We’ve seen deals in the past week involving New England software makers, health IT startups, and biotechs. —Framingham, MA-based application performance management software maker Correlsense said it raised $3 million in Series C funding. The money comes from Accel Partners, Vertex Venture Capital, ProSeed Venture Capital Fund, eXeed Technology, and Technion Research & Development Foundation. —Sermo, … Continue reading “Kayak, VMware, 3M, & More Names from the Boston Deal Roundup”
Author: Erin Kutz
Erin Kutz has a background in covering business, politics and general news. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Boston University. Erin previously worked in the Boston bureau of Reuters, where she wrote articles on the investment management and mutual fund industries. While in college, she researched for USA Today reporter Jayne O’Donnell’s book, Gen Buy: How Tweens, Teens and Twenty-Somethings Are Revolutionizing Retail. She also spent a semester in Washington, DC, reporting Capitol Hill stories as a correspondent for two Connecticut newspapers and interning in the Money section of USA Today, where she assisted with coverage on the retail and small business beats. Erin got her first taste of reporting at Boston University’s independent student newspaper, as a city section reporter and fact checker and editor of the paper’s weekly business section.
Alnylam, Galenea, Gen9, & More from the Boston Life Sciences Roundup
This week’s New England life sciences news consisted of venture funding news, a research partnership, a health IT acquisition, and more. —Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ALNY]]) saw its stock climb more than 40 percent on Monday after it released positive data on its experimental drug ALN-TTR02, a treatment for the rare disease TTR amyloidosis. The Cambridge, MA-based company is … Continue reading “Alnylam, Galenea, Gen9, & More from the Boston Life Sciences Roundup”
Sermo, After Raising $40M+, Bought by WorldOne For Undisclosed Sum
Cambridge, MA-based Sermo, the provider of an online physician community, announced today that it has been acquired by New York-based healthcare insights company WorldOne. The purchase price of the deal was not disclosed. Sermo has pulled in at least $40 million since being founded in 2005. It raised a $26.7 million Series C round in 2007, … Continue reading “Sermo, After Raising $40M+, Bought by WorldOne For Undisclosed Sum”
TourSphere Offers Do-It-Yourself Mobile Apps For Visitor Destinations
Mobile apps have grown so big that there’s now no shortage of companies selling software to help other companies build their own applications. But Boston-based TourSphere is tackling a very specific niche of that space—museums and historic and cultural tours, and the like. One of the more exciting projects built on its platform: The Metropolitan … Continue reading “TourSphere Offers Do-It-Yourself Mobile Apps For Visitor Destinations”
Basho, aPriori, Savitz VC Fund, & More Boston Deals News
Acquisitions, investments, new VC funds, and strategic partnerships have made up the New England deals news in the last week. —Shareaholic, a Cambridge, MA-based maker of software for sharing and discovering Web content, closed a $3 million round of funding led by Kepha Partners, and joined by returning angel investors, General Catalyst Partners, NextView Ventures, and 500 … Continue reading “Basho, aPriori, Savitz VC Fund, & More Boston Deals News”
Health Incubator Boom Driven by Demand, Says Healthbox’s Jenna Rose
Startup incubators have been multiplying so fast there’s talk of a bubble, and there’s no sign of slowdown anytime soon. Jenna Rose says the growth is justified and has come from both entrepreneur and investor demand. You could say that she’s biased, given that she’s the director of Healthbox, a Chicago-founded health startup accelerator that … Continue reading “Health Incubator Boom Driven by Demand, Says Healthbox’s Jenna Rose”
Thermo Fisher Picks Up One Lambda for Nearly $1B
[Corrected 8/10/12, 7:30 pm. See below.] Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE: [[ticker:TMO]]), the Waltham, MA-based provider of lab tools and life sciences instruments, announced today that it has signed a definitive agreement to buy Canoga Park, CA-based One Lambda for $925 million. The deal is expected to close in fourth quarter of this year and to be immediately … Continue reading “Thermo Fisher Picks Up One Lambda for Nearly $1B”
Kala, ImmunoGen, Boring Biotech, & More Boston Life Sciences News
CEO news, clinical trials, startup financing, and boring biotech companies made up the New England life sciences news this week. —Cambridge, MA-based Lantos Technologies, an MIT spinout working on 3D imaging technology for the ear, has pulled in $3.8 million of a $6.6 million equity offering, according to an SEC filing. —West Bridgewater, MA-based Cardiosolutions received … Continue reading “Kala, ImmunoGen, Boring Biotech, & More Boston Life Sciences News”
NuoDB, Dailybreak, Vsnap & (Much, Much) More from the Boston Deals Roundup
[Updated 7/12/12, 10:50 am. See below.] It’s been a booming week for deals in New England, and that’s not even counting today… —Morgenthaler Ventures led a $10 million Series B round for Cambridge, MA-based cloud database software company NuoDB. The round also included Hummer Winblad Venture Partners and Longworth Venture Partners and will be used for … Continue reading “NuoDB, Dailybreak, Vsnap & (Much, Much) More from the Boston Deals Roundup”
Plexxi, iWalk, DynamicOps, and More from the Boston Deals Roundup
This week’s New England deals news came from IT, mobile software, and medical prosthetic startups. —Plexxi, the recently de-stealthed startup that’s looking to more efficiently connect applications in data centers with the right networks, announced on its blog that it had pulled in $20.1 million in new funding from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Matrix Partners, and Northbridge … Continue reading “Plexxi, iWalk, DynamicOps, and More from the Boston Deals Roundup”
CraveLabs Sees Local Media as Huge Boon for Mobile Ad Tech
“Most of mobile right now is focused on trying to figure out where the whales are—the big dollar advertising,” says Jeffrey Peden. Seems to be an accurate statement, considering the big deal activity Boston has seen lately with major mobile advertising startups. Not the case with his Cambridge, MA-based startup CraveLabs, whose technology helps not-so-tech-savvy … Continue reading “CraveLabs Sees Local Media as Huge Boon for Mobile Ad Tech”
Boston Mobile, Ad Tech Startups Inking Deals This Week
It’s been a big week for deals on the mobile and advertising (and combination thereof) tech fronts. Cambridge, MA-based mobile ad network Jumptap announced a $27.5 million funding round on Monday as it prepares for an initial public offering, and we’ve spotted a few more since then. —Boston-based OwnerIQ, a developer of targeted advertising technology, … Continue reading “Boston Mobile, Ad Tech Startups Inking Deals This Week”
Tesaro, Vertex, Infraredx, & More Boston Life Sciences Headlines
This week New England life sciences companies reported a mix of IPO, acquisition, and clinical trial news. —Cambridge, MA-based Semprus Biosciences, an MIT spinout from professor Robert Langer’s lab, was acquired by the medical device company Teleflex (NYSE: [[ticker:TFX]] for $30 million up front. Semprus develops a polymer technology designed to reduce the attachment of … Continue reading “Tesaro, Vertex, Infraredx, & More Boston Life Sciences Headlines”
Semprus, Nara, UberSense, & More Names from the Boston Deal Roundup
This week’s deal headlines show a healthy mix of startup funding, acquisitions, and IPO news across both the tech and healthcare industries. —PatientKeeper, a Waltham, MA-based maker of software for physician workflow, said it raised $6.25 million from existing investors like Flybridge Capital Partners, New Enterprise Associates, and Whitney & Co. The money comes atop a … Continue reading “Semprus, Nara, UberSense, & More Names from the Boston Deal Roundup”
Comparison Buying App ShopAdvisor Targets Blogs With Newest Update
Maynard, MA-based Evoqu has been flying somewhat under the radar, but its mobile app ShopAdvisor hasn’t exactly been doing the same. It now boasts a combined 2.5 million users across its iPhone, iPad, and Android editions. And today, the company, which earlier this month revealed raising a $1.95 million seed round, is releasing a new … Continue reading “Comparison Buying App ShopAdvisor Targets Blogs With Newest Update”
Nara Pockets $4M for Neuroscience-driven, Personalized Web Discovery
Tom Copeman says he moved to Boston from Southern California in 2010 to be near the best and brightest in neuroscience and computer science. He wanted to tap East Coast PhDs to tackle a tech problem that’s decidedly not as associated with Boston: consumer Web search. “There’s so much inundation with information on the Web … Continue reading “Nara Pockets $4M for Neuroscience-driven, Personalized Web Discovery”
Visual IQ Nabs $12M Series B for Ad Optimization Software
Needham, MA-based advertising software startup Visual IQ is revealing today that it has raised $12 million in Series B funding, just three months after CEO Manu Mathew told me the company was planning to raise a second round. The money comes from Boston-based Volition Capital and return investor Fog City Capital, which led the company’s … Continue reading “Visual IQ Nabs $12M Series B for Ad Optimization Software”
Late-Breaking Boston Deals: MineralTree, DataGravity, & Tracelytics
No summer slowdown here. We found a few more New England tech deals that have been cooking in the last day or two. —Boston-based MineralTree, a maker of cloud-based secure payment software for small and medium-size businesses, is announcing today that it has inked $6.3 million in Series A funding from Fidelity Growth Partners India and … Continue reading “Late-Breaking Boston Deals: MineralTree, DataGravity, & Tracelytics”
Yesware Nabs $4M Series A for “Platform Expansion”
Cambridge, MA-based Yesware has landed $4 million in Series A funding to further develop its trove of communication tools for sales people. The new cash infusion was led by new investor IDG Ventures and included Yesware seed backers Google Ventures, Foundry Group, and Golden Venture Partners, says CEO Matthew Bellows. The new lead investor is “really … Continue reading “Yesware Nabs $4M Series A for “Platform Expansion””
Bullhorn, Seaside, Sand 9, & More in the Boston Deals Roundup
This week’s New England deals news featured some more grown up companies in hardware, life sciences, and networking. —Bullhorn, a Boston-based maker of human resources and recruiting software, was acquired by Vista Equity Partners, a firm with offices in Chicago, San Francisco, and Austin. The dollar value of the transaction was not disclosed, but a … Continue reading “Bullhorn, Seaside, Sand 9, & More in the Boston Deals Roundup”
ImpulseSave Opens Up App for Instant Gratification Savings
Cambridge, MA-based ImpulseSave is taking its on-the-fly saving application to the masses. The startup announced today that it’s graduated from a four-month beta period and is launching its application on the iTunes App Store. Co-founder and CEO Phil Fremont-Smith touts his technology as one that actually works with humans’ hard-wired drive to act impulsively, rather … Continue reading “ImpulseSave Opens Up App for Instant Gratification Savings”
XSITE 2012: Accelerating Innovation, Captured on Camera
Don’t fret if you weren’t one of the 500 or so people registered for our XSITE conference yesterday. We’ve pulled together the top 10 quotes and takeaways from the program, and for those who learn by seeing, we’ve got a photo gallery too. Our theme for the day at Babson College was Accelerating Innovation, and … Continue reading “XSITE 2012: Accelerating Innovation, Captured on Camera”
Seventh Sense, Polaris, & More Boston Life Sciences Newsmakers
This week we saw innovation initiatives and new funding for both established life sciences companies and startups in New England. —-Seventh Sense Biosystems, a Cambridge, MA-based startup developing a so-called painless system for sampling blood, pulled in the first tranche of a $10 million Series A round from Flagship Ventures and Polaris Venture Partners. The … Continue reading “Seventh Sense, Polaris, & More Boston Life Sciences Newsmakers”
XSITE Startup Audience Booming for Thursday Summit: See Who’s Coming
We’ve got a top-notch roster of speakers and panels for our Xconomy Summit on Innovation, Technology, & Entrepreneurship—less than 48 hours away—at Babson College. Entrepreneurs from companies like Evernote, Birchbox, and Terrafugia will take the stage to talk about innovation from their corner of the startup world. You’ll see more from the trenches during breakouts … Continue reading “XSITE Startup Audience Booming for Thursday Summit: See Who’s Coming”
Arctic Sand, Nanocomp, Expressor, & More From the Boston Deals Roundup
Things seem to have slowed down a bit after the flurry of New England startup funding news last week. —Concord, NH-based Nanocomp Technologies said it inked a financial and strategic partnership with DuPont (NYSE: [[ticker:DD]]), which will participate in the startup’s $25 million Series C round. Dupont will also incorporate Nanocomp’s carbon nanotube materials into its … Continue reading “Arctic Sand, Nanocomp, Expressor, & More From the Boston Deals Roundup”
Moda Operandi Founder, HBS Alum Talks Fashion Curation, Data, and Fit
Moda Operandi, the New York-based startup that allows shoppers to pre-order pieces from luxury runway collections, announced a $36 million Series C round late last week. That’s from a company that had only launched its shopping service a little over a year ago. The round was led by new investor RRE Ventures, and included return … Continue reading “Moda Operandi Founder, HBS Alum Talks Fashion Curation, Data, and Fit”
Ministry of Supply Puts MIT Engineering Cred Into Dress Shirts
There’s a startup in town that’s turning to Kickstarter—the crowdsourced funding platform—to support its newest product. The team is made up of MIT product designers, engineers, and MBAs, and has tested its technology in MIT labs, even incorporating a coating developed by NASA into its newest product So what is that product, you ask? Men’s … Continue reading “Ministry of Supply Puts MIT Engineering Cred Into Dress Shirts”
Rhythm, Ariad, PerkinElmer, & More Boston Life Sciences Newsmakers
Funding, clinical updates, and a new innovation center made up this week’s New England life sciences news. —In his recent BioBeat column, Xconomy national biotech editor Luke Timmerman explored reasons why biotech startups might change their names. One of the recent examples was Cambridge, MA-based Aveo Oncology (NASDAQ: [[ticker:AVEO]]), which changed its name from Aveo … Continue reading “Rhythm, Ariad, PerkinElmer, & More Boston Life Sciences Newsmakers”
Agrivida Launches Field Production Of Engineered Plants, Plans C Round
Agrivida—the Medford, MA-based startup that is “engineering plants that can break themselves down into sugars,” according to founder and president R. Michael Raab—is scaling up. The startup has been developing its technology in labs and greenhouses since 2003, and earlier this week announced that it had rolled out industrial-sized fields to grow its plants, which … Continue reading “Agrivida Launches Field Production Of Engineered Plants, Plans C Round”
Boston Deals Span Skill Tests, Mobile Offers, and Cloud Archiving
Updated 6/6/12, 4:20 am. See below. New England tech startups took the funding spotlight this week, for their offerings ranging from cloud archiving to online skill tests. —Newton, MA-based cloud archiving startup Sonian raised $13.6 million led by new investor OpenView Venture Partners. The deal also included Sonian investors Prism VentureWorks and Summerhill Venture Partners, and … Continue reading “Boston Deals Span Skill Tests, Mobile Offers, and Cloud Archiving”
Cartera Commerce Pockets $12.2M for Card-Linked Deals Tech
Less than a year ago Cartera Commerce CEO Tom Beecher said local merchants were the fastest growing piece of his company, which helps businesses and financial institutions offer card-linked deals to consumers. And now, he says, they’re “a key reason” the company has closed a new $12.2 million round of financing to put toward new … Continue reading “Cartera Commerce Pockets $12.2M for Card-Linked Deals Tech”
TiE Angels Boston, Now in Second Year, Looks to Make More Deals
“Some angel groups tend to have more executives who are high net worth. We tend to have a more entrepreneurial bent,” says Abhishek Jain, chairman of TiE Angels Boston. That sure is an understatement. The “entrepreneurial bent” he refers to includes a couple of inventors extraordinaire who invest as part of the angel group. Like … Continue reading “TiE Angels Boston, Now in Second Year, Looks to Make More Deals”
Vertex, N-of-One, Flexion & More Boston Life Sciences News
New England biotechs have been reporting funding, partnership, and clinical trial news this week. —Visterra pulled in $12.9 million of a targeted $19.6 million equity- and options-based funding round, an SEC filing shows. The Cambridge, MA-based startup is developing treatments for infectious diseases. —Xconomy East Coast biotechnology editor Arlene Weintraub took a look at Genentech … Continue reading “Vertex, N-of-One, Flexion & More Boston Life Sciences News”
Sonian Nabs $13.6M, Led By OpenView
OpenView Venture Partners has led a $13.6 million Series C round for Newton, MA-based Sonian, marking the Boston-based venture firm’s first investment in a company native to Boston. Return Sonian investors Prism VentureWorks and Summerhill Venture Partners also participated in the deal for the developer of archiving software for the cloud. In January 2011, Sonian … Continue reading “Sonian Nabs $13.6M, Led By OpenView”
Recorded Future, GreenBytes, Seahorse, & More Boston-Area Dealmakers
We saw plenty of deals coming out of local cleantech, IT, life sciences, and electronics startups. —Last week Cambridge, MA-based Recorded Future raised a $12 million venture financing round from Balderton Capital, Google Ventures, Atlas Venture, and In-Q-Tel. The startup’s software scours information on the Web to answer questions on subjects from civil unrest to the … Continue reading “Recorded Future, GreenBytes, Seahorse, & More Boston-Area Dealmakers”
Khosla Ventures Bets on Liquid Metal Battery’s Energy Storage Tech
“Cost-effective, reliable, grid-scale storage is one of the holy grails in cleantech,” says Khosla Ventures partner Andrew Chung. But now, Chung thinks there may be an answer—and the path runs through Cambridge, MA, startup Liquid Metal Battery. That’s why Chung and Menlo Park, CA-based Khosla Ventures led the $15 million Series B investment in Liquid … Continue reading “Khosla Ventures Bets on Liquid Metal Battery’s Energy Storage Tech”
Quincy Apparel, Driven to Make Women’s Clothes Fit, Nabs $950K
Quincy Apparel, a New York-based women’s e-commerce site with a mission of improving fit, has raised $950,000 in a convertible debt-based seed round, the founders say. The round was led by Great Oaks Venture Capital, and included Launch Capital and a diverse group of angel investors such as Bobbi Brown Cosmetics co-founder Ken Landis, David … Continue reading “Quincy Apparel, Driven to Make Women’s Clothes Fit, Nabs $950K”
NeighborPower Brings Rewards Points to the Energy Market
Former Massachusetts secretary of energy and environmental affairs Ian Bowles thinks energy efficiency isn’t all that engaging for consumers. But he’s betting that rewards points are one way to get them excited about it. Bowles is co-founder of the Andover, MA-based startup NeighborPower, which has built a platform allowing consumers to pay their home utility … Continue reading “NeighborPower Brings Rewards Points to the Energy Market”
Promedior, Aveo, Ra, and More Boston Life Sciences Headlines
Drugs, devices, and nonprofits showed up in this week’s New England life sciences news. —Promedior, a maker of treatments for tissue damage known as fibrosis, is moving its headquarters from Pennsylvania to Boston and has hired Suzanne Bruhn, a veteran of the Irish drug giant Shire’s Human Genetic Therapies division, as its new CEO. —Cambridge, MA-based Aveo Pharmaceuticals … Continue reading “Promedior, Aveo, Ra, and More Boston Life Sciences Headlines”
CloudTop, Ketchup, Todd Park, & A New President: An MIT Recap
It’s been an eventful 24 hours for MIT. The university held the finale of its $100K Entrepreneurship Competition last night, naming CloudTop the grand prize winner. The company comes from the Web/IT track of the competition and is developing an application allowing users to access of all their online content and applications through a Web … Continue reading “CloudTop, Ketchup, Todd Park, & A New President: An MIT Recap”
Vertica/HP Veteran Chris Lynch Joins Atlas for Big Data Investing
Chris Lynch, the tech exec who said venture capital was not for him, is the newest member of the technology team at Atlas Venture, the Cambridge, MA-based firm announced today. In March, Lynch left his role as CEO of Vertica Systems, a year after the data analytics company was acquired by Hewlett-Packard for $300 million. … Continue reading “Vertica/HP Veteran Chris Lynch Joins Atlas for Big Data Investing”
InsightSquared, Bradford, Plastiq, & More Boston Dealmakers
[Updated 5/16/12 at 5:30 pm. See below]We saw deals this week for companies working on database, business intelligence, credit card processing, and security technology. —Hopkinton, MA-based data storage giant EMC (NYSE: [[ticker:EMC]]) confirmed its acquisition of Israeli flash-storage startup XtremIO. Other media outlets peg the purchase price at $430 million, though EMC has not officially revealed … Continue reading “InsightSquared, Bradford, Plastiq, & More Boston Dealmakers”
Coaching Program Springboard Hits Boston With Life Sciences Entrepreneurs
Startup accelerators like Y Combinator and TechStars are known for producing the latest and greatest in Web startups. But there’s a set of established and accomplished companies—like ZipCar (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ZIP]]), Xenogen, and Constant Contact (NASDAQ: [[ticker:CTCT]])—that also received startup coaching, mentoring, and connections to investors back in their day. They went through a different program, … Continue reading “Coaching Program Springboard Hits Boston With Life Sciences Entrepreneurs”
Boston Life Sciences News From Vertex, Eleven, RXi, & More
News of financings, clinical developments, hires, and IPO moves came out of New England life sciences companies this week. —Cambridge, MA-based Vertex Pharmaceuticals revealed promising data showing it could potentially reach more cystic fibrosis patients by combining its treatment ivacaftor (Kalydeco) with an experimental drug called VX-809. The company plans to advance the combination regimen into … Continue reading “Boston Life Sciences News From Vertex, Eleven, RXi, & More”
MTLC Mobile Summit: The Next Generation
This conference, focused on the next generation in mobility, has a twist. It will feature so-called knowledge sharing sessions, where attendees and a couple of facilitators will determine the direction of the discussion. Register here to get in on the action.
SessionM, PlumChoice, Mojo Motors, and More Boston Dealmakers
Plenty of deal activity this week in New England mobile, biotech, Internet, and IT startups. —Newton, MA-based sleep management technology startup Zeo added another $2 million to the $1 million debt financing it raised last fall, according to an SEC filing. It’s now targeting a total round size of $5 million. —Vanu Coverage, a maker of … Continue reading “SessionM, PlumChoice, Mojo Motors, and More Boston Dealmakers”
Style Mavens on Fashion 2.0: It’s About Great Products, Not Tech
“I’m not a big believer in just technology for the sake of technology.” At an event covering the intersection of fashion and technology, you may expect this quote to come from a designer. But this was said by venture investor Lawrence Lenihan of FirstMark Capital, a New York firm that’s invested in companies such as … Continue reading “Style Mavens on Fashion 2.0: It’s About Great Products, Not Tech”
Kyruus Takes Big Data Approach to Identify Qualified Physicians
Hospitals typically check patients in with one system, track their healthcare with another, and process insurance claims with yet another. Boston-based Kyruus is looking to pull together all these different data points and many more to help healthcare providers tackle patient care more efficiently. We first heard about Kyruus last year, when it was revealed … Continue reading “Kyruus Takes Big Data Approach to Identify Qualified Physicians”
Microsoft Adds NYC Research Site Targeting Social Science Questions
Microsoft Research announced today that it’s adding a 13th site to its fold, with the creation of Microsoft Research New York City. Jennifer Chayes, managing director of Cambridge, MA-based Microsoft Research New England, will lead both campuses, which will function as “sister labs,” she says. A month or so into baseball season, it’s a bit … Continue reading “Microsoft Adds NYC Research Site Targeting Social Science Questions”
Boston Deals: Hologic, CustomMade, and the MIT Clean Energy Prize
New England clean energy, life sciences, and Internet startups pulled in funding this week. Plus there was some big acquisition news. —Hologic (NASDAQ: [[ticker:HOLX]]), a Bedford, MA-based maker of women’s health products, said Monday it will acquire San Diego-based molecular diagnostics company Gen-Probe for $82.75 a share, for a total of $3.7 billion. The deal represents a … Continue reading “Boston Deals: Hologic, CustomMade, and the MIT Clean Energy Prize”