Once again it has been a pretty slow week for Seattle-area technology companies in terms of deals—word must have gotten out that the weather is nice and warm here in the Pacific Northwest! Nevertheless, of the few deals that have gone on this last week, a few were pretty substantial. A number of startups both originating and operating out of Seattle have had some hefty investment dollars thrown their way, two companies were acquired, and a local venture group found some of its patents to be hot commodities. Take a look at the highlights:
—Portland, OR-born (though Palo Alto, CA-based as of May) social business software company, Jive Software, brought in $30 million in Series C financing led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Sequoia Captial, bringing the developer’s financing total to $57 million over the last three years. This round of funding was the biggest joint investment both Kleiner and Sequoia had done since partnering up to back Google. Jive provides social-networking, communication, collaboration, and social media monitoring tools for businesses.
—SynapticMash, a Seattle-based educational software and management company, was acquired by UK-based Promethean World for $10 million in cash this week. The company, founded in 2007, develops cloud-based formative assessment software that allows educators to cater to and evaluate student performance in a more comprehensive and individual way. Promethean, an interactive learning technology developer, said the acquisition will significantly strengthen its existing learning systems.
—Tukwila, WA-based custom design printer RPI raised $5 million from San Diego private equity firm Huntington Capital, proving that companies that make physical stuff can still be relevant in the digital world. The company, which has been profitable since 1979, was forced to address some economic and technological factors that threatened its stability in the last few years. However they’ve pulled through and adapted, using a new software-integrated manufacturing system, and are now boating 30 percent revenue growth in the most recent fiscal year.
—Seattle-based project management and collaboration software developer Daptiv, has entered into an agreement to sell its assets to Laguna Hills, CA-based private equity firm Parallax Capital Partners for a reported $12.6 million. The 13-year-old company has raised over $20 million in venture capital so far. According to a spokesperson for Daptiv, the company will retain all 90 of its employees and plans to continue working with its current customers under the same name.
—Gist, a Seattle-based startup that develops online social software to help business people keep track of and manage contact information, nabbed another $4 million in equity financing from investors Vulcan Capital and Foundry Group. The company, which offers Web-based and mobile dashboards integrating contact information across a variety of social networks and e-mailing clients, raised $6.75 in financing from the two firms in May 2009, and has been rolling out new services under its product umbrella ever since.
—Bellevue, WA-based Intellectual Ventures sold a number of patents to Cambridge, MA-based voice-to-text software provider Vlingo this week. The deal comes on the coattails of a legal battle between speech software developer Nuance Communications and Vlingo.
