Venture capitalist Mark Ashida takes reins at cloud storage startup Symform

Mark Ashida

Well, here’s one job you can score if your venture capital firm starts to wind down: Take over the CEO post at one of your portfolio companies. That’s what is occurring at Symform, the cloud storage and backup startup which just last week scored $3 million in fresh funding. Today, the company is announcing that… Read More…

National Association of Realtors invests $3M in cloud storage startup Symform

symform-logo11

The venture capital arm of the National Association of Realtors today announced that it is investing $3 million in Symform, the Seattle cloud storage and data recovery startup founded by former Microsoft engineers Praerit Garg and Bassam Tabarra. Total funding now stands at $20 million, including the recent investment from Second Century Ventures as well… Read More…

Seattle VCs honor one of the region’s ‘founding fathers’

OVP's Chad Waite is among the committee members in the W Fund

Chad Waite has been an important fixture in the Seattle venture capital community for 25 years, joining OVP Venture Partners well before the region boasted tech giants with names like Amazon.com, Expedia and F5 Networks. To many in the industry, Waite is one of the founding fathers — the grand poobah if you will —… Read More…

NanoString lands $15.3M for genetic analysis system

nanostring

NanoString Technologies continues to rake in new capital, announcing today that it has raised $15.3 million from Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital and AllianceBernstein Alternative Investment Management Group. Existing investors, including Clarus Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, OVP Venture Partners, GE healthymagination Fund and BioMed Ventures, also participated in the financing. The deal follows a $20 million financing round… Read More…

OVP Venture Partners to close after nearly 30 years

ovp-team1

The message on the Web site of OVP Venture Partners kind of says it all: “We are not currently accepting business plans.” After nearly 30 years of evaluating startup companies throughout the Pacific Nortwest, the Kirkland-based venture capital firm has decided to toss in the towel. Luke Timmerman at Xconomy has the scoop, reporting that… Read More…

Cloud storage startup Symform raises $11 million

symform11

There’s been a steady stream of venture capital activity in Seattle enterprise software companies in recent weeks, from the $50 million round for Apptio to the $19.5 million round for Opscode. Now, here comes another big deal. Symform, the Seattle cloud storage startup, today is announcing $11 million in new financing led by WestRiver Capital… Read More…

With defense work growing, Adapx scores $3 million

adapx11

Adapx, whose Capturx software for digital pens is used by the military and corporations such as Carnival and Microsoft, has raised an additional $3 million in funding from existing investors OVP Venture Partners, Paladin and Pelion Ventures. The financing follows a $5 million round that the company closed last May, and brings total funding to… Read More…

MicroRNA startup Groove Biopharma scores $6 million

groovebipharma1

It’s been a bit slow in Seattle venture capital circles in the past few months. But some of the region’s leading biotech investors are doing their part to pick up the pace as Groove Biopharma today is announcing $6 million in second round of financing. Backers of the company, housed at the biotech business incubator… Read More…

Adapx wins $1.65M DARPA contract to bring speech and sketch to battlefield plans

adapx-33

Seattle startup Adapx has won a $1.65 million contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to incorporate speech and sketch into battlefield planning maps. The contract follows a similar deal inked in October with the Army’s Research, Development and Engineering Command which allows commanders to speak and sketch their plans into battlefield simulators. Adapx… Read More…

NanoString lands $20 million

nanostring

NanoString Technologies, a maker of genomic analysis tools, has raised $20 million in venture capital financing in a deal led by GE, BioMed Ventures and former Genzyme CEO Henri Termeer. Existing investors Clarus Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and OVP Venture Partners also participated. The money will be used to grow the company’s life sciences tools business,… Read More…