I’m running out of “green” jokes to use in headlines describing the steady march of cash toward Evergreen Solar’s coffers. The latest example of that, plus a surprising number and variety of venture financings and other deals for one summer week, below.
—Evergreen Solar (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ESLR]]) announced yet another large, long-term order for the photovoltaic solar panels it manufactures. This one—worth $1.2 billion—brings the Marlborough, MA-based firm’s total contractual backlog to nearly $3 billion.
—Burlington, MA-based NeoSaej, whose MoneyAisle.com site lets lenders compete for banking customers, completed a new round of financing worth over $7 million. The new funding brings its total financing to more than $10.5 million. Boston-based Wellington Management led the deal, which was joined by Stata Venture Partners II and NeoNet.
—MIT spinoff ThingMagic of Cambridge, MA, raised $9.5 million in a Series B funding round that included Tudor Ventures, The Exxel Group, Morningside Technology Ventures, and .406 Ventures. ThingMagic makes hardware and software for reading RFID (radio frequency identification) tags.
—Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, a Cambridge, MA-based developer of RNAi-based drugs, raised $8.4 million more, bringing its first-round venture financing to a total of $21.4 million. New investor Abingworth and existing investors Oxford Bioscience Partners and Skyline Ventures participated in the financing.
—Collegium Pharmaceutical, a specialty drugmaker in Cumberland, RI, closed a fourth round of venture financing worth $20 million. Seattle-based Frazier Healthcare Ventures led the deal and existing inventors Boston Millennia Partners and Westfield Capital Management participated as well.
—Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ALNY]]) of Cambridge, MA, and Swiss pharma giant Novartis (NYSE: [[ticker:NVS]]) extended their RNAi collaboration—worth up to $700 million to Alnylam—through October 2009.
—Wakonda Technologies, a Rochester Institute of Technology spinoff that’s moving from New York state to Medford, MA, announced it has raised $9.5 million in a Series A venture round from the likes of Advanced Technology Ventures, General Catalyst Partners, Polaris Venture Partners, the Massachusetts Green Energy Fund, and Applied Ventures. Wakonda is developing cheaper, more efficient photovoltaic cells.
—Bluefin Robotics of Cambridge, MA, inked a deal to provide its Spray Glider autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) to Horizon Marine of Marion, MA; the agreement, as well as a pending Navy contract for glider-type AUVs, signals the growing competition between Bluefin, Bedford, MA’s iRobot (NASDAQ: [[ticker:IRBT]], and Falmouth, MA-based Webb Research—now part of Teledyne Technologies (NYSE: [[ticker:TDY]])—in the AUV space.
—Cambridge, MA-based Genzyme (NASDAQ: [[ticker:GENZ]]) forged an alliance with South Plainfield, NJ-based PTC Therapeutics. Genzyme will pay $100 million in up front and as much as $337 million more in milestone payments for the right to co-develop and co-market a PTC drug being developed as a treatment for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and, potentially, a host of other genetic diseases.
—Molecular diagnostics firm BG Medicine of Waltham, MA, raised $40 million in a Series D financing round. New investors Legg Mason Capital Management, GE Asset Management, and SMALLCAP World Fund joined the round, as did existing investors Flagship Ventures, Gilde Healthcare Partners, Humana, and Stelios Papadopoulos.
—Bermuda-based Tyco International acquired Cambridge, MA-based Intellivid—a maker of software for analyzing security-camera video—for an undisclosed sum.
—Peptimmune, a Cambridge, MA-based developer of treatments for autoimmune diseases, raised $8.9 million in a second close of its Series D financing. The deal was led by New Enterprise Associates, MPM Capital, Hunt Ventures, Boston Medical Investors, and Silicon Valley Bank Capital.
—ConnectEDU of Boston, MA acquired Chicago’s PrepHeadquarters for an undisclosed sum. Both firms offer online tools for high school students and their parents and counselors.
