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Pharmaceuticals SantoSolve Osteoarthritis drug developer SantoSolve AS of Oslo has raised a new round of venture funding worth $7 million. Three first-time investors, DnB Nor, Gezina AS and Glastad Invest AS, all of Oslo, joined existing backers Teknoinvest AS of Oslo and InnovationsKapital of Göteborg, Sweden, in the round. SantoSolve will use the new funds to advance its pain relief compound 2PX through third-phase clinical trials. --P.B. Formac Venture investors have provided ¤1.7 million ($2.5 million) to establish drug delivery startup Formac Pharmaceuticals NV of Leuven, Belgium. The deal follows the spinout of Formac from the University of Leuven. Investors include Allegro Investment Fund and Gemma Frisius Fonds K.U.Leuven, both of Leuven, and Vlaams Innovatiefonds, also known as the Flemish Innovation Fund, an investment vehicle of the Flemish government. Formac is dedicated to improving oral formulations of existing drug compounds. --P.B. Software Aria Systems Hummer Winblad Venture Partners of San Francisco has led a $4 million first round of funding for Aria Systems Inc. of Media, Pa., an on-demand billing software company focused on the online gaming and software-as-a-service markets. The four-year-old startup has 30 customers, and expects to use the funds to build its infrastructure and enhance product capabilities. --P.B. Networking ExaGrid Systems Westborough, Mass.-based ExaGrid Systems Inc. has closed a $20 million funding for its disk-based backup technology. The investment was led by new investor Lehman Brothers Venture Partners of New York, joined by current investors Highland Capital Partners Inc. of Lexington, Mass., and Sigma Partners of Boston. The funding brings ExaGrid's total funding to $42 million since its founding in spring 2002. The money is expected to carry ExaGrid to cash positive status. ExaGrid's system is a software-based and uses principles of grid computing to back up and protect large amounts of data. Brian Paul, managing director at Lehman Brothers, will join ExaGrid's board of directors. --George White Iptivia New York's Iptivia Inc. has completed a Series A financing for an unspecified amount. The round was led by Paladin Capital Group in Washington, with participation from OmniCapital Group of Westfield, N.J., along with contributions from the founding team. The company's technology is designed to ensure IP networks are able to carry high-bandwidth multimedia applications. Its intellectual property provides real-time diagnosis, remediation and monitoring for delivering services over large IP networks. The capital will go toward international expansion, for product development and to address new market segments such as IPTV providers. Joining the board were Philip Eliot of Paladin and Gerald Butters of Omni. --G.W. Internet MerchantCircle Los Altos, Calif.-based online local advertising pioneer MerchantCircle stuck with its faithful partners Rustic Canyon Partners of Santa Monica, Calif., Scale Venture Partners of Foster City, Calif., and Steamboat Ventures of Burbank, Calif., in raising a $10 million Series B round while picking up Square One Bank of East Palo Alto, Calif., and IAC/InterActive Corp. of New York as key strategic investors. The deal follows a $4.1 million Series A round from its venture backers based on a bare-bones concept in March 2005, and is an endorsement of the company's model of building a viral network of small businesses to sell local online advertising. --Clifford Carlsen iovation Portland, Ore.-based iovation has received a $10 million investment from Intel Capital of Santa Clara, Calif., as part of a financing expected to close with a total of $15 million. The company provides online security and fraud protection services and will use the fund for development of new fraud and abuse management solutions. The company's lead product is a device reputation service aimed at protecting business on the Internet by preventing charge-backs, identity theft, phishing, click fraud and other abuses. --G.W. Media Frame Media Frame Media Inc. of Boston, a provider of software for wireless digital picture frames, has secured $2 million in Series A funding. The round was led by CommonAngels of Boston and Longworth Venture Partners of Waltham, Mass. FrameChannel, the company's Web-service platform, allows wireless digital frame owners to program the delivery of content dynamically from a number of different sources. Users can select and manage personal photos, as well as content from hundreds of feeds including sports, traffic and entertainment news. Frame Media plans to use the capital for the growth of the business, working with frame manufacturers and semiconductor companies to ensure their products will be compatible with FrameChannel, as well as for a hiring initiative. Joining the company's board of directors is Jim Savage, a partner at Longworth Venture Partners. --G.W. Celltick Amadeus Capital Partners and Jerusalem Venture Partners led a Series D equity financing for Celltick to help the company expand its LiveScreen Media platform services. Celltick, which promotes content and brands through mobile phones, already has over 25 operators globally. The company wants to transition from a license-based model to one that distributes unlimited licenses at no cost to mobile operators to achieve mass market penetration. Celltick is headquartered in London, has its R&D operations in Israel and offices in Russia, Singapore, India, Thailand and Brazil. --Phineas Lambert Manufacturing Novomer Environmentally-minded plastics developer Novomer Inc. of Ithaca, N.Y., has raised $6.6 million in first-round funding from investors including Physic Ventures of San Francisco and Flagship Ventures of Cambridge, Mass. The investment is the fourth disclosed by Physic, a new firm backed by food distributor Unilever NV of Rotterdam and dedicated to companies promoting healthy and sustainable living. Three-year-old Novomer is developing biodegradable plastics derived from renewable feedstocks. --P.B. Energy Vaperma Clean-energy technology developer Vaperma Inc. of Quebec City revealed a new CN$21.5 million ($23.4 million) second round of venture funding from new and existing investors. First-time backers were round leader Low Carbon Accelerator Ltd. of Guernsey, U.K., and Volvo Technology Transfer AB of Göteborg, Sweden, while existing investors following on included Emerald Technology Ventures of Zurich and BDC Venture Capital and Fonds d'Investissement en Developpement Durable, both of Montreal. Vaperma plans to commercialize a gas separation system that separates water from ethanol blends. --P.B.  Deal Video
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