Where Are All the Freakin’ Seattle-Area Deals?

I don’t know, maybe all this event planning (and attending) is taking away from the deal flow in the Northwest, especially in the tech industry. There hasn’t been much in the way of new company financings or acquisitions in the past week or two. But it’s probably the calm before the storm…

—Seattle’s Institute for Systems Biology has formed a two-year partnership with Ohio State University to get “P4 Medicine” up and running, as Luke reported. Each institution will put in $1 million and some manpower towards realizing biotech pioneer Leroy Hood’s vision of predictive, preventive, personalized, and participatory medicine. Ohio State will provide doctors and patients for clinical trials, while ISB will analyze genetic samples so the doctors can monitor their patients’ health.

—Bellevue, WA-based InfoSpace, the online “metasearch” company, acquired the assets of Mercantila, an online retail company in San Francisco, for $8 million in cash plus as much as $5.9 million in liabilities. Mercantila is now a wholly owned subsidiary of InfoSpace (NASDAQ: [[ticker:INSP]]), which is trying to become a strong player in e-commerce.

—Not a new deal, but people should pay attention to Mercer Island, WA-based Liberty Dialysis in the healthcare market. The company is huge.

—Vancouver, BC-area firm Delta-Q Technologies, a maker of power conversion and power management systems for electric vehicles, raised $17 million in growth capital from Canadian firm Tandem Expansion. The money will be used to expand Delta-Q’s offerings for applications like golf cars, aerial work platforms, industrial floor-cleaning machines, and low-speed neighborhood vehicles.

—Coronado Biosciences, a Seattle-based developer of cancer drugs, raised $7 million in equity and options, as Luke reported. The investors weren’t disclosed. Coronado is led by CEO R.J. Tesi, who was previously with Cellerant Therapeutics and SangStat Medical Corporation.

—Also not a new deal, but Seattle-based doxo revealed that its investors are Jeff Bezos (Bezos Expeditions) and Mohr Davidow Ventures, and talked a little bit about the problem it is solving. The startup raised a $5.25 million Series A round last November.

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.