Boston Tech Watch: GE, HubSpot, Fuze, MIT, Vesper, Quickhelp & More

It was a busy week in Boston tech. Here’s a recap of some of the latest headlines:

—GE Healthcare and Partners HealthCare announced a 10-year partnership to develop artificial intelligence tools to improve healthcare. The collaboration will initially focus on applying deep learning technology to diagnostic imaging, but could later expand to areas such as molecular pathology, genomics, and population health, according to a press release. The two organizations didn’t disclose how much they’re spending on the initiative.

Partners runs a network of hospitals and clinics, including Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

—Boston-based fintech startup Numerated Growth Technologies announced its launch and a $9 million funding round. The investment was led by Cultivation Capital’s fintech fund and Venrock, with contributions from Hyperplane Venture Capital, Eastern Bank, FIS, First Federal Lakewood, and Bright FinTech.

Centage, a Natick, MA-based maker of budgeting software, raised $2 million from investors, according to an SEC filing.

User Interviews, a Cambridge, MA-based firm that helps customers recruit participants for product testing and market research, recently raised a $1 million seed round led by Accomplice, BostInno reported.

—Cambridge-based HubSpot was one of the investors in a $10.3 million round for Terminus, an Atlanta-based marketing software firm. The deal was HubSpot’s first investment in a startup, a spokeswoman told BostInno.

—Quickhelp, which developed an app to help students connect with tutors, was acquired by San Francisco-based Yup Technologies, BostInno reported. Terms weren’t disclosed. Quickhelp was incubated at the Harvard Innovation Lab.

—Fuze moved out of its Cambridge headquarters and into a new head office in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood. The 51,000-square-foot Boston space currently houses about 300 workers. The previous headquarters was 37,000 square feet, a spokeswoman says.

The move follows a massive funding round and several leadership changes for the cloud-based business communications software firm.

—Boston-based Vesper announced the launch of its latest microphone product, which will be integrated in a voice-controlled “smart home hub” device made by France-based Invoxia. Vesper says its microphone can extend device battery life by months or years because it converts energy from sound waves into electrical energy, meaning the device can always be listening but require almost no electricity to do so.

—Finally, ’tis the season for startup competitions, accelerator demo events, and tech awards ceremonies. We covered DesignX’s demo event that took place Wednesday night on MIT’s campus. Also happening that night were the finals of the MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition and the New England Venture Capital Association’s annual NEVY Awards. Here are the winners from the $100K and the NEVYs.

Author: Jeff Bauter Engel

Jeff, a former Xconomy editor, joined Xconomy from The Milwaukee Business Journal, where he covered manufacturing and technology and wrote about companies including Johnson Controls, Harley-Davidson and MillerCoors. He previously worked as the business and healthcare reporter for the Marshfield News-Herald in central Wisconsin. He graduated from Marquette University with a bachelor degree in journalism and Spanish. At Marquette he was an award-winning reporter and editor with The Marquette Tribune, the student newspaper. During college he also was a reporter intern for the Muskegon Chronicle and Grand Rapids Press in west Michigan.