Attune Foods, a San Francisco natural foods company, said it has secured $8.3 million in a second round of funding.

New investors include Fonterra, LSP BioVentures and Nestlé, along with original investors Burrill & Company, Great Spirit Ventures, Prolog Ventures and Unilever Ventures, the company said in a statement.

Attune promotes a style of health food called probiotics (see definition). The company launched its retail operations in January, with a line of chocolate and yogurt & granola daily wellness bars featuring probiotics, active cultures which it says support digestive health and promote a strong immune system. The company is led by former Niman Ranch CEO Rob Hurlbut.

From the statement:

Probiotics have long been featured in functional foods and beverages in Europe and Asia. In the United States, the market for foods and beverages with probiotics is only just beginning to grow. Probiotic foods and beverages are currently estimated to be a $210 million market with an estimate to reach $400 million by 2010.

Attune Wellness Bars are currently available at Whole Foods Markets and online at www.attunefoods.com

Arcwave Wireless, a Los Gatos, Ca. provider of wireless networks for small businesses has shuttered, just four months after being named one of Silicon Valley’s hottest companies.

Chief Executive Bill Sickler announces the demise on the company’s Web site, saying cable operators (its targeted customers) weren’t responding to the company’s sales efforts.

Investors Comcast Interactive Capital, Lucent Venture Partners, Mayfield, SBV Venture Partners, Venrock Associates and Vulcan Capital had invested more than $11.5 million into the company.

The Business Journal may want to explain why it named Arcwave one of “Silicon Valley’s hottest up-and-coming companies” as recently as November.

A secretive solar cell developer Solyndra, based in Santa Clara, Ca, has received $79.2 million in venture capital, according to New Energy Finance, a London research group. The money apparently comes from Redpoint and CMEA, to Silicon Valley venture capital firms, reports VentureWire separately (sub required).

The information emerged as part of New Energy Finance’s report on investments in alternative energy, which showed that venture capital and private equity firms poured some $2.23 billion into the sector during first quarter. That’s 58 percent above the first-quarter level last year and 60 percent above fourth-quarter investment levels, it said.

Other deals mentioned included France’s Silicium de Provence, a producer of “solar-grade” silicon, which got $394 million ,and Imperium Renewables, a Seattle-based biodiesel producer, which received $113 million.

About $899 million was raised in the public markets in the sector, compared to $570 million raised in initial public offerings in the first quarter last year.

John Walecka, a founding partner of Redpoint Ventures, and Tom Baruch, founder and managing director of CMEA Ventures, are on the Solyndra board, VentureWire notes. They also sit on the board of Intermolecular, a secretive San Jose-based company that “accelerates integration learning in the development and commercialization of advanced materials.”

A patent filing suggests Solyndra is pursuing a variation on the Copper Indium Gallium di-selenide (CIGS) thin-film technology pursued by companies like HelioVolt Corp., Miasole and Nanosolar.

ForeScout Technologies, a Cupertino, Ca. provider of network access control technology that “scouts” out in front of a network to anticipate possible threats, has raised around $11.25 million in a fourth round of funding.

Return backers include Accel Partners, Amadeus Capital Partners, MeritechCapital Partners and Pintango Venture Capital, according to PE Week. The company has reporteldy raised over $43 million in total VC funding since its 2000.

The company’s charming old mascot logo, a dog apparently with an injured eye caused by encountering a skirmish while “scouting” around (see early story about Forescout here), has been replaced by something more corporate.

The company is reporting strong results.

Xoft, a Fremont Ca. developer of a treatment to reduce the recurrence of breast cancer, said it has raised $33.2 million in a fourth round of financing, and plans to treat its first patients.

See statement here.

The company says its Axxent Electronic Brachytherapy System “uses a miniaturized X-ray source that can deliver localized and targeted radiation treatment,” and can be used in pretty much any environment, including unshielded environments.

The company has now raised a total of about $105 million. Xoft’s existing investors participated in the Series D financing, including MPM Capital, Sutter Hill Ventures, Maverick Capital, Frazier Healthcare Ventures, Mosaix Ventures, Cutlass Capital, RiverVest Venture Partners, and Frantz Medical Ventures. The round also included new investors, including Easton Capital, New Science Ventures and Hambrecht & Quist Capital Management. Additionally, John Friedman, founder and managing partner of Easton Capital will join the Xoft Board of Directors.

The treatment has been cleared by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) for early stage breast cancer.

Extreme DA, a Palo Alto, Ca designer of integrated circuit products that improve manufacturing yield and handle variations created by the use of nanometer processes in semiconductor production, has raised $7.38 million in a second round of funding.

It was led by Foundation Capital, and included a mix of cash and loans. Other investors included IT-Farm Corporation and Lanza techVentures.

The statement is here.

Here’s a snippet:

“Timing closure is often a challenge for chip designs in smaller process geometries,” said Mike Schuh, General Partner of Foundation Capital. “Extreme DA’s variation-aware timing analysis tools provide the optimal performance and faster timing closure that’s necessary for designs manufactured at 65-nanometers and below.”

…About his firm’s investment, IT-Farm Corporation President, Morio Kurosaki, said, “The semiconductor industry in Japan is driven by high-end consumer electronics. Chips for this market sector have formidable requirements for quality, fast yield ramp-up, and short design cycles. Process variations at advanced technology nodes are a major barrier to meeting these goals. Extreme DA has technology that addresses design problems by accounting for process variation. We are glad to participate in the funding of the company.”

Veraz Networks, the San Jose, Ca. provider of VoIP equipment for telecom carriers, opened at $8 a share, below its target of $10-$12, and subsequently started trading even lower. It was at $7.90 around midday EST, on its first day of IPO trading.

Veraz raised $72 million by offering 9 million shares, and is the latest company going public while losing money.

Its revenue is growing quickly, but still reported a 2006 net loss of $14 million on revenue of $100 million, compared to a loss of $14.3 million on revenue of $76 million in the year-ago period.