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Internet Socialtext Enterprise wiki developer Socialtext Inc. has raised a $9.5 million third round. Draper Fisher Jurvetson of Menlo Park, Calif., led the round, joined by investors Omidyar Network and SAP Ventures of Redwood City, Calif. The Palo Alto, Calif., company makes internal wiki software for businesses. Founder Ross Mayfield will become president and chairman, with Eugene Lee becoming chief executive. --G.W. Think Passenger Think Passenger Inc. of Los Angeles has completed a $8.3 million Series B financing that will be used to expand the company's sales operations and further develop its on-demand technology platform. The proceeds come from new investors StarVest Partners of New York and Steamboat Ventures, the venture capital arm of Burbank, Calif.-based Walt Disney Co., as well as insider Shelter Capital Partners of Los Angeles. The company has secured $13 million since its funding in 2005. Passenger develops technology that combines social media, community building and collaboration technologies for use by companies to work with customers within private online communities. Its offerings enable marketers to create private communities. --G.W. Biotech Lead Therapeutics San Bruno, Calif.-based Lead Therapeutics Inc. closed on a $17 million initial round of venture capital co-led by Pappas Ventures of Durham, N.C., and ProQuest Investments of San Diego, in a plan to create a high-volume drug discovery lab on the cheap in China. The deal includes Mustang Ventures of Shanghai and is expected to fund the company well into 2009, at which time Lead expects to have contracts in place with pharmaceutical companies to take its compounds into clinical trials in the U.S. The company has targeted oncology and infectious diseases as areas in which it will develop products, identifying compounds and taking them through preclinical work to provide licensing partners with a prepackaged Investigational NewDrug Application to file with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. --Clifford Carlsen Venture firms Sandlot Venture Group Sandlot Venture Group of Los Gatos, Calif., has announced a partnership with Red Bird Cinema to fund a variety of movie productions. The first part of the partnership will be to produce a film based on the life story of retired boxer Sugar Ray Leonard. Founded in 2007, Sandlot Venture Group is a $25 million private equity fund focused on the financing and development of high-profile film projects. In addition to creating film projects, SVG plans to work with contacts in Silicon Valley to develop means of profitable content distribution through technology applications. --G.W. Thunder Group Thunder Group LLC of San Francisco is raising an investment vehicle to invest in and help incubate Web 2.0 digital media and marketing startups. The fund will focus on five sectors: digital marketing, consumer health care communications and digital therapy solutions; sustainable lifestyles and technologies; financial services, and social networking for niche markets. Additionally, Thunder Group plans to help advance mobile applications of all the businesses. Unlike a traditional venture firm, Thunder Group will be more of a collaborative enterprise among numerous companies, including AdJuicer, Media Gems, MobileGates, CollegeCarrot and Thunder Factory. The group said it plans to function much like a "marketing systems integrator," providing strategic services, technology and implementation to achieve major marketing objectives. Thunder Group will also integrate the intellectual assets of its members to help corporations capitalize on digital media, marketing channels and technologies. n --G.W.  Deal Video
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