Serious Materials puts together $60M for green building supplies
Serious Materials, a developer and manufacturer of green building materials like windows and drywall, announced today that it has brought in $60 million in a third round of venture funding. The Sunnyvale, Calif. company didn’t say how it plans to use the money, though it has been building up its sales staff in recent months.
One of the highest-profile green buildings companies in the Silicon Valley, Serious Materials has now raised $120 million in financing…. Continue Reading
Fulcrum BioEnergy squeezes fuel from garbage
Fulcrum BioEnergy claims it can derive commercial-scale ethanol from municipal waste — and it just ran the first demo that proves it, the Pleasanton, Calif. company says. Already, it’s moving on its planned Sierra BioFuels Plant, a facility that could turn 90,000 tons of garbage into 10.5 million gallons of ethanol every year, and one of the first of its kind.
To give you some context on the size of the plant — slated to be… Continue Reading
Document-sharing site DocStoc rebrands to keep up with rival Scribd
DocStoc , the site that lets you post, share and embed PDFs, documents and other files — much like its prime competitor Scribd — has emerged from beta with a new look and a new business model . While the site is growing rapidly — now with 4.8 million unique monthly visitors — it’s still running to catch up.
Changing the way it brings in revenue, the company has introduced DocCash, a program that will split… Continue Reading
Youth media ad network GoFish reels in $22.5M
GoFish, a media-based advertising network targeting six to 17-year-olds (and moms), announced that it has brought in $22.5 million in private placement funding, which it will use to pay off its $14.5 million in debt and expand its sales and marketing staff. Backers Panorama Capital, Rustic Canyon Partners and Rembrandt Venture Partners will choose whether or not to kick in an additional $2.5 million in the next few weeks, according to the structure of the… Continue Reading
Pentadyne Power raises $22M for flywheel energy storage
Pentadyne Power, a Chatsworth, Calif.-based developer of flywheel energy storage systems, has just closed a $22 million financing round, led by return investors. The company didn’t disclose the identity of its backers though it has previously received support from Rustic Canyon Partners, Loudwater Investment Partners, Nth Power, Energy Innovation Portfolio and others.
It will use the proceeds to expand its operations overseas and to increase its sales of existing and new systems. Flywheel systems, an alternative… Continue Reading
Geothermal engineering firm ThermaSource raises $41.5M
Just as in the oil industry, drilling and engineering for geothermal projects is an expensive proposition. To help buy drilling rigs and develop its services, ThermaSource has taken a hefty funding of $41.5 million.
The Santa Clara, Calif. company employs 210 people, but plans on doubling in size by the end of this year.
Riverstone Holdings, US Renewables Group and Rustic Canyon Partners provided the funding. ThermaSource has taken $93 million to date, counting both equity and… Continue Reading
InSync Software raises $3M for RFID software
InSync Software, a startup that makes an application platform for use with RFID, GPD and sensor technologies, has raised $3 million in additional financing for its technology from previous investors Intel Capital, Rustic Canyon Partners and Girish Gaitonde Living Trust.
The San Jose, Calif. company is raising the money as part of a slightly larger round, according to VentureBeat sources. Insync did not respond to a request for comment. Its previous round, raised in 2006, was… Continue Reading
Docstoc raises $3.25M, starts running banner ads
Docstoc, a site that’s billed itself as the “YouTube for professional documents”, has raised $3.25 million in a second round of funding. It’s also rolling out a new plan that allows document providers to run banner ads.
The Beverly Hills startup competes against companies like Scribd to help users post and share documents online. While Scribd launched first, Docstoc tries to stand out with its focus on professional documents. For example, when the service launched in… Continue Reading
Investment in the green building sector is booming
The green building sector has been awash with VC cash in recent months: Despite there only being a few dozen startups in the nascent field, investors have started paying close attention — helping several raise new rounds of funding.
Newark, California-based CalStar Cement has received $3.4 million from several investors, including Foundation Capital, while Serious Materials landed a hefty $50 million second funding round, led by New Enterprise Associates, Rustic Canyon Partners and Foundation Capital. The… Continue Reading
Roundup: Ads up, AOL launches mobile social platform, and more
updated
1) Online advertising up 28 percent
2) Yahoo confirms $160M acquisition of Maven
3) AOL to launch mobile soc-net platform
4) Starbucks to offer somewhat-free WiFi
5) Topanga, next-gen lighting, funded by Khosla
6) Stealth division at EA making social games
7) Bored.com sells for exciting $4.5 million
DanceJam gets another $3.5 million
9) Uncomfortable ads from Facebook
10) Initial review of Android: Not ready yet
11) Motorola and Nortel consider unit merger
11) The long wait for cleantech permitting
Online advertising up 28 percent at end… Continue Reading
Capella wires in $15M more for optical switches
Capella Intelligent Subsystems makes optical switches for traffic management in optical networks. Their switches have the ability to be wavelength-selective, allowing higher level monitoring and routing capabilities.
The company has been around for some time, having been started in 2000 and funded with $44 million. We reported last year that it had jump-started its sputtering operations with a fresh $20 million infusion.
Lucas Venture Group led the latest investment of $15 million, while previous investors Levensohn Venture… Continue Reading
PlayFirst, popular online gaming company, raises $16.5mm
PlayFirst, the publisher of the popular online game, Diner Dash, has raised an eye-opening $16.5 million in its third round of financing.
The company stands out because it’s one of the first mainstream American online game publishers to embed micro-transactions, small payments for access to new game content, into its game. The marquee title, Diner Dash: Hometown Hero involves controlling a waitress who runs around a restaurant trying to keep her customers happy. PlayFirst offers one… Continue Reading
Citysearch, Merchantcircle connect their local business services
Citysearch, an online guide service about local US businesses, has partnered with MerchantCircle, in an effort to hold their own in the increasingly competitive area of local reviews.
The move comes as Citysearch is under attack from newer, fresher sites like Yelp, which offers reviews about locales and is appearing as high, if not higher than Citysearch in search engine results.
Citysearch, a division of IAC, has a large collection of local data that includes 14.5 million… Continue Reading
MerchantCircle, helps small businesses market online — aggressively
Online advertising remains hot. But with Google, Microsoft and Yahoo fighting to serve advertising to large companies and publishers, smaller business clients are left neglected.
MerchantCircle, a controversial Silicon Valley company helping thousands of small businesses market themselves online, has raised $10 million in financing to pursue these small businesses further.
It has also arranged a credit line with Square 1 Bank to acquire other rivals in the sector.
The Los Altos, Calif. company has been accused of… Continue Reading
Serious Materials raises a serious round of $50M for green building materials
Indoor building material-maker Serious Materials has taken on a large $50 million second round of financing to launch a line of environmentally friendly drywall, the most common indoor building material in the United States.
The funding will help the company cover the costs of a manufacturing plant, to open next year. The cost for new plants commonly runs into tens of millions of dollars.
Serious will make three product lines: EcoRock, ThermaProof, and Quiet Solution. EcoRock is… Continue Reading
Green building co., Serious Materials, raising $40M plus
Serious Materials, the Sunnyvale, Calif. company that says it makes buildings with environmentally friendly materials, is looking to raise $40 million to $50 million to finance construction of its third manufacturing facility, according to VentureWire (subscription required).
The company plans to launch its drywall product in 2008, according to information available on the Serious Materials Web site. “We’ve developed a process that generates zero carbon dioxide in its manufacture,” [chief exec Kevin] Surace said. Data from… Continue Reading
Capella, optical switch company, restarts with $20M
Capella, a provider of optical switches for broadband networks, said it has raised $20 million of equity and debt financing in what amounts to a financial restarting of the company.
Capella sells wavelength selective switches (WSS) for use in reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers (ROADM) applications.
The funding was was co-led by Levensohn Venture Partners and Rustic Canyon Partners and included funding from Formative Ventures, as well as participation by existing investors. Square1 Bank provided the banking and… Continue Reading
Visto, Silicon Valley’s most controversial company
The mobile email company, Visto, has become one of the most controversial companies in Silicon Valley.
The Redwood City company has reportedly raised another $35 million in venture backing led by new investor Altitude Capital Partners, adding to the whopping $350 million the company has already raised. It is in the red, after ten years, and hasn’t announced a major customer in several months. Its penchant to file lawsuits is also worrying, and we’ve said before… Continue Reading
Global warming, creating green entrepreneurs, and bribing by Exxon lobby?
Now we’re 90 percent sure global warming is caused by humans, according to a major UN report just released.
[Update: And Exxon is fighting back, reports the Guardian, which writes that the AEI, an Exxon Mobil-funded thinktank, offered payments of $10,000 to scientists for articles that emphasize the report's shortcomings. This, even as Exxon reports record profits.]
Meanwhile, California continues its lawsuit against U.S. and Japanese car manufacturers for contributing to global warming.
And entrepreneurs forge ahead with… Continue Reading