Boston Deals: Activate Networks, Spindle, Arcadia Solutions, Cignifi

A midweek run through the companies making financing and acquisition news across the region:

Activate Networks, a provider of analytic software for businesses, reports that it has raised a $10 million Series B round of financing. The investment was led by Reed Elsevier Ventures, with participation from previous investor Excel Venture Management and new investor Premier, a healthcare network.

Newton, MA-based Activate Networks uses software to illustrate the real-world social connections between people, including customers and employees—here’s a profile from the Boston Business Journal. The company says its software is being used by major pharmaceutical companies, domestic hospital systems, and corporations around the globe.

Spindle, a Boston-based startup led by former Microsofties, is revealing the list of investors who have already seeded the company with $2.3 million. And there are some pretty notable names on the list: Polaris Ventures, Greylock Partners, Lerer Ventures, SV Angel, Atlas Ventures, Broad Beach Ventures, and Project 11, along with former Microsoft technical chief Ray Ozzie and Raman Narayanan.

Spindle is among the startups trying to perfect local search on mobile devices by tapping into the flood of information being generated by companies and everyday people through social media channels. The Spindle app is available on the iPhone for users in Boston and San Francisco.

Arcadia Solutions, a provider of health IT services, is being acquired by a private equity fund under the umbrella of Ferrer Freeman & Co. and the company’s senior management. The price of the acquisition wasn’t disclosed. Burlington, MA-based Arcadia was founded in 2002 and has about 190 employees.

Arcadia’s software helps customers in the healthcare system implement and manage electronic health records, which it says can improve clinical decisions and keep costs down. The deal is intended to, in part, help the company expand.

Cignifi, a Cambridge, MA-based financial services startup, has raised $1.5 million from the Omidyar Network. As Scott Kirsner reports at Boston.com, the company assesses a consumer’s creditworthiness by analyzing how they use their mobile phone. That’s intended to help people qualify for debt when they normally would be turned away because they don’t have a traditional credit history.

Author: Curt Woodward

Curt covered technology and innovation in the Boston area for Xconomy. He previously worked in Xconomy’s Seattle bureau and continued some coverage of Seattle-area tech companies, including Amazon and Microsoft. Curt joined Xconomy in February 2011 after nearly nine years with The Associated Press, the world's largest news organization. He worked in three states and covered a wide variety of beats for the AP, including business, law, politics, government, and general mayhem. A native Washingtonian, Curt earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA. As a past president of the state's Capitol Correspondents Association, he led efforts to expand statehouse press credentialing to online news outlets for the first time.