Another week has passed, and with it, more Seattle-area technology deals. This week we’ve seen a hefty amount of federal dollars get poured into developing the state’s broadband infrastructure, a handful of local financings, and a deal that fell apart between a global wire service and a local online humor company. Take a look at the highlights:
—Seattle-based database company SpaceCurve raised $1.1 million in equity led by Reed Elsevier Ventures. Seattle-based Divergent Ventures also participated in the round. The year-old company develops scalable databases capable of storing and analyzing large spatial and graph datasets.
—Oggifinogi, a creative technology and rich media advertising firm based out of Bellevue, WA, and New York, raised $2 million in Series A financing, led by Grecroft Partners. The company, founded in 2008, plans to use the funds to grow its Real Time Rich Media (RTRM) services.
—The Northwest Open Access Network (NoaNet) received $54.5 million in Recovery Act funds to expand high-speed broadband Internet across Washington State. The federal grant is the second the Tacoma, WA-based organization has received for a $185 million project to bring Internet access to 170 communities that lack adequate service. The work will affect 2,000 schools, libraries, universities, hospitals, and emergency response agencies in rural areas of Washington.
—Portland, OR-based Tyfone, a developer of mobile contactless payment software, raised $5 million in equity from an undisclosed investor. The company, founded in 2004, partnered with Atlanta, GA-based e-commerce and payment processing company First Data in March, to offer SideTap micro secure digital (MicroSD) memory cards with Tyfone technology.
—This isn’t so much of a deal as a non-deal: A potential partnership between the Associated Press and Seattle-based humor network I Can Has Cheezburger fell through this week. The wire service backed out of the deal, citing concerns over its “journalistic integrity.” Cheezburger landed a similar deal with Seattle-based Getty Images earlier this month, and is currently in talks with Corbis, another stock photo agency.
