We recently summarized the major December equity investments in Massachusetts’ tech and life sciences startups, but the New England region also had some more pint-sized deals worth noting. They’re between $100,000 and $1 million—what we like to call the under-the radar-deals tracked by our partner, New York-based ChubbyBrain, an information services company developing tools for investors, startups, and hopeful entrepreneurs.
While these financings—some based in equity and others in debt—are small enough that we don’t typically cover them in our breaking news briefs or deals roundups, we’ve often looked at them as signs of what’s to come in industry investing, or bellwethers of which stealthy companies are on the rise. The December under-the-radar list brings us companies working on innovative solutions in spaces as diverse as glucose monitoring for diabetics, open-heart surgery alternatives, local advertising for newspapers, ADHD diagnostics, private air travel booking, your golf game, and beer brewing.
A total of 21 such deals went down in the region last month, with 12 in equity-based funding and nine in debt-related financing. Massachusetts wrapped up the vast majority, with 13 of these smaller deals. Connecticut and New Hampshire each had a trio of December financings, while Rhode Island and Maine each took one home.
Life sciences companies, particularly in the medical device realm, were prominent on the under-the-radar list, with technologies addressing a myriad of physical and mental ailments, from ADHD to cellulite to respiratory disease. One of the medical devices investments went to Myomo, a Boston-based company we reported on last April after it had slashed staff by 66 percent—from 12 to four full-time employees–and scaled back operations to a more virtual environment.
The company was slowed by sluggish sales of its robotic elbow brace, designed to help stroke victims recover movement of partially paralyzed limbs. Myomo looks like it has regained some of its footing, though, judging by a December equity investment of $616,765 that VP of communications Matt Burke says comes from a range of private investors as part of a Series C round. An SEC filing reveals the total venture round to be targeting $1 million.
A good chunk of the region’s under-the-radar financings went to
