Versant Ventures related stories
All articles and analysis
Week in deals, Oct. 26, 2009Summary of North American tech companies and other startups that raised venture financing in the past week
- peHUB Wire: Monday, Octoober 19, 2009
Random Ramblings
- peHUB Wire: Monday, Octoober 19, 2009
Random Ramblings
- Flexion Therapeutics Raises $33 Million
Flexion Therapeutics, a Woburn, Mass.-based drug development startup, has raised $33 million in Series A funding. Versant Ventures led the round, and was joined by 5AM Ventures and Sofinnova Ventures. Flexion was formed in 2007 by Chorus co-founders Mike Clayman and Neil Bodick.
- NY-based SecondMarket buys InsideVenture
The acquisition should help SecondMarket develop a market for primary investments in private companies
- Top VC Recipients of 2009 (so far)
In light of Twitter having raised over $135 million in VC funding so far this year (new round plus January round), I figured it was time for a Top 10 list of 2009 venture recipients. And, no, Twitter is not in the top spot. That honor goes to Clovis Oncology, which raised over $146 million in a Series A round four months ago. A few metrics notes: (1) The list only includes U.S.-based companies. It didn't appear that any non-U.S. companies qualified and, if they did, I didn't want to get bogged down in currency disputes; (2) The list aggregates all VC funding secured in 2009, rather than individual rounds; (3) The calculations do not include government funding (grants, etc); (4) The ability to secure lots of VC dollars does not necessarily correlate to a strong company or strong returns. So, without further ado, get the full list after the jump...
- Rennovia Raises VC To Make Chemicals from Renewable Feedstock
Rennovia, an early-stage chemical development company, recently raised $6 million in startup funding from 5AM Ventures and Versant Ventures, according to regulatory documents. The funding is the first infusion of a proposed $12.3 million Series A round that the company is seeking, documents show. The stealth Menlo Park, Calif.-based startup is working to make specialty chemicals from renewable feedstock. The company has not disclosed what chemicals it will make. A chemical company such as Rennovia is something of an anomaly in Silicon Valley, where information technology and life science companies vie with cleantech for attention from venture capitalists. Still, some VCs are willing to go out on a limb for a compelling chemistry process applied to an industry that has long relied on petroleum as the principle input for its products.
- Calypso Medical Raises $50 Million
Calypso Medical Technologies Inc., a Seattle-based developer of real-time localization technology used for the tracking of tumor targets, has raised $50 million in fifth-round funding. Skyline Ventures and Frazier Healthcare Ventures co-led the deal, and were joined by fellow return backers Bay City Capital and InterWest Partners. The company has now raised nearly $175 million in total VC funding since 1999.
- Rennovia raises $12M, joins biochemicals fray
Silicon Valley startup vies to swap petroleum out of chemical production equation with $12M financing