Early-stage venture capital roundup
Compiled by Alastair Goldfisher
SAN FRANCISCO (Private Equity Week) - Seed stage financings was the name of the game last week as investors funded at least four startups raised with seed capital, which is typically the first capital raised by a new business, prior to fully establishing its business.
A seed stage round is usually followed by a formal Series A round, the first institutional round of financing.
Among the startups to raise seed capital last week was Factual Inc. The Santa Monica, California-based company provides open source databases in a Wiki-like fashion. The company raised $1 million in seed capital from Andreessen Horowitz (the venture firm launched by Netscape co-founded Marc Andreessen), Idealab, Founder Collective and individual investors Esther Dyson (founder of EDventure Holdings) Richard Rosenblatt (Demand Media CEO), Danny Rimer (of Index Ventures), Mårten Mickos (former MySQL CEO), Scott Kurnit (founder of About.com), Tom Lehrman (founder of Gerson Lehrman Group) and Tom Unterman (founder of Rustic Canyon Ventures).
Factual was founded by CEO Gil Elbaz, who previously co-founded Applied Semantics, which was acquired by Google in 2003 for $100 million and was the starting point for Adsense.
Factual and its Wiki-like technology joins other efforts pursuing similar ambitions, including Freebase, Wolfram Alpha and Google.
Other startups to raise financing last week include the following:
AGRICULTURE
Aero Farm Systems
Ithaca, NY
Amount/Round: $500,000/seed stage
Investors: The Quercus Trust and 21Ventures
Details: Develops aeroponic growing systems that grow produce without soil and son.
BIOTECH
CytoSolv Inc.
Providence, RI
Amount/Round: $500,000/seed stage
Investors: The Slater Technology Fund
Details: Develops wound healing technology, initially targeting diabetic foot ulcers.
CLEANTECH
Nexamp Inc.
North Andover, MA
Amount/Round: $6.5 million/Series A
Investors: Good Energies, Point Judith Capital, RCG Ventures and individual investors
Details: Provides advisory services and solutions to help implement clean energy projects. Recently, the company announced that it had received $20M in federal stimulus funding for use in solar power installations.
COMMUNICATIONS
3Play Media Inc.
Somerville, MA
Amount/Round: $450,000/seed stage
Investors: Individual investors, including Tole Khesin (a member of Boston-based angel firm Launchpad Venture Group)
Details: Develops audio transcription technology. The funding is the first close of a $600,000 seed funding round, according to a regulatory filing. The company was launched by a handful of MIT grads in 2007.
DATABASES
Factual Inc.
Santa Monica, CA
Amount/Round: $1 million/seed stage
Investors: Andreessen Horowitz, Idealab, Founder Collective and individual investors Esther Dyson, Richard Rosenblatt, Danny Rimer, Mårten Mickos, Scott Kurnit, Thomas Lehrman and Tom Unterman
Details: Provides online tools that enable users to share and manipulate databases.
MED TECH
OrthAlign Inc.
Irvine, CA
Amount/Round: $5.2 million/Series A
Investors: California Technology Ventures, Okapi Venture Capital and Research Corporation Technologies Research
Details: Develops small single-use devices for knee and hip implants.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Nautilus Neurosciences Inc.
Bridgewater, NJ
Amount/Round: $14.5 million/Series A
Investors: Tailwind Capital Partners
Details: Develops drugs focused on neurology.
ROBOTICS
CyPhy Works Inc.
Framingham, MA
Amount/Round: $1.75 million/Series A
Investors: General Catalyst Partners
Details: Develops remotely piloted robotic machines. The company was founded by iRobot co-founder Helen Greiner. John Simon, managing director of General Catalyst, has joined the board.
SOFTWARE
DotNetNuke Corp.
San Mateo, CA
Amount/Round: $8 million/Series B
Investors: UV Partners (led), August Capital and Sierra Ventures
Details: Develops an open-source application framework for the Microsoft tech platform. The company previously raised $6 million in funding from Sierra and August.
VIDEO
Encoding.com
San Francisco, CA
Amount/Round: $1.25 million/Series A
Investors: Metamorphic Ventures (led) and individual investors Patrick Condon, Fred Hamilton, Zelkova Ventures, Dave Morgan and Allen Morgan
Details: Provides online video encoding services. Marc Michel, managing partner of Metamorphic Ventures, has joined the board.
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