Shocking Technologies raises $10 million in second round
San Jose-based Shocking Technologies Inc., which builds materials for preventing electrostatic discharge from cellphones and electronics, raised $10 million in a second round of funding today.
The round was led by Vista Ventures and had participation from ARCH Venture Partners, ATA Ventures, Balch Hill Partners and other private investors. The company raised $4 million in January last year and $7 million in August 2007.
Simon Michael joins the board from Balch Hill Partners.
Tendril grows consumer-facing smart grid with new $30M
Tendril, one of few companies that serves household energy consumption data to both utilities and consumers, has landed a fresh $30 million third round of capital led by VantagePoint Venture Partners. It plans to further expand its hardware and software systems and forge more partnerships with appliance makers and utilities. It will round out its staff with 25 new employees.
Most smart meter and smart grid companies only beam data back to the utilities they work… Continue Reading
DEMO: Tendril releases mobile app for home energy management
Tendril Networks, a company that offers a portfolio of energy management tools to the utility industry, unveiled a web-based program for individual users at the DEMO conference today. The new application, called Tendril Vantage Mobile, lets users monitor their energy consumption, accumulating energy costs and pricing changes from their cell phones.
The application will also send users alerts and notifications of various changes in home energy use and pricing structure. One of program’s key features is… Continue Reading
Newsgator’s focus on RSS for business is paying off
RSS services provider Newsgator has focused much of its effort over the past year on developing products for businesses, and that effort seems to be paying off. The last two quarters were the company’s most profitable ever, partly because it has landed major clients across industries like finance, manufacturing and aerospace. It has also closed a $10 million sixth round of funding from Masthead Venture Partners, Mobius Venture Capital and Vista Ventures, and existing investors.
RSS… Continue Reading
Roundup: Websites become more vulnerable to lawsuits, Meevee looks for buyers, and more
Here’s the latest action:
Rulings could make website owners more vulnerable to lawsuits — Decisions made by judges in two separate cases, against Friendfinder.com and Roommates.com, could expose websites to potentially harmful lawsuits, according to an article on CNET. Websites were previously immune to most lawsuits based on content added to their sites by others.
Video search firm Meevee wants to throw in the towel — “Combining with an established player will maximize the potential for the… Continue Reading
J.D. Power snaps up Umbria, a reputation tracker
J.D. Power, like Nielsen, is one of the old-line firms that has been telling companies how they are perceived by the public for decades. Both companies have been scrambling to get a hold on the Internet, which provides more opinions than a proctology practice.
Umbria, which J.D. Power just acquired, calls itself a “reputation tracker”, mining message boards, blogs and other sites for consumer opinion. J.D. Power has lagged in comparison with Nielsen, which has picked… Continue Reading
Tendril, an energy efficiency startup, grabs $12M
Want to keep tabs on how much electricity your home is using? Tendril is one of a newer breed of energy-management startups that gives consumers a personal view of their consumption, but is still capable of tying in with and providing information to the utilities providing the power.
The company’s Energy Management System includes both hardware and software, and makes use of the open-source Zigbee and OpenHAN communication protocols to ensure that it’s interoperable with other… Continue Reading
NewsGator, finding success with business customer, raises financing
RSS services company NewsGator has gained a promising number of business clients even as its consumer-focused feed reader services face increasing competition from Google, Yahoo and others.
RSS, often called Really Simple Syndication, has proven to be a key web standard, and NewsGator is one of the many companies to benefit. RSS is a method of formatting data in a software service, such as the text or photo of a blog post, structured so that the… Continue Reading
Altos Design Automation raises $1.5M for timing tools
Altos Design Automation, a San Jose company offering SSTA (statistical static timing analysis) tools, said it has raised $1.5 million in a Series A round of venture capital funding.
Vista Ventures led the round. Vista’s Jim Hogan joins the Altos board of directors.
Altos currently supports semiconductor and IP customers in the U.S, Japan and Taiwan. Altos says it provides technology “for the creation of library views for timing, signal integrity and power analysis and… Continue Reading