Novasys Medical takes $49.5M for women’s medical device
Novasys Medical is a Newark, Calif. medical company that makes a device for a specific condition affecting some women, called female stress urinary incontinence.
The device Novasys makes is the only real alternative to surgery for women with the problem, according to an interview with the CEO in VentureWire, which also reported the funding.
The $49.5 million was led by Versant Ventures, with participation from Skyline Ventures, Three Arch Partners, Affinity Capital Management, Alloy Ventures, Delphi Ventures,… Continue Reading
Brilliant Telecommunications raising $1.65 million for telecom equipment
Accuracy and syncing of computer networks is a key component of Brilliant Telecommunications, Inc’s business model. They design, develop and distribute network timing solutions.
These networks are vital to companies who need speed and accuracy while maintaing cost effectiveness.
The $1.65 million funding Onset Ventures in Menlo Park, CA, Asset Management Company in Palo Alto, CA and Empire Capital Partners based out of Westport, CT. The company hasn’t yet raised any of the series B offering.
Brilliant Telecommunications… Continue Reading
Will carbon-trading happen? Goldman hopes so, backs APX
APX, a Silicon Valley company that certifies carbon and emissions offset certificates, and which is well-placed to support carbon-trading markets when they emerge, has gotten backing from Goldman Sachs in a $14 million investment, VentureBeat has learned.
Carbon trading is a growing business that could someday come to resemble the world’s largest financial markets.
Today’s emissions markets are generally small and fragmented. In regional U.S. energy markets, utilities are already required to buy electricity from alternative energy… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Monday, Jan. 7, 2008
TODAY’S HEADLINES:
Surgical-device maker Aragon Surgical receives $25M (release)
Tacere Therapeutics strikes RNAi deal with Pfizer for up to $145M (release)
Benvenue Medical raises $15M for spine-repair devices (release)
Genome-association co. Genizon BioSciences draws C$31M (release)
Contract research organization Inclinix pulls in $10M (release)
EPocrates, healthcare IT developer, gets strategic investment from Goldman Sachs (release)
ZyGem closes first funding round (release)
Onset Ventures names John Ryan partner (release)
Retired Scripps immunologist Richard Ulevitch joins 5AM Ventures (release)
SV Life Sciences promotes Darren Black to partner… Continue Reading
Consolidation in VC-land continues: Diamondhead Ventures to close
Diamondhead Ventures co-founders Raman Khanna and David Lane will join Onset Ventures and shut down their firm once they invest the $140 million fund is invested, according to VentuerWire (subscription required)
They were raising a second fund, but will now earmark the funds committed to them to from investors to Onset’s fund. They will become managing directors of Onset’s 2005 vintage $200 million fifth fund.
VisionCare’s implantable microtelescope — a bionic eye for AMD-related blindness
An implantable and odd-looking microtelescope from a Saratoga, Calif., device maker could be one of the next big things in treating a common form of blindness — assuming that patients are willing to endure arduous surgery in order to obtain their new bionic eyes.
Age-related macular degeneration — a progressive loss of sight related to physical changes in the central retina, also called the macula — is the leading cause of blindness among elderly Americans, now… Continue Reading
PacketMotion, networking monitoring and compliance co., raises $7.5M more
PacketMotion, a San Jose, Calif. provider of enterprise network monitoring and compliance technology, has raised a $7.5 million third round of financing from its existing investors.
See announcement here.
Investors include Intel Capital, ONSET Ventures, and Mohr Davidow Ventures, and brings the company’s funding total to $34.5 million in three rounds of funding.
From the statement:
“Major enterprises seek a much deeper level of visibility and control of transactions affecting their critical information assets,” said Paul Smith, CEO… Continue Reading
FDA clears new uses for Aragon Surgical’s laparascopic device
Aragon Surgical, a Palo Alto, Calif., medical-devices maker, said the FDA cleared its LapCap product for use in general surgery. Aragon, which doesn’t seem to have a Web site, gained ownership of the LapCap when it acquired VeriSure, another device maker, in March.
The LapCap is designed to ease the initial steps of minimally invasive, or laparoscopic, surgery, in which surgeons must pass a needle into the abdomen in order to blow in gas that will… Continue Reading
Stent maker CardioMind raises $33M
CardioMind, a secretive Sunnyvale, Calif., developer of stents designed to prop open blocked arteries, raised $33 million in a third round of funding, VentureWire reports (subscription required). From the VentureWire story:
CardioMind, with 30 employees, is developing small-diameter drug-eluting stents and delivery devices for cardiovascular and neurological indications and has been largely operating in stealth mode for the past five years.
SV Life Sciences and De Novo Ventures led the round, joined by InterWest Partners, Latterell Venture… Continue Reading
Invarium, integrated circuit design company, to raise $10M
Invarium, a San Jose provider of hardware and software for the design and manufacture of advanced integrated circuits, is about to finish raising $10 million in a third round of funding, according to VentureWire (sub required)
Existing backers Goldman Sachs & Co. and Onset Ventures are participating, Roy Prasad, the president and chief executive of the company, told the publication. Applied Ventures, the venture capital arm of Applied Materials, is also one of the investors, according… Continue Reading
Pegasus Bio gets $20M for surgical-repair bioimplants
Pegasus Biologics, an Irvine, Calif., maker of flexible-but-strong tissue substitutes designed to speed muscle-tendon repair or wound healing, raised $20 million in a third round of funding.
Despite the word “biologics” in its name — a term that is often synonymous with protein-based biotechnology drugs — Pegasus isn’t a drug company. Nor is it strictly a medical-device maker. Instead, the company has devised “bioimplants” made from equine pericardium — horse heart, in other words — that… Continue Reading
SquareOne raises $8M more for artery stents
SquareOne, a secretive Campbell, Calif. artery ostial stent company (no Web site), has raised $8 million in a third round of financing as it looks to launch initial trials, VentureWire reports (sub required).
Three Arch Partners led the round, contributing $4 million, VentureWire reported. Onset Ventures put in $3 million, while Finistere Ventures and existing angels contributed $500,000 each.
Aragon buys laparoscopic company, Verisure
Aragon Surgical, a Palo Alto, Calif. surgical device company, said it has acquired VeriSure, Inc., a privately held medical device company.
The acquisition amount was undisclosed. Aragon said the deal gives it ownership of the LapCapTM, a laparoscopic product that allows a surgeon to “more easily, rapidly, and predictably” pass a Veress needle into the peritoneal cavity in order to create a pneumoperitoneum (the gas-filled space in which the surgeon operates).
Aragon is backed by Onset… Continue Reading
Business performance software co., Adaptive Planning, raises $7.5M
Adaptive Planning, a Mountain View, Calif. company that sells a collaborative business performance management software, has raised $7.5 million in financing.
Cardinal Venture Capital led the round, which included previous investors ONSET Ventures and Monitor Ventures
The company sells its software to small and midsized companies. From the statement:
Adaptive Planning’s third round of financing brings its total outside investment to $19 million. As part of today’s news, the company announced that Eric Dunn, general partner of… Continue Reading
Boston Scientific acquires Endotex, the latest exit for serial entrepreneur Khosravi
Boston Scientic has acquired Cupertino stent maker, Endotex, for an undisclosed amount.
Endotex had raised more than $25 million in venture funding, including from Delphi Ventures, Guidant Corp., New Enterprise Associates, New Venture Partners, Onset Ventures, US Surgical and Saratoga Ventures. Boston Scientific had also owned a stake.
It is the latest accomplishment for Endotex founder Fred Khosravi, who had previously built another company, EPI, also bought by Boston Scientific. He’s founded seven medical device companies…. Continue Reading
Wireless sensor co., Moteiv, raises $3.85M — for firefighting, among other things
Moteiv., a San Francisco-based developer of wireless sensor networks used in firefighting, among other things, has raised $3.85 million in a first round of funding, according to a regulatory filing cited by PE Week.
Onset Ventures and Claremont Creek Ventures are listed as investors, while existing shareholders include PacRim Venture Partners and Capital Valley Ventures.
Moteiv was featured in the September issue of Wired Magazine. The company’s miniature wireless sensors can do things like monitor the condition… Continue Reading
Valve disease treatment co., Sadra, raises $9M
Sadra Medical, a Campbell company developing therapies for aortic valve disease, has raised a $9M first round of round of funding, the company said.
Pequot Ventures co-led the financing, along with the company’s original seed investors Onset Ventures and Schroder Ventures.
As many as three million people in the U.S. have aortic stenosis, the company said, adding that only a small percentage of those are treated with the current standard of care, open-heart surgery using cardiopulmonary… Continue Reading
Airplay gets $14M to merge TV football and mobile games
AirPlay, a San Francisco start-up that is taking live broadcasts of professional football games, and allowing cellphone users to see the broadcasts on their phone and play interactive games at the same time, said it has raised $14 million.
The investment is a second round from a combination of strategic investors and venture funds: Qualcomm, Motorola, and venture funds JK&B Capital, ONSET Ventures and Redpoint Ventures, all participated in the financing. It was led by JK&B…. Continue Reading