New England’s tech and life sciences companies are roaring into spring with a number of startup financings, acquisitions, and partnerships.
—Harvest Power, a Waltham, MA-based startup focused on producing energy from organic waste, announced it had raised a $51.7 million Series B funding round led by Generation Investment Management, a firm co-founded by Al Gore and David Blood. Harvest’s previous investors, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Waste Management, Munich Venture Partners, and TriplePoint Capital returned for the round, alongside new investors DAG Ventures and Keating Capital.
—SustainX, an energy-storage technology developer out of West Lebanon, NH, said it nabbed a $14.4 million financing from GE Energy Financial Services and other investors including Cadent Energy Partners, Polaris Venture Partners, and Rockport Capital.
—Cambridge, MA-based gene therapy firm Bluebird Bio set up a deal with the French Muscular Dystrophy Association to develop a treatment for sickle cell anemia and the genetic blood disorder beta-thalassemia. Bluebird will get $1.4 million upfront and and up to $2.8 million in credit to manufacture clinical trial material at Généthon, AFM’s bio-therapy research center.
—EntropySoft, a French software maker with U.S. headquarters in Cambridge, announced it snapped up a $3.5 million financing led by Alven Capital. The money will go to expanding the sales team and U.S. presence of EntropySoft, which makes software for managing data and documents between different content management systems.
—Cambridge-based cancer drug developer Ariad Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ARIA]]) took the option to co-promote ridaforolimus, its experimental drug for treating soft tissue and bone sarcoma, with its partner Merck & Co. (NYSE: [[ticker:MRK]]), as part of a May 2010 licensing deal.
—Needham, MA-based Illume Software, a developer of a mobile application called iZUP for preventing cell phone usage while driving, raised $2.4 million from the Massachusetts Technology Development Corp. and individual investors, bringing its
