SiliconBeat

“The Russian president said in a speech Thursday that the financial crisis in the United States should be taken as a sign that America’s global economic leadership is drawing to a close,” reported the International Herald Tribune, which also pointed out that investors have been fleeing Russia and depositing money in U.S. Treasury bills.

But the sentiment expressed echoed in our heads this morning when we came across an otherwise unremarkable press release announcing a venture funding in a Sunnyvale chip company:Crocus Technology. The developer of magnetic random access memory said it raised a second round of venture money. How much? 11.5 million. Euros. (That’s its symbol up above in case you didn’t know.)

It was the first time we can recall a local company trumpeting the receipt of funding denominated in anything but U.S. greenbacks.

Of course, many of the funders were foreign based, including a new one: OSEO, a French agency supporting advanced R&D programs. Also re-investing were AGF Private Equity, a French fund of funds management company; an international venture firm based in Paris with an office in Silicon Valley; and NanoDimension, a Swiss VC firm with offices in the Cayman Islands. But there were two U.S. based funds who also  invested in the round: Sofinnova and Ventech. Sacre bleu!