Radlive, the Israel-based developer of high-definition telephony technologies and applications, has raised $3.7m (€5.7m) in series A funding from Gemini Israel Funds and Elron Electronics Industries. Each investor gained a stake of about 29 per cent. Radlive says that the quality of the vast majority of today's telephony calls is less than satisfactory and it will use the increasing availability of wider bandwidth to provide high quality voice for telephony calls. The company’s initial product, targeting enterprise customers, is planned to launch in mid-2008.

Alligator Bioscience, the Sweden-based biotechnology company, has raised €5.5m from East Bay Holding, Home Capital, Malmsten Invest and other undisclosed investors. Alligator Bioscience’s technology allows it to develop new and optimise existing therapeutic and diagnostic proteins. The company says that the funding will be used to prepare for an IPO in about two years.

Telepartner, the UK-based supplier of mobile data applications for field workers, has raised $7m (€5.2m) from New Venture Partners. The deal includes the acquisition of the mobile asset management division of US-based Telecommunications Systems. The funding will allow the company to offer products to customers across a wider range of mobile working situations.

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For those who still think social networking websites represent flaky investments, yesterday's sale of Last.fm to CBS, the US television network, may have caused a rethink. CBS paid $280m for Last.fm, which combines music streaming with social networking, and landed Index Ventures a profit of more than $50m. This is little short of extraordinary given that Index invested about $2m exactly a year ago. It is hard to know whether this amazing exit owed most to Index's negotiating skills or its prescience in picking extremely fast growing companies.

Danny Rimer, co-founder of Index, says it was more the latter, allied to the ability to grow Last.fm's revenues at a frantic pace. This being the case, investors probably ought to take note of other recent deals completed by Index in the same sector. According to VenturePedia, Library House's proprietary database, in May Index bought a £23m stake in Joost, a Dutch-based free television and networking site. Interestingly, co-investors included the same CBS that bought Last.fm out of Index's portfolio.

Also in May, Index took a £3.4m stake in Netlog, a Belgium-based social networking site that shares music playlists in much the same way as Last.fm.

In March it purchased a £6.7m chunk of Fon Technology, a Spain-based company. Fon is a kind of social networking site with users sharing Wifi capability with the ultimate aim of creating a global network.

And last August Index splashed out £7.9m on France-based Netvibes, which allows users to create their own websites and share content and features.

Index has clearly scoured Europe to identify these opportunities. It's possible that it is just playing an expensive game of Pin the Tail on the Donkey. On the other hand, few people in the VC community will forget Index's Last.fm deal in a hurry.

FluXXion, the Netherlands-based developer of micro filtration technology, has raised €6.4m from Emerald Technology Ventures, WHEB Ventures, Capricorn Venture Partners, Koninklijke Philips Electronics and CS Hui Holdings. FluXXion’s filtration products are based on semiconductor technology originally developed by Royal Philips Electronics. Applications range from the filtration of beer to analytical liquid filtration. The company plans to use the investment to fund global expansion.

Ixico, the UK-based developer of image analysis technology for pharmaceutical industry, has raised €3.6m from Imperial Innovations, The Capital Fund and other undisclosed investors. Ixico’s services are based on automatic and interactive image analysis technology, licensed from image analysis research groups throughout the world.

Babelgom, the Belgium-based start-up developing an online data exchange service, has raised €630k from E-merge, Resultance Consulting and Sherpa Invest. Babelgom's service allows business partners to automate electronic document exchanges such as orders, shipping notes and invoices.

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I wrote a post last week about the need to keep an open mind when considering investments. Specifically, that amid the rush to snap up every renewable energy company that comes along, VCs may be missing opportunities in traditional energy companies that built their business models on good old oil and gas.

Well, there is more evidence that out-of-favour industries can deliver good returns. Yesterday, France Telecom's Belgium-based Mobistar unit agreed to buy 90 per cent of Voxmobile for E80.3m, netting its private equity owners a neat (but undisclosed) profit just three or four years after Luxembourg-based Voxmobile was founded.

So what originally tempted the VCs to take the plunge with a new company in a distinctly unloved sector? After all, most mainstream investors were extremely wary of telecoms companies following the double disappointment of the 2000 market downturn and the failure of very expensive 3G licences to net their owners large profits.

That is just where Voxmobile appears to have been clever. It obtained a 3G licence in 2003, way after the initial scramble had taken place and, presumably, obtained it at a vastly reduced price. In addition, it launched just as video mail, music video and sports clips were starting to take off in a big way. Most of the big telecoms groups had more or less given up hoping the take-off would ever happen at this stage.

Voxmobile is no behemoth but it has done well and built a solid subscriber base. To show the value of these subscribers as early-adopters of technology, most of them have opted to receive their invoices online. Again, no big shakes, but compare that with British Telecom, France Telecom and Telefonica.

Anyone with views on unloved sectors that have plenty of potential is welcome to send in a comment.

Belgium’s second largest mobile phone operator, Mobistar has acquired 90 per cent of the share capital of Luxembourg-based VOXmobile for €80.3m ($108m). The remaining 10 per cent of the company has been retained by the company management. Voxmobile is Luxemburg’s third largest mobile phone operator with a 20 per cent market share.

Groundsure, the UK-based provider of environmental risk information services to the property market, has been acquired by Emap for up to £44m (€64.4m). GroundSure’s environmental risk reports are used by owners, buyers, sellers, developers, financiers, insurers and trustees of residential and commercial property. The company will join Emap’s B2B information business portfolio.

Hantro Products, the Finland-based provider of mobile video technology, has been acquired by US-based On2 Technologies for about €43m in cash and stock. Hantro provides video compression products for mobile, digital consumer-electronics and IPTV devices. Current customers include Nokia, Freescale, LSI, Vimicro and Sanyo.

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