It was another relatively slow week for deals in the Northwest—with a very notable exception being the largest venture capital deal of the year to date (see below).
—Xconomy broke the news of the Northwest’s biggest venture deal of 2009 so far: Kirkland, WA-based Pathway Medical Technologies’ $40 million financing led by Amsterdam-based Forbion Capital Partners, and joined by HLM Venture Partners, Oxford Bioscience Partners, Latterell Capital Management, Cooperative AAC, and Giza Venture Fund. As Luke reported, Pathway CEO Paul Buckman said the financing is the first part of an ongoing $55 million fundraising round. Pathway makes a novel device that clears out blockages in clogged leg arteries.
—Bellevue, WA-based Bsquare (NASDAQ: [[ticker:BSQR]]), which provides software and services to help companies develop mobile and embedded devices, said it is porting Adobe’s Flash technology onto Google’s Android mobile platform for a top-tier wireless carrier. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Thanks to Bsquare, Android may get Flash before the iPhone does, enabling all sorts of new mobile applications.
—Bothell, WA-based Vioguard, maker of germ-zapping computer keyboards (using ultraviolet radiation), told Xconomy the story of its $1 million first-round angel financing round, and its ongoing effort to raise another $2.5 million to $3 million by June. Vioguard CEO Larry Ranta explained how the startup is going after the growing hospital market, where containing the spread of deadly bacteria like MRSA is a crucial issue.
—The Northwest Association for Biomedical Research, a Seattle-based nonprofit that supports science education, received a three-year, $1.3 million grant from the National Science Foundation, as Luke reported. The funds will be used to help high school teachers and students understand how information technology is used in biomedical research.
—Seattle-based Vulcan Capital, Paul Allen’s venture firm, invested in a $15 million Series D round of financing for Audience, a voice-processing software firm based in Mountain View, CA. Vulcan was an existing investor, together with New Enterprise Associates, Tallwood Venture Capital, and VentureTech Alliance, all of whom participated in the round. Audience is going after the mobile market, where it aims to reduce noise for people talking on their cell phones.
