Concur, which helps businesses manage travel and expense accounts, is making a couple of big moves to broaden its international reach today. The company said it has invested $40 million to obtain a minority stake in Cleartrip, a privately held online travel-booking service in India. Redmond, WA-based Concur said it’s forming a marketing partnership with Cleartrip, and opening a Concur office in India.

If the Cleartrip news sounds a little familiar, it should: Concur (NASDAQ: CNQR) started the year off by acquiring TripIt, a San Francisco-based online travel itinerary manager, for as much as $120 million. Concur subsequently made TripIt into its front door for mobile travel booking.

Concur already has offices around the globe, including Hong Kong, Sweden, France, England, Germany, and the Czech Republic. In a statement, CEO Steve Singh said the Indian expansion and Cleartrip partnership will help Concur reach “a travel sector that is expected to grow to over $20 billion by 2012.” Concur had previously worked with businesses in India, but clearly saw more room to grow.

The Cleartrip partnership sounds like it will function much how TripIt is set up for Concur in the U.S.—funneling travel booking for business customers through that interface, and tying it into the Concur tracking system on the back end. It’ll be really interesting to see how far Concur takes this expansion of using consumer-friendly tools to manage business travel— two key moves in two quarters obviously amounts to a big bet on that side of the business.

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Compared to the handful of “under the radar” deals we had to report on in our May roundup, the month of June was buzzing with deals, both small and large, for Seattle-area tech and biotech companies. Normally we publish our “under the radar” roundup for regional deals worth less than $1 million in a monthly post. However, for the first time this month we are combining our normal “under the radar” list with deals worth more than $1 million, creating one comprehensive report of all local equity deals. This information is based on data provided by New York-based private company intelligence platform CB Insights, and our own past coverage.

Despite the fact that deals of all sizes are represented on the June list, the majority were for less than $1 million. And contrary to what you might assume, given that Seattle is a hub for many areas of information technology, healthcare and energy/utilities companies dominated the roundup. Of the $104.3 million in venture dollars raked in through 20 equity deals in June, Washington companies in the healthcare sector pulled in $41.1 million, while those in energy and utilities brought in $35.8 million.

The third leading sector was computer hardware and services, which raised $15 million in investments last month. Internet startups came in fourth at $4.9 million, and industrial startups followed up with $3.95 million, while financing for business products and services, software, and video startups all trailed behind.

We reported on the majority of June venture investments as the news broke, including the $40 million nabbed by Seattle-based Calistoga Pharmaceuticals, amounting to the biggest Washington venture deal of 2010 thus far. Not far behind was three-year-old Intellectual Ventures spinout, Bellevue,WA-based TerraPower, which brought in $35 million in Series B funding for further development of its traveling wave nuclear reactor. Other notable deals include the $11 million Seattle software developer Opscode earned in Series B led by Battery Ventures, and the $4 million raised by cloud storage and data protection Seattle startup Symform.

However, a number of interesting deals slipped under our radar. Here are a few that I found interesting: Bellevue, WA-based online collaboration and file sharing software developer OneHub raised $750,000 in equity. The three-year-old company, which provides cloud-based software-as-a-service for thousands of companies, raised $1.3 million in Series A financing led by local venture capital firm Ignition Partners back in October. Liberty Lake, WA-based Demand Energy Networks, which is developing technology to help energy providers manage their electricity supply, brought in $650,000. The company, founded in 2008, has developed a tool called the Demand Shifter, which allows a variety of businesses and consumers to store electricity at distributed end points during times of low demand, and control and dispatch it as it’s needed.

Seattle-based medical device developer Uptake Medical raised $600,000 in equity in June. The interventional pulmonology company then followed that up with another $17.5 million in a Series B round led by Maverick Capital this month. The only video game startup on the list, Redmond, WA-based Novel, raised $550,000 in equity. The 20-person startup plans to change the gaming industry and corporate culture as we know them by applying massively multiplayer online (MMO) gaming techniques to create new kinds of games and business simulations for companies. Seattle-based Liquid Light brought in $200,000 in equity financing. The early-state energy startup is expanding on the research of Princeton University professor Andrew Bocarsly to develop highly efficient technology for converting carbon dioxide to fuels and industrial chemicals without using biological feedstocks. this month. The only video game startup on the list, Redmond, WA-based

Here’s the full list of June’s equity-based deals, both under the radar and on it:

June also saw a few startups raising cash through deals based on debt, options, and/or warrants, rather than equity. Those three transactions, worth a combined $1.64 million, are listed below.

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It’s always dangerous to read too much into one quarter’s venture capital stats. But the national and regional VC numbers released over the weekend suggest that venture investment in New England is leveling off to a new set point—significantly higher than a year ago, but down compared to its recent quarter-to-quarter growth.

That’s according to a trio of VC reports that my colleague Bruce summarized in national form earlier this morning. The national message is that venture deals were up for the three-month period ending June 30, both over last year and last quarter. While it’s a little too early to say New England is bucking the trend, here are the facts:

In Massachusetts, there were the same number of venture financing deals as compared to the previous quarter (86), but the amount invested was down 25 percent—$558 million as compared to $745 million in the first quarter of this year, according to the MoneyTree report, prepared by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association using data from Thomson Reuters. The numbers for New England as a whole were similar to those for Massachusetts—$582 million invested in 95 deals, as compared to $796 million in 96 deals in the first quarter (a 27 percent decline in dollars).

The report from New York-based private company intelligence firm CB Insights corroborates these numbers for New England; it cites a 23 percent decline in dollars from $898 million in 87 deals in the first quarter to $689 million in 84 deals in the most recent quarter. However, the report from Dow Jones VentureSource contradicts these findings, saying there was a 38 percent increase in dollars invested in the second quarter—$792 million in 81 deals as compared to $494 million in 61 first-quarter deals. The discrepancy between the reports could be caused by differences in exactly when particular tranches of funding are counted; a few large deals could swing the results one way or the other.

In any case, for now we’re going with the majority (two out of three ain’t bad). And one overarching trend seems to be unanimous among all the reports: that the amount invested in the most recent quarter is up significantly over the same period last year. For example, CB Insights reported a 45 percent increase in dollars invested compared to the second quarter of 2009 ($689 million versus $473 million). The increase is even greater, 56 percent, according to Dow Jones VentureSource.

Here were the top 10 venture deals in the Boston metro area from the second quarter of 2010, according to the MoneyTree report. Interestingly, all but one (Joule, in alternative fuels) were in the biotech or healthcare sectors:

1. Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals, $45 million

2. Joule Unlimited, $30 million

3. Constellation Pharmaceuticals, $22.3 million

4. Link Medicine, $20 million

5. Tesaro, $20 million

6. Inotek Pharmaceuticals, $18 million

7. NormOxys, $17.5 million

8. BioScale, $15.7 million

9. T2 Biosystems, $14.8 million

10. Logical Therapeutics, $13.4 million

Caveat: This list doesn’t include some other notable companies we know of that have raised large funding rounds lately, including Boston-Power ($60 million Series E round), Catabasis Pharmaceuticals ($40 million, of which apparently $7.7 million is in the bank), and FoldRx Pharmaceuticals ($29 million). The reasons probably have to do with the bookkeeping for this particular report.

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If Xconomy had a storefront in downtown San Diego instead of a Web address, it might be easier for readers to see what we’ve got under construction, because people could peer behind the plywood fencing and the signs reading “Pardon Our Dust.” Instead, curious visitors who clicked on the tab that says “resources” only got the unsatisfying message “Coming soon…”

Until now, that is. Our latest project is finished, and I am proud to introduce a new section on our website that we call the X Lists.

In our quest to be the authoritative voice on technology innovation in San Diego, we’ve created the X Lists to serve as a one-stop shop for the range of resources that entrepreneurs should find useful as they work to fulfill their own quests. We want them to be the Web’s most comprehensive and up-to-date guide to innovation resources in the San Diego area, and we’ve organized them according to the stages in a startup’s development: Start, Fund, Network, Work & Grow, and Analyze. We also hope you’ll help us keep the lists up to date—so if you know that a relevant organization or resource is missing, please let us know at editors@xconomy.com

In saying “we,” however, I must give credit and express my personal thanks to Erin Kutz, an Xconomy Boston assistant editor (and the newest addition to Xconomy’s editorial staff), who researched and prepared these X Lists for San Diego’s innovation community.

If you’re just getting started, the X Lists include information and links to local business plan competitions and incubators that were established to help educate and guide entrepreneurs at the outset of their journey. We also list the angel groups, venture firms, and corporate venture funds where you can hear your first “No,” or perhaps “Hell No!” or maybe someday, “Yes.” (I’ve heard a San Diego venture firm partner advise entrepreneurs who are looking for seed-stage capital that they should expect to present their business plan to about 50 VCs. Also listed are … Next Page »

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Where are we? And where are we going? Those are the questions we need to address and, if possible, answer as 2009 recedes and 2010 approaches—hopefully, bringing better markets and a better economy with it.

As you know, we’ve been trying to assess and analyze the ebb and flow of things for more than a year.

Back in Q4 2008, for example, we issued our first report in a series designed to help companies make sense of the uncertain economy. Earlier this year, we followed up with a group of interviews that helped show how promising technology companies were coping with financial anxiety. Now, in this installment, we’re going to talk about changes in the markets—both permanent and temporary—and what they mean going forward.

The key take-away is that raising equity dollars is—and will remain—difficult.

The second hard truth is that the venture capital model is broken. The past recession shined a bright light on that, and it’s clear that pension funds will not allocate a greater percentage of their diminished dollars to a non-performing asset class. As a result, the VC population will definitely shrink; expect these lowered numbers to be permanent.

The third reality is that capital efficiency is critical. The emerging facts are stark here: exit values will be lower; relatively few companies will make it public; and investors and strategic buyers will expect strong growth to earn lofty multiples. In the end, making the math work with existing and future VC funds will be tough because lower value exits will translate into fewer dollars paid into startup companies. This will also be a permanent change—although, as always, there will be certain deals that smack of insanity.

The fourth certainty is that those VCs left standing will be disciplined. They’ll stay in markets in which they have demonstrated expertise. And they’ll attach premiums to revenue quality, subscription models, high growth, and consistency while applying discounts to the pure license model with more modest growth. The days of 10x TTM (trailing twelve months) revenue multiples for software-as-a-service companies are gone.

The fifth fact that has resonated is that business is emotional; investors and CEOs won’t forget these brutal years anytime soon. And, as the environment continues to improve, companies that struggled through the past two years will look for ways to diminish their risk going forward. That means recaps, strategic partnerships, equity infusions, grants, and NRE (non-recurring expenses). My prediction is that this, too, will be a permanent change for the generation of business people who have endured the financial meltdown and its aftermath.

The sixth outcome is that the M&A market will rebound. A number of factors point to a robust year in M&A for 2010: companies have been hoarding cash and will use it for inorganic growth; valuations are still quite reasonable; quality companies now have the threat of an IPO, which drives buyers; and private equity and access to debt capital will eventually come back. We all know that the M&A markets are cyclical, and the down cycles are typically 2-3 years, while the up cycles typically are more like 5-6 years. So the time for a turnaround may be approaching.

In the meantime, at least the worst appears to be over; at least we’ve learned something from the recession; and at least some form and semblance of sobriety has returned to the world of equity formation. We should be thankful for that.

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We hope to make this a regular feature in our Xconomy cities. It’s a look at small financings of private companies in tech, life sciences, and cleantech. These are deals in the roughly $100,000 to $1 million range, and they’re increasingly where the action is for local entrepreneurs, yet they’re often harder to track than the bigger deals we tend to report on.

And there were at least 12 of these smaller financings in the Northwest in October (see table below), according to ChubbyBrain, a New York-based information services company tracking VC, angel, and other investments in private companies. ChubbyBrain gets its data from regulatory filings, user submissions, and other sources, and this is the second monthly installment of “under the radar” deals in the Seattle area (you can see the previous deals for September here). The data didn’t include the investors or the stage of financing.

A few quick observations: Like the previous month, most of the financings were in Washington (7 out of 12), but a significant number (5) were in Oregon. Most were equity deals (7), with the rest (5) being debt financings. The majority of financings (9) were in software, Internet, or tech, while a much smaller number (3) were in life sciences and healthcare, and no cleantech or energy deals made the list.

If nothing else, these lists are a cool way to hear about emerging startups we otherwise wouldn’t know about. For example, I’ve heard of Teranode, Nearlyweds, and 1000Museums before, but Zapproved and Intellisist are completely new to me.

Here are the 12 “under the radar” deals from last month:

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Waltham, MA-based Matrix Partners has closed its ninth fund, raising $600 million for investments in software, mobile, consumer internet, communications, and systems startups, according to a press release. While the announcement only mentions one fund, PE Hub reported today, following up on its report earlier this week, that two funds were actually raised—the main Matrix Partners IX fund of $450 million, and a $150 million special opportunities fund, which it says is for investments outside Matrix’s core fields. Matrix had not responded to our request for clarification by the time this article was posted.

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There has been lots of activity in the Seattle tech blogosphere (gotta use that word once or twice a year) in the past few days. Some of the most compelling news is about the big local companies and how they’re dealing with major strategic challenges in this economic sandstorm. So far, they have avoided huge layoffs and cuts that might harm their long-term capabilities, although their financial statements are certainly taking a beating.

—The value of Amazon’s investments in private companies has fallen from $248 million last September to $89 million as of the end of March 2009 (a 64 percent drop), as reported by paidContent.org, TechFlash, and others. You can read the SEC filing here. But Amazon has been plowing ahead with startups, recently investing in New York-based Yieldex and Seattle-based Foodista (which has raised a $550,000 round, confirmed by TechFlash).

—Microsoft’s first-quarter revenues ($13.65 billion) dropped by 6 percent compared with the same period last year, which translated into a profit of $2.98 billion, down by 32 percent over the first quarter of 2008. That’s according to the company’s conference call and webcast last Thursday. No further layoffs were announced, at least. TechFlash and The Seattle P-I ran useful summaries and analysis of the earnings call here and here, pointing out that it’s the first time in Microsoft’s history as a public company that quarterly revenue has declined, when compared to the same period a year earlier.

—Sony’s game studios and partners in the Seattle area, including Sony Online Entertainment (Bellevue, WA), Sucker Punch Productions (Bellevue, WA) and Zipper Interactive (Redmond, WA), are all trying to help the entertainment giant, maker of the PlayStation 3, gain ground in its battles with Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Nintendo’s Wii. That’s according to an in-depth feature story by Brier Dudley of The Seattle Times, who has also posted an extensive Q&A with Sucker Punch’s Chris Zimmerman, touching on the PS3-Xbox rivalry and Seattle’s formidable gaming cluster.

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Back in August, we wrote about the ongoing struggles of Imperium Renewables, the Seattle-based biodiesel fuel producer that canceled its $345 million IPO, went through several rounds of layoffs, and lost a key contract with Royal Caribbean. Today, Imperium announced a recapitalization involving its existing investors. The majority of the new investment (the value and sources of which were not disclosed) was “used to satisfy its secured project lender, Société Générale, lien holders and unsecured creditors,” according to a company statement. Imperium is also using an independent business-debt restructuring firm to “assist in negotiating with its creditors to settle its remaining creditor obligations to leave the company with sufficient capital to resume operations.”

Given Imperium’s financial problems in the past year, something had to give. Spokesman John Williams said in an e-mail that Imperium “is focused on managing through the challenging time for the industry and positioning the company for long term success.” Imperium’s investors include Technology Partners and Nth Power, who led a $214 million Series B round in February 2007.

Today’s recapitalization is part of a broader restructuring plan to get Imperium back on its feet. “This funding is a significant step in the process we set forth in January to turn this company around, but we still face hurdles as the amount of funding is limited,” said John Plaza, founder and CEO of Imperium, in a statement. “With this recapitalization and cooperation of our creditors, we hope to resume operations as soon as possible.”

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Could anything be a more secure investment than buying into the very paper that dollars and a bunch of other currencies are printed on? The over-200-year-old Crane & Co paper mill in Dalton, MA, has manufactured paper for U.S. dollar bills since 1879. Up until now, the company has been family-owned. But in order to accommodate family members who want to liquidate their stock, the company “will sell a 20 percent minority ownership stake to an affiliate of New York-based investment firm Lindsay Goldberg for an undisclosed sum,” the Berkshire Eagle reports.

The Crane mill makes paper from “recovered cotton fibers”—in other words, rags. Though you might think that your dollar bills have a tendency to just disappear into thin air, the long cotton fibers makes the currency paper extremely resistant to wear and tear. Today’s currency paper also includes a number of advanced security features, like embedded metal threads, watermarks, fluororescent markings, and other special additives.

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