[Updated 5/1/19, 4;10 pm. See below.] Textbook and edtech companies Cengage and McGraw-Hill are merging to become the second-largest provider of educational materials in the US to compete in what’s proven to be a tough sector for traditional publishers being transformed by digital books and online learning. The deal, announced Wednesday, sets out an all-stock … Continue reading “Publishers Cengage, McGraw-Hill Merge to Better Target Edtech Market”
Author: Brian Dowling
Brian is a former Xconomy editor. Before joining Xconomy, he reported on Massachusetts government and politics for the Boston Herald and previously wrote as a general assignment reporter covering everything from crime and courts to electoral politics, business, and international politics. Brian earned a master’s degree in newspaper writing from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and started his career at the Hartford Courant writing about manufacturing and energy. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy and Theology from Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
New Zagster CEO on Bike, Scooter Fleets: Don’t Rock the Boat
For transportation veteran Dan Grossman, the “move fast and break things” startup ethos has never really translated to the micro-mobility world of app-enabled motorized scooters and bike sharing. Grossman last week took the helm of Zagster, a startup that sets up and runs micro-mobility programs for towns, cities, colleges, and businesses. The company launches programs … Continue reading “New Zagster CEO on Bike, Scooter Fleets: Don’t Rock the Boat”
Anti-Cheating Startup Examity Gets $90M to Advance Edtech Security
Examity has raised $90 million from Boston private equity firm Great Hill Partners to fuel its expansion and dig into how machine learning and biometric tools can make tests proctored online more secure. The Newton, MA-based company says the private equity cash nearly buys out the stake in Examity that University Ventures took when it … Continue reading “Anti-Cheating Startup Examity Gets $90M to Advance Edtech Security”
Boston Tech Watch: Workbar, Modo, Locus Robotics, Zagster & More
Robots, autonomous vehicles, virtual reality laboratories, and lab product e-commerce all brought in venture cash this week. This and much more in the week’s Boston tech news: —Self-driving car startup Optimus Ride has raised $20 million of what it hopes to be a $60 million round, according to SEC documents filed this week by the … Continue reading “Boston Tech Watch: Workbar, Modo, Locus Robotics, Zagster & More”
Cybersecurity Firm Digital Guardian Gets $30M Boost, Hires Execs
Digital Guardian is taking in a chunk of capital and adding a slate of new executives to push its cybersecurity software, amid businesses’ renewed concerns over digital attacks and need to comply with the latest privacy and data protection mandates. The Waltham, MA-based company closed on $30 million in new funding led by private equity … Continue reading “Cybersecurity Firm Digital Guardian Gets $30M Boost, Hires Execs”
Censinet Takes Off With $7.8M to Track Cyber Risks in Healthcare
Censinet, a Boston startup helping hospitals and other healthcare providers manage the cyber risk of their hundreds of third-party vendors, has launched its system and announced $7.8 million in funding to double its headcount in a year, further develop its platform, and market its software. The Series A funding round is led by Boston-based HLM … Continue reading “Censinet Takes Off With $7.8M to Track Cyber Risks in Healthcare”
Boston Tech Watch: Algorand, Owl Labs, Cyber Madness & Zapata
This week a blockchain startup opened its system to the public; a quantum computing company raised big bucks; and Raytheon’s cybersecurity business set up shop in Boston. Read on for more. —Blockchain technology startup Algorand has opened a test network to the public for businesses and developers to tinker with and give feedback. The company … Continue reading “Boston Tech Watch: Algorand, Owl Labs, Cyber Madness & Zapata”
PathAI Raises $60M in Quest to Be AI Assistant in the Exam Room
AI-for-disease-diagnosis startup PathAI closed a $60 million Series B round led by New York-based growth equity investor General Atlantic to improve its “pathology research platform” and fuel development into “new tools and medical devices.” PathAI partners with pharmaceutical companies and diagnostic laboratories to develop tools to aid doctors diagnose diseases in patients and help physicians … Continue reading “PathAI Raises $60M in Quest to Be AI Assistant in the Exam Room”
Cyber Madness Photos & Takeaways: Honeypots, Espionage Plots & More
There are many front lines in the battle to secure cyberspace for any given business: hackers, nation states, corporate espionage, supply chain security, AI-powered cyber tools, and ratcheting-up risks with the Internet of Things. All these facets—together with the tech companies carving a path through the dangers to take control in the ever-shifting state of … Continue reading “Cyber Madness Photos & Takeaways: Honeypots, Espionage Plots & More”
Boston Tech Watch: Tufin, Facebook, RightHand, Diameter & Jebbit
[Updated 4/15/19, 10:50 AM. See below.] A cybersecurity IPO could raise up to $124 million for an Israeli-based company with its US headquarters in Boston. Facebook’s Boston office wants to map the world’s population in high def, starting with Africa. More venture cash is flowing into Bay State startups. Read all this and much more … Continue reading “Boston Tech Watch: Tufin, Facebook, RightHand, Diameter & Jebbit”
Affectiva Raises $26M to Get Self-Driving Cars to Know Your Mood
The vision of a hands-off, self-driving car demands much more than accurate computer vision that senses cars, trees, lanes, pedestrians, bicyclists, roads, potholes—all in sun, rain, and snow. But the automotive industry that always seems to be barreling toward smarter autonomous vehicles also wants the car to know exactly what’s going on in the cabin. … Continue reading “Affectiva Raises $26M to Get Self-Driving Cars to Know Your Mood”
Sobriety Pays: DynamiCare Gamifies Staying Clean for Recovering Addicts
[Corrected 5/22/19, 4:27 pm ET. See below.] Eric Gastfriend was looking for his next tech startup idea after leaving his video game startup Happy Cloud and finishing an MBA at Harvard Business School when the inspiration came from a source close to home. A relative was entering rehab for alcohol abuse for the second time, … Continue reading “Sobriety Pays: DynamiCare Gamifies Staying Clean for Recovering Addicts”
Klaviyo Puts Google, Facebook, Amazon on Notice With $150M Raise
Klaviyo, a Boston e-commerce startup, wants retailers to take their advertising spending back from the tech behemoths Google, Amazon, and Facebook. The thinking behind the push, according to CEO Andrew Bialecki, is whether in the long term companies are better off handing over their ad dollars or doing the work and “owning” the marketing themselves. … Continue reading “Klaviyo Puts Google, Facebook, Amazon on Notice With $150M Raise”
Boston Tech Watch: Huawei, Care.com, Cambridge Blockchain & PayPal
Investors took restaurant technology startups out to lunch with monster nine-figure funding rounds. The Wall Street Journal investigation into Care.com leads investors to sue in Boston. MIT kicks Huawei and ZTE to the curb. Read these and more in this week’s Boston tech news: —MIT cut ties with Chinese technology giant Huawei and ZTE “due … Continue reading “Boston Tech Watch: Huawei, Care.com, Cambridge Blockchain & PayPal”
Formlabs Makes Inroads in “Hype-Driven” Sector With New 3D Printers
Formlabs founder and CEO Max Lobovsky still sees a fair amount of hype swirling around the 3D printing world. He claims to have never been onboard with the Jetsons-like vision of a 3D printer as a household appliance that spits out toys, kitchen utensils, furniture—anything that can be imagined, really. “We started with the thinking … Continue reading “Formlabs Makes Inroads in “Hype-Driven” Sector With New 3D Printers”
EzCater Celebrates “Unicorn” Status After $150M Funding Round
Stefania Mallett was sitting at her kitchen table when she wrapped up the details behind her catering technology startup ezCater’s latest funding round, a $150 million investment. Mallett shared the details to her husband before the size of the occasion sank in. “I’m busy, already onto the next thing. He said, ‘Wait, that is a … Continue reading “EzCater Celebrates “Unicorn” Status After $150M Funding Round”
Toast Rings Up $250M, Pledges $1B for Software and Hardware R&D
Restaurant technology startup Toast is stocking up its bank accounts with a new $250 million funding round the Boston company says is needed to keep pace with tech-hungry eateries’ interest in its point-of-sale software and devices. The funds come less than a year after Toast raised a $115 million Series D round and joined the … Continue reading “Toast Rings Up $250M, Pledges $1B for Software and Hardware R&D”
Boston Tech Watch: Tinkergarten, ezCater, Glasswing Ventures & More
[Updated 10:45 am 3/29/19.] Tech to get your kids out into nature raises some big bucks from some Hollywood tech giants, while restaurant software and automated payments also make big moves. Read on for more Boston tech news: —Outdoor child-education network Tinkergarten raised $21 million from the consumer technology fund WndrCo run by former Disney (NYSE: … Continue reading “Boston Tech Watch: Tinkergarten, ezCater, Glasswing Ventures & More”
Business Travel Startup Lola Raises $37M to Double Headcount in Boston
[Corrected 3/26/19, 9:52 am. See below.] Business travel software startup Lola is keeping its foot on the gas. The Boston-based company is doubling its headcount—another 60 employees by the end of the year, mostly in sales and engineering—to keep up in the race to dominate the $1.6 trillion global travel market. Lola, started in 2016 … Continue reading “Business Travel Startup Lola Raises $37M to Double Headcount in Boston”
Qualcomm Backs Industrial IoT Security Firm CyberX in $18M Round
CyberX, an industrial “Internet-of-things” security startup, has raised $18 million in a funding round led by the venture arm of chip-maker Qualcomm (NASDAQ: [[ticker:QCOM]]) and Inven Capital, a cleantech and new energy fund based in Prague, the Czech Republic. Waltham, MA-based CyberX says it has seen rapid sales growth, which it attributes to boards of … Continue reading “Qualcomm Backs Industrial IoT Security Firm CyberX in $18M Round”
Bolt Founder Ben Einstein Leaves Hardware Tech VC Firm
Ben Einstein, co-founder and general partner of hardware-focused investor Bolt, says he has left the venture capital firm he started as his partner, Grace, enters chemotherapy for a cancer diagnosis. “Through this gut-wrenching experience, the things I enjoy doing and that give me energy are clearer than ever: I am a builder,” Einstein wrote in … Continue reading “Bolt Founder Ben Einstein Leaves Hardware Tech VC Firm”
Boston Tech Watch: Notarize, Optimus Ride, LogRocket & More
The self-driving cars are coming (to a gated development near you). Board additions at a novel tech startup. Another big funding round for an industrial 3D printing startup. The Endeavor v. QinetiQ robot competition’s final chapter. Read on for more. —Online notary startup Notarize is adding senior LogMeIn and State Street executives to its board. … Continue reading “Boston Tech Watch: Notarize, Optimus Ride, LogRocket & More”
3D Printing Startup Markforged Raises $82M to Invest in Products
Venture capital seems to be onboard with the fourth industrial revolution. As the proud poster children for the tech-driven wave of change, industrial 3D printing companies have raised big dollars in the last few years, with Burlington, MA-based Desktop Metal in a $160 million funding round in January. And now Watertown, MA-based Markforged has punched … Continue reading “3D Printing Startup Markforged Raises $82M to Invest in Products”
Flipside Crypto Grading Scheme Expands to CoinMarketCap, Others
Flipside Crypto, a Boston startup developing analytics for cryptocurrencies, has landed its main metric onto CoinMarketCap and other financial websites including MarketWatch, TheStreet and Stocktwits, the company says. Founded in 2017, Flipside says its Fundamental Crypto Asset Score—FCAS for short—rates the health of blockchain-enabled currencies on a 1,000-point scale based on transaction data and the … Continue reading “Flipside Crypto Grading Scheme Expands to CoinMarketCap, Others”
Boston Tech Watch: Dill the Pickle Robot, Via Separations & More
There’s robotics news, clinical research companies raising cash, and plenty of early-stage venture capital money moving in the Boston technology world this week. Read on for more: —Via Separations, a startup developing energy-efficient filtration technology, has raised $4.8 million in a Series A funding round. Safar led the round, which saw participation from PRIME Impact … Continue reading “Boston Tech Watch: Dill the Pickle Robot, Via Separations & More”
Clinical Analytics Platform TriNetX Raises $40M to Speed Drug Trials
TriNetX, a Cambridge, MA, developer of data analytics software for clinical research, has raised $40 million in a Series D funding round led by Merck’s corporate venture capital fund, the company said. The company’s analytics platform helps pharma companies detail the many aspects of a clinical trial—from choosing hospital locations with adequate populations of patients … Continue reading “Clinical Analytics Platform TriNetX Raises $40M to Speed Drug Trials”
Jibo’s Last Dance, and the Social Robot’s Hope for the Afterlife
Last summer, dozens of former Jibo employees returned to the defunct company’s Boston offices for a long weekend of pizza, beer, and brainstorming. The task: How do you teach the company’s “social robot” to say goodbye? Rich Sadowsky, Jibo’s former head of security and privacy, had helped organize the volunteer group over a Jibo alumni … Continue reading “Jibo’s Last Dance, and the Social Robot’s Hope for the Afterlife”
Boston Tech Watch: .406, Circle, Haven, Shift, LinkSquares & More
The Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan-led healthcare moonshot has a name. The venture capital dollars continued to roll in for A.I. startups. The Akamai-Janrain deal was pegged at $125 million. And a local VC firm is reloading for a new fund. Read on for more of this week’s Boston technology and innovation news. —Shift Technology, … Continue reading “Boston Tech Watch: .406, Circle, Haven, Shift, LinkSquares & More”
Al Gore: Coming Tech Revolution Could Take More Jobs Than It Makes
Al Gore may just be on the side of the Luddites. Yes, that’s the radical faction of British textile workers at the onset of the Industrial Revolution who broke into factories to smash the new machines that they feared would someday put them out of work. But no, Gore is not yet raging against the … Continue reading “Al Gore: Coming Tech Revolution Could Take More Jobs Than It Makes”
Boston Tech Watch: CoinMetrics, Bedrock Data, Modulate & Jobcase
[Updated 10:30 am. See below.] A handful of Boston-area startups landed seed funding rounds this week, while another tech firm raked in $100 million in growth equity. Two acquisitions also rounded out the week’s tech news. —CoinMetrics, a cryptocurrency market data startup, has raised $1.9 million in seed funding from Castle Island Ventures, Fidelity Investments, … Continue reading “Boston Tech Watch: CoinMetrics, Bedrock Data, Modulate & Jobcase”
Blue-Collar Career Site Jobcase Raises $100M to Advocate for Workers
The social-media jobs platform Jobcase is raking in $100 million in growth funding to expand its blue-collar-oriented workforce site into a place where employees not only can host their qualifications but also can organize and advocate for better treatment from employers. Jobcase founder and CEO Fred Goff says the Cambridge, MA-based startup wants workers’ reviews … Continue reading “Blue-Collar Career Site Jobcase Raises $100M to Advocate for Workers”
Seeded with $2.5M, Sales Tech Firm Polis Is Coming for Your Front Door
There’s at least one thread tying together clean energy providers, former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke, and home security systems, and it runs through a small Cambridge, MA, startup founded in 2015 by Kendall Tucker. Her sales and political canvassing technology company Polis has helped sell all three of them by sending people to residents’ front … Continue reading “Seeded with $2.5M, Sales Tech Firm Polis Is Coming for Your Front Door”
More Power Per Pound: 24M Lithium Ion Batteries Ahead of Curve
Cambridge lithium-ion battery startup 24M claims to have punched through a “state-of-the art industry benchmark” for electric vehicle power storage by packing more kilowatts into each kilogram of battery using its unique design and advanced manufacturing techniques. The startup says it delivered batteries to industrial partners and the United States Advanced Battery Consortium—an Energy Department … Continue reading “More Power Per Pound: 24M Lithium Ion Batteries Ahead of Curve”
Mobile-Tech Company Affirmed Networks Raises $38M To Chase 5G Future
Affirmed Networks, a mobile systems software company based in Acton, MA, has raised $38 million in a strategic funding round led by Palo Alto-based Centerview Capital Technology to help it expand into more regions around the globe and invest in new products. The company, founded in 2010, says it develops virtualized and cloud-native network software … Continue reading “Mobile-Tech Company Affirmed Networks Raises $38M To Chase 5G Future”
Boston Tech Watch: Thermo Fisher in China, 1upHealth, Anaqua & More
[Updated 2/25/19, 10:55 am. See updated item.] Plenty of Boston technology news this week, from acquisitions to fundings, machine-learning-powered awards predictions and more: —The New York Times says police-affiliated scientists in China were using equipment from Waltham, MA-based Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE: [[ticker:TMO]]) to collect DNA data and build “an enormous system of surveillance and … Continue reading “Boston Tech Watch: Thermo Fisher in China, 1upHealth, Anaqua & More”
Qlik to Acquire Data Integration Software Firm Attunity for $560M
Qlik Technologies, a Pennsylvania-based data analytics company, is acquiring Burlington, MA-based Attunity (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ATTU]]) in a $560 million deal to boost its offerings to help businesses manage and analyze data across on-site data centers and cloud storage services. Attunity’s data integration and management software optimizes data across different storage sites to be accessible for the … Continue reading “Qlik to Acquire Data Integration Software Firm Attunity for $560M”
Self-Driving Cars in Boston Blinded by Solar Glare at Traffic Lights
Solar glare is making it tough for some self-driving cars being tested in Boston to read whether traffic lights are red, yellow, or green. MIT spinout NuTonomy said that on some recent occasions, the “low evening sun and solar glare” have occasionally kept its autonomous vehicles from being able to read the color on traffic … Continue reading “Self-Driving Cars in Boston Blinded by Solar Glare at Traffic Lights”
Cloud Tech Firm Nasuni Takes in $25M in Telstra-Led Funding Round
It wasn’t the monthly bank statement that made Nasuni, a Boston-based cloud storage technology startup, run out and raise $25 million in venture funding. The company had yet to burn through even half of the $38 million it raised in September 2017 in a venture round led by Goldman Sachs. So, why did Nasuni recently … Continue reading “Cloud Tech Firm Nasuni Takes in $25M in Telstra-Led Funding Round”
Digital Guardian Taps CA Technologies Cyber Exec as Its New CEO
Digital Guardian, a cybersecurity business focused on data loss prevention, has tapped a CA Technologies executive to lead the Waltham, MA-based company several months after the departure of CEO Ken Levine. Mordecai “Mo” Rosen, who most recently managed CA Technologies’ cybersecurity business, is taking over at Digital Guardian from interim CEO, investor, and board member … Continue reading “Digital Guardian Taps CA Technologies Cyber Exec as Its New CEO”
Rapid7, Raytheon, Recorded Future Join Cyber Madness in Boston on April 8
It takes a healthy imagination to pinpoint all the cybersecurity risks baked into today’s Internet-connected, cloud-managed, Web-hungry world—let alone even start to plan for the vulnerabilities, attack strategies, and potent defenses for the future. On April 8, Xconomy is bringing together experts from Boston and beyond to dig into how companies have solved specific problems … Continue reading “Rapid7, Raytheon, Recorded Future Join Cyber Madness in Boston on April 8”
Boston Tech Watch: Student Loans, Google in Kendall Square & More
General Electric may have backed off its plans for Boston, but at least it’s not leaving town. A student loan startup in Boston eyes help from Capitol Hill. Deals, fundings, and founders moving on. The week in Boston tech is here: —A bill introduced this week in Congress could provide a boost to local student … Continue reading “Boston Tech Watch: Student Loans, Google in Kendall Square & More”
Slimmed-Down GE to Repay $87M as It Scales Back Boston HQ Plans
General Electric is backing out of its glitzy Boston ambitions, selling the land it planned to hold a new 12-story headquarters for 800 employees and instead retreating into the two brick buildings on the same site that can hold 250 workers, the company says. The industrial conglomerate and the state economic development authority, MassDevelopment, have … Continue reading “Slimmed-Down GE to Repay $87M as It Scales Back Boston HQ Plans”
Endeavor Robotics Sold for $385M in Deal with Oregon’s FLIR Systems
Endeavor Robotics, a military robot-maker based in Chelmsford, MA, is being bought by FLIR Systems for $385 million in cash, the companies announced Monday. Wilsonville, OR-based FLIR said the deal will bolster its growing unmanned systems business at a time when the U.S. military is increasingly planning on a robot-aided future. FLIR (NASDAQ: [[ticker:FLIR]])—which primarily makes … Continue reading “Endeavor Robotics Sold for $385M in Deal with Oregon’s FLIR Systems”
DataRobot Predicts the Grammy Awards’ Song of the Year Is…
With everyone worrying that a robot or artificial intelligence model will take their jobs someday, why shouldn’t The Recording Academy fear its annual task of doling out the Grammy Awards is safe? DataRobot, a Boston-based startup whose machine-learning platform helps companies use algorithms for data analysis without hiring a data science team, is taking a … Continue reading “DataRobot Predicts the Grammy Awards’ Song of the Year Is…”
Boston Tech Watch: Boston Dynamics, WeWork, Optimus Ride & Hydrow
Here’s a roundup of the week’s Boston technology news, featuring robots, trade war accounting, self-driving cars, acquisitions, co-working deals, and more. —SoftBank disclosed in financial filings the $37 million in debt financing it provided to robotics startup Boston Dynamics late last year was converted to equity last month. Softbank bought Waltham, MA-based Boston Dynamics from … Continue reading “Boston Tech Watch: Boston Dynamics, WeWork, Optimus Ride & Hydrow”
Carbonite Buys Webroot for $618M to Offer Security with a Safety Net
Data backup and storage company Carbonite has bought endpoint cybersecurity provider Webroot in a $618 million deal designed to stitch both together into an A.I.-powered automated cloud security software for devices, with built-in emergency backup. Carbonite CEO Mohamad Ali told investors on a conference call, a little over an hour after the deal was announced, … Continue reading “Carbonite Buys Webroot for $618M to Offer Security with a Safety Net”
IRobot: Trade War Takes $8M Toll, Fuels Decision to Leave China
Tariffs and uncertainty stemming from President Trump’s trade war with China forced iRobot to pay out $8 million to get its vacuum robots into the United States last year and have convinced the company to move some production out of China for the first time since 2002. The Bedford, MA-based company explained its decision to … Continue reading “IRobot: Trade War Takes $8M Toll, Fuels Decision to Leave China”
Notary Startup Notarize Lands Wayfair, HubSpot Executive As COO
Notarize, the Boston-based online notary startup, has hired Elizabeth Graham, a former Wayfair and HubSpot executive, to be its new chief operating officer. Graham told Xconomy in an interview that her focus will be on refining the company’s Web app that connects users with one of its notaries based in Virginia, Texas, or Nevada, and … Continue reading “Notary Startup Notarize Lands Wayfair, HubSpot Executive As COO”
ZoomInfo Bought by Washington Marketing Tech Firm DiscoverOrg
Business contact software company ZoomInfo is being acquired by Vancouver, WA-based marketing technology firm DiscoverOrg in a deal that aims combine the pair’s business and personnel intelligence into a single dataset to power enterprise marketing tools. Great Hill Partners, a Boston-based private equity firm that bought ZoomInfo in August 2017 for $240 million, declined to … Continue reading “ZoomInfo Bought by Washington Marketing Tech Firm DiscoverOrg”
Minim Expands Wi-Fi Security Tool to WISPs with Deal For Aerez
Your smart home thermostat or doorbell may be freelancing in its spare time. “They are phoning home to some bad places,” said Jeremy Hitchcock, CEO of Wi-Fi cybersecurity and management software startup Minim, whose software lives in routers to manage Internet activity and the online activity of IoT devices. (More on Minim’s growth below.) Web-connected … Continue reading “Minim Expands Wi-Fi Security Tool to WISPs with Deal For Aerez”