Many of New England’s IT firms were heard from this past week. Those, and the rest of the week’s tech and life sciences deals, below.
—The Scuderi Group of West Springfield, MA, raised $20 million in private funding from undisclosed investors. The firm is developing a fuel-efficient internal combustion engine.
—The year-end data on U.S. venture deals are in and, predictably, ugly. Ryan got the lowdown on the low numbers, and highlighted New England’s most active venture firms and biggest transactions.
—Needham, MA-based Extreme Reach, a developer of software for tracking, managing, and delivering video ads across several media, raised $1.5 million in a Series A round from Village Ventures and Long River Ventures.
—Digital-effects-software maker GenArts of Cambridge, MA acquired British startup SpeedSix Software, producer of the graphics plug-in Monsters and Raptors.
—EIQnetworks, a security software firm in Acton, MA, closed a $10 million first round of institutional financing led by Venrock.
—Waltham, MA- and Palo Alto, CA-based Advanced Technology Ventures reportedly joined Morgenthaler Ventures and St. Paul Venture Capital in investing $30 million in Palo Alto medical-device firm Ardian.
—Panacos Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:[[ticker:PANC]]) of Watertown, MA, sold its lead HIV drug candidate, bevirimat, for $7 million to Utah’s Myriad Pharmaceuticals.
—Server appliance maker Dataupia closed a Series B-1 financing round reportedly totaling $10 million. Backers of the Cambridge, MA-based firm, which raised $16 million in its B round in October 2007, include Polaris Venture Partners, Valhalla Partners, and Fairhaven Capital.
—Software maker Mazu Networks of Cambridge, MA, will be acquired by San Francisco-based Riverbed Technology (NASDAQ: [[ticker:RVBD]]) for $25 million up front and up to $22 million in performance-based payments. Mazu has reportedly raised $47 million in venture funding from Benchmark Capital, Greylock Partners, Matrix Partners, Pilot House Ventures, StarVest Partners, Symantec, and other investors.
—Boston-based Enlight Biosciences forged an alliance with Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:[[ticker:JNJ]]) under which the healthcare giant will invest up to $13 million in Enlight’s programs, which are aimed at developing technologies in such fields as molecular imaging, drug formulation, and drug synthesis. Partners such as Eli Lilly, Merck, and Pfizer have now promised Enlight a total of $52 million.
