Ribbit, Sprout inject “voice” into ad campaigns

Ribbit, Sprout inject “voice” into ad campaigns

Ribbit, the company that lets people easily create phone-like applications within Web sites, has struck a partnership with the online marketing company Sprout to insert “voice” and other phone features into advertising campaigns.
Ribbit, now owned by BT, has captured the imagination of developers because of its… Continue Reading

Sun Catalytix lands funds for “solar fuel”

Sun Catalytix lands funds for “solar fuel”

Sun Catalytix, a stealthy operation formed last year to commercialize “solar fuel” research conducted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from Polaris Venture Partners that VentureExpert pegs at $700,000. Xconomy reported the story first.
While little is… Continue Reading

Ember lands $8M for a hefty slice of the smart grid

Ember lands $8M for a hefty slice of the smart grid

The Ember Corporation, a major vendor of ZigBee wireless networking technology, just brought in $8 million in capital to connect household devices and appliances to the smart grid. Like most other companies in the space, the bulk of its business comes from equipping smart meters… Continue Reading

Phreesia raises $11.6M to make waiting-room clipboards obsolete

Phreesia raises $11.6M to make waiting-room clipboards obsolete

Phreesia, maker of electronic tablets to replace those pesky intake clipboards at doctors’ offices, announced today that it brought in $11.6 million in a round led by BlueCross BlueShield Venture Partners and Sandbox Industries. This brings the New York company’s total capital raised to $25… Continue Reading

Compensation software co. Xactly buys rival Centive

Xactly, maker of software that measures and tracks employees’ sales performance and compensation, has bought its major competitor, human resources software provider Centive. The stock-based deal gave San Jose, Calif.-based Xactly all of the company’s assets and employees for an undisclosed sum.
Incorporated under the… Continue Reading

Comedy site JibJab raises $7.5 million, no joke

Comedy site JibJab raises $7.5 million, no joke

JibJab, the site that spawned original comedy videos and customizable animated greeting cards, has raised $7.5 million in a third round of funding, according to TechCrunch.
The site is known for its parodies and original funny shorts, many of them skewering politicians and the government,… Continue Reading

Transoma brings in $5M for heart diagnostics

Transoma, maker of cardiovascular monitoring and diagnostic products, landed $5 million in fourth-round funding from United Therapeutics, Affinity Capital Management, Canaan Partners, Cross Creek Capital and Polaris Venture Partners, reports VentureWire. The money comes after the company withdrew its filing to go public earlier this year. 

Based in St. Paul, Minn.,… Continue Reading

Video processor maker Silicon Optix sells assets and tech to IDT

Silicon Optix, developer of high-definition video processors, has sold out almost entirely to Integrated Device Technology (IDT) for an undisclosed amount. The sale includes the transfer of intellectual property and engineering teams in addition to its Emmy-winning products (it was awarded for producing sharp picture… Continue Reading

T2 Biosystems brings in $10.8M for diagnostics

T2 Biosystems, a company working to develop new diagnostic methods, received $10.8 million in second-round financing from new investors In-Q-Tel (which also helps fund the CIA, incidentally) and Partners Healthcare, and existing investors Flagship Ventures, Flybridge Capital Partners and Polaris Venture Partners.
The Cambridge, Mass.-based… Continue Reading

Roundup: Feds offering short-term loans, presidential debates live online, Silver Spring gets a big raise, and more

Roundup: Feds offering short-term loans, presidential debates live online, Silver Spring gets a big raise, and more

Feds now providing short-term debt — The Federal Reserve will provide money for companies to finance their day-to-day activities, in the government’s latest effort to staunch bleeding in the credit markets.
Live presidential debates hit the web — Hulu will stream tonight’s presidential debate live,… Continue Reading

Roundup: MyHeritage raises funding, news feed psychology, Bell drops “basic research,” and more

Roundup: MyHeritage raises funding, news feed psychology, Bell drops “basic research,” and more

Here’s the latest action:
Genealogy site MyHeritage raises $15 million — The Israel-based company has grown from 17 million to 25 million registered users over the past year. Investors include Index Ventures and Accel.
High-imaging satellite GeoEye-1 launches — It claims to take the highest-resolution… Continue Reading

Athenix raises $10M for biofuels and specialty chemicals

Athenix, a Research Triangle Park, North Carolina-based maker of processes and products for agricultural and bioenergy applications, has raked in $10 million from existing investors Hunt Ventures, Intersouth Partners and Polaris Venture Partners, reports PEHub.
The company sells genes and enzymes that can be used… Continue Reading

Low cost, super-efficient solar cells? Newly funded, Wakonda Technologies says it’s possible

Low cost, super-efficient solar cells? Newly funded, Wakonda Technologies says it’s possible

In the solar cell market, there are three broad categories. Thin-film manufacturers produce cells that convert little of the sun’s energy to electricity, but are dirt cheap. Opposite thin-film, companies like Spectrolab and Emcore make highly efficient, but very expensive cells. Between are the standard… Continue Reading

Turbine confirms $40 million raised for online games

Turbine confirms $40 million raised for online games

Online games powerhouse Turbine confirmed that it has raised $40 million, though the actual investors are different from what was previously rumored.
Time Warner and GGV Capital led the round along with existing investors Highland Capital Partners, Polaris Venture Partners, Tudor Ventures and Columbia Capital…. Continue Reading

GreenFuel not giving up, with another $13.9M for algae farms

GreenFuel not giving up, with another $13.9M for algae farms

It seems like a good idea, at first: Pipe carbon dioxide emissions from power plants or industrial processes through water containing algae, and the algae will absorb the CO2 for its own growth, in turn being harvested to make biodiesel. But like most good ideas,… Continue Reading

Easy app maker Sprout raises $5M

Easy app maker Sprout raises $5M

Sprout, the startup behind an easy-to-use tool for creating Flash applications, has been having a very good year. It launched in January at DEMO (where it snagged a “DEMO god” award), made its app builder publicly available in March, then released a bunch of new… Continue Reading

MMO game publisher Turbine raising $40M; former CEO launches Play Hard Sports

Turbine, a game publisher that makes massively-multiplayer online games but may soon be enacting a major strategic shift, is in the process of taking $40 million in new funding led by Granite Global Ventures, according to Dan Primack. While its Lords of the Ring Online:… Continue Reading

Imprivata, a secure access innovator, raises $15M

Imprivata is a Lexington, Mass. company that is working on single sign-on authentication technology, which consolidates all of a corporate user’s accounts to a single password and adds additional security measures to prevent hackers. The company’s software works together with physical location trackers like keycards,… Continue Reading

Life-science briefing: Tuesday, March 25, 2008

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… Continue Reading

Life-science briefing: Tuesday, March 18, 2008

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… Continue Reading