IntelePeer raises $18M for telephony-Web platform
IntelePeer a Silicon Valley company that offers technology to make calls from within Web applications to phones or other devices, has raised $18 million in a third round of venture capital funding led by VantagePoint Venture Partners.
IntelePeer is somewhat like Ribbit, another Silicon Valley company we’ve written about that lets developers insert phone software into any Web application — and which was so popular that it was snapped up shortly after launch by BT for… Continue Reading
Adura raises $5M for wireless lighting
Lighting management company Adura Technologies took $5 million in a first round of funding co-led by VantagePoint Venture Partners and Claremont Creek Partners. The San Francisco firm will use its new funds to further develop lighting systems that can dim based on how many people are in a room, how much daylight is being let in and even how much light individuals need over their desks.
Adura’s current dimming systems are completely wireless, usually placed in… Continue Reading
Zvents, moving its events search to mobile, raises $24M
Zvents, a San Mateo, Calif. company that has been building an events-based search engine for several years, must be on the right track: It just raised $24 million from a set of investors including Nokia Growth Partners, AT&T and NAVTEQ.
What makes Zvents a bit different from other events sites — last year I profiled it along with its biggest competitors, Eventful, Going.com and Upcoming — is that it’s not an events calendar or social networking… Continue Reading
Anthera Pharmaceuticals raises $19M for anti-inflammatory drugs
Anthera Pharmaceuticals has raised $19 million in a second round of funding led by Caxton Advantage Life Sciences Fund and HBM BioCapital. Existing investors VantagePoint Venture Partners, Sofinnova Ventures, Pappas Ventures and Mitsubishi International Corporation also participated.
The San Mateo, Calif. company is developing treatments for inflammatory diseases and autoimmune disorders. told VentureWire that its lead treatment, Varespladib, is directed at cardiovascular patients and has completed two Phase II tests. Anthera raised $36 million in 2006.
Smartpen maker Livescribe gets another $7M
Livescribe, the maker of a high-tech pen that makes an audio recording of your conversation as you take notes, has added another $7 million to its funding, bringing its first round to a total of more than $30 million, VentureBeat has learned. Backers include VantagePoint Venture Partners and Gerlach & Co.
The company has confirmed the financing amount; I haven’t received a response confirming the names of the investors yet. Private Equity Hub reported the funding… Continue Reading
Power control company iWatt gets $12.4M
IWatt, a Los Gatos, Calif. company that makes power control products, has taken a fifth round of funding for $12.4 million, led by an unnamed strategic investor.
The products that iWatt makes include AC-DC and DC-AC power supplies, coupled inductors and other power devices, and it sells into markets including semiconductors, telecommunications, and consumer electronics. IWatt’s advertises its devices as being able to reduce power consumption and waste.
The company also recently hired former SigmaTel CEO Ron… Continue Reading
VantagePoint Venture Partners adds former CIA director, analyst to cleantech team
Two new members have joined VantagePoint Venture Partners. Coming onto the cleantech investment team are R. James Woolsey, a new venture partner, and David Edwards, who will be a partner.
Woolsey served as the Director of the CIA in the Clinton Administration from 1993 to 1995, following a decade of government service in other roles. Subsequently, he held positions in private industry, and began advising VantagePoint in 2006. He has also served as a foreign policy… Continue Reading
Google joins in $115M investment into solar thermal company, BrightSource
BrightSource Energy, an Oakland, Calif., solar thermal startup, has landed a hefty $115 million funding round from investors including Google to develop its solar power tower technology.
Solar thermal technology is one the leading hopes for alternative energy. It uses like mirrors and lenses to boil water, the steam of which is harnessed to generate electricity.
This third round was led by Google.org, VantagePoint Venture Partners, BP Alternative Energy, Statoil Hydro Venture and Black River; returning investors… Continue Reading
BridgeLux, a high-efficiency LED maker, adds on $40M
BridgeLux has secured a hefty $40 million round to use for product development and expansion, despite facing ongoing patent litigation from giant LED maker Cree.
BridgeLux, like Cree, makes the chip that is the light-emitting part of LEDs, which it then sells to other firms. The company’s chips are predominantly in electronics and automotive applications, but are also being delivered for use in general lighting for homes and businesses.
The funding is notable because it’s one of… Continue Reading
Brightsource lands the largest solar deal yet
When we talk about solar power projects, the cost is generally counted in the millions, not billions, of dollars. But a new deal between the California utility PG&E and a solar thermal company heralds the next age of renewable energy, when capital begins to flow in earnest.
BrightSource, which has signed a contract with PG&E to supply 900 megawatts of energy (enough to supply over half a million households), will require between $2 and $3 billion… Continue Reading
Mascoma takes on $50 million more for cellulosic ethanol
Mascoma, an East Coast biofuel startup with a multi-pronged approach to commercializing cellulosic ethanol, has just become one of the most heavily funded companies of its kind with a $50 million funding reported by peHUB.
Based in Cambridge, Mass., Mascoma is in the process of building several demonstration-scale ethanol plants in three other states: Michigan, New York and Tennessee. It’s partnered with a variety of different corporations and universities at each location.
What that boils down to… Continue Reading
Livescribe, the pen with ears, gets big boost
Livescribe, the company that has developed a computer pen that listens to what is said when you are using it, and which will let you post to your blog straight from your paper, has gotten $23.2 million in venture financing.
On Monday, at the DEMO conference, Oakland, Calif.-based Livescribe will share more details about its pen, and the tools that developers will be able to use to build applications on its open platform. The pen has… Continue Reading
VeriSilicon raises $20M more for chip design technology
VeriSilicon Holdings, a provider of a “system-on-a-chip” design technology, said it has raised US$20 million in a fourth round of financing.
The company is based in Santa Clara, Calif, with operations in Shanghai, China.
The company has now raised US$58 million since it was founded in 2001.
From the release:
This round was led by China Investment Fund (CIF), a business alliance between IBM and Lehman Brothers, and joined by VantagePoint Venture Partners and existing investors including Austin Ventures,… Continue Reading
YouMail, for customized voice mail, raises $4.5M
Need a customized voicemail message for when your sweetie calls your cell? YouMail can handle that, although we’re not sure what makes the company compelling enough to take $4.5 million in funding.
The “killer feature” here seems to be the ability to set special messages for specific people, but YouMail also allows web access to your voice mail, as well as saving messages and allowing them to be shared.
What YouMail doesn’t do is anything the carrier… Continue Reading
Agassi raises $200M for electric car company, Better Place
When Shai Agassi departed software giant SAP AG in March, it surprised many people because he was on track to become chief executive of the giant company.
He left declaring bold plans to help convert his native Israel and its neighbor Jordan into gasoline-free economies with nationwide electronic transportation systems. It was a noble vision.
Well, now he’s already emerged, leading a new Silicon Valley company to make electric cars, backed with a whopping $200 million in… Continue Reading
Roundup: Google’s space-algae plans, Visto’s cries IPO, more
Here’s the latest action:
1)Google’s hires astronaut, funds algae-in-space research
2) Google slowly but surely moves apps to work offline
3) AdaptiveBlue makes its “Smart Links” smarter
4) YieldBuild wants to improve the placement and color of text ads
5) Technology to let machines drive cars is six to eight years away
6) Network Physics dies, sells assets to Opnet Technologies
7) Facebook sued for messaging
Visto declares it wants to go public for fourth year in a row
9) NBC Universal has pulled… Continue Reading
Roundup: Dash Navigation, Flock, Greenspan’s tell-all, and more
Here’s the latest action:
1) Dash Navigation opens platform
2) Flock releases new browser, with Facebook in sidebar
3) Patriots successfully sue ticket scalper, StubHub
4) Google’s great quarter: Net income up 46 percent
5) Brad Greenspan’s tell-all essay on MySpace
6) Microsoft releases Popfly, allowing non-geeks to build apps
7) Comcast steps away from Net Neutrality
Dash Navigation opens platform — Dash, you’ll recall is the cool GPS device that you can use in your car, and which will be constantly connected… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Friday, Oct. 19, 2007
Featured companies: DirectFlow, Direvo, Indigo Biosystems, MacroGenics
Direct Flow raises $27M for heart-valve implants — Santa Rosa, Calif.-based Direct Flow Medical, a startup developing heart implants, raised $27 million in a second funding round. Investors included Johnson & Johnson Development, Foundation Medical Partners, VantagePoint Venture Partners, ePlanet, EDF Ventures, New Leaf Venture Partners and Spray Venture Partners.
Direct Flow makes minimally invasive aortic-valve replacements for the heart. This particular field happens to be booming — we’ve previously covered… Continue Reading
Roundup: LGC Wireless bought, RockYou also bought? and more
1) LGC Wireless to be acquired by telecom components company
2) Rumors abound that News Corp. is buying RockYou for hundreds of millions of dollars
3) Myspace + Skype: newly-joined parts of the “Web 2.0 address book”
4) Apple finally decides to return developers’ love
5) Treemo, another mobile and online content sharing service, raises 2.5 million
6) LiveScribe, a near-magical pen for taking written and audio notes at the same time, raises $22 million
LGC Wireless to be acquired by… Continue Reading
Life sciences briefing: Thursday, Oct. 11, 2007
Featured companies: Ablynx, Bind Biosciences, Maas Biolab, Oriel Therapeutics, ThromboVision, Xcellerex
(UPDATED: See below.)
Contract biomanufacturer Xcellerex pulls in $31M — Marlborough, Mass.-based Xcellerex, a startup that provides contract “bioprocess” development and manufacturing, raised $31 million in a third funding round. Investors included VantagePoint Venture Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, and SCG Investments.
Xcellerex develops modular “turnkey” manufacturing systems for complex biomolecules such as the proteins, peptides, antibodies and nucleic acids used in biotech drugs and vaccines. The… Continue Reading