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San Ramon-based InQuira is the product of the merger of Answerfriend and Electric Knowledge. Both companies made natural-language searching technology used for setting up customer-service features on Web sites.
About seven months ago, both Electric Knowledge and Answerfriend were out looking for their initial round of venture capital. They had great technology, great customers, strategic alliances, amazing traction for companies their size. But for either company to take the next step forward, financing was going to be a key part of that strategy.
Unfortunately, it wasn't the best time to go out and look for money The venture capital community was in a state of chaos. Their portfolios were collapsing, and their limited partners were demanding better performance.
Now all of a sudden they weren't going to pull the trigger on any new investment until they were absolutely sure it made sense: that the technology worked, that customers...