The past week has been pretty busy in the Northwest, with a number of deals in software, Internet, electronics, and cleantech. And the activity wasn’t limited to Seattle—there’s a fair bit of news from Vancouver and Portland as well.
—Tantalus, a Burnaby, BC-based company that develops wireless networks for smart-grid applications, raised $14 million in equity financing led by Redpoint Ventures. It’s one of the bigger cleantech-related deals as of late.
—Cloudvox, a Seattle-based service that connects Web applications with phone services, was acquired by Chicago-based Ifbyphone, an Internet telephony firm. Financial terms were not disclosed.
—Beaverton, OR-based Avnera closed its $10 million Series D financing round, from new investor Onkyo and existing investors. Avnera develops technology for wireless audio chips and other consumer electronics applications.
—Seattle-based Gist, a startup focused on integrating information from the Web into people’s e-mail inboxes, announced that its software now works with IBM’s Lotus Notes communication and collaboration software, in limited release. It’s part of Gist’s strategy to push relevant information and updates to business people in order to make their meetings more efficient.
—Arch Venture Partners and Polaris Venture Partners, which both have Boston and Seattle operations, are paying $14 million for the assets of Iceland-based genomics firm deCode Genetics, as Ryan reported. DeCode (NASDAQ: [[ticker:DCGN]]) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November.
—Portland, OR-based AboutUs acquired Jyte.com, a social website that uses RPX, the flagship product from Portland startup JanRain. Financial terms weren’t disclosed. AboutUs is building a collaborative guide to the Web, and is backed by Seattle-based Voyager Capital.
—Bellevue, WA-based Visible Technologies landed $22 million in new funding, led by Investor Growth Capital, a new investor. Previous investors Ignition Partners, Centurion Holdings, In-Q-Tel, and WPP also participated in the round. Visible Technologies, which makes software to help companies and brands manage their online reputations, will use the funds to accelerate its global expansion, particularly in Europe.
—Seattle-based Big Fish Games expanded its partnership with Playfirst, based in San Francisco. Financial details of the multi-year deal weren’t given, but Big Fish will provide e-commerce and customer support services for PlayFirst’s game distribution portal, and PlayFirst gets access to the Big Fish game catalog.
