Allux Medical shuts down, turns to Sherwood
Silicon Valley shutdown/turnaround consultancy Sherwood Partners has been called in by ailing Allux Medical, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based developer of devices used to treat airway and skin inflammatory diseases. The company, which managed to raise $13 million in capital and a $1.68 million bridge round, has already unplugged its web site and phone number. Sherwood has not released any plans for Allux, nor the status of the company, which had operated in stealth mode since… Continue Reading
Boston Power juices up with $55M for lithium-ion batteries
Boston Power, maker of eco-friendly, long-lasting lithium-ion batteries, just landed $55 million in fourth-round funding to grow its manufacturing, sales and marketing operations. Its flagship product, the Sonata Lithium-ion battery, is slated to launch in the next several months as the primary power source for Hewlett-Packard notebook computers. The model is also currently being adapted for use in other electronic devices and electric vehicles, the company says.
According to CNET, Sonata batteries can be charged 1,000… Continue Reading
Achaogen takes in $5.6M to fight bacterial infections
Pharmaceutical company Achaogen received a $5.6 million grant from the U.K.-based Wellcome Trust as part of its Seeding Drug Discovery Initiative. The money will go toward phase one clinical trials of the San Francisco company’s lead drug candidates, aimed at treating bacterial infections that are already resistent to multiple antibiotics.
It last raised funds in 2006, bringing in $26 million in second-round funding from Venrock, Versant Ventures, Domain Associates and Arch Venture Partners.
Siminoff, Venrock part ways, reasons unknown
updated
David Siminoff, now former general partner at Venrock, has left the venture firm after a little over a year and a half. The move, confirmed by the firm, is significant considering Siminoff’s stature in the Silicon Valley venture community. It’s unclear what prompted the change — whether he left of his own accord or was somehow caught up in the wave of downsizing hitting funds of Venrock’s caliber. Further details have yet to be disclosed.
[Update:… Continue Reading
Anacor takes $50M to treat fungal infections
Anacor Pharmaceuticals, a Palo Alto, Calif. firm working on topical treatments for fungal infections in nails, just got a $50 million infusion in a fifth round of funding. This is pretty good news for a company that had to withdraw its IPO filing just two weeks ago due to poor market conditions.
This brings its total capital raised to $87 million, but the recent money is a big jump from the $5 million fourth-round it raised… Continue Reading
Drug developer Anacor cancels IPO plans
Biotech firm Anacor Pharmaceuticals has withdrawn its filing to go public after an arduous 16-month wait (unprecedented for health care enterprises, reports VentureWire). The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company says the market is not optimal to hit its target of $57.5 million in the sale.
Anacor, currently working on a therapy to treat nail fungal infections, had earmarked $49 million of that sum for further research and development of its lead drug candidate. It had already struck… Continue Reading
Bivio nets $15.8M for flexible networking systems
Networking systems developer Bivio Networks just took in $15.8 million in a round led by Silver Creek Ventures and including new Japanese investors Itochu Techno-Solutions Corporation and Cross Technology Partners, as well as existing backers InterWest Partners, Storm Ventures, Venrock and Goldman Sachs. The Pleasanton, Calif.-based company builds systems through Linux that can be used for security, management or compliance purposes. It will use its new financing to expand sales overseas.
Aria Systems raises $10M more for online billing
Aria Systems, perhaps the first company to offer billing and subscription management through a software-as-a-service business model (i.e., online subscriptions), has raised a $10 million second round.
The Media, Pa.-based company has been around since 2003, but interest in online billing software seems to have taken off this year — and it’s not just Aria chief executive Ed Sullivan who says so. A new competitor called Zuora, led by an early employee of SaaS pioneer Salesforce.com,… Continue Reading
Awarepoint finds $13.3M for location-pinpointing platform
Location systems developer Awarepoint raked in $13.3 million in fourth-round financing to expand its domestic and international presence in the radio frequency identification (RFID) space. The San Diego company’s platform, utilizing this technology, is able to track the precise location and movement of people and things.
Cardinal Partners led the round, which also included Venrock and Avalon Ventures. Now five-years old, Awarepoint previously raised about $8 million.
Qteros readies for near-term cellulosic ethanol production
A technology that might offer some respite to first-generation ethanol makers like Verasun and Pacific Ethanol has received a significant $25 million from backers including oil giant BP and George Soros’s investment fund. The company in question is Qteros, formerly called SunEthanol, a little-known startup placing big bets on a plucky microbe.
Qteros is one of a large group of companies trying to engineer a microorganism to cheaply break down woody matter, including everything from corn… Continue Reading
Martini Media, ad network for the affluent gets richer
The Martini Media Network, a company that serves ads on websites targeting the wealthy, received an undisclosed amount in first-round funding from Venrock. The San Francisco-based company also seeks to drive traffic to sites that carry these ads through widgets, skins and mobile means.
The network works with sites and advertisers in relatively low-traffic areas like sailing, equestrian sports, cigars, golf and wine. It also plans to launch a blog keeping track of news and updates… Continue Reading
Compliance software maker Autonomic has a brand new bag, beta
Autonomic Networks has released a beta of its new compliance and auditing software, having dumped its old name (Vernier Networks), its old leader (replaced by new chief executive Paul Stich two months ago), and its old focus (network access control) all in the past year, reports VentureWire.
The Mountain View, Calif.-based company now specializes in software and equipment to help companies enforce and monitor compliance with network security protocols. It can tell you who is accessing… Continue Reading
Kineto Wireless raises $15.5M for mobile base station technology
Kineto Wireless Inc., developer of software that lets mobile phones work on both cellular and Wi-Fi networks, brought in $15.5 million in fourth-round funding to advance the technology of wireless base stations — known as femtocells — which would expand home broadband coverage.
The new 3G and 4G femtocells would connect to customers’ existing broadband service to infuse home zone coverage for smart phones, and could even bridge gaps between coverage areas.
The investment round included contributions… Continue Reading
Pathwork Diagnostics raises $20M for cancer diagnostic tests
Pathwork Diagnostics, a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based maker of cancer diagnostic tets, has raised $20 million in a second round of funding. The round was led by new investor Abingworth Management, with participation from existing backers Advent Venture Partners, Novus Ventures, Prospect Venture Partners, Venrock and Versant Ventures. Pathwork previously raised $11 million.
Sapphire Energy getting the green for its algal biofuel
Well-known but still young biofuel company Sapphire Energy has more than doubled its funding to more than $100 million for its “green crude,” a fuel it says will mimic the best characteristics of the oil we drill for today.
Sapphire’s plan, which I covered in depth back in May, is to grow tailored strains of algae on waste water. Algae is criticized because it often uses open pools of water, which evaporate quickly in hot climes,… Continue Reading
Women’s blog company BlogHer raises $5M, inks strategic partnership
Women-focused blog network, blogging community site and conference organizer company BlogHer has raised $5 million in a second round led by General Electric and NBC Universal-backed Peacock Equity Fund with participation from existing investor Venrock. As part of the deal, NBCU-owned iVillage will get access to BlogHer content, and the ability to promote itself on Blogher. Oxygen.com and BravoTV.com will both also get access to BlogHer content.
PodTech purchased by ViewPartner for less than half a million, ending a bloody story
Updated, including the full press release, below the article.
PodTech, a company that publishes online and downloadable videos about new technology, has been sold — for less than half a million dollars, I’ve learned — to ViewPartner, a communications technology company.
This is sad. In 2007, the Palo Alto, Calif. company was expecting to make $7 million in revenue by the end of the year, mostly through sponsorship deals with large technology companies, from what a source… Continue Reading
Social network hi5 buys app creator PixVerse to build out its own chat service
Social network hi5 has bought a social network application developer company called PixVerse for an undisclosed amount. While PixVerse’s applications, like Pix Chat and Pix Wall, run on multiple platforms on rival social networks, the reason for the purchase is that hi5 wants its technology.
PixVerse applications are based on what it considers a “breakthrough” implementation of Adobe’s Flash technology that it has built its various applications on. It also uses Google App Engine, which lets… Continue Reading
Sapphire Energy gets “open checkbook” from investors for algae-based gasoline
Another algal biofuel company has emerged from stealth mode, and this one has the biggest story yet, at least according to the estimation of its investors.
Only a year old, Sapphire Energy is a San Diego startup that has lab-developed an algae that it says can create a substance akin to crude oil that can be processed by existing refineries, transported through existing infrastructure and burned without difficulty by today’s vehicles.
Sapphire has raised over $50 million… Continue Reading
Presentation sharing site SlideShare raises $3 million
| View | Upload your own
SlideShare, a company that lets you upload Powerpoint presentations to the web then share them with others, has raised $3 million from Venrock. Its site has been growing increasingly fast since it launched in 2006, chief executive Rashmi Sinhahmi tells me. It now gets 4.5 million unique visitors per month, with more than 400,000 registered users that have uploaded around 300,000 presentations to date.
The site lets you do things… Continue Reading