Early stage roundup
SAN FRANCISCO (Private Equity Week) - Union Square Ventures-one of the backers of the microblogging service Twitter-and O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures have invested about $1.4 million in seed stage capital in Foursquare.
The New York-based startup has developed mobile social networking technology that encourages users to patronize restaurants, bars and other businesses in their neighborhoods. Users gain points redeemable for discounts, and the Foursquare application broadcasts activity on Twitter and Facebook.
The startup was one of 17 young companies tracked by Thomson Reuters to raise early stage capital earlier within the last week from venture capitalists.
The tally of early stage companies to raise capital recently includes the following.
BIOTECH
Arginetix Inc.
Baltimore
Amount/Round: $4.6M/Series B
Investors: Red Abbey Venture Partners and Quaker BioVentures.
Details: Produces biotechnology products and services. The company had previously raised $2.3M in a Series A round from Quaker BioVentures, Red Abbey Venture Partners, MedImmune Ventures, Maryland Health Care Product Development Corp. and Acidophil LLC.
VitaPath Genetics
Foster City, Calif.
Amount/Round: $6M/Series A
Investors: Mohr Davidow Ventures (led) and X/Seed Capital.
Details: Develops molecular diagnostics to help correct genetic mutations. Mohr Davidow's Michael Goldberg and X/Seed's Michael Borrus have joined the board.
CLEANTECH
Hara Software Inc.
Redwood City, Calif.
Amount/Round: $14M/Series B
Investors: Jafco Ventures (led), Nth Power and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
Details: Develops on-demand environmental and energy management software. The company last year launched when it raised $6M in funding.
Soane Energy
Cambridge, Mass.
Amount/Round: NA/Series A
Investors: Intervale Capital (led) and Chevron Technology Investments.
Details: Operates an oil extracting plant that reduces the environmental impact of crude oil exploration and production. The company is founded by David Soane, and will initially focus on the oil sands of Alberta, Canada.
COMMUNICATIONS
InXpo
Chicago
Amount/Round: $9M/Series A
Investors: Highland Capital Partners. Details: Develops virtual meeting technology.
FOOD & BEVERAGES
Mix1 Beverage Co.
Boulder, Colo.
Amount/Round: $6M/Series A
Investors: Highland Consumer Fund.
Details: Produces all-natural beverages. The funding will be used to help fund a national rollout.
INTERNET
Foursquare
New York
Amount/Round: $1.35M/Seed Stage
Investors: Union Square Ventures and O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures.
Details: Provides online mobile social networking services.
Jobvite Inc.
San Francisco
Amount/Round: $8.25M/Series B
Investors: ATA Ventures (led) and CMEA Capital.
Details: Develops online application and recruiting tracking solutions. The company has now raised more than $15M in funding.
Rosso Corp.
Austin, Texas
URL: N/A
Amount/Round: $2M/Series A
Investors: Austin Ventures.
Details: A consumer-focused Internet startup operating in stealth mode. The company was founded by Manuel Rosso, an Austin Ventures entrepreneur-in-residence since last November. Rosso left Dell Inc. in 2006 after seven years with the company.
INTERNET MARKETING
iSocket
Mountain View, Calif.
Amount/Round: $2M/Series A
Investors: Individual investors, including Tim Draper (from Draper Fisher Jurvetson), Jeff Clavier (SoftTech VC), David Blumberg (Blumberg Capital <here>), Dave McClure (Founders Fund Angel <here>), David Hirsch <here> (former head of Google advertising sales) and Steve Gurasich (from ad agency GSD&M Idea City), among other individual investors.
Details: Operates as an ad sales platform.
MED TECH
ValenTx Inc.
Carpinteria, Calif.
Amount/Round: $22M/Series B
Investors: SV Life Sciences (led), Covidien Ventures, EDF Ventures, Affinity Capital Management, Kaiser Permanente Ventures, TGap Ventures and Sapient Capital Management.
Details: Develops minimally invasive treatments for morbid obesity.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Alvine Pharmaceuticals Inc.
San Carlos, Calif.
Amount/Round: $21.5M/Series A
Investors: Panorama Capital (led), InterWest Partners, Prospect Venture Partners, Sofinnova Ventures, Black River Asset Management and Flagship Ventures.
Details: Develops treatments for Celiac disease and other gastrointestinal diseases. The funding brings the Series A round up to $47.5M.
SOFTWARE
BrightScope
San Diego
Amount/Round: $2M/Series B
Investors: Individual investor Jim Caccavo of Steelpoint Capital Partners led the round and was joined by other individual investors.
Details: Provides 401k ratings and analytics.
STORAGE
Avere Systems Inc.
Pittsburgh
Amount/Round: $15M/Series A
Investors: Menlo Ventures and Norwest Venture Partners.
Details: Develops enterprise storage solutions.
Gear6 Inc.
Mountain View, Calif.
Amount/Round: $4M/Series A
Investors: U.S. Venture Partners and InterWest Partners.
Details: Develops storage caching solutions. The funding is the first close of a $12.7M Series A round, according to a regulatory filing. The company previously raised more than $24M from USVP, InterWest and Horizon Ventures.
GreenBytes Inc.
Ashaway, R.I.
.Amount/Round: $8M/Series A
Investors: Battery Ventures. Details: Develops data storage appliances.
VIDEO GAMES
Riot Games Inc.
Los Angeles
Amount/Round: $8M/Series B
Investors: Benchmark Capital, FirstMark Capital and Tencent, a Chinese digital goods provider that operates an online gaming business.
Details: Publishes online games. Riot Games previously raised $7M in funding.
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