VentureBeat

MobiTV, a heavily funded provider of white-label streaming video services, says it is adding a million subscribers to every six months. The Emeryville, Calif.-based company offers video streaming to any internet-connected device, but focuses on working with carriers and operators to provide professionally-produced television on mobile devices.

Now it’s just raised $5 million from Leader Ventures — on top of $125 million it has already raised from venture firms Gefinor Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, private equity firm Oak Investment Partners and strategic investors Adobe Systems Inc. and Hearst Corp.

The money is intended to pay for equipment costs.

While MobiTV already offers hosted services — chiefly for streaming mobile TV programs from ESPN, NBC, FOX Business Network and other broadcasters — it also recently launched another service that gives partners direct access to its server technology through a licensing program.

Of course, users are able to access streaming video onto many different devices, using a variety of types of video streaming services. On the web, there are consumer-facing sites (like YouTube) that offer infrastructure to other services, and also a whole range of video streaming provider companies (like Move Networks, Brightcove, Maven Networks, Joost and others). On the mobile side, where MobiTV is focusing now, there are even mobile-browser-based video sharing sites, like MyWaves.

Updated

Travel search engine Kayak has taken on $196 million in additional funding from a prominent group of investors.

It has separately purchased main rival SideStep for $180 million, as well as $20 million in the company’s bank account for a total of $200, Techcrunch first reported. [Update: We now hear from a source that the total sale was for slightly less: $175 million plus $18 million in cash, for a total of $193 million.]

Together, the companies will aim for a “tremendous” initial public offering next year, said Woody Marshall of Trident Capital, an early investor in SideStep, confirming the news.

[Update: The company itself is demure about the possibility of an IPO, saying instead that it wants to focus on being the number one travel site in the coming year.]

There has already been “strategic interest” in both companies — potential acquirers — Marshall said.

Both provide search-based travel sites where users can find travel information such airline flights, car rentals, hotel reservations, and discount travel deals. Search results may send you to other aggregators, like Orbitz, or online travel agencies. SideStep also offers travel guides, hotel reviews and downloadable toolbar, that will now be accessible by Kayak users.

Norwalk, Connecticut-based Kayak and Santa Clara, Calif.-based Sidestep are the two market leaders in this search vertical (see Hitwise graph below), and have mostly separate user bases, according to Marshall (note: He’s no relation to Matt Marshall, VentureBeat’s editor) .

Smaller travel search competitors include Farecast, Mobissimo, cFares, Tripit, niche travel products, off-the-beaten-path vacation search Tripology, and many others. The larger of these startups may now be acquisition bait, as leading travel sites like Expedia and Orbitz or large internet companies like Yahoo and Google look to expand their travel search services.

Kayak will be the main brand, and Sidestep will use Kayak’s search technology, although Sidestep will keep its brand, Marshall said. Key members of SideStep will join Kayak’s team. The companies say they will combine travel data, such as travel rates and availability, and other services. Affiliate partners of the companies include: About.com, Comcast, LonelyPlanet, Rand McNally and USA Today.

Both companies are generating large amounts of cash through CPM (where advertisers pay per thousand advertising views), CPA (where advertisers pay when a user actually buys a fare or ticket) and CPC advertising (where advertisers pay when a user clicks through to their site), according to Marshall. The Techcrunch article reports Kayak is doing roughly $50 million in annual revenues, while SideStep does $35 million.

The advantage of an IPO will be to boost the company’s brand awareness. Cash isn’t the paramount consideration, since the merged company already has ample funds for further expansion, Marshall says.

Both companies have racked up venture capital funding. Kayak took funding from General Catalyst, a Boston firm that first looked at Sidestep (see here), as well as Sequoia (Michael Moritz was the lead investor, and will now join Kayak’s board), Accel Partners, and AOL. Our previous coverage here.

Sidestep has taken a total of $27 million in funding from Trident Capital, Leader Ventures, Saints Capital, Norwest Venture Partners. Our previous coverage here.

Sequoia, Accel, General Catalyst, Trident and Norwest put money into this latest round, along with new investors Oak Investment Partners and Lehman Brothers Venture Partners, and debt lenders Silicon Valley Bank and Gold Hill Capital.

(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 $45 million in a follow-on to its fourth funding round.

The company features an all-star lineup of investors, which includes BankInvest, Roche Venture Fund, Astellas Venture Management, Boston Life Science Venture Corporation, Taiwan Global Biofund, Eminent Venture Capital, HBM BioVentures, Alta Partners, Forward Ventures, Advent International, GIMV, InterWest Partners and Pacific Venture Group.

From the press release:

The proceeds from the financing will be drawn down in two tranches and used to complete Phase I and begin Phase II clinical trials for Nereus’ two drug candidates. The first compound, NPI-2358, is being evaluated for the treatment of solid tumors and lymphomas in Phase I clinical trials. It is a potent, selective tumor vascular disrupting agent (VDA), a class of compounds that represents a novel approach to disrupting the intrinsic tumor blood flow, which leads to tumor cell death. NPI-2358 has favorable preclinical characteristics, such as a longer duration of action on tumor blood flow, activity against multi-drug resistant tumor cell lines and a favorable preclinical toxicology profile. The compound is one of 200 analogues that were produced after finding activity and novel chemistry from a marine fungal extract.

Nereus’ proteasome inhibitor NPI-0052 is in Phase I trials for solid tumors, lymphomas and multiple myeloma. Preclinical studies indicate that this next generation compound may be superior to Velcade(R), with broader target inhibition, faster onset of action, higher potency, oral and intravenous availability, and activity against myeloma cells resistant to Velcade(R) (bortezomib, Millennium), Thalomid(R) (thalidomide, Celgene Corporation), Revlimid(R) (lenalidomide, Celgene Corporation) and steroid therapy. NPI-0052 was derived from a marine-obligate gram-positive actinomycete (Salinispora tropica).

Rotator-cuff specialist KFx Medical raises $10M — San Diego’s KFx Medical, a Carlsbad, Calif., developer of minimally invasive repair systems for rotator-cuff injuries, raised $10 million in a second funding round. Investors included Alloy Ventures, Charter Life Sciences, Arboretum Ventures, Montreux Equity Partners, and MB Venture Partners.

It’s pretty difficult for a non-surgeon to figure out exactly how KFx’s system works better than current medical practice, but if you’re interested in a look, check it out here.

NeuroMed Pharma drops Merck work on pain drug, raises $36M — Vancouver-based NeuroMed Pharmaceuticals, a biotech focused on new pain meds, discontinued Merck-funded work on an experimental pain drug called MK-6721. The Merck collaboration, valued at as much as $475 million, will continue.

Separately, NeuroMed has raised $36 million toward a fifth funding round, VentureWire reports (subscription required). That round isn’t yet complete, and the investors haven’t been disclosed. The funding is designed to pay for completing late-stage human trials of a separate pain drug the company recently licensed from a J&J subsidiary.

Adnexus raises $15.5M against cancer — Adnexus Therapeutics, a Waltham, Mass., biotech developing a new class of drugs against cancer and other diseases, raised $15.5 million in a third funding round. Investors included HBM BioVentures (Cayman), Atlas Venture, Flagship Ventures, Polaris Venture Partners and Venrock. The company intends to use the proceeds to further clinical development of its lead candidate, Angiocept, which is currently in early-stage trials in cancer.

Masimo IPO raises $233 million, jumps 23% on first day — Irvine, Calif.-based Masimo, a major developer of non-invasive patient monitors, priced its IPO in the middle of its predicted range of $16 to $18 per share, raising as much as $232.9 million — just shy of the quarter-million-dollar mark we discussed here. Since the offering involved a hefty chunk of shares sold by existing shareholders, however, the company can only pocket up to $55.9 million of the proceeds. Investors received the offering warmly, pushing the stock up to $20.90 yesterday, a rise of 23 percent.

Biofisica raises $2M in venture debt for wound healing — Atlanta’s Biofisica, a medical-device maker focused on wound healing, raised $2 million in debt financing from Leader Ventures. The company makes an electrical-stimulation device designed to speed the healing of wounds, and currently sells it in the United Kingdom.

Aegera acquires LymphoSign, uniting two Canadian oncology biotechs — Aegera Therapeutics, a Montreal biotech focused on cancer, acquired Toronto’s LymphoSign, another cancer-specialized biotech, for undisclosed terms. Several shareholders also made additional investments in Aegera’s previously announced third funding round.

InfuScience acquires Palmetto Infusion Services — InfuScience, a Chicago provider of drug-infusion therapy, acquired Palmetto Infusion Services of Beaufort, S.C., for an undisclosed sum.

UPDATE (6:40pm PT): Added KFx Medical item.