[Posted on March 18, 2008 - 5:22 PM]
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Isango
London- and Westborough, Mass.-based Internet travel operator Isango! Ltd. announced an $8 million institutional funding round, led by British early-stage venture investor Spark Ventures plc. Alongside Spark's $4 million contribution, the round included a $2.5 million investment from Beringea and $1.5 million from existing shareholders. The funding is the company's first institutional round and will be used to ramp up revenues, roll out its booking platform and develop new products and services. - Jonathan Braude
VoloMedia
Leader Ventures of Menlo Park, Calif., has invested $3.5 million in VoloMedia Inc., a provider of advertising, metrics and reporting technology for downloadable media. The funding allows the company to accelerate its growth. VoloMedia's measurement and reporting system provides publishers with the ability to manage media and advertising campaigns, as well as get reports on the success of the campaign. Founded in 2005, the Mountain View, Calif., company has received capital from Mayfield Fund, Sutter Hill Ventures and Worldview Technology Partners in prior rounds. -- G.W.
Medical devices
Luminous
Carlsbad, Calif.-based blood monitoring device maker Luminous Medical Inc. raised $23.5 million in a second round of venture capital to advance regulatory approval of its lead product for continuous automated glucose measurement in patients in hospital settings. The three-year-old spinoff of InLight Solutions Inc. of Albuquerque raised the money from new investors Adams Street Partners of Chicago, which led the round, RiverVest Venture Partners of St. Louis, Mo., and Finistere Ventures of San Diego, and previous investors De Novo Ventures of Palo Alto, Calif., and Latterell Venture Partners of San Francisco. The funding follows the completion a prototype of a proprietary device that uses a peripheral catheter to monitor glucose levels in patients already hooked up to intravenous units in intensive care units and other critical care settings. -- Clifford Carlsen
Wireless
SendMe
Mobile media company SendMe Mobile Inc. has secured $15 million in a Series C financing led by new investor GrandBanks Capital of Newton Centre, Mass. The round also included existing investors True Ventures of Palo Alto, Calif., and Spark Capital of Boston. The San Francisco-based company will use the financing to gain market share for each of its three core brands, SendMeMobile.com, SoLow.com and mBuzzy.com, by adding new premium and community-generated content, services and applications to each brand. The money will also go towards launching new brands and for major acquisitions. Founded in 2006, SendMe operates a number of mobile phone-focused destination sites that allow consumers to download entertainment and community content. -- G.W.
Gizmoz
Gizmoz of Menlo Park, Calif., a social expression and user-generated media service, has received a $6.5 million Series B financing. The investment was led by Japan's DoCoMo Capital Inc. and included Japanese venture firm NGI Capital Inc. and return investors Benchmark Capital of Menlo Park and Columbia Capital of Alexandria, Va.. The company in 2007 raised a $6.3 million Series A investment to launch a free online service that allows consumers to create animated, talking avatar characters on all-digital platforms. Gizmoz will use the new capital to fund expansion into Asia, starting with Japan. -- G.W.
Pharmaceuticals
LigoCyte
Bozeman, Mont.-based LigoCyte Pharmaceuticals Inc. has closed a $28 million venture capital financing that will allow it to continue clinical development of its two lead vaccines against norovirus and influenza. The investment is being led by Forward Ventures of San Diego, JAFCO Co. Ltd. of Tokyo and Novartis Venture Fund of Basel, Switzerland, with participation from Fidelity Biosciences of Boston, MedImmune Ventures of Gaithersburg, Md., Athenian Venture Partners of Athens, Ohio, and MC Life Sciences Ventures of Boston. Seaview Securities served as the placement agent for the transaction. LigoCyte develops products based on its virus-like particle and monoclonal antibody technologies, and focuses on vaccines for important gastrointestinal and respiratory illness. -- G.W.
InflaRx
Jena, Germany-based InflaRx GmbH has closed a seed financing led by Switzerland's Affentranger Associates, with participation from Germany's bm-t beteiligungsmanagement thüringen gmbh. The company is developing therapeutic approaches to prevent and treat sepsis, also known as blood poisoning. InflaRx's candidates are in the advanced pre-clinical stage of development. -- G.W.
Energy
SaveOnEnergy.com
Dallas-based online energy broker SaveOnEnergy.com has secured $2.4 million in funding from a group of oil and gas executives based in San Antonio and El Paso. The new investors will acquire a minority stake in the parent company, Save On Energy Ltd. The company will use the money to expand into New York and Illinois and increase its marketing and advertising campaign in Texas. SaveOnEnergy.com has launched a commercial retail exchange portal that allows eight energy suppliers to compete for a customer's business. Texas business customers can use the Web site by entering their business and usage information, which is delivered in real-time to each of the participating eight energy suppliers. The suppliers then evaluate the information and contact the customer directly. -- G.W.
