Boston Tech Roundup: Wayfair, Flashnotes, Ubersense, & More

A little more detail about a big IPO and news of some smaller private deals, from seed funding up to an acquisition, to get you caught up this week:

Wayfair, the Boston-based e-commerce company that focuses on home goods, has set a price range for its upcoming IPO. In an SEC filing, the company says it may price its shares at $25-$28 each. At the midpoint of that range, Wayfair would be worth nearly $2.2 billion. Wayfair has been around as a company for many years, but its growth really took off when it rejiggered its strategy and took a big venture round in 2011. It’s raised more than $350 million in private investment.

Flashnotes, a Boston-based company that lets students buy and sell study materials, has raised a $4.3 million Series B investment. Boston-based textbook publisher Cengage Learning was previously reported as the lead investor, although the amount wasn’t revealed until Flashnotes filed its SEC paperwork. Flashnotes has now raised a total of $11.2 million.

Ubersense, a winter 2011 Techstars Boston startup that makes slow-motion video analysis apps for athletes, has been acquired by another startup. The new parent company is Lincoln, NE-based Hudl, which also sells sports-related software. No terms were disclosed for the deal, as reported by Re/Code. The Ubersense team is reportedly staying in Boston.

BevSpot, a Harvard iLab startup working on liquor-ordering software for restaurants, has raised a $700,000 seed round. BetaBoston reports the investors include Domonique Foxworth, a retired NFL cornerback and former NFL Players Association president who is attending Harvard Business School.

DipJar, a startup currently housed at Boston’s Bolt hardware incubator, has raised a seed round to help it build credit-card “tip jars” for small business. The $420,000 investment was led by Project 11, the early stage venture fund headed by Katie Rae, Bob Mason, and Reed Sturtevant.

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.