It’s time to catch up on some recent Boston tech headlines:
—The Engine, a new startup accelerator program and investment fund launched by MIT, has raised more than $150 million for its first venture fund. MIT committed $25 million, and the rest of the capital came from a mix of pension funds, endowments, wealthy individuals, and other sources, according to Axios. Click here to read about local investors’ reactions to The Engine, and click here to read about CEO Katie Rae’s plans for the new initiative.
—Sea Street Technologies disclosed in a flurry of SEC filings last week that it has raised more than $31 million from investors. Most of the funding was a result of converting debt to equity, and the sales of the securities date back to 2013, according to the filings. The Canton, MA-based enterprise IT company was founded in 2012 by ex-Cisco exec Harley Stowell.
—InnovaSea Systems, a Boston-based provider of environmentally focused technologies for open-ocean fish farming, has raised more than $15.1 million in venture funding, according to an SEC filing. The funding is from Cuna del Mar, the Boston Business Journal reported. InnovaSea was formed in 2015 from the merger of Morrill, ME-based Ocean Farm Technologies and Seattle-based OceanSpar.
—Healthcare technology startup OM1 said it raised $15 million in a Series A funding round led by General Catalyst Partners, with contributions from Glikvest, 7wire Ventures, and Wanxiang Healthcare Investments. OM1’s founder and CEO is Richard Gliklich, a physician who previously founded and led Outcome, a healthtech company spun out of Harvard Medical School and sold to Quintiles in 2011. Cambridge, MA-based OM1 was previously known as Better Outcomes.
—Mobiquity tacked nearly $3 million onto a previously disclosed funding round that now totals about $19.1 million, according to an SEC filing. The Wellesley, MA-based company makes and markets mobile apps for businesses, and it recently launched an in-house lab for developing voice applications for Amazon’s Alexa-enabled devices.
—Drafted, a Cambridge, MA-based job recruiting and referral startup, raised about $1.7 million from investors, according to an SEC filing. Read more about Drafted’s origins in this Xconomy profile from last year.
—Boston-based Torchlight, which makes software for caregivers, announced it received a $1.3 million investment from Elliot Sainer and other unnamed backers. The company said it has raised $3.2 million to date.
—Worcester Polytechnic Institute is planning to open a lab for testing software-enabled healthcare technologies, such as surgical robots and connected devices for rehabilitation, according to a press release. The facility, known as PracticePoint, is being funded with $9.5 million from the institute, $5 million from the state-backed Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, and $2.5 million from GE Healthcare Life Sciences.
—E Ink, the Massachusetts-based e-paper display maker owned by a Taiwanese firm, has formed a joint venture with Sony’s semiconductor business. The two companies have collaborated on products since 2004. The new venture is based in Taiwan, and is 70 percent owned by E Ink and Sony Semiconductor Solutions, with the remaining 30 percent owned by undisclosed venture capital firms. Investors have put about $14 million into the new business, according to a press release.
—Boston fintech startup Elsen formally launched its data-analysis software product this week and announced that Thomson Reuters is one of its first customers. The company has raised $750,000 from Hyperplane Venture Capital, Bret Siarkowski, and other investors, the Boston Business Journal reported.
