Grid start-up gets $8 million from VCs

Univa, a start-up seeking to commercialize the grid idea for harnessing the collective power of multiple computers, announced Monday it received $8 million in a first round of venture capital. Univa's business is helping customers use the open-source Globus Toolkit for linking multiple computers into a single supercomputer. Several key founders of the grid idea launched Univa in 2004.

Arch Venture Partners led the investment, and New World Ventures, Appian Ventures and OCA Ventures also participated, Univa said. Arch's Patrick Ennis and New World Ventures' Chris Girgenti are Univa board members.