus, TranS1, U.S. Spinal Technologies
Sagent Pharmaceuticals draws in $53M for injectable generics — Sagent Pharmaceuticals, proving that there’s still life in the apparently lucrative but boring specialty-pharmaceuticals business, raised $53 million in a first funding round. Vivo Ventures led… Continue Reading
Kajeet’s phone for kids, will it avoid pitfalls of predecessors?
updated
In a highly risky strategy of piggy-backing on other carriers’ networks, Kajeet has raised $36.8 million in a second round of financing to offer cellphone services to tweens and teens.
It offers a dashboard for parents to control when the phone can and can not be… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Monday, Aug. 13, 2007
(UPDATED: See below.)
Featured companies: FoldRx Pharmaceuticals, Ophthotech, Pevion Biotech, Restoration Robotics, Glide Pharma, Reliant Pharmaceuticals, Nanosphere, SurModics, BioFX Laboratories
FoldRx Pharma to receive $22M against cystic fibrosis — Cambridge, Mass.-based FoldRx Pharmaceuticals, a biotech focused on diseases that result from misfolded proteins, will get $22 million over the… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Thursday, Aug. 9, 2007
(UPDATED at 6:40pm PT: See below.)
Featured companies: Nereus Phramaceuticals, KFx Medical, NeuroMed Pharmaceuticals, Adnexus Therapeutics, Masimo, Biofisica, Aegera Therapeutics, LymphoSign, InfuScience, Palmetto Infusion Services
Nereus Pharma raises $45M for ocean-derived cancer drugs — San Diego’s Nereus Pharmaceuticals, a biotech that searches for cancer drugs in marine microbes, raised… Continue Reading
Right90, Web-based sales forecasting company, raises $12M more
Right90, a Foster City, Calif. company that provides Web-based sales forecasting for tech and manufacturing companies, has raised $12 million in a second round of financing.
InterWest Partners led the deal, and existing investors Shasta Ventures and US Venture Partners participated.
Here is the company’s statement.
Its customers… Continue Reading