With Flex, Engine Yard targets Rails applications in Amazon’s cloud

With Flex, Engine Yard targets Rails applications in Amazon’s cloud

Engine Yard, a startup that manages web applications built using the Ruby on Rails programming framework, is planning to expand its services for applications running on Amazon’s infrastructure, adding to its existing Solo product (for smaller developers) with Engine Yard Flex, for larger, industrial-scale deployments.

The… Continue Reading

Skyline shows off unique concentrating solar arrays

Skyline shows off unique concentrating solar arrays

Skyline Solar, maker of uniquely-shaped concentrating photovoltaic panels, has unveiled its first demo system in San Jose, Calif. The company struck a deal with the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority to generate more than 30 kilowatts of power.

The architecture of Skyline’s installations sets it apart… Continue Reading

23andMe gets $11M boost to decode your DNA

23andMe gets $11M boost to decode your DNA

23andMe, the company that deciphers consumers’ genomes for them, has raised $11 million of an anticipated $24.26 million second round of capital. The company was cofounded by Anne Wojcicki, wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin.

The firm didn’t disclose its recent investors, but peHub noted this… Continue Reading

Dave Duffield’s business app company Workday raises $75M

Dave Duffield’s business app company Workday raises $75M

It looks like the era of humongous funding rounds isn’t completely over. Workday , a startup that provides online software to help companies manage things like human resources and finances, has raised $75 million in a fifth round of funding.

The Pleasanton, Calif. company was co-founded… Continue Reading

Cloud provider Cassatt close to evaporating

Cassatt, one of the first companies in the cloud computing space, may have to shutter after spending its full $100 million in venture capital and failing to find an appropriate buyer, reports VentureWire. If one can’t be found, the San Jose, Calif. firm will be… Continue Reading

NEA breaks $2B for its latest venture capital fund

NEA breaks $2B for its latest venture capital fund

New Enterprise Associates, Silicon Valley’s largest venture capital firm, has raised another $1 billion for its newest fund — its 13th — bumping the fund’s total size so far to $2.15 billion. That’s an impressive feat in today’s economic climate. The target for the fund… Continue Reading

The bizarre case of Oak Investment Partners

The bizarre case of Oak Investment Partners

The venture capital industry is in a lot of pain, saddled with so much money, it can’t invest it properly. With the Internet boom over, and investors pulling back from supporting venture capital firms, we’ll see a lot of the mediocre VC firms finally die… Continue Reading

Philanthropic fund of funds Legacy closes $276M

Legacy Venture, the Palo Alto, Calif. firm that holds a portfolio of other investment funds and distributes returns to charities, announced that it closed a new $276 million fund, its fifth, despite adverse economic conditions. Basically, Legacy takes money from limited partners who commit their… Continue Reading

Actelis scores $4.7M for copper-wire ethernet

Actelis Networks, maker of equipment that lets ethernet run over copper wires, tacked $4.7 million more onto its previously raised $15 million sixth round of funding, reports VentureWire. With fiber optics becoming too pricey for many businesses, copper has become a popular alternative.

The Fremont, Calif.-based… Continue Reading

Thumbplay wrangles $6M for mobile content distribution

Thumbplay wrangles $6M for mobile content distribution

Thumbplay, provider of ringtones, wallpapers, games and other content specifically tailored to mobile phones, announced that it brought in $6 million in a sixth round of funding to cushion its business against the downturn. Based in New York, the company says that with the funds, it… Continue Reading

Audience dials up $15M to suppress noise on cell phones

Audience, maker of mobile chips that can dampen background noise when people speak on their cell phones, just brought in $15 million in a fourth round of funding. This brings the Mountain View, Calif. company’s total capital to $60 million since its inception in 2004.

Audience… Continue Reading

GridPoint lands more funds for smarter utility use

GridPoint lands more funds for smarter utility use

GridPoint, one of the largest companies in the emerging smartgrid sector, announced that it has brought in an undisclosed sum from Craton Equity Partners. Already working with several investor-owned utilities like Duke Energy Corp. and Xcel Energy, GridPoint says its system automatically manages energy loads… Continue Reading

Massachusetts shines on solar co. Konarka, loans $5M

Thin-film solar company Konarka just landed a $5 million loan from the Emerging Technology Fund of Massachusetts Development Finance Agency and the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust’s Business Expansion Initiative. The funds will be used to build out its new solar material factory in New Bedford,… Continue Reading

Public biotech firms Cadence, Affymax draw $128M from bargain-hunting VCs

Public biotech firms Cadence, Affymax draw $128M from bargain-hunting VCs

Much has been written about how the IPO market froze out biotech companies in 2008, but it looks like times are also tough for those who went public before the economy soured. Cadence Pharmaceuticals has seen a dip in stock price from $9 to $7.53… Continue Reading

Medical device maker Emphasys on the auction block

Emphasys Medical, maker of a valve that diverts air to only the healthy parts of lungs in emphysema patients, has put itself up for sale after the Food and Drug Administration rejected its lead product in December. This is the second relatively recent defeat for… Continue Reading

GoodGuide raises $3.73M for ethical shopping

GoodGuide raises $3.73M for ethical shopping

GoodGuide, a site that helps shoppers find healthy, sustainable, and ethical products, has raised $3.73 million in a first round of venture funding.

The concept behind GoodGuide is rather obvious, but it was also tough to pull all the necessary data together. That’s why there are… Continue Reading

South Korea’s Nurien raises $10 million for fashion-oriented virtual world

South Korea’s Nurien raises $10 million for fashion-oriented virtual world

Nurien Software has been making a splash with its demos of virtual characters dressed as fashion models striding down runways in virtual fashion shows. This strategy has helped the company raise $10 million in a second institutional round of funding.

The funding suggests that investors are… Continue Reading

SolFocus takes on $47.5M more in quest to sell concentrating solar

SolFocus takes on $47.5M more in quest to sell concentrating solar

SolFocus, the most heavily-funded concentrating solar startup around, has just drawn a bit further ahead of the pack with $47.5 million in fresh capital. With the money, the company has edged near $150 million in total funding, and with luck, widespread installation of a currently… Continue Reading

Satori brings in $22M to stop Alzheimer’s in its tracks

Satori Pharmaceuticals, a company that says it’s developing drugs with the potential to actually stop Alzheimer’s disease in its early phases — an unprecedented claim — landed $22 million in second-round funding to push its products through a first battery of tests.

Based in Cambridge, Mass.,… Continue Reading

Concentric Medical closes $15M to ease stroke symptoms

Concentric Medical, developer of minimally invasive devices used to remove blood clots in ischemic stroke patients, took $15 million in new venture backing to expand its product portfolio and run more clinical trials. The Mountain View, Calif. company says it ended 2008 on a strong… Continue Reading