Category: San Francisco

Zendesk Snags $19M for Web-based Customer Support That Users Can Grok, and Startups Can Afford

Three-year-old Zendesk has achieved quite a lot on just $6.5 million in venture funding. More than 5,000 companies are using Zendesk’s Web-based customer support software, 50,000 users have downloaded its iPhone app, and it’s got 70 employees—almost too many for its Townsend Street digs in SoMa. So it’s interesting to contemplate what Zendesk might do … Continue reading “Zendesk Snags $19M for Web-based Customer Support That Users Can Grok, and Startups Can Afford”

Onyx Unveils Results for Myeloma Drug, Raising Stakes in Rivalry with Millennium

Onyx Pharmaceuticals is betting that it can keep growing on the strength of a new cancer drug that’s supposed to compete with a blockbuster from Cambridge, MA-based Millennium: The Takeda Oncology Company. Today, Onyx is presenting key data to gird for the market battle. Onyx, the Emeryville, CA-based biotech company (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ONXX]]), is reporting today … Continue reading “Onyx Unveils Results for Myeloma Drug, Raising Stakes in Rivalry with Millennium”

Wings, the Facebook Dating App, Pulls an Icarus; Relaunches as DateBuzz.com

It turns out there’s at least one thing that Facebook isn’t good at: helping people find dates. Back in July I took a close look at Wings, a new Facebook dating app created by a Palo Alto, CA startup called Triangulate. At the time Sunil Nagaraj, Triangulate’s co-founder and CEO, called Wings the first example … Continue reading “Wings, the Facebook Dating App, Pulls an Icarus; Relaunches as DateBuzz.com”

IPO Still Awaits as Fallbrook Raises $39M

San Diego’s Fallbrook Technologies says today it has raised about $39 million in a Series E preferred stock private placement that encompasses $6 million the company disclosed in a June regulatory filing. Fallbrook, which has spent more than a decade developing advanced technology for a continuously variable transmission, says the latest deal brings its cumulative … Continue reading “IPO Still Awaits as Fallbrook Raises $39M”

Threadsy Lands $6,261,896 New Funding Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=0cdd1672-19ab-4901-83dd-238b75b761e6&Preview=1 Date 12/7/2010 Company Name Threadsy Mailing Address Undisclosed San Francisco, CA 94107 Company Description Threadsy is a new kind of messaging experience created for anyone to use. It combines all of your existing accounts in one place and enhances them with relevant information from your social networks and the public web. … Continue reading “Threadsy Lands $6,261,896 New Funding Round”

ESTECH Secures $8,500,000 New Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=b4151b7b-2335-4caa-b561-8e63fd3d80ed&Preview=1 Date 12/7/2010 Company Name ESTECH Mailing Address 2603 Camino Ramon San Ramon, CA 94583 Company Description ESTECH is a privately held medical device manufacturing and distribution company located in San Ramon, California. Website http://www.estech.com Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction Amount $8,500,000 Transaction Round Undisclosed Proceeds Purposes Estech has been making great … Continue reading “ESTECH Secures $8,500,000 New Round”

Flurry Secures $15,000,000 Series C Funding Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=2c3400ef-e1ca-4c03-b0b1-67f82f7f1875&Preview=1 Date 12/7/2010 Company Name Flurry Mailing Address 282 2nd Street San Francisco, CA 94105 Company Description flurry, inc., a Delaware corporation, is a leader in developing next-generation mobile applications. flurry is an easy-to-use mobile email and RSS solution that works on hundreds of different cell phone models and thousands of email … Continue reading “Flurry Secures $15,000,000 Series C Funding Round”

Moritz on Stage, A Long Look at Blinkx, Gadgets for the Holidays, and other Bay Area BizTech News

The big event dominating Xconomy San Francisco’s calendar last week was our on-stage conversation with Sequoia Capital partner Michael Moritz, which was enlightening and well-attended, filling San Francisco’s KickLabs to capacity. I’m working on bringing you video highlights from the talk, which ranged from Moritz’s tricks for identifying great entrepreneurs to the funding options for … Continue reading “Moritz on Stage, A Long Look at Blinkx, Gadgets for the Holidays, and other Bay Area BizTech News”

Google, Amazon Play Catch-Up in Group Buying: Analysis and Reactions from BuyWithMe, Tippr

In the Wild West of group-buying and daily-deals sites, there’s about to be a major showdown. Investors have been talking about consolidation in this sector for a while now—and it looks like that’s where things are headed. But not without a few curveballs first. Last week, Google (NASDAQ: [[ticker:GOOG]]) was widely reported to be pursuing … Continue reading “Google, Amazon Play Catch-Up in Group Buying: Analysis and Reactions from BuyWithMe, Tippr”

PacketMotion C Round Grows to $8.4M

San Jose, CA-based PacketMotion, which makes employee monitoring software used by large enterprises to guard against compliance violations and “insider threats,” announced on December 2 that its recent Series C funding round has grown by $2.7 million and now totals $8.4 million. Athenian Ventures and Reservoir Venture Partners provided the extra funding. Also participating in … Continue reading “PacketMotion C Round Grows to $8.4M”

EnerNOC Buys Global Energy Partners, Gains West Coast Access

Boston-based EnerNOC (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ENOC]]), a provider of support services and programs for electrical utilities, said today that it has made its biggest acquisition to date, with the purchase of Global Energy Partners of Walnut Creek, CA. The addition of the West Coast company, which has 55 employees and provides energy and environmental engineering and services … Continue reading “EnerNOC Buys Global Energy Partners, Gains West Coast Access”

Calisolar Pulls In $3M

Sunnyvale, CA-based solar manufacturer Calisolar has raised $3 million out of a potential $5 million in a funding round involving debt, options, and securities, according to a December 2 regulatory filing. Calisolar is a vertically integrated manufacturer that makes raw silicon into solar cells.  It’s gone back to the fundraising well frequently in the last three … Continue reading “Calisolar Pulls In $3M”

How to Raise Money for an Honest-to-God Innovative Biotech Startup: Highlights from Convergence

[Update: 1:15 pm Eastern] Lots of people in biotech think they are doing innovative things, even when they are really doing something pretty conservative, like testing a proven drug for some new use, or crafting some new way to deliver a therapy with more efficiency or convenience. But how, especially in today’s sluggish economy, do … Continue reading “How to Raise Money for an Honest-to-God Innovative Biotech Startup: Highlights from Convergence”

Taulia Collects $3.2 Million to Ease Payment Delays for Suppliers

Just when you thought there couldn’t possibly be another massive inefficiency in the economy waiting to be fixed by Internet entrepreneurs, along comes Taulia. This San Francisco startup has figured out an easy way for suppliers of goods and services to get paid faster, and for the buyers of their goods and services—at least, those … Continue reading “Taulia Collects $3.2 Million to Ease Payment Delays for Suppliers”

Calisolar Receives $3,000,000 New Funding Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=55eaaaaf-22d8-4958-a73b-4bd6bcb05213&Preview=1 Date 12/6/2010 Company Name Calisolar Mailing Address 985 Almanor Ave Sunnyvale, CA 94085 Company Description CaliSolar is a photovoltaic (PV) company that designs, patents, manufactures and markets solar cells in high volumes for the largest segments of the PV industry. Website http://www.calisolar.com Transaction Type Debt Transaction Amount $3,000,000 Transaction Round Undisclosed … Continue reading “Calisolar Receives $3,000,000 New Funding Round”

Taulia Garners $3,200,000 New Funding

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=be6ac6bf-b4de-4590-9517-c62d9ae2d3c2&Preview=1 Date 12/6/2010 Company Name Taulia Mailing Address 465 California St. San Francisco, CA 94104 Company Description Taulia gives AP Managers and Treasurers the opportunity to save millions by offering to pay suppliers early if they discount their invoices. Website http://www.taulia.com Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction Amount $3,200,000 Transaction Round Undisclosed Proceeds … Continue reading “Taulia Garners $3,200,000 New Funding”

MoPub Garners New Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=4149da52-7bda-4f7b-af19-a869d92ac990&Preview=1 Date 12/6/2010 Company Name MoPub Mailing Address Undisclosed San Francisco, CA 94105 Company Description Control your ad inventory, monetize effectively and understand user engagement on your iPhone and Android apps. Website http://www.mopub.com Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction Amount Undisclosed Transaction Round Undisclosed Proceeds Purposes The company service is still in private … Continue reading “MoPub Garners New Round”

Widevine Bought by Google as Streaming Video Heats Up

You heard it here first—the rumor, I mean. Now it’s confirmed. Seattle-based Widevine Technologies is being acquired by Google in a deal of undisclosed size. The Mountain View, CA-based search giant (NASDAQ: [[ticker:GOOG]]) said today in a blog post that “Widevine has made on demand services more efficient and secure for media companies, and ultimately … Continue reading “Widevine Bought by Google as Streaming Video Heats Up”

Pearl Therapeutics Beats $3B Lung Drug, Anacor’s Flat IPO, Medtronic Buys Ardian for $800M, & More Bay Area Life Sciences News

Thanksgiving got in the way of last week’s biotech roundup, so this week I’m reaching a little further back in the archive for stories you may have missed. —Redwood City, CA-based Pearl Therapeutics raised $69 million in venture capital last month, and now we can see why. The company showed, in a small clinical trial, … Continue reading “Pearl Therapeutics Beats $3B Lung Drug, Anacor’s Flat IPO, Medtronic Buys Ardian for $800M, & More Bay Area Life Sciences News”

PacketMotion Garners $2,700,000 Series C Financing

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=64d765b8-6d32-4123-adaa-a4579d2ccb15&Preview=1 Date 12/3/2010 Company Name PacketMotion Mailing Address 110 Baytech Drive 2nd Floor San Jose, CA 95134 Company Description PacketMotion is the developer of the industry’s first security appliance that gives businesses the ability to see user activity inside their networks as it happens, allowing them to identify improper actions in real … Continue reading “PacketMotion Garners $2,700,000 Series C Financing”

4Home Destined 4 Motorola

Sunnyvale, CA-based 4Home, a maker of “connected home” software for security, health, energy, and media management, has been acquired by Motorola Mobility, a Libertyville, IL-based subsidiary of Motorola, the companies announced yesterday. “The addition of the 4Home portfolio helps expand our vision of converged experiences in the home and beyond,” Motorola Mobility president Dan Moloney … Continue reading “4Home Destined 4 Motorola”

Receptos Hires New CEO, Former Facet Leader, as Rastetter Moves Upstairs

Receptos, the San Diego-based startup with an eye toward capturing super high-res images of an important class of new drug targets, has found itself a new CEO from the Bay Area who happened to sell his last company to Abbott Laboratories for $722 million. Faheem Hasnain, the former chief executive of Redwood City, CA-based Facet … Continue reading “Receptos Hires New CEO, Former Facet Leader, as Rastetter Moves Upstairs”

Novartis Takes Aim at Bay-Area Biotech with Dana-Farber Roots in Legal Battle Over Potential Lung Cancer Drugs

The proverbial 800-pound gorilla has spoken. Novartis Institutes of BioMedical Research, the Cambridge, MA-based R&D unit of Swiss drug giant Novartis, has asserted itself in a lawsuit concerning rights to potentially game-changing drugs for lung cancer discovered at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. Novartis filed a counterclaim on November 19 in U.S. District Court in … Continue reading “Novartis Takes Aim at Bay-Area Biotech with Dana-Farber Roots in Legal Battle Over Potential Lung Cancer Drugs”

Strobe Secures $2,500,000 Series A Financing

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=4c9c7c58-6a8d-4ad2-9451-ee2b7bb28412&Preview=1 Date 12/2/2010 Company Name Strobe Mailing Address Undisclosed Undisclosed, CA 94300 Company Description The company aims to help developers code mobile applications with the SproutCore framework. Website http://www.strobecorp.com Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction Amount $2,500,000 Transaction Round Series A Proceeds Purposes The company will use the new funds to hire more … Continue reading “Strobe Secures $2,500,000 Series A Financing”

Motorola Acquires 4Home for Undisclosed Sum

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=e283bb9e-c889-4874-942f-55fd3ba58fe6&Preview=1 Date 12/2/2010 Company Name 4Home Mailing Address 455 W. Maude Sunnyvale, CA 94085 Company Description 4Home’s platform allows for optimization to meet each partner’s needs by including a full SDK for creating custom User Interfaces, modular design architecture, hardware independence, design using open standards when possible, support for most communication standards, … Continue reading “Motorola Acquires 4Home for Undisclosed Sum”

eBay Acquires Milo.com for Undisclosed Sum

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=96edc0e1-0ce9-413e-bec9-3ba6829600d5&Preview=1 Date 12/2/2010 Company Name Milo.com Mailing Address 165 University Avenue Palo Alto, CA 94301 Company Description Milo searches the shelves of your local stores in real-time to find the best price and availability for the products you want to have. Website http://www.milo.com Transaction Type M&A Transaction Amount Undisclosed Transaction Round Proceeds … Continue reading “eBay Acquires Milo.com for Undisclosed Sum”

Pearl Therapeutics, Fresh Off Big VC Round, Tops $3B Lung Drug in Head-to-Head Trial

Pearl Therapeutics bagged a whopping $69 million venture round last month, and now it’s pretty clear why. The Redwood City, CA-based biotech company is reporting clinical trial results today that show its inhalable drug for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease worked better than standard Tiotropium (Spiriva), a $3 billion annual seller for Pfizer and Boehringer Ingelheim. … Continue reading “Pearl Therapeutics, Fresh Off Big VC Round, Tops $3B Lung Drug in Head-to-Head Trial”

Appnomic Garners $2,500,000 Series B Financing Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=98aec956-fbe4-4926-8e38-536cf84cdb9f&Preview=1 Date 12/1/2010 Company Name Appnomic Mailing Address 525 University Ave. Palo Alto, CA 94301 Company Description Appnomic Systems provides Application Aware IT Infrastructure Management solutions to large and growing enterprises. These solutions enable customers to manage their IT infrastructure efficiently while enhancing productivity. Website http://www.appnomic.com Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction Amount … Continue reading “Appnomic Garners $2,500,000 Series B Financing Round”

Racktivity Secures $8,000,000 Series B Financing

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=fa7ffaf7-06d7-4619-aeb9-a38fba115772&Preview=1 Date 12/1/2010 Company Name Racktivity Mailing Address 2100 Seaport Blvd. Redwood City, CA 94063 Company Description Racktivity was founded in 2008 to fulfil the need for more efficient management and control of infrastructure within the Datacenter. The Racktivity team has substantial experience in datacenters and hosting and is focused on delivering … Continue reading “Racktivity Secures $8,000,000 Series B Financing”

Rearden Commerce Acquires Ketera Technologies for Undisclosed Sum

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=4cda068a-393b-4b8a-82da-8319395b2ab2&Preview=1 Date 12/1/2010 Company Name Ketera Technologies Mailing Address 3055 Olin Avenue San Jose, CA 95128 Company Description Ketera spend management solutions help companies cut purchasing costs, streamline procurement processes, achieve higher performance from suppliers and grow their business without the expense and overhead of traditional software applications. Website http://www.ketera.com Transaction Type … Continue reading “Rearden Commerce Acquires Ketera Technologies for Undisclosed Sum”

Groupon Acquires Ludic Labs for Undisclosed Sum

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=3fd5890d-d6d1-475c-af34-98fae2c4be92&Preview=1 Date 12/1/2010 Company Name Ludic Labs Mailing Address 107 South B Street San Mateo, CA 94401 Company Description Ludic Labs is inventing a new generation of vibrant, mass-scale, social-media applications for internet and mobile devices. Website http://www.ludic-labs.com Transaction Type M&A Transaction Amount Undisclosed Transaction Round Proceeds Purposes M&A Terms Financial terms … Continue reading “Groupon Acquires Ludic Labs for Undisclosed Sum”

See You at Tonight’s Michael Moritz Chat

The big day is here—it’s Xconomy’s first event in San Francisco, and we couldn’t ask for a better headliner than Sequoia Capital partner Michael Moritz, who’s been called the most powerful venture capitalist in Silicon Valley. The fun starts at 5:00 pm with an hour of networking at Kicklabs at 250 Brannan Street in San Francisco’s … Continue reading “See You at Tonight’s Michael Moritz Chat”

Yammer Collects $25M

Yammer, the San Francisco-based maker of a Twitter-like messaging and microblogging service for enterprises, announced today that it has closed a $25 million Series C financing round. U.S. Venture Partners was in the lead, and existing investors Emergence Capital, Charles River Ventures, and Founders Fund also participated. Mamoon Hamid, a partner at U.S. Venture Partners, … Continue reading “Yammer Collects $25M”

Red Hat Dons Makara

Red Hat (NYSE: [[ticker:RHT]]), the Raleigh, NC-based provider of open source software support, said today that it has acquired Makara, a Redwood City, CA-based startup that specializes in software for managing cloud-based applications. Red Hat said the acquisition would “accelerate the development of Red Hat’s comprehensive Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) solution as part of its Cloud Foundations … Continue reading “Red Hat Dons Makara”

With a Lifeline to London, Blinkx Builds the World’s Largest Video Search Index

Celebrity obsession isn’t limited to Hollywood. Here in Silicon Valley, we’ve got our own versions of Brangelina and Justin Timberlake—they just go by names like Google, Apple, Facebook, and Twitter. Part of Xconomy’s mission, though, is to look beyond the headlines for firms that are innovating in unusual ways. So it’s been a pleasure to … Continue reading “With a Lifeline to London, Blinkx Builds the World’s Largest Video Search Index”

How To Keep Academic/Big Pharma Alliances from Going off the Rails

The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston made headlines earlier this month after siding with Novartis in a brewing legal battle with a Dana-Farber spinout, Gatekeeper Pharmaceuticals. The disagreement stems from both companies claiming they are the rightful licensees of certain intellectual property (IP) created by Dana-Farber researchers. The IP, originally committed to Gatekeeper via an … Continue reading “How To Keep Academic/Big Pharma Alliances from Going off the Rails”

It’s Complicated: Survey Reveals Rough Patches in FDA’s Working Relationship With Life Sciences Industry

The life sciences industry says its working relationship with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has improved, particularly for the early stages of the agency’s product review process. But a survey of 50 life science companies, primarily in California and Massachusetts, also pointed to rising concerns about the latter part of the product review process, … Continue reading “It’s Complicated: Survey Reveals Rough Patches in FDA’s Working Relationship With Life Sciences Industry”

Payvment Receives $6,000,000 Series B Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=0d4125cd-66be-40c4-9fba-2264482f6921&Preview=1 Date 11/30/2010 Company Name Payvment Mailing Address 650 5th Street San Francisco, CA 94107 Company Description Payvment’s shopping cart was developed from the ground up as a Web Service. This means it requires no programming or purchasing of shopping cart software, and is easy to add to any website. To use … Continue reading “Payvment Receives $6,000,000 Series B Round”

PowerCloud Systems Obtains New Financing Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=1238f3e1-b95d-4114-a4ce-820617b726f4&Preview=1 Date 11/30/2010 Company Name PowerCloud Systems Mailing Address 3333 Coyote Hill Rd. Palo Alto, CA 94304 Company Description PowerCloud Systems delivers cloud-based software that OEMs integrate with their business networking products. Website http://www.powercloudsystems.com Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction Amount Undisclosed Transaction Round Undisclosed Proceeds Purposes Proceeds purposes were not disclosed. M&A … Continue reading “PowerCloud Systems Obtains New Financing Round”

Abiquo Receives $10,000,000 Series B Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=c9c52d46-7c43-470b-b34f-dfcc65741e4d&Preview=1 Date 11/30/2010 Company Name Abiquo Mailing Address 203 Redwood Shores Parkway Redwood City, CA 94065 Company Description Abiquo is a leading developer of Cloud management solutions founded in 2006. Abiquo envisions a future where private and public Clouds are fully interoperable and vendor neutral. The company embraces an open-source model where … Continue reading “Abiquo Receives $10,000,000 Series B Round”

Yammer Obtains $25,000,000 Series C Financing Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=b2f9e732-b6aa-46c6-9e20-31463d6734ef&Preview=1 Date 11/30/2010 Company Name Yammer Mailing Address 410 Townsend St San Francisco, CA 94107 Company Description Yammer is a tool for making companies and organizations more productive through the exchange of short frequent answers to one simple question: ‘What are you working on?’As employees answer that question, a feed is created … Continue reading “Yammer Obtains $25,000,000 Series C Financing Round”

Red Hat Acquires Makara for Undisclosed Sum

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=d05d5c09-9e4e-4c58-a913-73f26bc44bed&Preview=1 Date 11/30/2010 Company Name Makara Mailing Address 2220 1 Broadway St., 2nd Floor Redwood City, CA 94063 Company Description Makara was founded by application deployment and management veterans that recognized the gap that exists between deployment and ongoing management of business-critical web applications in public, private, internal, and trusted clouds. Website … Continue reading “Red Hat Acquires Makara for Undisclosed Sum”

Hope to See You Tomorrow at Xconomy’s Michael Moritz Chat—Only a Handful of Seats Left

We’re nearly out of tickets to “Michael Moritz Unplugged,” our exclusive on-stage conversation Tuesday night with the famed Sequoia Capital partner. Register today if you plan to attend, as we can’t guarantee we’ll have any room for walk-ins at the event, which will be held from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm at San Francisco’s Kicklabs … Continue reading “Hope to See You Tomorrow at Xconomy’s Michael Moritz Chat—Only a Handful of Seats Left”

Glaxo Buys $129M in Theravance Stock

Theravance (NASDAQ: [[ticker:THRX]]), the South San Francisco-based biotech company, said today that pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline has agreed to buy $129.4 million worth of Theravance stock. Glaxo agreed to buy 5.75 million shares at $22.50 apiece—so it will now have about a 19 percent ownership stake in Theravance. The companies have been partners since 2002, and … Continue reading “Glaxo Buys $129M in Theravance Stock”

Ruckus Solves 3G Headaches, StumbleUpon Vies with Facebook, Woz Misspeaks, & More Bay Area Biztech News

The long Thanksgiving weekend put an early punctuation mark on last week’s technology and business news in the Bay Area. Here’s a glance back: —StumbleUpon, the San Francisco “discovery engine” company founded in 2002, now rivals Facebook in the amount of social-media traffic it sends to websites. I profiled the company, which has had a … Continue reading “Ruckus Solves 3G Headaches, StumbleUpon Vies with Facebook, Woz Misspeaks, & More Bay Area Biztech News”