Early-stage venture roundup

Compiled by Alexander Haislip

SAN FRANCISCO (Private Equity Week) - Here's a summary of North American tech companies and other businesses that raised financing in the past week. The information comes from company press releases, Internet news sites and Thomson Reuters database.

BIOTECHNOLOGY

Rapid Micro Biosystems Inc. Bedford, Mass. www.rapidmicrobio.com Amount/Round: $18.6M/Series A Investors: Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, TVM Capital, Quaker BioVentures and VIMAC Milestone Medica Fund. Details: The company is developing products to detect microbial contamination.

CONSUMER INTERNET

CoTweet San Francisco www.cotweet.com Amount/Round: $1.1M/Series A Investors: Baseline Ventures, First Round Capital, Founders Fund, Freestyle Capital, Maples Investments and SV Angel. Details: Company, founded in 2008, describes itself as a Web-based collaboration platform that helps companies reach customers in real time using Twitter. It says its product is used by major brands, including Whole Foods, Starbucks, Microsoft, JetBlue, Ford, Pepsi, Sprint, Coca-Cola.

Jolicloud Paris, France www.jolicloud.com Amount/Round: $4.2M/Series A Investors: Atomico Ventures and Mangrove Capital Partners. Details: Makes an operating system for netbooks.

StyleCaster New York www.stylecaster.com Amount/Round: $4M/Series A Investors: Individual investor Dan Gilbert, founder of Quicken Loans and owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team. Details: Operates a fashion and lifestyle oriented website.

ECOMMERCE

Bling Nation Palo Alto, Calif. www.blingnation.com. Amount/Round: $8M/Series A Investors: Lightspeed Venture Partners (led), Meck Ltd. and CampVentures. Details: Develops mobile payment solutions.

PHARMACEUTICALS

Allostera Pharma Inc. Montreal, Canada www.allostera.com Amount/Round: $14.6M/Series A Investors: iNovia Capital, Genesys Capital, BDC Venture Capital and Go Capital. Details: The company makes drugs.

STORAGE

ActiFio Inc. Weston, Mass. www.actfio.com Amount/Round: $8M/Series A Investors: NA Details: Operates as a stealth storage startup. The company's only listed executive is Ash Ashutosh, a partner with venture firm Greylock Partners and former StorageWorks chief technologist. Listed as a board member is James Goldstein, a partner with North Bridge Venture Partners, according to a regulatory filing.