Boom or Bust? 11 Big Bets on the Future of Boston Tech

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Jumptap
HQ: Cambridge, MA (moving to Boston in 2012)
Founded: 2004
CEO: George Bell
Amount raised: $121.5M
Investors: General Catalyst, Summerhill Venture Partners, Redpoint Ventures, Valhalla Partners, WPP, AllianceBernstein, Keating Capital.
What it represents: The future of targeted mobile advertising.
Why it wins: The mobile ad market is finally taking off. Will Amazon.com buy Jumptap for a big multiple, or is there an IPO in store?
Why it loses: It’s a latecomer to mobile ad networks (it did mobile search before); this is a very crowded field.
Photo courtesy of Jumptap

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.