Amazon Buys SnapTell, Madrona Backs Animoto, MDRNA Works Out Tech License, & More Seattle-Area Deals News

It has been a fairly busy start to the summer in the Northwest. In the past week, we’ve seen a number of deals in software, Internet, displays, biotech, and energy.

—Portland, OR-based Reductive Labs raised a $2 million Series A round led by True Ventures in Palo Alto, CA. Reductive, whose founders are in Salt Lake City and Nashville, TN, but are relocating most of the company to Portland, has developed open source software to help companies automate the management of their IT systems. True Ventures is also an investor in Seattle-based 1000 Markets and RescueTime.

—Redmond, WA-based Microvision (NASDAQ: [[ticker:MVIS]]), a maker of display technologies, received a $15 million investment from Taipei-based Walsin Lihwa, in the form of a common stock sale to Walsin’s subsidiary, Max Display Enterprises Limited, and a warrant to buy more shares.

—Bellevue, WA-based LiquidPlanner, a collaborative software startup focused on online project management, raised $1 million from angel investors, including $235,000 from the Seattle-based Alliance of Angels’ new seed fund. Angel investor Geoff Entress has joined LiquidPlanner’s board of directors.

—Luke reported that Bothell, WA-based MDRNA (NASDAQ: [[ticker:MRNA]]), a developer of RNA interference drugs, renegotiated a key technology license with Denmark-based RiboTask. MDRNA now has full control and no longer needs to make payments for the technology, which could make RNA interference drugs more stable and less likely to cause inflammation. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

—Seattle-based Madrona Venture Group led a $4.4 million funding round for Animoto, a New York-based video and slideshow software startup. Amazon is also an investor in the company, which

Author: Gregory T. Huang

Greg is a veteran journalist who has covered a wide range of science, technology, and business. As former editor in chief, he overaw daily news, features, and events across Xconomy's national network. Before joining Xconomy, he was a features editor at New Scientist magazine, where he edited and wrote articles on physics, technology, and neuroscience. Previously he was senior writer at Technology Review, where he reported on emerging technologies, R&D, and advances in computing, robotics, and applied physics. His writing has also appeared in Wired, Nature, and The Atlantic Monthly’s website. He was named a New York Times professional fellow in 2003. Greg is the co-author of Guanxi (Simon & Schuster, 2006), about Microsoft in China and the global competition for talent and technology. Before becoming a journalist, he did research at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Lab. He has published 20 papers in scientific journals and conferences and spoken on innovation at Adobe, Amazon, eBay, Google, HP, Microsoft, Yahoo, and other organizations. He has a Master’s and Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT, and a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.