Boston Roundup: Grousbeck, ConnectEDU, Certica, Content Raven

Updated 2 pm
Some interesting bits of fundraising and buyout news from around the Boston-area innovation scene:

—Boston Celtics CEO and co-owner Wyc Grousbeck is starting a new investment fund focusing on sports and sports media. Reports of the new fund started surfacing this spring, but Grousbeck and his partners—Bob Higgins of Highland Capital and Mark Wan of Three Arch Partners—recently made it official by filing paperwork with the SEC. The filing indicates that their Causeway Media Partners has raised more than $73 million for its new fund, and Grousbeck tells Forbes that it will “invest in developing and optimizing sports media content.”

—ConnectEDU, a Boston-based company that sells career and college-planning software, has raised another $5.5 million from existing investors. ConnectEDU, which says it serves “more than 20 million registered learners,” recently named Evan Nisonson as its new CEO. Nisonson succeeded Craig Powell, who founded the company in 2002 and was its CEO since 2009.

—Certica Solutions, a Wakefield, MA-based education software company, has raised $7.6 million in equity financing, according to an SEC filing. The company offers software to help K-12 schools run student tests, and track the data needed to comply with regulations. Certica also lists an office in Austin, TX.

—The state of Massachusetts has led a $2 million Series A investment in Content Raven, a Marlborough, MA-based provider of corporate security software. Private angel investors also joined in the round. It’s the first investment from the state’s Commonwealth Fund III, which is managed by the state’s economic development agency, MassDevelopment, and its venture capital unit, MassVentures.

Update:
—Luminus Devices, a Billerica, MA-based  maker of LEDs, has been sold to a Chinese firm in a big loss for investors. The new owner is a subsidiary of San’an Optoelectronics, which says it paid $22 million for the company. Luminus raised close to $160 million in private investment over its lifespan, according to our count. We profiled the company in 2009.

Author: Curt Woodward

Curt covered technology and innovation in the Boston area for Xconomy. He previously worked in Xconomy’s Seattle bureau and continued some coverage of Seattle-area tech companies, including Amazon and Microsoft. Curt joined Xconomy in February 2011 after nearly nine years with The Associated Press, the world's largest news organization. He worked in three states and covered a wide variety of beats for the AP, including business, law, politics, government, and general mayhem. A native Washingtonian, Curt earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA. As a past president of the state's Capitol Correspondents Association, he led efforts to expand statehouse press credentialing to online news outlets for the first time.