Under the Radar Deals: 16 Northwest Financings You Haven’t Heard About

They are the deals that slip through the cracks unnoticed. They are worth less than $1 million, but at least $100,000. Though small in size, these investments need to be included along with the bigger deals that get more press, if you want a more complete picture of the funding landscape in the innovation community. And there were at least 16 of these deals in the Northwest in September (see table below), according to ChubbyBrain, a New York-based information services company tracking VC, angel, and other investments in private companies.

It’s probably too soon to talk about trends, because this is the first month we’ve had access to ChubbyBrain’s data on these smaller deals, which were compiled from regulatory filings, user submissions, and other sources. But here are some quick observations.

About two-thirds of the deals (11 of 16) were equity investments, while one-third (5 of 16) were debt financings. Half the investments (8) were in software companies, while about a quarter each were in biotech/medical (4) and cleantech (3) firms. The majority of the deals were in the Seattle area (10), but a significant number were near Portland or in Oregon (6). Anecdotally, all those breakdowns seem consistent with the deal flow we’ve been seeing and reporting on in the Northwest for the past year or so. The data didn’t include the investors or the stage of the investments.

Without further ado, here are the 16 “under the radar” deals from last month:

Vantos (Seattle)                                            Equity        $873,487
Investigation software

InEnTec (Bend, OR)                                     Equity        $800,000
Cleantech fuels

WA 32609 (Redmond, WA)                           Equity         $800,000
Biotech

Inson Medical Systems (Bellevue, WA)      Equity         $642,536
Biomedical drug delivery

Napera Networks (Mercer Island, WA)         Debt           $600,000
Networking software

Acucela (Bothell, WA)                                    Equity         $439,603
Biotech drugs

Adometry (Kirkland, WA)                               Equity         $400,000
Analytics software

Smilebox (Redmond, WA)                              Equity         $399,999
Consumer software

Asemblon (Redmond, WA)                             Debt            $386,000
Cleantech/materials

Ohio River Clean Fuels / Baard Energy (Vancouver, WA)    Debt            $245,000
Cleantech fuels

Safetec Compliance Systems (Vancouver, WA)                    Debt            $235,000
Software for chemical compliance

Second Porch (Portland, OR)                          Equity         $225,000
Social software

SynapticMash (Seattle)                                    Equity         $200,000
Educational software

Silere Medical Technology (Kirkland, WA)      Debt            $120,000
Medical devices

BallLogic (Portland, OR)                                   Equity         $100,000
Consumer devices

Site 9 (Portland, OR)                                          Equity         $100,000
Web development software

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.