It was a crazy busy week for deals in the Northwest. Just when we thought the flow might slow down before the end of summer, we saw tons of activity in software, Internet, mobile, gaming, and materials.
—Bellevue, WA-based Apptio, the IT cost management startup led by CEO Sunny Gupta, raised $14 million in Series B funding from Madrona Venture Group, Greylock Partners, Shasta Ventures, and the Andreessen Horowitz Fund. The money will allow Apptio to aggressively expand its sales and product development. Gupta also had some telling things to say about his company’s culture.
—Seattle-based Impinj has teamed up with Coca-Cola to provide radio frequency identification tags and readers for the soda giant’s new Freestyle drink dispensers. Financial terms were not given. The Impinj technology will allow Coke to track and monitor its dispenser operations and customer preferences in real time.
—Hillsboro, OR-based AISI, maker of a testing system for semiconductor memory manufacturing, closed a Series B financing round worth $11 million, as Eric reported. Investors in this round included OVP Venture Partners, TL Ventures, and Intel Capital.
—Seattle and San Francisco-based Jambool raised $5 million in venture funding, led by Madrona Venture Group. Bay Partners also participated in the financing round. Jambool has developed a micropayments and virtual currency system for social online games.
—Vancouver, WA-based ClearAccess raised about $6 million in Series B funding from Blade Ventures, Buerk Dale Victor, and DFJ Frontier, as Eric reported. ClearAccess provides data services and broadband device management for Internet service providers.
—Kirkland, WA-based OVP Venture Partners led a $14 million Series B financing round for Boston-based Novomer, a green materials startup, as Wade reported. Physic Venture Partners, Flagship Venture Partners, and DSM Venturing also participated in the round.
—Seattle-based iLike is rumored to be bought by MySpace for some $20 million, as Eric reported. The deal could close by the end of this week. Founded in 2002, iLike is an Internet music company that helps people find new music and concerts and create playlists.
—Seattle-based NewPath Networks, a provider of wireless carrier network technologies, announced a new $10 million line of credit from Square 1 Bank. Back in April, NewPath raised $30 million from New York-based Charterhouse Group and Denver-based Meritage Funds. NewPath designs and operates antenna systems for wireless networks.
—Seattle Genetics (NASDAQ: [[ticker:SGEN]]), a Bothell, WA-based developer of antibody drugs for cancer, raised $136 million in a stock sale, as Luke reported. JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs led the offering. Seattle Genetics is six months ahead of schedule in a pivotal study of its experimental drug for Hodgkin’s disease.
—Seattle-based Z2Live, a mobile social games startup, has raised $3 million from Madrona Venture Group, according to a report in TechCrunch. Z2Live has developed a free, multiplayer platform for social and casual games on the iPhone and iPod Touch.
—Microsoft (NASDAQ: [[ticker:MSFT]]) and Nokia (NYSE: [[ticker:NOK]]) announced an alliance that will create adaptations of Microsoft programs, like Office, for Nokia smartphones. Financial terms weren’t given, but the two companies will jointly market the products they create together. Nokia’s Symbian mobile operating system has been a major competitor to Microsoft’s Windows Mobile platform.
—Lastly, we provided some more in-depth analysis of Microsoft’s sale of Seattle-based Razorfish to Publicis for $530 million, from Cascadia Capital’s Warren Gouk, an expert on mergers and Internet strategy. Gouk said Microsoft stands to gain a lot if the deal drives its search and display advertising business, while Razorfish could expand its international market.
