New England’s tech and life sciences companies hit the ground running in the new year, inking a host of deals this week.
—Data storage giant EMC of Hopkinton, MA, made a bold move into the market for governance, risk management, and compliance (GRC) with the acquisition of Overland Park, KS-based Archer Technologies. Archer will become part of EMC’s security division, RSA, when the deal closes, likely before April.
—Mobile advertising firm Quattro Wireless was acquired by Apple for a reported $275 million. Venture backers Highland Capital Partners of Lexington, MA, and Globespan Capital Partners of Boston have put about $28 million into the Waltham, MA-based startup.
—Somerville, MA-based Echo Nest, a startup developing tools for music search and recommendation, raised $1.3 million in new equity financing, according to an SEC filing.
—Acton, MA-based Azuki Systems, a developer of a cloud-based infrastructure for delivering rich media to mobile websites, mobile applications, and desktop widgets, added $3 million to its Series B financing round. The round, now totaling $9 million, was led by Kepha Partners and Sigma Partners.
—Speaking of Acton, Acton Pharmaceuticals (confusingly based in Marlborough, MA, rather than Acton, MA) raised $15 million in a Series A financing round led by Sequoia Capital. Acton plans to begin marketing its first product, an inhalable corticosteroid drug called flunisolide HFA (Aerospan) that’s already been cleared by the FDA, in early 2011.
—Bedford, MA-based MicroCHIPS, a developer of wireless medical implants containing chemical sensors or drug reservoirs, collected $16.5 million in Series C venture funding. Previous backers Polaris Venture Partners, Novartis Venture Fund, Flybridge Capital Partners, Medtronic, Saints Capital, Intersouth Partners, Care Capital, and CSK Venture Capital all returned for the round, and were joined by new investor InterWest Partners.
—Medical device giant Medtronic (NYSE: [[ticker:MDT]]) made a strategic investment in Lexington, MA-based GI Dynamics, maker of a gut-lining device for treating
