We spent some time this week looking at the data on last year’s venture deals, big and small, while New England’s tech and life sciences companies announced some of the first deals of 2010.
—All but one of the 10 biggest Boston-area private equity deals in 2009 were closed by life sciences firms, a survey by Dow Jones VentureSource revealed. The largest deal, however, was clinched by Watertown, MA-based lithium-ion battery maker A123Systems (NASDAQ: [[ticker:AONE]]), which scored a whopping $99.9 million in a Series F financing before it went public in September.
—Life sciences firms also dominated the list of pint-sized financing deals, worth between $100,000 and $1 million, that our partner ChubbyBrain put together for us. Erin gave the rundown of the 21 such deals in December, which included companies working in fields glucose monitoring for diabetics, private air travel booking, and beer brewing.
—Harvest Power, a Waltham, MA-based startup aiming to turn yard and food waste into high-quality compost and renewable fuels, inked a deal with Houston, TX-based garbage hauling behemoth Waste Management (NYSE: [[ticker:WM]]). Under the terms of the alliance, Waste Management will help Harvest expand to more cities, starting with the East and West Coasts, and will provide the Massachusetts firm with raw material for its composting process and fuel production systems.
—Cambridge, MA-based Clarus Ventures contributed $17 million to a Series D financing for Irvine, CA-based Neomend, a developer of surgical hydrogels. The round, which totaled $30 million, included investments from Novo Ventures, Prospect Venture Partners, Sanderling Ventures, and Vivo Ventures.
—Landslide Technologies, a developer of customer relationship management software with offices in Burlington, MA, and Pittsburgh, PA, raised $8 million in growth capital. Pittsburgh-based Adams Capital Management led the deal.
—Alnara Pharmaceuticals of Cambridge raised $35 million in a Series B financing round led by MPM Capital. Bessemer Venture Partners, Frazier Healthcare Ventures, and Third Rock Ventures also participated. Alnara is preparing to seek FDA approval for its first product, an enzyme-replacement drug for patients with cystic fibrosis.
