Limeade CEO Henry Albrecht On Why Healthy, Happy Employees Are the Key Ingredient to a Thriving Business

It’s not often that you meet a CEO who works a maximum of 55 hours a week, participates in push up challenges with coworkers in the office, and wears the company values—which read “anything is possible,” “speak plainly,” “we make things for customers,” and “be it”— on a dog tag around his neck. But for … Continue reading “Limeade CEO Henry Albrecht On Why Healthy, Happy Employees Are the Key Ingredient to a Thriving Business”

Beyond Gaming Adds Web-based, Social Networking Components to Traditional Console Gaming to Virtualize Tournaments

Tony Legeza and his fellow video game lovers at Beyond Gaming are out to add a bit of new-world flavor to the more traditional world of playing games on consoles like Xbox 360 or Sony’s Playstation models. The inspiration for the Toledo, OH-based startup, which is working to build a Web community of video gamers … Continue reading “Beyond Gaming Adds Web-based, Social Networking Components to Traditional Console Gaming to Virtualize Tournaments”

BrightSource Will Get $300M from NRG

BrightSource Energy, the Oakland, CA, company building a massive, 392-megawatt solar thermal plant in Ivanpah in California’s Mojave Desert, said today that NRG Solar, a subsidiary of Princeton, NJ-based NRG Energy (NYSE: [[ticker:NRG]]), will become the lead investor in the project, contributing up to $300 million over the next three years. The plant, which is … Continue reading “BrightSource Will Get $300M from NRG”

Adap.tv Collects $4.55M

Adap.tv in San Mateo, CA, has raised $4.55 million in equity-based financing, according to a regulatory filing. The company offers a marketplace and servers for online video advertisements. The company previously raised $13 million in a late 2008 venture round involving Spark Capital, Redpoint Ventures, and Gemini Israel Funds.

$9M for Appcelerator

Appcelerator, a startup in Mountain View, CA, that helps Web developers adapt their software for mobile platforms, said yesterday that it has closed a $9 million Series B financing round. Sierra Ventures led the round, with strategic investor eBay also chipping in, along with existing investors Storm Ventures and Larry Augustin. The company also announced … Continue reading “$9M for Appcelerator”

CardStar Gets $750K

CardStar, a Boston-based maker of applications for accessing customer loyalty cards on mobile phones, has brought in $750,000 of a planned $1 million offering of equity- and rights-based funding, according to an SEC filing. The startup, formerly located in Canton, CT, announced in March that it had raised a $1 million Series A financing. Its … Continue reading “CardStar Gets $750K”

Funding, Acquisition for Neohapsis

Cambridge, MA-based Neohapsis, a maker of software for governance, risk, and compliance, announced today that received a $4.5 million investment, led by New Venture Partners, a firm with offices in New Jersey, Silicon Valley, the U.K., and the Netherlands. The funding round included existing Neohapsis backers, Trident Capital and Paladin Capital Group. Neohapsis revealed that … Continue reading “Funding, Acquisition for Neohapsis”

Novartis to Invest $600M in Cambridge Complex

Swiss pharma behemoth Novartis, already Cambridge, MA’s biggest corporate employer, planns to invest $600 million more in a new 4 acre office and lab complex here, according to a report on the Boston Globe website. As part of a plan to strengthen its global research operations, which have been headquartered in Cambridge since 2002, Novartis expects … Continue reading “Novartis to Invest $600M in Cambridge Complex”

5×5: Five Cities, Five Big Tech Ideas Coming to Boston on Dec. 8

For entrepreneurs, sometimes the next great Twitter app or IT software package just isn’t enough. Sometimes you need to build something that takes longer than a few months to design and test. Sometimes you need to think big—really big. What are the biggest ideas in technology, and where are they coming from? How will they … Continue reading “5×5: Five Cities, Five Big Tech Ideas Coming to Boston on Dec. 8”

Codexis Morphs From Big Science Project Into $100M Business

Enzymes make the world go around, if you spend much time listening to biochemists. Now one of the emerging players in the business of engineering industrial enzymes, Redwood City, CA-based Codexis, is starting to show it can make those biological workhorse proteins into something else important—money. Codexis (NASDAQ: [[ticker:CDXS]]) made headlines back in April when … Continue reading “Codexis Morphs From Big Science Project Into $100M Business”

PacBio Raises $200M Through IPO for Fast, Cheap Gene Sequencing Tools

Pacific Biosciences found a pretty strong appetite from investors who want a piece of the future of super-fast, cheap genomic sequencing. Menlo Park, CA-based PacBio has raised $200 million through its initial public offering, settling on a price of $16 a share, smack in the middle of its $15 to $17 expected range. The deal … Continue reading “PacBio Raises $200M Through IPO for Fast, Cheap Gene Sequencing Tools”

Corengi Seeks to Bring Clinical Trial Information Into the World of Web 2.0

Punch the search term “Type 2 diabetes” into the main public website for clinical trials, and you’ll find more than 1,000 ongoing studies. That might be a wealth of information if you are an endocrinologist looking to get up to speed on the latest and greatest therapies. But to patients, it’s mostly a vast wilderness … Continue reading “Corengi Seeks to Bring Clinical Trial Information Into the World of Web 2.0”

MedNetworks, Co-Founded by Harvard’s Nicholas Christakis, Aims to Tap Healthcare’s Hidden Social Networks

A Facebook dashboard might be the first thing that comes to mind when we think of social networks. Yet the next big thing in social networking might be technologies that enable businesses to benefit from a deep understanding of existing social networks rather than creating them from scratch like Facebook. Newton, MA-based MedNetworks, for one, … Continue reading “MedNetworks, Co-Founded by Harvard’s Nicholas Christakis, Aims to Tap Healthcare’s Hidden Social Networks”

NextSpace Shows a New Way to Work

In 2009, in the depth of the recession, Rebecca Brian and Jamie Capozzi both found themselves working at home, trying to keep their marketing and branding agencies afloat. They felt isolated and distracted, and as they looked around, they saw that they weren’t the only ones. “It was the year of the contractor,” says Capozzi, … Continue reading “NextSpace Shows a New Way to Work”

Trimble Scoops Up ThingMagic, Resolvyx Sells Option to Celtic Therapeutics, GSK Venture Arm Puts $4M into Dicerna, & More Boston-Area Deals News

Dealmaking activity was on the light side this week in the New England tech and life sciences sectors, but there are still some interesting items to report. —Search-engine developer Goby raised $2.5 million from Kepha Partners and Flybridge Capital Partners, both return investors. The Boston-based startup is taking a local-search approach to helping people find … Continue reading “Trimble Scoops Up ThingMagic, Resolvyx Sells Option to Celtic Therapeutics, GSK Venture Arm Puts $4M into Dicerna, & More Boston-Area Deals News”

Kiha Software Obtains $20,000,000 New Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=9fddb26b-36ad-462b-9d43-19cac3269fe3&Preview=1 Date 10/27/2010 Company Name Kiha Software Mailing Address Undisclosed Seattle, WA 98101 Company Description Kiha announces Aro Mobile, an innovative mobile experience that marries an intuitive user interface with a system that understands your communications, organizes your calendar, plans your travel and gives you relevant and timely information. Website http://www.kiha.com Transaction … Continue reading “Kiha Software Obtains $20,000,000 New Round”

Spotlight Ticket Management Garners $2,500,000 Series A Financing Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=3dd9196e-d723-4026-b907-5f88fc9b12e0&Preview=1 Date 10/27/2010 Company Name Spotlight Ticket Management Mailing Address 4335 Van Nuys Blvd. Sherman Oaks, CA 91403 Company Description Spotlight Ticket Management has engineered the first Software As A Service (SAAS) application automating all aspects of sports and entertainment tickets, suites, and hospitality assets including tickets from all providers such as … Continue reading “Spotlight Ticket Management Garners $2,500,000 Series A Financing Round”

GloStream Receives $6,838,075 New Funding Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=85022dcc-ad64-4677-afdb-dd8add64b6dd&Preview=1 Date 10/27/2010 Company Name GloStream Mailing Address 1050 Wilshire Dr. Troy, MI 48084 Company Description GloStream was founded by two software developers who met on a Web site dedicated to the exchange of IT projects over the Internet. The two technology professionals with a gift for translating ideas into technological reality … Continue reading “GloStream Receives $6,838,075 New Funding Round”

RingCentral Secures $9,999,995 New Funding Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=2d71e151-3958-41b1-8d11-189fec5ad5ff&Preview=1 Date 10/27/2010 Company Name RingCentral Mailing Address 999 Baker Way, Fifth Floor San Mateo, CA 94404 Company Description RingCentral provides cloud computing based business phone systems designed for today’s mobile and distributed business world. Website http://www.ringcentral.com Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction Amount $9,999,995 Transaction Round Undisclosed Proceeds Purposes Proceeds purposes were … Continue reading “RingCentral Secures $9,999,995 New Funding Round”

Napo Pharmaceuticals Receives $3,360,000 New Financing

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=52f69169-d4a0-4d31-9203-312cdb8a42c1&Preview=1 Date 10/27/2010 Company Name Napo Pharmaceuticals Mailing Address 250 East Grand Avenue South San Francisco, CA 94080 Company Description Napo Pharmaceuticals focuses on the development and commercialization of proprietary pharmaceuticals for the global marketplace in collaboration with local partners. Our strategy is to focus both on higher-volume business in the emerging … Continue reading “Napo Pharmaceuticals Receives $3,360,000 New Financing”

uCirrus Lands $4,000,000 New Funding

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=645734cd-7522-495a-90f4-ff7364b98f5a&Preview=1 Date 10/27/2010 Company Name uCirrus Mailing Address 1500 Fashion Island Blvd. San Mateo, CA 94404 Company Description The company is developing massively parallel processing technology for real-time search, Web acceleration and cloud computing applications. Website http://www.uCirrus.com Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction Amount $4,000,000 Transaction Round Undisclosed Proceeds Purposes The new investment … Continue reading “uCirrus Lands $4,000,000 New Funding”

XORA Secures New Financing Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=5747db32-ea9e-49b5-a698-d0869ec60fa4&Preview=1 Date 10/27/2010 Company Name XORA Mailing Address 1890 N. Shoreline Blvd. Mountain View, CA 94043 Company Description The company’s SaaS (software-as-a-service) model makes it simple and cost-effective for businesses of all sizes to realize an instant return on investment. Website http://www.xora.com Transaction Type Debt Transaction Amount Undisclosed Transaction Round Undisclosed Proceeds … Continue reading “XORA Secures New Financing Round”

Endologix Acquires Nellix for $54,000,000

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=ff8a7b66-9202-4403-ae4b-d81ace17c7ef&Preview=1 Date 10/27/2010 Company Name Nellix Mailing Address 2465-B Faber Place Palo Alto, CA 94303 Company Description Nellix has developed a revolutionary, percutaneously deliverable endograft for the treatment of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms and Thoracic Aortic Aneurysms. This aortic endograft device and treatment fills the aneurysm, providing a highly stable and durable seal. … Continue reading “Endologix Acquires Nellix for $54,000,000”

BirchBox Obtains $1,400,000 New Financing

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=89d011ce-578a-4893-9183-da8209046714&Preview=1 Date 10/27/2010 Company Name BirchBox Mailing Address 307 Seventh Ave. New York, NY 10001 Company Description The company provides deluxe samples of the newest products to subscribers. Website http://www.birchbox.com Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction Amount $1,400,000 Transaction Round Undisclosed Proceeds Purposes Proceeds purposes were not disclosed. M&A Terms Venture Investor First … Continue reading “BirchBox Obtains $1,400,000 New Financing”

Enterprise 2.0

Enterprise 2.0 calls itself “The leading conference and expo for organizations using collaborative technologies to accelerate information flow and drive revenue.” From the event website: “The way we work is changing rapidly, offering an enormous competitive advantage to those who embrace the new tools that enable contextual, agile and simplified information exchange and collaboration to … Continue reading “Enterprise 2.0”

In Talk on Personalized Medicine, Life Technologies’ CEO Explains Shift in Corporate Strategy

On the day that Carlsbad, CA-based Life Technologies (NASDAQ: [[ticker:LIFE]]) is scheduled to issue its third-quarter financial results, Life chairman and CEO Greg Lucier provided a hugely insightful overview of the company’s changing corporate strategy. “We’ll do about $3.6 billion in revenue this year,” Lucier said at a breakfast meeting in San Diego earlier today. … Continue reading “In Talk on Personalized Medicine, Life Technologies’ CEO Explains Shift in Corporate Strategy”

Photobucket Appoints Tom Munro as CEO

Denver, CO-based Photobucket, which merged with Seattle-based mobile imaging startup Ontela in December 2009, has promoted Tom Munro to the position of chief executive, the company said today. Munro previously served as Ontela’s chief financial officer, and has been acting as Photobucket’s president and CFO since the merger last year. MocoNews.net is reporting that along … Continue reading “Photobucket Appoints Tom Munro as CEO”

Competitors Claim ITA Acquisition Would Give Google an Unfair Advantage in Travel Search

[Updated, see page 2] Quite a few online travel-info companies—FareCompare, Fly.com, Hotwire, Kayak, Sidestep, TripAdvisor, and Orbitz, to name a few—get their airline fare and seat availability information from a vast real-time database called QPX, the creation of Cambridge, MA-based ITA Software. Even search engines like Bing rely on QPX for flight data. So it … Continue reading “Competitors Claim ITA Acquisition Would Give Google an Unfair Advantage in Travel Search”

CommonAngels, Moving Into Smaller Seed-Stage Deals, Looks to Drive East Coast “Super Angel” Agenda—Some Reactions

Anyone can say they want to be “Boston’s super angels.” But Chris Sheehan and James Geshwiler are trying to back that up with some action. The managing directors of Lexington, MA-based CommonAngels announced last week they are adding a key new component to their firm’s financing strategy: the ability to invest in a greater number … Continue reading “CommonAngels, Moving Into Smaller Seed-Stage Deals, Looks to Drive East Coast “Super Angel” Agenda—Some Reactions”

Hospitals Should Embrace What They Learned In Kindergarten

I have been intrigued by numerous articles written recently on how hospital administrators are looking to other industries to learn how to adopt processes to reduce errors and improve quality of care. One recent example is that of hospitals learning from the manufacturing sector and adopting their lean manufacturing techniques to improve the efficient flow … Continue reading “Hospitals Should Embrace What They Learned In Kindergarten”

Pelican Snaps Up $10M

Pelican Imaging in Mountain View announced a $10 million Series B round led by Globespan Capital Partners, with participation from previous investors Granite Ventures, InterWest Partners and In-Q-Tel. Pelican makes optics, sensors and software algorithms for smart phone cameras, enabling a thinner camera with higher quality images, and will use the new money to commercialize … Continue reading “Pelican Snaps Up $10M”

Cloudera Collects $25M

Cloudera in Palo Alto, CA, announced a $25 million Series C round today led by Meritech Capital Partners, with participation from current investors Accel Partners and Greylock Partners. Cloudera is commercializing the open source platform Hadoop, which supports very large file systems like Amazon S3 and allows applications to work with and analyze petabytes of … Continue reading “Cloudera Collects $25M”

Cray Wins $60M University of Stuttgart Contract

Seattle-based supercomputing company Cray (NASDAQ: [[ticker:CRAY]]) has inked a contract deal with the University of Stuttgart, to deliver two supercomputers to the University’s High Performance Computing Center Stuttgart (HLRS). The multi-year, multi-phase contract is worth an estimated $60 million. The first phase of the contract will take place in 2011, during which the Cray XE6 … Continue reading “Cray Wins $60M University of Stuttgart Contract”

Complete Genomics Sets IPO Price Range

Complete Genomics, the low-cost gene sequencing company in Mountain View, CA, has set a goal of pricing 6 million shares in its initial public offering at a price of $12 to $14, according to a filing today with the Securities and Exchange Commission. If the company can find demand from investors at the top of … Continue reading “Complete Genomics Sets IPO Price Range”

Nanosys Ups E Round to $31M

Palo Alto, CA-based Nanosys, which said in August that it had raised $25 million in Series E financing from new investor Samsung Venture Investment Corporation and existing investors Arch Venture Partners, El Dorado Ventures, Polaris Venture Capital, and Venrock, announced a “second and final close” of the round today at $31 million. No additional investors were … Continue reading “Nanosys Ups E Round to $31M”

First Impressions of Michigan’s Innovation Landscape: An Institutional Legacy, A Fragmented Entrepreneurial Community, and Some Unexpected Promising Sectors

Last week I headed to the Detroit and Ann Arbor area to make my first visit to one of Xconomy’s newer outposts. I spoke with entrepreneurs and industry veterans, as well as academics and investors looking to jumpstart the region’s innovation engine. Some of what I saw and heard on my trip stood in stark … Continue reading “First Impressions of Michigan’s Innovation Landscape: An Institutional Legacy, A Fragmented Entrepreneurial Community, and Some Unexpected Promising Sectors”

ThingMagic-Trimble Deal a “Desired Outcome,” and a Next Stage for RFID and GPS Technologies

Yesterday’s acquisition of Cambridge, MA, technology firm ThingMagic by Silicon Valley-based Trimble (NASDAQ: [[ticker:TRMB]]) left a lot of people in the radio frequency identification (RFID) and location-based tech sectors wanting to know more. I spoke with both companies late in the day to get some answers. Overall it sounds like a fairly standard acquisition that … Continue reading “ThingMagic-Trimble Deal a “Desired Outcome,” and a Next Stage for RFID and GPS Technologies”

Countdown to VC Crossfire: Get Ready for Sparks to Fly on Thursday

We are chomping at the bit here at Xconomy Seattle about our next big event, circled in magic marker on my white board. This is the gathering we’re calling “VC Crossfire,” coming Thursday evening at Amazon’s new headquarters in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood. This event will bring together a fearsome foursome of some of … Continue reading “Countdown to VC Crossfire: Get Ready for Sparks to Fly on Thursday”

The Northwest Cleantech Cluster: The A-to-Z List of Energy Efficiency Players

[UpdatedI 12:15 pm Pacific] We’ve been covering the cleantech space here at Xconomy for some time, and the whispers we keep hearing from the folks at the Northwest Energy Angels, cleantech incubators like the McKinstry Innovation Center, or the Puget Sound Regional Council, is that although the Northwest is an obvious contender to lead in … Continue reading “The Northwest Cleantech Cluster: The A-to-Z List of Energy Efficiency Players”

Ablexis Cuts Deal With Pfizer, Four Other Pharmas, For Antibody Drug Discovery Tool

Ablexis didn’t force its investors to wait very long to see some returns. The San Francisco-based biotech company is announcing today it has struck an unusual deal to provide its antibody drug discovery technology to five big drugmakers simultaneously, as an alternative way to generate returns without waiting around for the unlikely event of an … Continue reading “Ablexis Cuts Deal With Pfizer, Four Other Pharmas, For Antibody Drug Discovery Tool”

ATyr Pharma Pockets $23M to Create New Class of Protein Drugs, and New Targets

One of the more audacious biotech startups in San Diego just got a big vote of confidence at a moment when few companies of its kind are getting any sort of respect. San Diego-based aTyr Pharma has pulled in $23 million in its Series C round of venture financing, led by Domain Associates. aTyr’s existing … Continue reading “ATyr Pharma Pockets $23M to Create New Class of Protein Drugs, and New Targets”

Immune Design Snags $212M Deal With MedImmune To Provide Vaccine Booster

Immune Design has struck its first big deal with a Big Pharma company. The Seattle-based vaccine developer has agreed to provide a license to an immune-boosting compound, called an adjuvant, to the MedImmune unit of London-based AstraZeneca. The pharma giant plans to use the compound as a key ingredient in potent new vaccines it has … Continue reading “Immune Design Snags $212M Deal With MedImmune To Provide Vaccine Booster”

Phenomix, Former Highflying Diabetes Drugmaker, Shuts Down After Forest Labs Walks

San Diego-based Phenomix is history. The one-time highflying IPO candidate has shut down its operations, laid off essentially all of its 45 employees, and only has a skeleton crew left attempting to find someone to continue developing its lead drug candidate for diabetes, Xconomy has learned. Phenomix went out of business about three weeks ago, … Continue reading “Phenomix, Former Highflying Diabetes Drugmaker, Shuts Down After Forest Labs Walks”

OhLife’s Daily E-Mails Motivate a New Wave of Online Diarists

This is the ninth in a series of profiles of companies funded this summer by Paul Graham’s Y Combinator startup incubator in Mountain View, CA. Dear Diary, This will be the last time I write in you. Your crisp pages and smooth leather cover have comforted me through many lonely nights. But I’ve found someone … Continue reading “OhLife’s Daily E-Mails Motivate a New Wave of Online Diarists”

RPI Raises $5M More, Optify Nabs $6.1M from Triangle Peak, Madrona, TalentSpring and Recruiting.com Are Acquired, & More Seattle-Area BizTech News

For months the flow of news about Seattle-area technology company deals has felt like a trickle, and then all of the sudden this week we have deals coming out of our ears. It must be the fall weather, which has finally set in, quite a bit later than usual. Take a look at the highlights: … Continue reading “RPI Raises $5M More, Optify Nabs $6.1M from Triangle Peak, Madrona, TalentSpring and Recruiting.com Are Acquired, & More Seattle-Area BizTech News”

Curaspan Undergoes Big Expansion as Demand for Patient-Transition Software Grows

Curaspan Health Group set out 11 years ago to pursue founder and CEO Tom Ferry’s idea that there had to be a better way than the long, paper- and people-intensive process traditionally required to transition patients from hospitals to their post-acute care facilities or elsewhere. Now the Newton, MA-based firm is enjoying a period of … Continue reading “Curaspan Undergoes Big Expansion as Demand for Patient-Transition Software Grows”

aTyr Pharma Obtains $23,000,000 Series C Financing

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=37565c00-e646-4307-a248-1c7a2998870c&Preview=1 Date 10/26/2010 Company Name aTyr Pharma Mailing Address 3565 General Atomics Court San Diego, CA 92121 Company Description We have developed proprietary methods for discovering Physiocrines, extracellular proteins that are derived from the tRNA synthetase family of enzymes, and which were predominantly overlooked by other genomic and secretome discovery efforts. Website … Continue reading “aTyr Pharma Obtains $23,000,000 Series C Financing”

Ellipse Technologies Obtains $1,807,715 New Funding

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=6f2a9a20-d24c-4ba5-9814-23f4feb561cc&Preview=1 Date 10/26/2010 Company Name Ellipse Technologies Mailing Address 13900 Alton Pkwy. Irvine, CA 92618 Company Description Ellipse Technologies, Inc. is a privately held medical device company located in Irvine, California. The Company is focused on developing the innovative MAGEC Technology treatment for numerous clinical applications, the first application being spinal scoliosis. … Continue reading “Ellipse Technologies Obtains $1,807,715 New Funding”