Report: Allurent Shuts Down

Cambridge, MA-based Allurent, an online-shopping software startup, has closed down sometime in the past month, according to a report in the Boston Globe. The article says the company was in discussions with a potential acquirer until the end. Xconomy first reported on Allurent back in 2007, when the startup had just closed financing from Polaris Venture Partners. Last year, Allurent co-founder Joe Chung passed the CEO baton to Graeme Grant and became executive chairman of the firm. More recently, Chung and fellow Art Technology Group founder Jeet Singh have started working on a stealthy startup code-named Redstar. Allurent has been shrinking over the past few months as Polaris’s Dogpatch Labs incubator has expanded within its office space near Kendall Square.

Author: Gregory T. Huang

Greg is a veteran journalist who has covered a wide range of science, technology, and business. As former editor in chief, he overaw daily news, features, and events across Xconomy's national network. Before joining Xconomy, he was a features editor at New Scientist magazine, where he edited and wrote articles on physics, technology, and neuroscience. Previously he was senior writer at Technology Review, where he reported on emerging technologies, R&D, and advances in computing, robotics, and applied physics. His writing has also appeared in Wired, Nature, and The Atlantic Monthly’s website. He was named a New York Times professional fellow in 2003. Greg is the co-author of Guanxi (Simon & Schuster, 2006), about Microsoft in China and the global competition for talent and technology. Before becoming a journalist, he did research at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Lab. He has published 20 papers in scientific journals and conferences and spoken on innovation at Adobe, Amazon, eBay, Google, HP, Microsoft, Yahoo, and other organizations. He has a Master’s and Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT, and a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.