Here are some of the latest headlines in Boston-area tech:
—Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin’s office said it put a stop to “initial coin offerings” by five companies based here, saying that they violated securities laws. That action follows the January filing of administrative charges against another company, Caviar, claiming its ICO was an illegal sale of unregistered securities. Read more in The Boston Globe about this week’s announcement by Galvin.
—C.A. Webb was named the president of the Kendall Square Association, the business group working to advance the neighborhood located next to MIT, home of many life sciences and tech companies. Webb previously led the New England Venture Capital Association and co-founded Underscore VC. She takes over for Alexandra Lee, who left last year to run the Sasaki Foundation in Watertown, MA, according to her LinkedIn profile.
—The E14 Fund, an early-stage venture fund that invests in startups born at the MIT Media Lab, has raised an additional $8.3 million to make deals, an SEC filing shows. The fund pulled in $9.5 million in September. E14’s investments include Formlabs, Affectiva, Tulip, Soofa, and Ori.
—10% Happier, a Boston-based maker of a meditation app, raised nearly $4.2 million from investors, most of it representing the conversion of promissory notes, according to an SEC filing. The directors listed on the document include NextView Ventures partner Lee Hower and Founder Collective partner Eric Paley.
—Enterprise IT company Intigua pulled in just over $3 million from investors, with about $1.3 million of that amount from the conversion of promissory notes, per an SEC filing.
—Spark Capital invested an undisclosed amount in PreVeil, a Boston-based data encryption startup, according to a press release. It’s the first outside investment in PreVeil, the company said.
—Lavastorm, a Boston-based data preparation and analytics firm, was acquired by data analytics software company Infogix for an undisclosed price, according to a press release. Naperville, IL-based Logix, which is owned by private equity firm Thoma Bravo, has been boosting its data management capabilities, including via last year’s acquisitions of Data3Sixty and Data Clairvoyance Group.
