$10M for Akorri, $52M for Dyax, A New Partner for Dicerna, & More Boston-Area Deals News

The precipitation in New England may have reached near-biblical proportions this past week, but tech and life sciences deal making was more modest.

Investors poured $10.1 million into Littleton, MA-based software maker Akorri Networks, according to an SEC filing. The filing did not reveal the identity of the 13 backers involved in the equity-based round, but Akorri’s website lists Matrix Partners, North Bridge Venture Partners, Globespan Capital Partners, BlueStream Ventures, and Montagu Newhall Associates as existing investors.

—Erin took a look at the “under-the-radar” deals that New England tech and life sciences companies cut last month. These 26 sub-$1 million deals—rounded up for us by our partner, CB Insights, a New York-based private company intelligence platform—included companies focused on software, medical devices, health IT, used clothing, and more.

—Cambridge, MA-based drug maker Dyax (NASDAQ: [[ticker:DYAX]]) raised $51.8 million in an offering of 17 million shares of stock at $3.25 apiece.

—Software maker Azigo of Wellesley, MA, raised $1.8 million in an equity offering, according to an SEC filing. Ten investors participated in the round.

—Enterprise software maker Rocket Software of Newton, MA, announced it will acquire Waltham, MA-based data management company Computer Corporation of America for an undisclosed sum.

—Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, the Watertown, MA-based developer of RNA interference drugs, cut a deal with Paris-based Ipsen to develop drugs for oncology and endocrinology. No financial terms were disclosed, but Dicerna chief business officer Martin Williams described the deal as being “net-neutral” to Dicerna.

—CardStar, a Canton, CT-based maker of software for storing consumer reward and loyalty card numbers on mobile phones, raised $1 million in Series A venture funding. The deal was led by Amplifier Ventures and joined by Acta Wireless and LaunchCapital.

Author: Rebecca Zacks

Rebecca is Xconomy's co-founder. She was previously the managing editor of Physician's First Watch, a daily e-newsletter from the publishers of New England Journal of Medicine. Before helping launch First Watch, she spent a decade covering innovation for Technology Review, Scientific American, and Discover Magazine's TV show. In 2005-2006 she was a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT. Rebecca holds a bachelor's degree in biology from Brown University and a master's in science journalism from Boston University.