We saw news of both acquisitions and fundraising rounds for New England companies in the clean tech, IT, and biotech sectors.
—XL Hybrids, a Somerville, MA-based startup developing technology for retrofitting vehicles with hybrid elements, raised $300,000 from an undisclosed fund. The newest cash puts the cleantech company’s seed funding total at $1.8 million.
—Westford, MA-based EnterpriseDB, a provider of database management software that can run on cloud computing systems, pulled in $7.5 million in an equity, options, and warrants offering that could hit $12 million.
—Cambridge, MA-based Verenium agreed to sell its cellulosic biofuels unit for $98.3 million to energy giant BP, still under scrutiny for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. BP will get Verenium’s cellulosic enzymes and biofuels technology, and will take control of Verenium sites in San Diego and Jennings, LA, as well as a few joint ventures BP shared with Verenium. The deal helps Verenium, which has struggled financially as a result of its research on ethanol produced from high-cellulose materials, return to its original focus of developing commercial enzymes.
—Surface Logix, a developer of drugs targeting obesity and diabetes, sold all but $600,000 of a planned $4.6 million offering of equity, options, and warrants. The Brighton, MA-based company was founded with technology from Harvard chemist George Whitesides and raised a $20 million Series E financing last year.
—Greg took a look at second-quarter venture investing trends in New England. Two of the three
