‘Big data’ company Splunk, backed by Ignition, soars in IPO

splunk

Shares of business intelligence company Splunk are up more than 80 percent in their first day of trading today — a strong IPO from a “big data” company backed in part by the Bellevue-based Ignition Partners venture capital firm. Ignition Partners led a $25 million round in Splunk in 2007, with the firm’s John Connors, the former… Read More…

SEOMoz considers $20M to $30M VC round, but Rand Fishkin says no ‘done deal’ yet

Rand Fishkin

SEOMoz CEO Rand Fishkin may raise a massive venture capital round in the range of $20 million to $30 million. Then, again, he may not.  I guess that’s the luxury of being a fast growing — not to mention profitable — startup company these days. You’ve got options, and Fishkin has plenty of them. Earlier… Read More…

Seattle’s AdXpose sells out to comScore for $22 million

Kirby Winfield of AdXpose

Seattle startup AdXpose, which has had more lives than a cat since it was founded in 2005, is getting ready for a new one. The company, formerly known as Mpire and WidgetBucks, has agreed to be sold to comScore for $22 million. AdXpose is an ad verification and optimization technology which helps online advertisers make sure… Read More…

Liberty Dialysis to sell for $1.7B

liberty1

Liberty Dialysis Holdings, a Mercer Island company that operates 260 dialysis clinics across the country, has entered into an agreement to be sold to Germany’s Fresenius Medical Care for $1.7 billion. Liberty Dialysis, which merged with Renal Advantage last year to become the third largest operator of dialysis facilities in the U.S., has annual sales of… Read More…

Ignition backs Motif, ex-Microsoftie’s startup for ‘investing in ideas’

Hardeep Walia

Bellevue-based Ignition Partners led a $20 million financing round in Motif Investing, a San Mateo, Calif.- based company founded by former Microsoft general manager Hardeep Walia and former hedge fund analyst Tariq Hilaly around the concept of investing in ideas. The deal, announced today, was also joined by existing Motif investors Norwest Venture Partners and Foundation Capital…. Read More…

California dreaming: Ignition backs another startup with ties outside the region

ignition1

One of the interesting trends in the venture capital business around these parts over the past few months has been the number of deals being done by Seattle venture capital firms outside of the region. OVP, Madrona, Frazier and Voyager all have been spending time (and money) outside the region. And so is Ignition Partners,… Read More…

Ignition backs Topsy, a real-time search engine

topsy

Ignition Partners, the Bellevue venture capital firm, continues to plow cash into Bay Area startup companies. The latest to benefit is Topsy, a San Francisco real time search engine that today announced a $15 million investment. Ignition’s return backing of Topsy follows investments in San Fran consumer Web services, including SocialEyes and Hipmunk. Other investors… Read More…