Boston Tech Tidbits: Digital Guardian, MassChallenge, Nara, Quantopian

Lots going on in the Boston tech startup scene this week:

—Accelerator program MassChallenge announced its top 26 startups that are competing for prize money. The awards ceremony is Oct. 29, and Uber CEO Travis Kalanick is keynoting.

Nara Logics has raised $6 million more from .406 Ventures and other investors. The Cambridge, MA, startup, which has raised $13 million to date, has built a restaurant and hotel recommendation tool and also personalization software to help businesses understand their customers.

—Algorithmic trading startup Quantopian has pulled in a $15 million Series B round led by Bessemer Venture Partners.

Digital Guardian (formerly known as Verdasys) has acquired Silicon Valley-based Armor5, a mobile and cloud security software provider. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. Digital Guardian is led by CEO Ken Levine, who previously led NitroSecurity, which was bought by McAfee in 2011.

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.