Category: San Francisco

Google Likes Like.com

Like.com, a four-year-old startup in San Mateo, CA, that created a “visual shopping” site underpinned by sophisticated computer vision and machine learning algorithms, has been acquired by Google, according to an announcement on Like’s website. “We see joining Google as a way to supersize our vision and supercharge our passion,” CEO and co-founder Munjal Shah … Continue reading “Google Likes Like.com”

Nokia Buys Motally

Motally, a San Francisco startup making software that measures the usage of mobile applications, will acquired by Nokia, the Espoo, Finland-based wireless giant said Friday. Nokia plans to adapt Motally’s software to work with applications running on the Qt, Symbian, Meego and Java mobile operating systems. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. Motally was backed by … Continue reading “Nokia Buys Motally”

Inkling Launches E-Textbooks

San Francisco-based Inkling announced Friday the release of an iPad app that displays interactive digital textbooks. Aimed at college students, the program allows in-app purchases of textbooks, including McGraw-Hill texts on biology, economics, marketing, and psychology. Inkling also said that it has collected an unspecified amount of Series A venture financing from Sequoia Capital, Felicis … Continue reading “Inkling Launches E-Textbooks”

How Bay Area Biotech Stacks Up With the Rest of the World

Recently, Newsweek columnist Fareed Zakaria told an audience of biotechnology executives that America’s foothold as the preeminent technology innovator may be slipping. “Bill Gates is the Britney Spears of China,” Zakaria said. “But in the U.S., Britney Spears is still Britney Spears.” The reverence our rivals place on science and math is measured appropriately in … Continue reading “How Bay Area Biotech Stacks Up With the Rest of the World”

Intel Buys McAfee, Facebook Challenges Foursquare, Zynga Acquires Conduit Labs, & More Bay Area BizTech News

Technology newshounds were torn last week between the old and the new. One analyst described Intel’s multi-billion-dollar takeover of McAfee as “a lot like a horseless-carriage vendor buying a leading supplier of buggy-whips.” There was far more buzz over Facebook’s new geolocation platform and what it might mean for competitors. The roundup: —In dollar terms, … Continue reading “Intel Buys McAfee, Facebook Challenges Foursquare, Zynga Acquires Conduit Labs, & More Bay Area BizTech News”

Entrepreneurial Walk of Fame Idea Resonates—Although A Few Potential Cracks Have Surfaced in the Pavement

If ever an idea has, um, hit its stride quickly, it’s the one we wrote about last week to create an Entrepreneurial Walk of Fame in Kendall Square to honor local and regional entrepreneurs in much the same fashion as the Hollywood Walk of Fame honors movie stars. As Xconomist Bill Aulet, managing director of … Continue reading “Entrepreneurial Walk of Fame Idea Resonates—Although A Few Potential Cracks Have Surfaced in the Pavement”

Inkling Obtains Series A Financing

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=0ad4dd04-f162-49c2-9951-a15be20915b0&Preview=1 Date 8/23/2010 Company Name Inkling Mailing Address Undisclosed San Francisco, CA 94105 Company Description Inkling was founded in late 2009 to tackle the challenges of interactive publishing. Inkling’s partnerships with major publishers like Cengage Learning, John Wiley & Sons, McGraw-Hill, and Wolters Kluwer will yield next-generation interactive titles that replace traditional … Continue reading “Inkling Obtains Series A Financing”

Nimbula Obtains $15,000,000 Series B Funding

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=657c94e4-f320-4615-ab73-a3d14929cf45&Preview=1 Date 8/23/2010 Company Name Nimbula Mailing Address 3000 Sand Hill Road Menlo Park, CA 94025 Company Description Nimbula delivers a new class of cloud infrastructure and services system that uniquely combines the flexibility, scalability and operational efficiencies of the public cloud with the control, security and trust of today’s most advanced … Continue reading “Nimbula Obtains $15,000,000 Series B Funding”

Federated Media Publishing Acquires TextDigger for Undisclosed Sum

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=dbce1ca9-8cfa-4c54-94fd-9db7a95f8805&Preview=1 Date 8/23/2010 Company Name TextDigger Mailing Address 12 South 1st Street San Jose, CA 95113 Company Description TextDigger, Inc. is an artificial intelligence software developer focusing on advanced information retrieval services for the Web. Spun off of CNET, we are a San Jose-based start-up offering a unique semantic search service for … Continue reading “Federated Media Publishing Acquires TextDigger for Undisclosed Sum”

Zimride Receives $1,200,000 New Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=37d85cb8-3460-4ae7-a1c8-3833265f16ff&Preview=1 Date 8/23/2010 Company Name Zimride Mailing Address 548 Market St. San Francisco, CA 94104 Company Description Zimride’s industry leading rideshare service helps organizations establish easy to use, private, social networks for ridesharing. The result: a critical mass of users sharing rides, saving money and reducing resource consumption. Website http://www.zimride.com Transaction Type … Continue reading “Zimride Receives $1,200,000 New Round”

GameCrush Secures $705,500 New Financing Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=dc1a403d-e2c5-41cb-946d-ac5c0e1e3ae4&Preview=1 Date 8/23/2010 Company Name GameCrush Mailing Address 799 Castro St. San Francisco, CA 94114 Company Description The company operates a gaming website that connects game players. Website http://www.GameCrush.com Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction Amount $705,500 Transaction Round Undisclosed Proceeds Purposes Proceeds purposes were not disclosed. SEC regulatory filing. M&A Terms Venture … Continue reading “GameCrush Secures $705,500 New Financing Round”

Roche Acquires BioImagene for $100,000,000

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=e1a8a90e-d6ae-4101-9630-a8f5596429ab&Preview=1 Date 8/23/2010 Company Name BioImagene Mailing Address 919 Hermosa Ct. Sunnyvale, CA 94085 Company Description In the life sciences and healthcare industry, two-thirds of the data is in the form of images. The process of extracting meaningful information and knowledge from image data is still manual, inefficient, inaccurate and expensive. At … Continue reading “Roche Acquires BioImagene for $100,000,000”

JiWire Obtains $2,100,000 New Financing

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=5b0d1602-4dff-4654-8d34-283c1a83e16e&Preview=1 Date 8/21/2010 Company Name JiWire Mailing Address 220 Sansome Street 4th Floor San Francisco, CA 94104 Company Description JiWire is the leading mobile broadband advertising network, delivering premium, location-driven advertising on Wi-Fi and WiMAX networks. JiWire enables the mobile broadband ecosystem (wireless ISPs and device manufacturers) to monetize public mobile broadband … Continue reading “JiWire Obtains $2,100,000 New Financing”

InfoAxe Garners $3,000,000 Series A Funding Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=26d575c6-9f51-4e24-9710-6214b63b6d2c&Preview=1 Date 8/21/2010 Company Name InfoAxe Mailing Address 541 Del Medio Avenue Mountain View, CA 94040 Company Description Infoaxe is the next generation Search Engine searching a very different kind of Web, founded by two graduate students at Stanford University. Website http://www.infoaxe.com Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction Amount $3,000,000 Transaction Round Series … Continue reading “InfoAxe Garners $3,000,000 Series A Funding Round”

deCarta Garners $6,166,593 Series D Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=8be97d28-df4d-4dd2-91aa-f5a1adf22661&Preview=1 Date 8/21/2010 Company Name deCarta Mailing Address Four North Second St. San Jose, CA 95113 Company Description deCarta is the leading geospatial software platform that powers today’s most successful Location-Based Services (LBS) applications such as those deployed by Ask.com, Qualcomm, Hotels.com Verizon, Sprint and many others. Website http://www.decarta.com Transaction Type Venture … Continue reading “deCarta Garners $6,166,593 Series D Round”

Google Acquires Like.com for Undisclosed Sum

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=75447d72-3e94-4be5-9c41-a9bbb6548179&Preview=1 Date 8/21/2010 Company Name Like.com Mailing Address 777 Mariner’s Island Blvd. San Mateo, CA 94404 Company Description Like.com is the first true visual search engine, where the contents of photos are used to search and retrieve similar items. We believe that there are literally millions of items that are difficult to … Continue reading “Google Acquires Like.com for Undisclosed Sum”

Apple to Shut Down Quattro Wireless Ad Network; Quattro Team Working to get iAd Platform Up to Speed

Waltham, MA-based Quattro Wireless, which was acquired by Apple in January, is shutting down its three-year-old mobile advertising network in order to focus exclusively on suppporting Apple’s new iAd platform for distributing rich-media ads to iPhone and iPod touch users. Quattro announced the shutdown today on its website and in a memo to advertisers and … Continue reading “Apple to Shut Down Quattro Wireless Ad Network; Quattro Team Working to get iAd Platform Up to Speed”

In Seed Funding Race, AngelList Sorts the “Junk” from the “Maybes”

You don’t have to search far on Twitter for glowing testimonials about AngelList, a matchmaking service for startups and angel investors launched in February by San Francisco investor/entrepreneurs Babak Nivi and Naval Ravikant: “Wow, just a few days and I’m pretty impressed by the quality of the opportunities”—Hunter Walk “An entrepreneur’s best friend. Two companies … Continue reading “In Seed Funding Race, AngelList Sorts the “Junk” from the “Maybes””

PacBio Seeks $200M IPO, Complete Genomics Adds $39M, Siluria Envisions Cleaner Plastics, & More Bay Area Life Sciences News

The movement toward better/faster/cheaper gene sequencing dominated the Bay Area life sciences beat this week. Serious money is flowing into this industry. —Pacific Biosciences lit a spark for gene sequencing this week, when it released an investor prospectus that says it hopes to raise $200 million through an IPO. The Menlo Park, CA-based company is … Continue reading “PacBio Seeks $200M IPO, Complete Genomics Adds $39M, Siluria Envisions Cleaner Plastics, & More Bay Area Life Sciences News”

Chegg Acquires CourseRank for Undisclosed Sum

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=60ecb4c4-bc44-48aa-9e65-572db41325e1&Preview=1 Date 8/20/2010 Company Name CourseRank Mailing Address 234 Escuela Avenue Mountain View, CA 94040 Company Description Features provided by the website include: Student courses ratings and reviews, a planner to help organize your academic career and grades, a weekly schedule of your courses – which you can share with your friends, … Continue reading “Chegg Acquires CourseRank for Undisclosed Sum”

TotalBeauty.com Acquires LimeLife for Undisclosed Sum

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=91216581-5b81-45e8-9001-8a301c6daa25&Preview=1 Date 8/20/2010 Company Name LimeLife Mailing Address 4400 Bohannon Drive Menlo Park, CA 94025 Company Description LimeLife Inc., based in Menlo Park, California, is the only publisher of wireless content and applications exclusively focused on the women’s market. LimeLife’s products are based on unique insights about what women seek in mobile … Continue reading “TotalBeauty.com Acquires LimeLife for Undisclosed Sum”

Nokia Acquires Motally for Undisclosed Sum

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=b9f4982e-a74b-4e67-a833-92f9b3eef0fe&Preview=1 Date 8/20/2010 Company Name Motally Mailing Address 300 Brannan St San Francisco, CA 94107 Company Description Motally was founded in 2008. The team includes mobile industry veterans from Yahoo Mobile, Oracle, M:Metrics, and Com2Us. The company’s patent-pending technology ensures accurate data collection and analytic reporting from publishers’ mobile websites. Website http://www.motally.com … Continue reading “Nokia Acquires Motally for Undisclosed Sum”

BIO Investor Forum

The 9th annual BIO Investor Forum is being held Oct 5-6 in San Francisco to spotlight emerging biotech companies. The event, organized by the Biotechnology Industry Organization, is described as a “national investor forum to explore investment trends and opportunities in life sciences, with a focus on public and venture-stage growth companies as well as … Continue reading “BIO Investor Forum”

VC Spotlight: Diabetes Diagnostics, Monitoring and Treatment

The prevalence of diabetes continues to grow, with nearly 8 percent of the U.S. population, or 23.6 million children and adults, who are living with the disease. According to the American Diabetes Association, nearly one third of the total economic cost of the disease—$174 billion—accounts for chronic diabetes-related complications. The increased percentage of people living … Continue reading “VC Spotlight: Diabetes Diagnostics, Monitoring and Treatment”

Mega-Merger: Intel Buys McAfee

Leading chipmaker Intel (NASDAQ: [[ticker:INTC]]) announced today that it will acquire computer security company McAfee (NYSE: [[ticker:MFE]]), whose Santa Clara, CA, headquarters is not far from Intel’s. The price: $48 per share, totaling some $7.7 billion. Both companies’ boards have approved the agreement. In an announcement, Intel president and CEO Paul Otellini said that security … Continue reading “Mega-Merger: Intel Buys McAfee”

Xconomy is Expanding Its Coverage of Michigan Innovation—and We’re Looking for Great Writers to Join Us

It’s been just four months since we launched Xconomy Detroit to bring our unique coverage of life sciences, information technology, energy, transportation, robotics, venture capital, and other high-tech arenas to bear on Michigan’s innovation scene—but already we want more! We have found a ton of stories of technology and innovation that still need telling, and … Continue reading “Xconomy is Expanding Its Coverage of Michigan Innovation—and We’re Looking for Great Writers to Join Us”

Complete Genomics Adds $39M

Complete Genomics, the Mountain View, CA-based provider of low-cost gene sequencing, said today it has raised $39 million in a Series E round of venture financing. A new investor, Sands Capital, led the round, which included existing investors Essex Woodlands, Kirkland, WA-based OVP Venture Partners, Prospect Venture Partners, OrbiMed Advisors, Highland Capital Management, and San … Continue reading “Complete Genomics Adds $39M”

Siluria, Backed by Arch, Alloy, and Kleiner Perkins, Seeks Cheaper & Cleaner Plastics

Kristina Burow of Arch Venture Partners was itching to tell me something back in mid-June when we met at her office in San Francisco’s Mission Bay district. It involved a startup, had something to do with her chemistry training, and clearly had her excited. The startup wasn’t quite ready to come out of stealth mode … Continue reading “Siluria, Backed by Arch, Alloy, and Kleiner Perkins, Seeks Cheaper & Cleaner Plastics”

Why Facebook Places Will Make Foursquare into a Footnote

If Facebook is doing location, then location must finally be real. I don’t mean that in a sarcastic way. I think that’s actually the most important takeaway from the introduction of Facebook Places last night, at a media event I attended at the social networking giant’s Palo Alto headquarters. The new feature allows people accessing … Continue reading “Why Facebook Places Will Make Foursquare into a Footnote”

Nonprofits and the Valley of Death in Drug Discovery

The research and development (R&D) process that ultimately leads to effective drugs is exceedingly difficult, and often the public does not understand the drug discovery pipeline. In a typical model, drug companies will research tens of thousands to millions of compounds and spend in excess of a billion dollars over a 10- to 20-year period … Continue reading “Nonprofits and the Valley of Death in Drug Discovery”

Complete Genomics Receives $39,000,000 Series E Financing Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=8147b74c-6649-4f50-aa48-85bdf33cc9a1&Preview=1 Date 8/19/2010 Company Name Complete Genomics Mailing Address 2071 Stierlin Court Mountain View, CA 94043 Company Description Complete Genomics (CGI) is a high-performance DNA sequencing company whose mission is to dramatically reduce the cost of DNA sequencing for research, drug development, and diagnostic applications. Website http://www.completegenomics.com Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction … Continue reading “Complete Genomics Receives $39,000,000 Series E Financing Round”

Teleplace Receives New Funding

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=72044bab-9505-40f2-b382-90ced320fe96&Preview=1 Date 8/19/2010 Company Name Teleplace Mailing Address 805 Veterans Blvd. Redwood City, CA 94063 Company Description Teleplace, Inc. creates enterprise-class immersive business applications that help large-scale, highly dispersed commercial and government organizations address their most advanced learning, training and collaboration needs. Teleplace delivers the reliability, availability, security and integration capabilities required … Continue reading “Teleplace Receives New Funding”

Intel Corp. Acquires McAfee for $7,680,000,000

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=5ab9b863-5f3e-4270-b3d0-af8bab6d0b23&Preview=1 Date 8/19/2010 Company Name McAfee Mailing Address 3965 Freedom Circle Santa Clara, CA 95054 Company Description McAfee proactively secures systems and networks from known and as yet undiscovered threats worldwide. Home users, businesses, service providers, government agencies, and our partners all trust our unmatched security expertise and have confidence in our … Continue reading “Intel Corp. Acquires McAfee for $7,680,000,000”

SI-Bone Raises $11M

SI-Bone, a San Jose-based developer of plasma-coated titanium implants that immobilize the sacroiliac joints in patients with degenerative bone diseases of the pelvis, said today that it has raised $11 million in a venture financing round led by Skyline Ventures of Palo Alto, CA. The company said the funds will help it to launch new … Continue reading “SI-Bone Raises $11M”

HP to Buy Fortify

Palo Alto, CA-based Hewlett-Packard announced yesterday that it has agreed to acquire Fortify Software, a San Mateo, CA, maker of automated systems to find and fix security vulnerabilities in enterprise software. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Fortify’s venture backers, who last provided a $10 million Series D financing round in 2005, include DAG … Continue reading “HP to Buy Fortify”

BioMarin Buys ZyStor For $115M

BioMarin Pharmaceutical (NASDAQ: [[ticker:BMRN]]), the Novato, CA-based maker of drugs for rare diseases, said it has agreed to acquire Milwaukee, WI-based ZyStor Therapeutics for $22 million upfront, plus another $93 million if certain milestones are met, bringing the total value of  the deal to $115 million. ZyStor is developing enzyme replacement therapies for lysosomal storage … Continue reading “BioMarin Buys ZyStor For $115M”

Hipmunk, Conceived by David Pogue’s Teenage Co-Author, Embarks On Mission to Make Travel Search Easier

This is the fourth in a series of profiles of companies emerging this summer from Mountain View, CA-based startup incubator Y Combinator. If anyone was ever predestined to be the co-founder of a Y Combinator-backed Web startup, it’s Adam Goldstein. He’s got the academic pedigree, having gotten his bachelor’s degree from MIT in electrical engineering … Continue reading “Hipmunk, Conceived by David Pogue’s Teenage Co-Author, Embarks On Mission to Make Travel Search Easier”

SI-Bone Lands $11,000,000 New Funding Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=3a00e2d8-79ac-46ac-a206-e31baebae92c&Preview=1 Date 8/18/2010 Company Name SI-Bone Mailing Address 550 S. Winchester Blvd. San Jose, CA 95128 Company Description SI-BONE is committed to providing high-quality innovative medical devices for the treatment of SI Joint dysfunction. SI-BONE is a leader in the diagnosis and treatment of SI Joint dysfunction. We are dedicated to a … Continue reading “SI-Bone Lands $11,000,000 New Funding Round”

Life Tech, In Competitive Frenzy for Cheap DNA Sequencing, Buys Ion Torrent for $375M

Life Technologies just made a very aggressive move in the ultra-competitive world of fast and cheap gene sequencing. The Carlsbad, CA-based maker of life sciences instruments (NASDAQ: [[ticker:LIFE]]) said today it has agreed to acquire Ion Torrent Systems for a whopping $375 million in cash and stock. And that’s not the end of the deal. … Continue reading “Life Tech, In Competitive Frenzy for Cheap DNA Sequencing, Buys Ion Torrent for $375M”

Zynga Buys Conduit Labs; Social Gaming Giant’s Footprint Now Includes Boston

[Updated, see page 2] San Francisco-based Zynga, continuing the acquisition spree enabled by the massive success of its social games for Facebook, MySpace, and the Apple iPhone, has acquired Conduit Labs, the three-year-old music gaming company based in Cambridge, MA. Zynga announced the acquisition in a press release. Conduit, headquartered in the Barron Building at … Continue reading “Zynga Buys Conduit Labs; Social Gaming Giant’s Footprint Now Includes Boston”

Shopkick Releases iPhone App

Shopkick, a San Francisco startup with $20 million in venture backing from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Greylock Partners, today introduced an iPhone app that allows users to earn rewards by visiting retail locations such as American Eagle Outfitters, Best Buy, Macy’s, the Sports Authority, and malls owned by Simon Property Group. The service—a … Continue reading “Shopkick Releases iPhone App”

$5.1M for Cloudcrowd

San Francisco-based Cloudcrowd, a “Labor as a Service” startup that helps businesses outsource tasks such as data processing to a virtual workforce, has raised $5.14 million in Series A venture financing, according to an August 13 regulatory filing. Draper Fisher Jurvetson led the round, according to several online reports.

The Eyes Have It: GazeHawk Introduces Low-Cost Eye Tracking Studies for Web Designers

This is the third in a series of profiles of companies emerging this summer from Mountain View, CA-based startup incubator Y Combinator. In e-commerce, understanding the psychology of the all-important click is more art than science. No one knows for sure what stimulates Web page visitors to click on certain links and not others; all … Continue reading “The Eyes Have It: GazeHawk Introduces Low-Cost Eye Tracking Studies for Web Designers”

KaloBios, Seeking to Apply Antibodies Beyond Cancer, Sets Sight on Killing Deadly Lung Invader

The people at Genentech have created an enduring perception about antibodies, which says these Y-shaped protein drugs are really good at specifically targeting cancer cells. When I was at Bloomberg News a few years ago, I learned that investors paid close attention to multi-billion dollar sales trends of the big three antibody drugs for cancer—bevacizumab … Continue reading “KaloBios, Seeking to Apply Antibodies Beyond Cancer, Sets Sight on Killing Deadly Lung Invader”

CloudCrowd Holdings Garners $5,140,000 New Financing

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=4b443923-4cf0-46a9-bb9a-66a08de93776&Preview=1 Date 8/17/2010 Company Name CloudCrowd Holdings Mailing Address 625 2nd St. San Francisco, CA 94107 Company Description CloudCrowd is the next evolution in business process outsourcing. The company uses the Internet to tap into vast underutilized pools of talent, labor, and creativity to get work done, and has completed more than … Continue reading “CloudCrowd Holdings Garners $5,140,000 New Financing”