Vidyo pulls in $7M for video conferencing tech
Vidyo, a New Jersey company that provides high-definition video conferencing services, has brought in $7 million in debt and rights financing, according to a filing with the SEC. Earlier this year, it raised $15 million in a third round of venture funding to build its market presence. It has now raised $45 million to date from Menlo Ventures, Rho Ventures, Sevin Rosen Funds and Star Ventures.
Satmetrix takes $1M for customer loyalty software
Satmetrix Systems, a Foster City, Calf. company that rovides customer loyalty software, has raised $1 million in debt financing, according to a regulatory filing. VentureBeat last covered it when it acquired its rival Informative in 2007. It has raised about $30 million from Aspen Ventures, Sutter Hill Ventures, Stanford University and Siebel Systems (since acquired by Oracle), and $75 million from New Enterprise Associates, Walden International, Apex Venture Partners, Sevin Rosen Funds, Crystal Internet Venture… Continue Reading
Spray-on solar ink is coming soon — to paint on roofs and generate energy
[Update: We've clarified this story to make clear that Innovalight is not involved with this project]
Technology to turn light-absorbing materials into nano-size particles to make so-called solar ink that can be sprayed on to roofs to generate energy, is apparently only three to five years from becoming a reality.
At least, that’s according to Brian Korgel, an entrepreneur and chemical engineer at the University of Texas at Austin. Korgel tells LiveScience that his project, which has… Continue Reading
Limerick BioPharma raises $1.5M to limit drug side effects
Limerick BioPharma, a South San Francisco firm specializing in drugs that curb the side effects of other drugs, has brought in $1.5 million in debt, rights and securities that it plans to use as working capital, according to VentureWire. Formerly called Limerick Neurosciences, the company says its products minimize the toxic impact some drugs can have on organs that they aren’t targeting — making more medications safer for a wider range of people. So far,… Continue Reading
Slacker raises $9.6M for player that customizes radio on the go
Slacker, popular internet radio provider and maker of a customizable radio-listening device, has brought in $9.6 million of what it hopes will be a $10.2 million third round of funding. Based in San Diego, Calif., the company now offers the same radio stations and capabilities in the form of applications for the Blackberry and iPhone.
To put it simply, the device — called the Slacker G2 — seems to be the physical manifestation of Pandora Radio… Continue Reading
Videoconference co. Vidyo raises $15M
High-definition videoconference company Vidyo just announced a $15 million third round of financing that it will use to further its leadership in the personal telepresence market. The funding was part of a total $38 million the New Jersey-based company has raised since its inception. Menlo Ventures led the latest round and was joined by existing investors Rho Ventures, Sevin Rosen Funds and Star Ventures.
Airband books $3M for its fixed-wireless network
Airband, the Dallas-based provider of a fixed-wireless network for businesses, announced that it brought in $3 million in sixth-round funding from undisclosed investors to continue building out its existing network.
The nine-year-old company gives its clients access to broadband wireless data, voice over IP service, and other network management services. Currently, 3,500 businesses use Airband across 14 US markets.
The company last raised capital in 2007 amounting to $12.5 million. It has raised $73 million to date…. Continue Reading
AT&T acquires Wayport for $275M — now has 80,000 hot spots
AT&T has acquired Wayport, a company that built out about 8,000 WiFi hot spots including in places like McDonald’s, for $275 million in cash. The move is another signal that AT&T intends to become a WiFi access point giant — the company now boasts 80,000 points world wide.
The purchase of the Austin, Texas company, which comes at a time when acquisitions have slowed to a trickle, is significant because it reflects how mobility technology investments… Continue Reading
Vidyo raises $3M more for videoconferencing
Video conferencing provider Vidyo tacked $3 million onto an already $12 million second round of funding to provide high-definition services, VentureWire reports. The extra money came from Menlo Ventures.
The Hackensack, N.J. company previously pulled $5 million in first-round funding from Rho Ventures, Sevin Rosen Funds and Star Ventures. One of its goals is to deliver quality videoconferencing sessions between corporate and home office environments.
Innovalight rakes in $5M for solar cell ink
Investors Leader Ventures and Silicon Valley Bank have shined on solar cell company Innovalight, providing $5 million in new financing toward the development of silicon solar modules so small they can be painted onto surfaces like ink.
The Sunnyvale, Calif. company uses liquid processing of silicon to produce nanosize solar prarticles that are not only more efficient than crystalline wafers, but also much cheaper to make than regular solar panels. It received $28 million last year… Continue Reading
YouSendIt gets $14M to send large files
YouSendIt, a company that lets you send and receive large files through your email, has raised $14 million in a third round of funding.
The financing comes from new investor Emergence Capital Partners (the online services-focused firm best-known for backing Salesforce.com) and existing investors Sigma Partners, Alloy Ventures, Sevin Rosen Funds and Cambrian Ventures. YouSendIt raised a $10 million second round last year.
YouSendIt has a range of offerings, including a free version of its basic service… Continue Reading
Limerick BioPharma raises $15.2M for drug bioavailability
A stealthy life sciences startup called Limerick BioPharma has raised $11 million in venture funding and $4.2 million in debt, according to VentureWire. The participants in the round are not clear, but Arch Venture Partners, Sevin Rosen Funds and Altitude Funds are all listed as investors.
Limerick says on its website that it’s working on improving existing therapies through modulating bioavailability — keeping potentially harmful substances out of tissues while maintaining their effectiveness. The technology could… Continue Reading
Reliable email proves to be worth $40M more for Teneros
According to a research report cited by Mountain View-based Teneros, the average business experiences seven hours of email downtime each year.
Can you survive without your email? Apparently those businesses can’t, and they hire firms like Teneros to provide “application continuity” for Microsoft Exchange, the software back-end behind the email systems of most corporations.
The product itself is a plug-in appliance, the Application Continuity Appliance (ACA) that kicks in within moments of a system failure, keeping the… Continue Reading
Alder Bio and its yeast-produced antibodies take in $40M
Alder Biopharmaceuticals, a Bothell, Wash., developer of antibody drugs, raised $40 million in a third funding round. Investors included Delphi Ventures, TPG Biotech, Sevin Rosen Funds, Ventures West, H.I.G. Ventures, and WRF Capital.
Alder develops antibody-based drugs for inflammation and autoimmune disease. The company’s lead candidate, ALD518, is currently in clinical trials as a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis and cancer, although neither Alder’s Web site nor its statement disclose when the drug began human tests.
Alder’s work… Continue Reading
Airwalk latest company to pitch femtocell technology
updated
Airwalk Communications is part of a wave of companies developing “femtocell” technology, which lets your cell phone run on your home WiFi networks (update: the company only works on CDMA networks, not WiFi), and allows you to route calls over your land-line too. The Richardson, Texas company has just finished raising $25 million in a second round of financing.
Deploying femtocell access points is expected to be a major trend this year and next. Airwalk faces… Continue Reading
Caught up? Here’s everything from Blekko, Dash’s price, to Android sighting
The holiday break felt especially long this time, so here’s a longer roundup than usual — of everything you may have missed over the last few days:
Ebay’s Kijiji tries to tar Craiglist’s reputation — The NYT has a story about Kijiji, a competitor to online classifieds company Craigslist. The remarkable thing about the story is that it lets Kijiji executives associate Craigslist with offers of “sadomasochistic encounters and prostitutes,” without some sort of response from Craiglist…. Continue Reading
Neoscale, storage security company shuts down after eating through $44M
NeoScale Systems, a Silicon valley provider of data storage security products that ate through $44 million in venture backing, has shuttered.
NCipher, a “management specialist” company, has acquired the Milpitas, Calif.’ company’s assets for $1.95 million. The assets include NeoScale’s CryptoStor tape encryption product and KeyVault key management technology, but did not include the company’s disk encryption technology.
VentureBeat first heard about the closure of NeoScale from a source three weeks ago, and had been trying to… Continue Reading
GigaFin Networks, struggles, tries new direction: firewalls
GigaFin Networks, a struggling Cupertino, Calif, company, has raised a $10 million in more capital, to restart the company in a new direction. It is giving up making chips and has developed a new kind of firewall instead.
See the company’s original announcement here about its new network product.
The announcement is somewhat misleading, because the company says it is already a “leading” provider of internal network traffic management products, which can not possibly be the case… Continue Reading
Innovalight raises $28M for new ink-based solar cell
Innovalight, a Silicon Valley company that says it has come up with new solar cell with nano-particles of silicon, has raised a large $28 million round of capital and said it plans to open a 30,000 square foot manufacturing facility next year.Innovalight is still being very vague on the details of its technology, and it’s very late to the game. There are already more than a dozen other large companies and start-ups that are developing… Continue Reading
Customer loyalty company Satmetrix Systems buys Informative
Satmetrix Systems, a Foster City, Calif. company that provides a customer loyalty service software, has acquired Informative, a South San Francisco online customer loyalty company, according to PE Wire.
No financial terms were disclosed. Satmetrix has raised around $30 million in VC funding from firms like Aspen Ventures, Sutter Hill Ventures, Stanford University and Siebel Systems.
Informative had raised around $75 million from firms like New Enterprise Associates, Walden International, Apex Venture Partners, Sevin Rosen Funds, Crystal… Continue Reading