a $23.8 million deal for Konarka Technologies, a Lowell, MA-based developer of photovoltaic material for capturing solar energy, and $19 million for Luminus Devices, a Billerica, MA-based company developing chipsets using LED technology, for lighting applications that range from residential fixtures to display projectors. (It’s an industry I wrote about earlier this week.)
The Internet sector showed up on the list, too. Boston-based Carbonite, an online data backup company, raised $20 million in Series D funding. In January, we also wrote about how healthcare payment software company IkaSystems attracted $120 million from Providence Equity Partners and Essex Woodlands Health Ventures, but the deal didn’t make it onto the list because it originated last year and spanned multiple quarters. Still, I think the mammoth size of that deal has carried through in terms of the health of venture investing early this year.
It’s also important to look at Massachusetts’ numbers beyond the top 10 deals. All told, venture-backed Bay State companies pulled in a total of $590.7 million across 67 deals in the first three months of this year, according to the MoneyTree Report. The money raised from the top 10 transactions accounts for about 45 percent of these investor dollars. I think it’s a good sign that the big deals are sharing the stage with smaller and medium-sized financings, as investors are willing to meet funding needs in the different capacities demanded by the diverse array of startups in the state. Also, five out of the top 10 deals were Series A or B rounds, and the other half were later stage transactions, showing that VCs are investing money at all stages of a startup’s lifecycle.
Here’s the full list of those top 10 deals, along with the stories we wrote as news of them first broke.
1. TransMedics (Andover, MA), $36 million, Series E (story).
2. Genetix Pharmaceuticals (Cambridge, MA), $35 million, Series B (story).
3. Alnara Pharmaceuticals (Cambridge, MA), $35 million, Series B (story).
4. Eleven Biotherapeutics (Cambridge, MA), $35 million, Series A (story).
5. Konarka Technologies (Lowell, MA), $23.8 million, Series G (story).
6. Artisan Pharma (Waltham, MA), $22 million, Series B
7. Rhythm Pharmaceuticals (Boston, MA), $21 million, Series A (story).
8. Carbonite (Boston, MA), $20 million, Series D (story).
9. Luminus Devices (Billerica, MA), $19 million, Series F (story).
10. Intrinsic Therapeutics (Woburn, MA), $18 million (story).
