SmartDrive Systems, a San Diego company that uses video recording technology and web-based services to reduce the costs of operating motor vehicle fleets, has raised $12 million in venture capital in a deal that could be worth as much as $25 million, according to a regulatory filing. The company was founded in 2004 by James … Continue reading “San Diego-based SmartDrive Systems Raises $12M in Venture Funding”
Category: National
Bellevue-based AudienceScience Gets $15M Financing Deal For Targeted Digital Advertising
AudienceScience, the Bellevue, WA-based company that helps advertisers connect with targeted audiences online, has pulled in about $4 million in new equity financing as part of a total deal worth $15.1 million, according to a regulatory filing. The new cash infusion is actually only one component of the transaction, which includes $10.8 million worth of … Continue reading “Bellevue-based AudienceScience Gets $15M Financing Deal For Targeted Digital Advertising”
Cheezburger Network’s Ben Huh on Startup Strategy, Expansion, and Making It Big
It took about a year and a half before I could even begin to understand the I Can Has Cheezburger (or “LOLcats”) phenomenon online. The mundane yet bizarre cat pictures. The misspelled captions. The curious Internet-slang grammar. They were kind of funny, but mostly they were weird—and, at times, even a little annoying. Yet millions … Continue reading “Cheezburger Network’s Ben Huh on Startup Strategy, Expansion, and Making It Big”
Plan to Provide Federal Funding for Early-Stage Investments Perfect for San Diego’s Innovation Economy, Says Connect’s Roth
Back in August, Connect CEO Duane Roth outlined an initiative to address a dearth of venture capital investment by seeking to develop alternative funding sources for San Diego’s early-stage technology companies. A key part of the non-profit group’s initiative is to pursue additional federal support—and now that effort is facing its first major test as … Continue reading “Plan to Provide Federal Funding for Early-Stage Investments Perfect for San Diego’s Innovation Economy, Says Connect’s Roth”
Dendreon Recruits Aces to Board, Amgen Seeks to Raise Hit Rate, Lee Hood Startup Gets $30M, & More Seattle-Area Life Sciences News
The news has been breaking fast and furious here at Xconomy, just as we are putting the finishing touches on a terrific event on Monday that will explore the 20-year outlook for the Seattle region as a life sciences hub. —Xconomy dug up an exclusive late Friday afternoon from a couple SEC filings that showed … Continue reading “Dendreon Recruits Aces to Board, Amgen Seeks to Raise Hit Rate, Lee Hood Startup Gets $30M, & More Seattle-Area Life Sciences News”
Eastbourne Dumps Amylin Shares, Illumina Inks Licensing Deal, Avanir Releases Pseudobulbar Affect Data, & More San Diego Life Sciences News
A quiet epilogue to last spring’s heated Amylin proxy battle was the lead story in an otherwise slow week for San Diego life sciences news. —Eastbourne Capital, which won a partial victory in a proxy fight against Amylin Pharmaceuticals earlier this year, sold its entire stake in the San Diego diabetes company. The San Rafael, … Continue reading “Eastbourne Dumps Amylin Shares, Illumina Inks Licensing Deal, Avanir Releases Pseudobulbar Affect Data, & More San Diego Life Sciences News”
Deep Dive Into MA Deals Data for Q3—With Lots of Pictures
Just about everyone loves a good pie…chart, that is. If you’re one of those, read on. On Tuesday, we ran a story here in Boston about all the September venture deals in Massachusetts—and then my colleague Bruce followed that up a bit later that same day with a national roundup of third-quarter venture figures. Both … Continue reading “Deep Dive Into MA Deals Data for Q3—With Lots of Pictures”
Six Red Flags to Watch Out For in a Biotech, From Dendreon Co-Founder Chris Henney
Yesterday, we provided a rundown of the six hallmarks of a successful biotech company, according to Christopher Henney, the biotech pioneer who co-founded three of Seattle’s top biotechs—Immunex, Icos, and Dendreon. He made his remarks to an audience of about 100 investing professionals at the CFA Society meeting on Oct. 8 in Seattle. Today, we … Continue reading “Six Red Flags to Watch Out For in a Biotech, From Dendreon Co-Founder Chris Henney”
The 20-Year Future for Seattle Biotech, As Told By Industry Visionaries, Coming Monday
What is the single best thing that has happened in Seattle life sciences in the past five years? How might that make a difference over the next two decades as this region strives to become a more vibrant cluster for life sciences innovation? These are the kinds of questions you don’t see explored much in … Continue reading “The 20-Year Future for Seattle Biotech, As Told By Industry Visionaries, Coming Monday”
How to Tap Russia for Biomedical Breakthroughs: Lessons from Boston BioCom
Boston is an international hotbed of biotech research. So why would a company called Boston BioCom specialize, as it does, in bringing biomedical discoveries to the Hub from Russia? To hear the folks at Boston BioCom tell it, Russia has some biotech brawn of its own. New York-based drug giant Pfizer (NYSE:[[ticker:PFE]]) invested $10 million … Continue reading “How to Tap Russia for Biomedical Breakthroughs: Lessons from Boston BioCom”
What Boston’s Life Sciences Community is Taking for Granted
I spent an enlightening week in Tokyo earlier this month participating in the Kauffman Fellows Japan Summit. This summit was the brainchild of three visionary Kauffman Fellows who are on a mission to instill entrepreneurship into the Japanese culture. During the three days we heard about the current (dismal) status of venture capital and entrepreneurial … Continue reading “What Boston’s Life Sciences Community is Taking for Granted”
New Life Sciences Startup Shows UCSD Technology Can Boost Immune Response to Cancer in Mice
Research published today has revealed the existence of a new San Diego life sciences company that is working to commercialize anti-cancer technologies intended to boost the immune system to resist tumor growth. A paper in the journal PloS ONE shows that a gene for a specially engineered form of a protein called CD40 ligand (CD40L), … Continue reading “New Life Sciences Startup Shows UCSD Technology Can Boost Immune Response to Cancer in Mice”
Amazon Invests in Engine Yard, PopCap Raises $22.5M, Omeros Goes Public, & More Seattle-Area Deals News
The deals rained down on the Northwest this past week. We saw some strong activity in biotech, gaming, and software. —Integrated Diagnostics, the new biotech company founded by Lee Hood, has secured $30 million in venture funding from Menlo Park, CA-based InterWest Partners, the U.K.-based Wellcome Trust, and Germany-based dievini Hopp Biotech holding, as Luke … Continue reading “Amazon Invests in Engine Yard, PopCap Raises $22.5M, Omeros Goes Public, & More Seattle-Area Deals News”
Skype Reported to be in Talks to Buy San Diego’s Gizmo5
When I wrote about MP3.com founder Michael Robertson in December, the San Diego serial entrepreneur had just launched Gizmo5, an updated version of his free VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) software and peer-to-peer network for making Internet-based phone calls. In my headline, I asked, “Michael Robertson is Calling, But Will Anybody Answer?” Ten months later, … Continue reading “Skype Reported to be in Talks to Buy San Diego’s Gizmo5”
Appswell Tests the Crowdsourcing Model for iPhone Apps
Last time I checked, there were 85,000 iPhone applications in Apple’s iTunes App Store, a number that seems to grow by thousands every week. But most of those apps were dreamed up by developers, not by average users. Now there’s a way for anyone with a bright idea for an iPhone app to submit it—and, … Continue reading “Appswell Tests the Crowdsourcing Model for iPhone Apps”
Alkermes Anti-Addiction Drug Fares Well in Clinical Trials, Amgen Takes Aim at Drug-Development Success Rate, & More Boston-Area Life Sciences News
It’s been a short week and a long weekend since last I rounded up New England’s life sciences news, but there were still a few stories worth mentioning. —Luke took an in-depth look at giant Amgen’s (NASDAQ: [[ticker:AMGN]]) efforts to boost its rate of success in getting new drugs to market. Though Amgen is based … Continue reading “Alkermes Anti-Addiction Drug Fares Well in Clinical Trials, Amgen Takes Aim at Drug-Development Success Rate, & More Boston-Area Life Sciences News”
Lee Hood’s New Company Snags $30M to Spot Cancer and Alzheimer’s in Early Days
Lee Hood, the legendary researcher and entrepreneur who invented machines that made the Human Genome Project possible, has secured $30 million in venture capital for a startup that aims to detect cancer and neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s in their earliest and most treatable stages. The new company is called Integrated Diagnostics, or InDi for short … Continue reading “Lee Hood’s New Company Snags $30M to Spot Cancer and Alzheimer’s in Early Days”
Sirtris Advancing No. 1 Drug into Mid-Stage Clinical Trials for Type 2 Diabetes
Cambridge, MA, biotech standout Sirtris has been a quieter operation since it became a subsidiary of drug giant GlaxoSmithKline last summer. But the firm’s drugs, heralded for their potential anti-aging effects, appear to be advancing through the clinic without a hitch. Brian Gallagher, senior director of corporate development at Sirtris, disclosed during a recent meeting … Continue reading “Sirtris Advancing No. 1 Drug into Mid-Stage Clinical Trials for Type 2 Diabetes”
Algae Biofuels Skeptics Emphasize Need for Realistic Outlook and Business Discipline
When the organizers of the annual Algae Biomass Summit convene to begin planning for next year’s event, they might consider renaming it the Algae Biomass Smackdown. It might be more accurate, considering the air of skepticism that seemed to pervade some of the sessions I attended during the three-day conference that was held last week … Continue reading “Algae Biofuels Skeptics Emphasize Need for Realistic Outlook and Business Discipline”
Former Zango Execs Unveil BigDoor Media to Help Web Publishers Make More Money
It’s one of the great mysteries of the modern Internet. How can Web publishers make more money from their content? For everything from blogs and journalism to games and entertainment, publishers and software companies alike have been trying to solve this problem for many years. Now BigDoor Media, a six-person startup in Bellevue, WA, thinks … Continue reading “Former Zango Execs Unveil BigDoor Media to Help Web Publishers Make More Money”
Six Tips on How to Spot a Winning Biotech, From Dendreon Co-Founder Chris Henney
Investing in biotech can be scary. Only one out of 10 new drug candidates ever makes it through the gauntlet of clinical trials to become an FDA approved product, and it usually takes hundreds of millions of dollars and a decade or more of research to separate the winners from the losers. Investors usually can’t … Continue reading “Six Tips on How to Spot a Winning Biotech, From Dendreon Co-Founder Chris Henney”
Book of Odds Comes Out of Stealth to Make Intuitive Sense of Statistics—But Can It Sell Ads?
Despite the fact that “Google it” is now synonymous with “look it up,” Google itself isn’t a primary reference source. It merely aggregates facts and claims from everywhere else. If you wanted to create a genuinely new reference work on the scale of a dictionary or an encyclopedia—even if it lived online—you’d still have to … Continue reading “Book of Odds Comes Out of Stealth to Make Intuitive Sense of Statistics—But Can It Sell Ads?”
Gist and Glympse Release iPhone Apps, Look to Capture More of the Mobile Market
Call it the iPhone “2G.” Two Seattle-area startups that start with the letter “G” are rolling out new iPhone apps today. OK, this would not normally make significant news for us, because new apps appear on a daily basis, but each of these cases provides an interesting update to the company’s mobile strategy, so here … Continue reading “Gist and Glympse Release iPhone Apps, Look to Capture More of the Mobile Market”
Q3 Venture Deals Regain Some Lost Altitude, With $6B Invested Nationwide
The storm may not have entirely passed, but the venture capital industry unbattened the hatches during the three months that ended in September. At least that’s the sense I get from a 69-page report on U.S. venture investing, which we get from New York-based ChubbyBrain, an information services firm developing tools for investors, startups, and … Continue reading “Q3 Venture Deals Regain Some Lost Altitude, With $6B Invested Nationwide”
Alkermes’ Anti-Addiction Drug, Key to Company Pipeline, Passes Early Test
Alkermes, the Cambridge, MA based biotech company, said today that a strategically important drug it is developing to help people beat addictions was found in a pair of early-stage clinical trials to be safe and practical as a once-daily pill. The Alkermes drug, called ALKS 33, was found to be well-tolerated, absorbed into the bloodstream … Continue reading “Alkermes’ Anti-Addiction Drug, Key to Company Pipeline, Passes Early Test”
Investors Lighted $228M Fire Under Massachusetts Startups in September
It wasn’t just school that people got back to in September—it was startup funding. After slowing noticeably in August, the total venture investment into Massachusetts startups last month hit its highest level since we began tracking the monthly figures in June. All told, investors put $228 million into 25 deals involving Bay State startups. That … Continue reading “Investors Lighted $228M Fire Under Massachusetts Startups in September”
How Twitter Got an App Store: The Oneforty Story (Part 2)
The second big thing in the genesis of Twitter app store oneforty (the first being proof that a real economy was possible on Twitter—see Part 1 of the oneforty story) was that Laura Fitton couldn’t find anyone besides herself to manage the company. As readers of the initial installment of this story will remember, Fitton … Continue reading “How Twitter Got an App Store: The Oneforty Story (Part 2)”
Medical Device Startups Getting Squeezed by Recession, Lawmakers, Says E&Y Report
People who make a living creating innovative medical devices—whether it’s an ultrasound diagnostic tool, a stent to prop open clogged arteries, or an MRI machine—are an unhappy bunch these days. Let us count the ways, as described in the second annual medical device industry analysis being released today by Ernst & Young. Because unemployment is … Continue reading “Medical Device Startups Getting Squeezed by Recession, Lawmakers, Says E&Y Report”
Wireless Industry Foresees Capacity Constraints, Algae-Based Biofuels Still a Decade Away, Xconomy San Diego Marks its First Anniversary, & More San Diego BizTech News
The big story out of the International CTIA Wireless IT & Entertainment expo in San Diego last week could perhaps be summed up in one word: “spectrum.” We also have reports from the Algae Biofuels Summit and other big news, so read on. —Qualcomm co-founder Irwin Jacobs and his son Paul, who is now chairman … Continue reading “Wireless Industry Foresees Capacity Constraints, Algae-Based Biofuels Still a Decade Away, Xconomy San Diego Marks its First Anniversary, & More San Diego BizTech News”
The Stimulus, UW, and Washington State
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA, or “the stimulus”) totaled approximately $787 billion. Of this, approximately $21.5 billion (2.7 percent) was for the support of R&D—$18 billion for the conduct of research and $3.5 billion for facilities and equipment. Why R&D as part of the stimulus? Because it employs people (that’s what … Continue reading “The Stimulus, UW, and Washington State”
Marchex Rolls Out Reputation Management Software for Small Businesses
Online reputation management is hot these days. Today, Seattle-based Marchex, the online advertising and search company, is announcing a new thrust in its strategy for connecting local consumers with restaurants, florists, and other businesses. The firm is releasing software that helps small, local businesses monitor and understand what people are saying about them and their … Continue reading “Marchex Rolls Out Reputation Management Software for Small Businesses”
Boston-Area Entrepreneurs and Innovators Take to the Streets in Mobile Scavenger Hunt
What would you think if I told you that a 20-year-old with an iPhone could turn hundreds of Boston’s sharpest entrepreneurs, business leaders, and students into human game pieces on a life-sized game board? Last Friday, that is exactly what happened as The Quest for Innovation put the spotlight on Boston’s history of entrepreneurship and … Continue reading “Boston-Area Entrepreneurs and Innovators Take to the Streets in Mobile Scavenger Hunt”
Angels Who Charge Entrepreneurs to Pitch: the Debate Heats Up
It’s an Xconomy holiday today, but I couldn’t resist a quick pointer post to an argument heating up across the Web—one that is related to a story we ran here last week about a new Cambridge, MA-based group, Revolutionary Angels, which announced its plans to hold a quarterly business plan competition. Revolutionary Angels drew fire … Continue reading “Angels Who Charge Entrepreneurs to Pitch: the Debate Heats Up”
Epizyme Grabs $32M, A123 Systems’ IPO Enriches BU, & More Boston-Area Deals News
It’s a nice change from previous weeks this year to be writing about IPOs and big exits for venture firms. At least in Boston and environs, big paydays for investors and entrepreneurs seemed to be materializing. And startups from a variety of innovation sectors secured capital to fuel their movement toward hoped-for exits. Not sure … Continue reading “Epizyme Grabs $32M, A123 Systems’ IPO Enriches BU, & More Boston-Area Deals News”
Adobe, Omniture, and the End of the “Mad Men” Marketing Era
I’ve been predicting for a while that the marketing agencies and website developers that don’t have deep technical capabilities in search engine optimization will be left by the side of the road. Now we’re seeing it come to pass with Adobe’s $1.8 billion buyout of Omniture. [Adobe Systems announced the acquisition on Sept. 15, and … Continue reading “Adobe, Omniture, and the End of the “Mad Men” Marketing Era”
Dendreon Recruits Genentech CEO, Former Lilly Manufacturing Chief to Board
Seattle-based Dendreon recruited some serious industry experience in marketing and manufacturing today to its board of directors. The company has added Ian Clark, the CEO of Roche’s Genentech unit and former head of Genentech’s commercial operations, along with Pedro Granadillo, a former senior vice president of manufacturing at Eli Lilly, according to two separate regulatory … Continue reading “Dendreon Recruits Genentech CEO, Former Lilly Manufacturing Chief to Board”
Mobile App Startups From Seattle to Washington DC Make Pitch at CTIA Fund Fest
A lot of fingers were crossed behind the scenes at the CTIA Wireless IT & Entertainment conference, which ended today at the San Diego Convention Center. Many extraneous factors can affect attendance at big industry shows, but organizers did not want a repeat of the last time the CTIA came to San Diego, when the … Continue reading “Mobile App Startups From Seattle to Washington DC Make Pitch at CTIA Fund Fest”
Eastbourne Capital Dumps Entire Stake in Amylin After Partial Victory in Proxy Battle
[Updated: 10/9/09, 3:51 pm Pacific] Eastbourne Capital, one of the powerful dissident shareholders who won a partial victory in a proxy fight this spring against San Diego’s Amylin Pharmaceuticals, has sold its entire stake in the company, according to a regulatory filing released late today. Eastbourne unloaded all of its holdings in Amylin (NASDAQ: [[ticker:AMLN]]) … Continue reading “Eastbourne Capital Dumps Entire Stake in Amylin After Partial Victory in Proxy Battle”
Evri Drives New Hearst Website, Wants to Make News Aggregators Smarter
The next step in the future of journalism could be led by a Seattle startup. Today, media giant Hearst announced it has started a new website called LMK (Let Me Know), a news aggregator that pulls in Web feeds from sources like the Associated Press and Getty Images, and automatically creates topic pages for individual … Continue reading “Evri Drives New Hearst Website, Wants to Make News Aggregators Smarter”
From a Trickle to Flash Flood: Qualcomm’s Father-Son Dynasty Follows Course of Mobile Data Services
The co-founders who introduced San Diego-based Qualcomm’s wireless digital technology in 1989 envisioned from the early days that it would be ideal for the Internet. But Irwin Jacobs says now even he’s amazed at how many things a cell phone can do today. A new generation of innovators is now using Qualcomm’s proprietary technology to … Continue reading “From a Trickle to Flash Flood: Qualcomm’s Father-Son Dynasty Follows Course of Mobile Data Services”
Microsoft’s New Head of FUSE Labs, Lili Cheng, on Strategy, Social Computing, and Bicoastal Life
Microsoft’s latest reorganization, which involves labs in both the Seattle and Boston areas, has a new face. It’s Lili Cheng, a 14-year Microsoftie with experience in both research (social computing) and products (Windows Vista user experience). Cheng now officially leads three separate groups that are being rolled into one: her Creative Systems Group within Microsoft … Continue reading “Microsoft’s New Head of FUSE Labs, Lili Cheng, on Strategy, Social Computing, and Bicoastal Life”
Facing Up to Facebook
My friend Brad King, a journalism professor at Ball State University, makes fun of me for being such a Web and gadget geek while at the same time shunning social networking tools like Facebook. He’s got a point. I’ve written a lot about Facebook, MySpace, and their predecessors, but I’ve never wholeheartedly joined in, the … Continue reading “Facing Up to Facebook”
It’s Time for Washington to Commit to a 21st Century Education System for the 21st Century Economy
Every second year, the Technology Alliance gathers policymakers and leaders from the innovation community at a retreat designed to explore issues affecting Washington’s technology sector and to map out strategies to increase our state’s long-term competitiveness. We organize the retreat around what we call the “three drivers” of a vibrant innovation economy: excellent K-12 and … Continue reading “It’s Time for Washington to Commit to a 21st Century Education System for the 21st Century Economy”
Amgen’s Seattle and Boston Teams Seek to Boost Biotech Hit Rate 20 to 30 Percent
One of the inconvenient truths of the biotech and pharmaceutical industry is that only about one out of every 10 drug candidates good enough to enter clinical trials passes all the tests to graduate as an FDA-approved therapy. Every major drugmaker is searching for ways to boost that success rate, and yesterday I got an … Continue reading “Amgen’s Seattle and Boston Teams Seek to Boost Biotech Hit Rate 20 to 30 Percent”
Public Biotechs’ Finances Foundering, Epizyme Banks $32M, Paratek Cuts Deal with Novartis, & More Boston-Area Life Sciences News
It was a busy week in the land of New England life sciences. Let’s dive in. —Luke did a massive analysis of the financial health of all the public biotech companies we follow the Boston area and the news… Well, it wasn’t good. —Cambridge, MA-based Vertex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:[[ticker:VRTX]]) brought in $155 million in cash by … Continue reading “Public Biotechs’ Finances Foundering, Epizyme Banks $32M, Paratek Cuts Deal with Novartis, & More Boston-Area Life Sciences News”
Omeros, First U.S. Biotech IPO Since February 2008, Sees Shares Drop 13 Percent in First Day
Shares of Seattle-based Omeros, the first true U.S. biotech company to go public in more than 18 months, dropped about 13 percent in the company’s first day of trading. Omeros (NASDAQ: [[ticker:OMER]]) opened trading at $10, but tumbled $1.27, or 13 percent, to close its first day at $8.73. The company now has 21.3 million … Continue reading “Omeros, First U.S. Biotech IPO Since February 2008, Sees Shares Drop 13 Percent in First Day”
Polaris Picks Immuneering, Developer of Personalized Cancer Test, as First Life Sciences Startup in Dog Patch Incubator
Immuneering, the Cambridge, MA-based developer of computer models that aim to predict which patients are likely to respond to certain cancer drugs, has found a new home as the first life sciences startup to join Polaris Venture Partners‘ new Dog Patch Labs startup incubator in Cambridge. Immuneering is the brainchild of CEO Ben Zeskind, a … Continue reading “Polaris Picks Immuneering, Developer of Personalized Cancer Test, as First Life Sciences Startup in Dog Patch Incubator”
Memo from Ray Ozzie: New Lab Will Use Social Computing to Strengthen Microsoft Products
Ray Ozzie, Microsoft’s chief software architect, announced today the company is forming a new laboratory called Future Social Experience Labs, or FUSE Labs, which will focus on aspects of “social computing” beyond just communication and collaboration. The move is part of a wider restructuring of Microsoft’s labs: FUSE Labs is a merger between the Creative … Continue reading “Memo from Ray Ozzie: New Lab Will Use Social Computing to Strengthen Microsoft Products”
Fundraising Tide Remains Low for Venture Capital Firms
Fundraising by U.S. venture capital firms continues to lag. A survey released overnight by Dow Jones Private Equity Analyst shows that 26 VC funds raised about $3.5 billion during the three months that ended September 30—down about 51 percent from the same quarter last year. The findings nevertheless represented an improvement over the previous quarter, … Continue reading “Fundraising Tide Remains Low for Venture Capital Firms”
Washington Companies Raised $84.9M in September—But Mostly in One Deal
Venture financing perked up last month, at least for a handful of Seattle-area startups and young companies. VCs and corporate investors poured $76.9 million into five Washington-based companies in September, according to data provided to Xconomy by ChubbyBrain, a New York-based information services company that develops tools for investors, startups, and entrepreneurs. There were also … Continue reading “Washington Companies Raised $84.9M in September—But Mostly in One Deal”