Lots of Boston-area tech news to cover this week, so let’s jump right in.
—Lionano, a Woburn, MA-based developer and maker of advanced battery energy storage products for vehicles and consumer electronics, said it closed a $22 million Series B funding round led by WAVE Equity Partners, Helios Capital Ventures, and NXT Ventures. Lionano spun out of Cornell University five years ago.
—Boston-based HqO, a startup developing software for tenants of commercial office buildings, pulled in $6.6 million in funding from Accomplice and a group of strategic backers from the commercial real estate industry, including JLL Spark, Navitas Capital, Pritzker Group Venture Capital, and several others. The startup previously was known as VentureApp and was making a messaging platform for professionals until it shifted the business toward real estate earlier this year.
—Edge Intelligence raised $3 million in a seed round led by U.K.-based Talis Capital. Edge is working on software that performs data analytics wherever the information sits—the operative buzzwords here are “edge computing” and “hybrid cloud environments”—enabling clients to store and process their data around the world without physically moving the information, the company says. Edge’s other investors include Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang, Sun Microsystems co-founder Scott McNealy, Morado Venture Partners, and Wellington Partners.
—Boston-based 908 Devices tacked $4 million on to a “growth equity” funding round announced last year, bringing the round’s total to nearly $24 million, according to an SEC filing. The company makes devices for analyzing chemicals and biomolecules in industries such as life sciences, oil and gas, and safety and security.
—Centage, a Natick, MA-based maker of budgeting, forecasting, analytics, and financial reporting software, said it appointed chief revenue officer John Murdock as its chief executive. He takes over from Ken Marshall, who was serving as interim CEO after the death of former CEO Barry Clapp last November, according to a press release. Marshall will serve as executive chairman. Murdock is a veteran of Juniper Networks, Kaspersky Lab, and QuickPivot.
—Here are a pair of announcements about local university innovation hubs: MIT officially opened its new $400 million nanotech research building, and Babson College opened a student innovation “studio,” called the Weissman Foundry. The foundry is open to students and researchers from Babson, Olin College of Engineering, and Wellesley College, according to a press release.
Lastly, we’ve got a flurry of acquisitions to report; no financial terms were disclosed for these deals.
—GoDaddy (NYSE: [[ticker:GDDY]]), the Internet domain name registrar and website hosting company, recently bought Cognate, a Boston-area startup using blockchain software to help users manage trademark rights.
—Andover, MA-based Aras, a GE Ventures-backed maker of “product lifecycle management” software, scooped up Comet Solutions.
—Waltham, MA-based Zoom Information (ZoomInfo) snapped up San Mateo, CA-based Datanyze and Israel-based Y Labs to bolster its sales and marketing software tools.
—And in another sales software deal, Boston-based Bigtincan bought FatStax.
