Life-science briefing: Tuesday, March 18, 2008
TODAY’S HEADLINES:
Luminous Medical raises $24M for automated glucose monitoring (release)
Alimera Sciences gets $30M for eye-disease drug (release)
Vaccine maker LigoCyte draws $28M (release)
Heartbeat tracker CardioNet trims IPO, aims for listing today (IPOhome)
Axial Biotech takes in $6M for spinal diagnostics (release)
Insulin bioengineer enGene receives $6.4M (release)
GlucoLight raises funding for, well, glucose monitoring (release)
Germany’s InflaRx gets seed funding for sepsis work (release)
Cell imager Amnis pulls in $3.5M (VentureWire)
Korea Bone Bank gets funding for bone transplants (release)
Luminous Medical raises… Continue Reading
Update: Quellan raises $20M for mobile phone noise-reduction — delay on profitability
Quellan, a Santa Clara, Calif. company that reduces noise interference on weak wireless signals, said it has raised $20 million in a third round of financing.
[Update: The company, which originally said it would be profitable this year, now says it won't be profitable until the end of next year.]
The company has been around since 2001, but its strategy to boost cell reception is relatively recent. Its technology comes at a good time: Motorola’s RAZR phone… Continue Reading
Globespan Capital Partners raies fifth fund, at $380M
Globespan Capital Partners, a Palo Alto, Calif. venture capital firm, has raised $380 million for its fifth fund, and plans to invest a portion of it into Japanese technology companies, according to VentureWire (subscription required).
It is the first fund raised without investment from Jafco, the Japanese investment firm from which Globespun was originally a spin-out, according to Barry Schiffman, a co-founder of Globespan.
Globespan Capital Partners’ most recent fund, its fourth, raised in 2002, has a… Continue Reading
Agensys pulls in $41M for cancer drugs
Santa Monica, Calif.-based Agensys, a biotech focused on new cancer drugs, raised $41 million in a fourth funding round. Duquesne Capital Management and JAFCO led the round, joined by Innovis Investments, Nextech Venture, Bear Stearns Health Innoventures, Alta Partners, HBM BioVentures, Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch & Cie, H&Q Life Sciences Investments, and Orbimed Associates.
Agensys develops monoclonal antibodies designed to target surface proteins or other molecules that specifically identify tumor cells. Its first drug candidate, AGS-PSCA,… Continue Reading
RedSeal Systems, a security risk management co., raises $17.1M
RedSeal Systems, a Redwood City, Calif. security risk management company, said it has raised $17.1 million of new capital.
This round was led by Venrock Associates and included JAFCO Ventures and existing investors Sutter Hill Ventures and Leapfrog Ventures.
Announcement is here.
Avega, home entertainment wireless network co., raises $7M
Avega Systems, a company that helps manage entertainment and other content across wireless home networks, has raised $7 million in a second round of funding.
The investment was led by Cisco Systems, JAFCO Asia and Technology Venture Partners — and is just the latest move by Cisco to expand into the home.
Avega Systems has headquarters in Sunnyvale, Calif. and R&D based in Sydney, Australia.
From the statement:
Avega’s Aios™ technology platform is aimed at enabling whole-home, multi-zone… Continue Reading
Aperto, a WiMAX base station maker, raises $19M
Aperto Networks, builder of WiMAX base stations and subscriber units, said it has raised $19 million in a fifth round of capital, bringing the company’s total funding so far to a considerable $139 million.
Here is the announcement:
The latest infusion was led by GunnAllen Venture Partners and included participation existing investors including JK&B Capital, Canaan Partners, Alliance Ventures, Innovacom, JAFCO, Labrador Ventures, and Tyco.
PostPath, a corporate email server co., raises $15M more
PostPath, a Mountain View start-up that sells a corporate email server, one of several companies trying to take on Microsoft, has just raised more cash.
It has raised $15 million in a third round of funding, led by JAFCO, and including existing investors Matrix Partners and Worldview Technology Partners.
It wants to take market share away from Microsoft’s Exchange service, by making its Linux-based server compatible with Exchange, so that companies can use PostPath without having to… Continue Reading
Chip company ASML buys lithography co., Brion for $270M
Dutch chip company ASML Holding NV said it will buy Santa Clara’s Brion Technologies, a semiconductor design and wafer manufacturing company for $270 million, resulting in what appears to be a solid return for Brion’s multiple venture investors.
Brion’s computational lithography technology lets chip manufacturers “simulate the realized pattern of integrated circuits and to correct the mask pattern to optimize the manufacturing process and yield.”
Founded in 2002, Brion raised close to $30 million from a… Continue Reading
Drug maker Affymax to issue shares, despite doubling losses
Affymax, a Palo Alto biotech company that makes synthetic peptide-based drugs to treat kidney diseases and cancer, is planning an initial public offering it hope could bring it as much as $84 million.
Its lead product, Hematide, is in Phase 2 trials in patients with anemia due to chronic kidney disease. The drug is also being tested to treat anemia in patients undergoing chemotherapy for cancer. The company has said it expects to sell 3.5… Continue Reading
Clairmail lets you bank via SMS
(Updated with more info on security functions)
ClairMail, a Novato, Calif. start-up, allows customers to transact business through SMS or email from their mobile phones. It has raised $12 million in second round of funding.
A number of companies, including 4Info and Google, let users use text messaging to get information — such as movie listings, sports scores and weather. However, they don’t support transactions with banks. Only ClairMail has built out the secure infrastructure to do… Continue Reading