It was a bit of a quiet week for Northwest deals, with some local venture dollars going to other parts of the country. Nevertheless, there was activity in gaming, music, robotics, biotech, and cleantech.
—Seattle-based Tuusso Energy completed a $2 million financing round led by Pivotal Investments, based in Portland, OR. The deal was made in partnership with Akula Energy Ventures, which will co-invest in Tuusso’s development of utility-scale solar power plants in the western U.S.
—Bellevue, WA-based Smith & Tinker said it has raised a total of $29 million in venture funding from DCM, Vulcan Capital, Foundry Group, Alsop Louie Partners, and Leo Capital Holdings. The gaming company was founded in 2007 and closed its most recent funding round last month. It is now promoting its new hybrid online/offline game, called Nanovor.
—Kirkland, WA-based OVP Venture Partners participated in a $45 million financing round for Complete Genomics, based in Mountain View, CA, as Luke reported. Enterprise Partners Venture Capital, Prospect Venture Partners, Highland Capital Management, Essex Woodlands Health Ventures, and OrbiMed Advisors also contributed. It’s the fourth round of funding for Complete Genomics (for a total of $90 million-plus), which is building a commercial human genome sequencing center in Silicon Valley.
—ProFibrix, a Netherlands-based medical company with a Seattle subsidiary, raised $11 million in a Series B financing from new investor Gilde Healthcare Partners and existing investor Index Ventures. The company makes a dry powder topical tissue sealant that stops bleeding during or after surgery.
—Seattle-based Bezos Expeditions, the venture investing operation of Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, has invested in Heartland Robotics, a Cambridge, MA-based startup led by MIT computer scientist Rod Brooks. Wade reported that the industrial robotics company has raised just over $7 million in an equity offering in which Bezos Expeditions participated. Other investors were not disclosed.
—Bothell, WA-based AVI Biopharma raised another $30 million through a stock offering underwritten by Jefferies & Company, as Luke reported. AVI (NASDAQ: [[ticker:AVII]]), which recently moved headquarters from Portland to Bothell, is developing experimental RNA therapies for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and Ebola virus.
—MySpace confirmed its acquisition of Seattle-based iLike, as Eric reported. Financial terms were not disclosed, but the widely rumored price was $20 million. iLike will remain in Seattle, with its 26 employees joining the MySpace team, according to Owen Van Natta, the CEO of MySpace.
—Seattle-based Cell Therapeutics (NASDAQ: [[ticker:CTIC]]), the cancer drug developer, raised $30 million by selling preferred stock and warrants to purchase shares of its common stock to a single institutional investor, as Eric reported. Cell Therapeutics will use the money as operating capital.
