There was a lot of turmoil in the Bay State last month: tumultuous weather, seasonal lethargy, and school vacations, not to mention the ongoing discussion/celebration/lamentation surrounding newly elected senator Scott Brown, who arrived in Washington to create even more confusion around health care reform. But investors sure kept their focus, as the venture deals kept coming at a reasonably strong pace.
In total, investors put up $203 million across 26 equity deals in what’s perhaps the most dreary month of the year for Bay Staters. The deal figures (not the weather analysis) come thanks to data provided by our partner, private company intelligence platform CB Insights. The Feb funding tally was well down from the $355.2 million and 28 equity deals in January. But it falls flatly in the middle of the pack since we began tracking monthly deals last June. Four months have been higher and four have been lower. And the February totals aren’t too far below September ($228 million, 25 deals), which was the second-best month in terms of dollars invested since our tracking began. With all the VCs fleeing to Maui and similar locales for their spring breaks, for them to say aloha to that much money speaks pretty well for local entrepreneurs.
The largest deal of the month by a wide margin was the $35 million put into Eleven Biotherapeutics (the Series A deal included an unspecified amount of equity and options or warrants). The Cambridge, MA-based company, which emerged from stealth mode last month as it unveiled the deal, is out to engineer proteins tailored for treating autoimmune diseases and blood clotting disorders. It’s headed by interim CEO Mark Levin, a founding partner of Third Rock Ventures of Boston and the former CEO of Millennium Pharmaceuticals. As Luke noted in his story about the funding, Eleven Biotherapeutics also has the distinction of being inspired by the 1984 rock mockumentary “This is Spinal Tap.”
Second behind Eleven was Luminus Devices, a Billerica, MA, maker of bright, efficient LEDs that took a shining to a $19 million Series F deal (bringing the total raised by the eight-year-old company to some $159 million). Luminus was followed by Woburn, MA-based spinal implant developer Intrinsic Therapeutics, which raised $18 million in another undisclosed mix of equity, options, and warrants.
With two of the top three deals coming in healthcare, it’s not surprising that
