BrightEdge, a San Mateo, CA, company that introduced its Web-based search engine optimization platform for businesses last summer, said today that it has brought on Ming Lei, chief architect at leading Chinese search engine Baidu, as a strategic advisor. Lei is expected to help the company expand its platform so that customers can increase incoming … Continue reading “BrightEdge Going Global”
Author: Wade Roush
Between 2007 and 2014, I was a staff editor for Xconomy in Boston and San Francisco.
Since 2008 I've been writing a weekly opinion/review column called VOX: The Voice of Xperience. (From 2008 to 2013 the column was known as World Wide Wade.)
I've been writing about science and technology professionally since 1994. Before joining Xconomy in 2007, I was a staff member at MIT’s Technology Review from 2001 to 2006, serving as senior editor, San Francisco bureau chief, and executive editor of TechnologyReview.com. Before that, I was the Boston bureau reporter for Science, managing editor of supercomputing publications at NASA Ames Research Center, and Web editor at e-book pioneer NuvoMedia.
I have a B.A. in the history of science from Harvard College and a PhD in the history and social study of science and technology from MIT. I've published articles in Science, Technology Review, IEEE Spectrum, Encyclopaedia Brittanica, Technology and Culture, Alaska Airlines Magazine, and World Business, and I've been a guest of NPR, CNN, CNBC, NECN, WGBH and the PBS NewsHour. I'm a frequent conference participant and enjoy opportunities to moderate panel discussions and on-stage chats.
My personal site: waderoush.com
My social media coordinates:
Twitter: @wroush
Facebook: facebook.com/wade.roush
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/waderoush
Google+ : google.com/+WadeRoush
YouTube: youtube.com/wroush1967
Flickr: flickr.com/photos/wroush/
Pinterest: pinterest.com/waderoush/
Okta: Helping Companies Maintain Visibility Despite Cloud Cover
If you’re an active Internet user, you probably have enough trouble keeping track of the usernames and passwords you use for a couple dozen Web-based services: Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Amazon, iTunes, Flickr, and the like. Now imagine that you’re an IT administrator at a big company with hundreds or thousands of employees, each of … Continue reading “Okta: Helping Companies Maintain Visibility Despite Cloud Cover”
CRV, Spark Invest in Sensr.net
Sensr.net, a video surveillance startup based in Incline Village, NV, said today that it has obtained $1.5 million in new financing. The round was led by Boston-based Spark Capital and the Menlo Park, CA, office of Waltham, MA-based Charles River Ventures. Sensr.net has built software that allows consumers to remotely monitor webcams for unusual activity; … Continue reading “CRV, Spark Invest in Sensr.net”
GM Leads $17M Envia Round
Envia Systems, a Newark, CA-based startup developing cathodes for high-capacity lithium ion batteries for electric and hybrid vehicles, said today (PDF) that it has raised $17 million in Series C financing. General Motors’ venture investment wing, GM Ventures, put $7 million into the deal; the rest came from new investors Asahi Kasei and Asahi Glass … Continue reading “GM Leads $17M Envia Round”
$75M for Fulcrum BioEnergy
Pleasanton, CA-based Fulcrum BioEnergy, a developer of technology for converting municipal solid waste into ethanol, said yesterday (PDF) that it has collected $75 million in Series C financing. The company declined to name the investors in the round, though it told Dow Jones VentureWire that existing shareholders Rustic Canyon Partners and U.S. Renewables Group participated. … Continue reading “$75M for Fulcrum BioEnergy”
Facebook Buys Rel8tion
Rel8tion, a stealth-mode Seattle startup building a location-based mobile advertising system, has been acquired by Facebook, which is flush with cash from its recent $1.5 billion fundraising spree. The purchase was reported yesterday by AllThingsD and confirmed by Facebook. Rel8tion co-founder Peter Wilson, a Microsoft veteran who previously helped to set up Google’s Kirkland, WA, … Continue reading “Facebook Buys Rel8tion”
Liquid Robotics Soaks Up $18M
Liquid Robotics, headquartered in Sunnyvale, CA, has collected $18 million in equity-based financing in a round that could reach as high as $23.2 million, according to a regulatory filing. The four-year-old startup makes an “autonomous marine vehicle” called the Wave Glider that carries sensor payloads and moves by converting wave motion into thrust. The device … Continue reading “Liquid Robotics Soaks Up $18M”
Report: Layoffs Hit Elan
Elan, the Dublin, Ireland-based drugmaker that co-manufactures Biogen Idec’s (NASDAQ: [[ticker:BIIB]]) multiple sclerosis drug Tysabri and has a major R&D operation in South San Francisco, is cutting staff, according to a late-Tuesday report from Reuters. The news organization said Elan is laying off approximately 130 people, or 10 percent of its total workforce, with most of … Continue reading “Report: Layoffs Hit Elan”
Hipmunk Takes Off With $4.7M
San Francisco startup Hipmunk, a Y Combinator-backed company developing a new airfare search interface (as we explained in this August profile), has raised $4.7 million in new equity-based financing, in a round that could eventually reach $5.9 million, according to a regulatory filing. The company has said nothing so far about who’s investing or how … Continue reading “Hipmunk Takes Off With $4.7M”
Cirtas Raises $22.5M, Names CEO
San Jose, CA-based Cirtas, which makes storage controllers that connect enterprise data centers to cloud-based storage services such as Amazon S3, said today that it has raised $22.5 million in Series B financing. New investors Shasta Ventures and Bessemer Venture Partners led the round, which was joined by existing investors NEA, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and … Continue reading “Cirtas Raises $22.5M, Names CEO”
$7M Shines on Solar Universe
Livermore, CA-based Solar Universe, a network of owner-operated companies specializing in the design, installation, and finance of residential solar power systems, said today that it has raised $7 million in Series B financing. Rockport Capital Partners led the round, which also included returning Series A investors. Solar Universe founder and CEO Joe Bono said the … Continue reading “$7M Shines on Solar Universe”
Appcelerator Collects $1.3M
Lost in the news today about an Appcelerator-sponsored study of business mobile application development trends was a regulatory filing indicating that the Mountain View, CA-based company has raised $1.3 million in new equity-based financing, in a round that could total as much as $3 million. Previous Appcelerator investors, who most recently contributed $9 million in … Continue reading “Appcelerator Collects $1.3M”
Epocrates, Mobile App Developer Since Palm Days, Preps for IPO-And for Push Into Electronic Medical Records
If you’re a young software engineer today, you’ve got to be in mobile. That’s why San Francisco and Silicon Valley are crawling with twenty-something developers building games and other diversions for the iTunes App Store and the Android Marketplace. But there’s one local company that started building mobile apps before most of these people even … Continue reading “Epocrates, Mobile App Developer Since Palm Days, Preps for IPO-And for Push Into Electronic Medical Records”
Behind the Scenes at Marvell, Cash for Tilera and vChatter, & More Bay Area Biztech News
The short business week last week after the Martin Luther King holiday left us with 20 percent less news than usual. Here’s what was left: —In a rare press interview, Marvell Technology Group CEO and co-founder Sehat Sutardja talked about his hands-on management style at Marvell and the founding of the company as one of … Continue reading “Behind the Scenes at Marvell, Cash for Tilera and vChatter, & More Bay Area Biztech News”
$11M for Auditude
Palo Alto, CA-based Auditude, which makes tools to help track and manage Internet video advertising campaigns, said today (PDF) that it has collected $11 million in Series B venture financing. The round was led by new investors Granite Ventures and Silicon Valley Bank, and included existing backers Greylock Partners and Redpoint Ventures. Granite Ventures managing … Continue reading “$11M for Auditude”
Fluidigm Raises $5M
South San Francisco, CA-based Fluidigm, which makes instruments for measuring gene expression in single cells such as tumor cells, has raised $5 million in an offering of debt, options, and securities, according to a January 20 regulatory filing. The firm may have needed the funds to tide it over on its way to a planned … Continue reading “Fluidigm Raises $5M”
Nine Startup Scaling Secrets from Eventbrite
On anyone’s list of the fastest-growing and most interesting social-commerce startups in San Francisco/Silicon Valley, Eventbrite has to rank near the top. Since collecting $6.5 million in Series C financing from Sequoia Capital in late 2009, followed rapidly by another $20 million infusion from DAG, Tenaya, and Sequoia less than a year later, the online … Continue reading “Nine Startup Scaling Secrets from Eventbrite”
AcelRx Prices IPO
Redwood City, CA-based AcelRx Pharmaceuticals, which filed paperwork last November for an initial public offering on the Nasdaq exchange, set its IPO terms in an updated regulatory filing yesterday. The company, which is developing oral pain-control medications as a replacement for patient-controlled intravenous pain treatments in hospitals, said it hopes to sell 5.77 million shares of … Continue reading “AcelRx Prices IPO”
Box.net Revamps Doc Sharing System
Palo Alto, CA, startup Box.net, which we profiled in September, yesterday unveiled an extensive set of changes to its Web-based document sharing system for businesses. The new features—described in a blog post by director of product management David Lee—include a simplified user interface, real-time updates when colleagues modify documents, and an “app marketplace” collecting third-party … Continue reading “Box.net Revamps Doc Sharing System”
$2M Credit Line for Sungevity
Sungevity, the Oakland, CA-based residential solar installation company that aims to become “the Amazon of solar electricity,” has received a $2 million line of credit from Bridge Bank, a subsidiary of San Jose, CA-based Bridge Capital Holdings, according to an announcement today. The financing will be used “to support and expand the company’s operations,” the … Continue reading “$2M Credit Line for Sungevity”
The Age of iPad Superbooks? Not Yet
Jadedness: it’s an occupational hazard in tech journalism. Other people look at new software or gadgets and say “Wow.” I look at them and say “Hmm, needs work.” Last weekend’s New York Times Magazine provided a case in point. Writer Virginia Heffernan reviewed 15-Minute Everyday Pilates, a video e-book from Alameda, CA-based Vook, a publishing … Continue reading “The Age of iPad Superbooks? Not Yet”
Searching for Meaning in Google’s Leadership Changes
There’s been an almost comically wide range of reactions on the Web to the word today from Google CEO Eric Schmidt that he’ll become executive chairman effective April 4, handing the reins of the search and advertising giant back to co-founder and former CEO Larry Page, 38. Over at Mashable, they were “reeling” from the … Continue reading “Searching for Meaning in Google’s Leadership Changes”
CloudTalk Raises $3.8M
In a Series A funding round expected to close by the end of this month, San Francisco-based CloudTalk, formerly known as Pana.ma, has raised at least $3.76 million in equity-based financing, according to a regulatory filing. A total of 37 as-yet-unidentified investors contributed to the round, according to the filing. Led my Magellan search engine co-founder … Continue reading “CloudTalk Raises $3.8M”
Kabam Wins $30M
Kabam, a Redwood City, CA-based maker of massively multiplayer social games that has been called the “anti-Zynga,” said today that it has raised $30 million in new venture financing. New investors Redpoint Ventures and Intel Capital led the round, which was joined by Kabam’s initial funder, Canaan Partners. “Kabam has pursued a distinctly different strategy … Continue reading “Kabam Wins $30M”
$100M for Bloom Energy
Sunnyvale, CA-based Bloom Energy, a maker of solid-oxide fuel cells powered by natural gas, today introduced a power purchase agreement option called Bloom Electrons under which large organizations can install the company’s so-called “Bloom Box” fuel cells and lock in electricity rates over a 10-year period. At the same time, Dow Jones VentureWire is reporting … Continue reading “$100M for Bloom Energy”
VChatter, the “Safe” Alternative to ChatRoulette, Doubles Down
Menlo Park, CA, startup vChatter, which runs video chat services that randomly link users on Facebook, Bebo, and the Web, said today that it has raised an additional $350,000 in seed funding from individual investors, bringing its total capitalization to $600,000. The company markets itself as a PG-rated alternative to ChatRoulette, the once-trendy social video … Continue reading “VChatter, the “Safe” Alternative to ChatRoulette, Doubles Down”
Real Men Don’t Need Fabs: Part 2 of Our Interview with Marvell CEO Sehat Sutardja
Yesterday we published the first part of an in-depth Q&A with Sehat Sutardja, the notoriously hands-on CEO of Marvell Technology Group. The Santa Clara, CA, company (NASDAQ: [[ticker:MRVL]]) has spent the last 16 years building power-efficient “mixed-signal” analog and digital chips for devices such as disk drives, cell phones, and portable media players. The first … Continue reading “Real Men Don’t Need Fabs: Part 2 of Our Interview with Marvell CEO Sehat Sutardja”
$16M for Scientific Conservation
Scientific Conservation Inc. (SCI), a San Francisco-based maker of Web-based software that helps building managers monitor and control energy usage, said today that it has collected $15.65 million in Series B funding. DFJ Growth Fund led the round, which also involved DFJ Ventures and The Westly Group. Barry Schuler, managing director of DFJ Growth Fund and … Continue reading “$16M for Scientific Conservation”
Scribd Collects $13M
In its third round of venture financing, San Francisco-based social publishing startup Scribd has raised $13 million. The round was led by MLC Investments of Australia and SVB Capital, according to an announcement yesterday. Existing investors Redpoint Ventures, Charles River Ventures, and Kinsey Hills Group also participated. The company, whose free publishing service allows users … Continue reading “Scribd Collects $13M”
“You Can’t Run A Company Based on Hearsay”: A Rare Interview with Marvell’s Hands-On CEO, Sehat Sutardja
Marvell Technology Group (NASDAQ: [[ticker:MRVL]]) is one of Silicon Valley’s unsung success stories. The chip design firm’s low-power electronics are found inside key media and computing devices from disk drives and smartphones to network controllers and Blu-ray players. But it wasn’t until after I’d won an interview with co-founder, CEO, and de facto chief engineer … Continue reading ““You Can’t Run A Company Based on Hearsay”: A Rare Interview with Marvell’s Hands-On CEO, Sehat Sutardja”
$120M for TripIt, $16M for Bump, A New CEO at PARC, & More Bay Area Biztech News
The Bay Area business and technology news last week was dominated by a string of acquisitions and financing deals. —TripIt, a four-year-old travel planning startup in San Francisco’s Mission District, was snapped up by Redmond, WA-based Concur in a deal that could yield as much as $120 million for TripIt’s shareholders. Azure Capital Partners, which … Continue reading “$120M for TripIt, $16M for Bump, A New CEO at PARC, & More Bay Area Biztech News”
RusNano Revives Plastic Logic
Mountain View, CA-based Plastic Logic, which last year quashed a planned tablet-sized e-reading device based on its plastic semiconductor technology after repeated delays, said today that it has inked a multi-year financing deal with the state-owned Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies, or RusNano. The Russian firm said it will put $150 million in equity-based financing into … Continue reading “RusNano Revives Plastic Logic”
$5.25M for Vook
Alameda, CA-based Vook, which publishes multimedia-enhanced e-books for the iPhone, iPad, Kindle devices, and the Web, has raised $5.25 million in Series A financing, Dow Jones VentureWire is reporting today. Founder and CEO Brad Inman told the publication that the funds came from VantagePoint Venture Partners and Floodgate Fund, and will be used to expand … Continue reading “$5.25M for Vook”
Join Mobile Leaders from New England (and Beyond) on March 9 for Mobile Madness 2011—Getting Down to Business
We all know that there’s no turning back on the path toward mobility. Sales of mobile devices will soon eclipse sales of PCs. By 2015—and probably sooner—the number of people accessing the Web from their phones and tablet devices will surpass the number using desktops and laptops. That doesn’t mean the PC and the desktop … Continue reading “Join Mobile Leaders from New England (and Beyond) on March 9 for Mobile Madness 2011—Getting Down to Business”
Tilera, Lonely Survivor in Multi-Core Chip Business, Gathers $45 Million for Push Into Cloud Computing
Tilera, an MIT spinoff in San Jose, CA, that makes chips with 64 separate processors (or cores) for special applications such as networking and digital video, has raised $45 million in its fourth, and presumably last, round of venture funding. The only survivor among a small group of multi-core chipmakers founded in 2003 and 2004, … Continue reading “Tilera, Lonely Survivor in Multi-Core Chip Business, Gathers $45 Million for Push Into Cloud Computing”
Index Ventures Expanding to Bay Area
Index Ventures, a European life sciences and technology venture investing firm with offices in Geneva, London, and Jersey, plans to open a Bay Area office, according to a blog post today by London-based partner Mike Volpi, who will head the new outpost together with partner Danny Rimer. About a third of Index Venture’s 173 portfolio … Continue reading “Index Ventures Expanding to Bay Area”
The Instapaper Effect-Or, The Dilemma of Long-Form Writing on the Web
goat-choker (n.) An article of inordinate and suffocating length, produced to gratify the vanity of the author and the aspirations of the publication. (John McIntyre) I regularly write articles that, by Web standards, are obscenely long. My November article on ShopWell was 6,500 words long, and my series last week on Google’s mobile ambitions ran … Continue reading “The Instapaper Effect-Or, The Dilemma of Long-Form Writing on the Web”
TripIt’s Short Trip to a $120M Exit: A Travelogue from CEO Gregg Brockway
San Francisco-based TripIt has some very happy investors right now. As I wrote yesterday, Redmond, WA-based travel management software company Concur (NASDAQ: [[ticker:CNQR]]) has agreed to buy TripIt for $82 million in cash and stock plus up to $38 million in contingent payments between now and 2013; the startup had raised less than $13 million … Continue reading “TripIt’s Short Trip to a $120M Exit: A Travelogue from CEO Gregg Brockway”
Travel Startup TripIt Acquired by Seattle’s Concur for As Much As $120 Million; Handsome Exit for Azure Capital
Redmond, WA-based Concur (NASDAQ: [[ticker:CNQR]]), a specialist in software that helps big companies control travel expenses, revealed today that it’s acquiring TripIt, a four-year-old San Francisco startup providing a virtual travel-assistant service for business travelers. TripIt’s free service allows travelers to create master itineraries that they can access from the Web or their mobile phones … Continue reading “Travel Startup TripIt Acquired by Seattle’s Concur for As Much As $120 Million; Handsome Exit for Azure Capital”
Strava Gets $3.5M for Cycling Tool
San Francisco-based Strava said today that it has collected $3.5 million in new venture funding to continue development of its GPS tracking software for avid cyclists. Sigma Partners led the round. Strava’s software works on a variety of Garmin GPS devices, and users can also upload tracking data collected on their iPhones to Strava’s website, … Continue reading “Strava Gets $3.5M for Cycling Tool”
Bump, With a Fresh $16 Million, Explores New Ways to Connect Mobile-Device Users—Q&A with David Lieb and Jake Mintz
As we reported Monday night, Mountain View, CA-based Bump Technologies got a big bump itself this week, in the form of a $16 million Series B funding round led by new investor Andreessen Horowitz. Bump is famous for building iOS and Android apps that let mobile-device users share files by literally bumping their devices against … Continue reading “Bump, With a Fresh $16 Million, Explores New Ways to Connect Mobile-Device Users—Q&A with David Lieb and Jake Mintz”
Formspring Collects $11.5M
San Francisco-based Formspring, part of a small crop of Web-based question-and-answer services that has grown up over the past two years, said today that it has raised $11.5 million in Series A funding. Redpoint Ventures led the round, which was joined by Baseline Ventures and individual investors. The company’s service prompts users to share information … Continue reading “Formspring Collects $11.5M”
Silicon Valley Investors Put, Like, A Billion Dollars Into Groupon, & More Bay Area Deals News
The funding announcements are flying so fast and furiously this week that I’ve decided to round them up into a single article. —In a press released headlined “Groupon Raises, Like, A Billion Dollars,” the Chicago-based daily deals site announced yesterday that it has collected $950 million in new equity-based financing from a syndicate including prominent … Continue reading “Silicon Valley Investors Put, Like, A Billion Dollars Into Groupon, & More Bay Area Deals News”
Bernstein’s Retirement Brings Changing of the Guard at PARC; Q&A with Incoming CEO Steve Hoover
The storied Palo Alto Research Center, birthplace of such fundamental information-technology advances as the personal computer, Ethernet, and the laser printer, has a new leader. The Xerox (NYSE: [[ticker:XRX]]) subsidiary announced today that Steve Hoover, formerly vice president of Xerox’s software and electronics development group, will take the place of current CEO Mark Bernstein, who … Continue reading “Bernstein’s Retirement Brings Changing of the Guard at PARC; Q&A with Incoming CEO Steve Hoover”
Bump Raises $16M
Bump Technologies, maker of software that allows mobile device users to initiate file exchanges by physically bumping their devices, announced in a blog post tonight that it has closed a $16 million second round of funding—a big increase over its first round of roughly $3 million, raised in October 2009. Venture firm Andreessen Horowitz led … Continue reading “Bump Raises $16M”
Google Makes Smartphones Smarter, Salesforce.com Continues Acquisition Binge, & More Bay Area BizTech News
Xconomy San Francisco embarked on 2011 last week with a series of stories going behind the scenes with three key researchers at Google. To wit: —In recent speeches, Google CEO Eric Schmidt has called the modern smartphone a “supercomputer in your pocket” and shared his vision of an “age of augmented humanity” when mobile devices … Continue reading “Google Makes Smartphones Smarter, Salesforce.com Continues Acquisition Binge, & More Bay Area BizTech News”
Zynga Buys Flock Browser
Flock, the six-year-old Redwood City, CA, startup behind the Flock social Web browser, has been acquired by San Francisco-based social gaming juggernaut Zynga. Flock CEO Shawn Hardin announced the deal in a blog post Wednesday. Funded by Bessemer Venture Partners, Shasta Ventures, Catamount Ventures, Fidelity Ventures, and individual investors, Flock attempted to popularize the concept … Continue reading “Zynga Buys Flock Browser”
Here Are Six Features Apple Should Include in the iPad 2 (And They’re Not the Ones You Think)
Unlike most of my tech-journalism brethren, I’m not at the circus in Las Vegas this week. Neither is Apple—the hardware giant has traditionally skipped the International Consumer Electronics Show, rightly figuring that it can generate all the hype it needs just by inviting a few hundred people to the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco … Continue reading “Here Are Six Features Apple Should Include in the iPad 2 (And They’re Not the Ones You Think)”
Salesforce.com Scoops Up Dimdim’s Web Conferencing Technology for $31M
Salesforce.com’s acquisitions binge continues. The San Francisco-based maker of cloud-based customer relationship management tools has added WebEx-like conferencing and collaboration capabilities to its arsenal through the purchase of Lowell, MA-based startup Dimdim. Announced late Thursday, the acquisition cost Salesforce.com $31 million, net of Dimdim’s cash. Dimdim had raised venture funding from Nexus Venture Partners, Index … Continue reading “Salesforce.com Scoops Up Dimdim’s Web Conferencing Technology for $31M”
Skype Buys Qik
Redwood City, CA-based Qik, which makes software for live two-way video calls that runs on 200 models of smartphones, will be purchased by Luxembourg-based Skype for an undisclosed sum, the two companies announced today. Skype itself been busy extending the two-way video calling capabilities familiar from its Web service to mobile platforms such as the … Continue reading “Skype Buys Qik”