Wellesley, MA-based private equity firm Ampersand Ventures, which invests in pharmaceutical, medical device, manufacturing, and enterprise software companies, has embarked on fundraising for a new fund targeted at $400 million, according to a report today at PE Hub. It’s been two years since the firm raised its current $212 million fund.
Author: Wade Roush
Between 2007 and 2014, I was a staff editor for Xconomy in Boston and San Francisco.
Since 2008 I've been writing a weekly opinion/review column called VOX: The Voice of Xperience. (From 2008 to 2013 the column was known as World Wide Wade.)
I've been writing about science and technology professionally since 1994. Before joining Xconomy in 2007, I was a staff member at MIT’s Technology Review from 2001 to 2006, serving as senior editor, San Francisco bureau chief, and executive editor of TechnologyReview.com. Before that, I was the Boston bureau reporter for Science, managing editor of supercomputing publications at NASA Ames Research Center, and Web editor at e-book pioneer NuvoMedia.
I have a B.A. in the history of science from Harvard College and a PhD in the history and social study of science and technology from MIT. I've published articles in Science, Technology Review, IEEE Spectrum, Encyclopaedia Brittanica, Technology and Culture, Alaska Airlines Magazine, and World Business, and I've been a guest of NPR, CNN, CNBC, NECN, WGBH and the PBS NewsHour. I'm a frequent conference participant and enjoy opportunities to moderate panel discussions and on-stage chats.
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In-Q-Tel Backs Veracode’s Binary Code Review Technology
Veracode, a Burlington, MA, startup that looks for security flaws in software by analyzing its raw binary code, announced this week that In-Q-Tel, a venture investing group spawned by the CIA, has made a strategic investment in the company. The amount of the investment was not disclosed. But as we explained in a story last … Continue reading “In-Q-Tel Backs Veracode’s Binary Code Review Technology”
Y Combinator Alum Omnisio Joins Google’s YouTube
The latest win for Y Combinator, Paul Graham’s Mountain View, CA- and Cambridge, MA-based startup incubator, is Omnisio, a California Internet video startup that announced today that it’s been acquired by Google, which plans to fold it into YouTube. The companies didn’t report the purchase price, but TechCrunch is saying that it was in the … Continue reading “Y Combinator Alum Omnisio Joins Google’s YouTube”
Cold Space with Power: [2N+1] Opens Boutique Data Center in Somerville
When I pulled up to 35 McGrath Highway in Somerville, just a couple of doors down from Sav-Mor Liquors, all I found was a squat, brown, windowless concrete building and an unpaved parking lot. It was a hot day in mid-July, and I was searching for a new data center company with the geeky name … Continue reading “Cold Space with Power: [2N+1] Opens Boutique Data Center in Somerville”
W3C Issues Mobile Web Guidelines
A “best practices” guide for creating mobile-friendly websites, published only in draft form until now, has been released as an official “recommendation” of the Cambridge, MA-based World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). In an announcement today, W3C mobile Web activity lead Dominique Hazaël-Massieux said “Mobile Web content developers now have stable guidelines and maturing tools to … Continue reading “W3C Issues Mobile Web Guidelines”
Guidester Takes New Name, $7.5 Million in New Funding
When we last wrote about Guidester, back in January, the merchandise search company had just hired a new CEO, John Federman, and was in the process of moving from New York to the Boston area. Now it’s going through another big transformation—changing its name (for the second time in three years), raising a $7.5 million … Continue reading “Guidester Takes New Name, $7.5 Million in New Funding”
ThingMagic’s New RFID Reader–A Step Toward the Internet of Things
ThingMagic may sound like an oddly whimsical name for a company that makes some of the key hardware and software behind radio frequency identification (RFID) systems—machines that have serious real-world jobs like tracking the hundreds of thousands of products that pass through the dock doors of Wal-Mart warehouses and other distribution centers every day. But … Continue reading “ThingMagic’s New RFID Reader–A Step Toward the Internet of Things”
Can Creativity Be Crowdsourced?
Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society hosts a lunch talk by Jon Ippolito of the John Bell of the University of Maine. From the event listing: “The Internet both attracts and repels art institutions. Curators wonder who could possibly ensure quality control in a world where 50,000 videos are added to YouTube … Continue reading “Can Creativity Be Crowdsourced?”
Sophos Wants to Buy Utimaco
Boston-based Sophos, which makes software that helps IT administrators control corporate networks and keep out viruses, spam, and spyware, said today that it’s offering $340 million in cash for all outstanding shares in Utimaco Software, a maker of encryption and security software based in Oberursel, Germany, near Frankfurt. The takeover offer represents a 92 percent … Continue reading “Sophos Wants to Buy Utimaco”
Don’t Sell It, Gazelle It: Electronics Recycling Firm Second Rotation Recycles Itself
So, you bought a first-generation iPhone last summer, but now you absolutely must have the iPhone 3G. (Hey, I’m with you, man. I already got mine.) But what to do with your old, perfectly functional iPhone? You can sell it on eBay, if you want to go through the hassle. Or, starting today, you can … Continue reading “Don’t Sell It, Gazelle It: Electronics Recycling Firm Second Rotation Recycles Itself”
Tradual Raises $2.4M for Currency Trading
According to reports today in PE Hub and Mass High Tech, Boston-based stealth mode startup Tradual has collected $2.4 million of a $4 million Series A investment round. The company is building a social media website focused on international currency trading, according to the reports, and the investment round was led by Waltham, MA-based North … Continue reading “Tradual Raises $2.4M for Currency Trading”
Are You Ready to Give Up Cable TV for Internet Video?
That’s the question I’ve been asking myself lately. Partly, it’s because my 12-month introductory rate from Comcast just expired, putting my yearly cable bill into the $1,000 range. That’s a lot to stomach, especially considering that about a third of the content coming down the co-ax is commercials. A friend says that I just need … Continue reading “Are You Ready to Give Up Cable TV for Internet Video?”
Visual I|O Brings Your Data to Life Through Visual Experimentation
In February 2006, Swedish physician, statistician, and global health expert Hans Rosling brought down the house at TED (the Technology, Entertainment, and Design conference in Monterey, CA) with a presentation on health and economic trends in developing nations. But it wasn’t the content of the presentation so much as the software he was using that … Continue reading “Visual I|O Brings Your Data to Life Through Visual Experimentation”
Matchmine Adds Six New Partners
Matchmine—the Foxborough, MA-based startup whose recommendation engine helps consumers find songs, videos, and other content they’re likely to enjoy at various content-oriented websites, and which we profiled in September 2007 and again in April 2008—announced today that four new destination sites have signed up for its system. They are Podcast.com and Videocast.com, both owned by … Continue reading “Matchmine Adds Six New Partners”
Good Data Gets $2 Million for Cloud-Based Business Intelligence
Cambridge, MA-based Good Data wants to do for business intelligence software what Salesforce has done for customer relationship management: put it on the Web and make it easier to use. In theory, that will give more people in an organization the ability to spot business trends and make informed decisions. Today, the 30-person Web 2.0 … Continue reading “Good Data Gets $2 Million for Cloud-Based Business Intelligence”
Stever Robbins on How to Be A Happy Entrepreneur—One Tip, Never Trust a VC
Last Saturday I attended Podcamp Boston 3, a social media conference held at Harvard Medical School’s plush Joseph Martin Conference Center. Podcamp is hard to describe because it’s more like a Web 2.0 meetup or flash mob than like a real conference. The attendees themselves make up the agenda and lead the sessions, the audience … Continue reading “Stever Robbins on How to Be A Happy Entrepreneur—One Tip, Never Trust a VC”
GT Solar Set to Break IPO Drought
The long-delayed initial public offering for Merrimack, NH-based GT Solar International is scheduled to go forward on Thursday—and so many investors are interested in the company that the offering is already oversubscribed, according to Ben Holmes, publisher at research firm Morningnotes. The stock will trade on the NASDAQ exchange under the ticker symbol SOLR. According … Continue reading “GT Solar Set to Break IPO Drought”
MobileSphere Exec Says Slydial “Combats Technology with Technology”
After I published my piece this morning on Slydial—the new service that lets you leave voicemail messages for mobile phone users without making their phone ring—I had a chance to talk briefly with Gavin Macomber, executive vice president of marketing and business development at MobileSphere, the Boston-based startup behind the service. I’m pretty incredulous about … Continue reading “MobileSphere Exec Says Slydial “Combats Technology with Technology””
CambridgeSoft Takes $21M from Goldman Sachs
CambridgeSoft, a Cambridge, MA-based maker of knowledge management and database software for biotech, pharmaceutical, and chemical companies, announced yesterday that it has completed a $21 million private equity investment by New York-based Goldman, Sachs & Co.
Slydial Voicemail Service Offers “The Illusion of Communication”
Sartre said “Hell is other people.” A local startup seems to be banking on that sentiment. Here’s the paradox that Boston-based MobileSphere is exploiting: We all want to own a cell phone. But a lot of the time, we don’t actually want to talk with our friends, family, co-workers, and all of those other people … Continue reading “Slydial Voicemail Service Offers “The Illusion of Communication””
EMC’s Flagship Document Software Wakes Up to Web 2.0
The news today out of Hopkinton, MA-based EMC (NYSE: [[ticker:EMC]]) is that Documentum, the company’s massive software suite for managing business content from e-mail to HR forms to press releases, is getting the beginnings of a Web 2.0 facelift, with new features such as tagging, ranking, groups, Twitter-like messaging, and a vastly improved user interface … Continue reading “EMC’s Flagship Document Software Wakes Up to Web 2.0”
Accretive Accretes $125 Million
Accretive Exit Capital, which helps venture capital and buyout firms by buying their stakes in companies they’re tired of managing or that they’re eager to monetize, said today that it has closed its first fund, totaling $125 million. The firm, based in Boston and West Palm Beach, FL, says that the fund, put together in … Continue reading “Accretive Accretes $125 Million”
At OSCON, Novell Relaunches ICEcore as Kablink
In February, Waltham, MA-based Novell acquired SiteScape, a Maynard, MA startup that had created an open-source Web conferencing platform called ICEcore. At the OSCON 2008 open source conference today in Portland, OR, Novell announced that it’s spinning off ICEcore as an independent project under a new name, Kablink. The Kablink software, which has new workflow … Continue reading “At OSCON, Novell Relaunches ICEcore as Kablink”
30 Startup Ideas from Y Combinator
Fresh out of ideas for your next technology startup? No worries—investor/programmer/Web guru Paul Graham, founder of the Cambridge, MA, and Mountain View, CA-based Y Combinator startup incubator, published a handy list this weekend of 30 niches waiting to be filled by clever entrepreneurs. Graham says he published the list because the ideas represent the kind … Continue reading “30 Startup Ideas from Y Combinator”
Best Practices for Corporate Blogging
A Meetup meetup for people interested in how to use blogs more effectively for corporate communication. From the event description: “07:00 – 07:30 Self Introduction, exchange business cards 07:30 – 08:00 Best Practices for Corporate Blogging – Presenter: Zach Hofer-Shall, a Social Media Consultant 08:00 – Discussion, networking We are fortunate to have a social … Continue reading “Best Practices for Corporate Blogging”
Boston Web Design Meetup
A Meetup meetup for people interested in meeting up about Web design. More information here.
SummerMash Boston
Pete Cashmore, Karen Hartline, and Brett Petersel from Mashable, one of the Web’s leading blogs on social networking and Web 2.0 technology, are doing a six-city summer tour and they’ll be at the Roxy in Boston—hosting drinks, light appetizers, and “a few surprises”—on August 5. Information here.
New England Venture Activity Picks Up Slightly in Second Quarter, but Still Nowhere Near 2007 Levels
Second-quarter venture activity in the New England region recovered somewhat after a tepid first quarter—but was still down significantly compared to the same period a year ago, according to data released over the weekend by Dow Jones VentureSource. Private equity investments by New England venture firms totaled $714 million for the quarter, a 16 percent … Continue reading “New England Venture Activity Picks Up Slightly in Second Quarter, but Still Nowhere Near 2007 Levels”
U.S. Venture Financing Down Slightly in Second Quarter; Solar Energy is One Bright Spot
Reflecting the general economic slowdown, venture investment in U.S. companies decreased moderately in the second quarter of 2008, according to reports released over the weekend by Dow Jones VentureSource, a unit of the financial news giant’s enterprise media group, and by the MoneyTree division of PricewaterhouseCoopers. Total funds shelled out by venture firms in the … Continue reading “U.S. Venture Financing Down Slightly in Second Quarter; Solar Energy is One Bright Spot”
Web Innovators Group 19
The latest incarnation of David Beisel’s festival of pre-venture-funded startups. Main dish presenters: Givvy – John Treadway Brring – Rob Carney Pixily – Prasad Thammineni, Vikram Kumar, Anand Rajaram Side dish presenters: TuneRooms – Matt Falkowski, Kevin Gardiner, Erik Symonds PeopleAhead – Thomas Chevalier, Carlos Larracilla JobVent – Craig Spitzkoff VendorCity – JC Cameron OpenVote … Continue reading “Web Innovators Group 19”
Theragenics Knits Up Needletech Deal
Attleboro, MA-based Needletech Products, which manufactures needles used for range of medical procedures such as core biopsies, aspiration biopsies, and spinal anesthesia, has agreed to be purchased by Buford, GA-based medical device maker Theragenics (NYSE: [[ticker:TGX]]) for $47.8 million in cash, Theragenics reported this week. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter … Continue reading “Theragenics Knits Up Needletech Deal”
ConnectEDU Connects with PrepHeadquarters
Boston-based ConnectEDU, which provides online tools to help high school students, parents, and counselors manage the college admissions process, announced yesterday that it has acquired competitor PrepHeadquarters, a Chicago-based startup whose online services help counselors communicate with students and parents and track student progress. The terms of the acquisition, which will extend ConnectEDU’s network to … Continue reading “ConnectEDU Connects with PrepHeadquarters”
Can Evernote Make You into a Digital Leonardo?
Historians believe that Leonardo da Vinci—one of my biggest heroes, if you hadn’t already guessed by reading my columns—filled about 30,000 notebook pages with his drawings, diagrams, discourses, and doodles. Only about 6,000 of those pages survive today, but what wondrous pages they are. Martin Kemp, a leading Leonardo biographer and visual historian at Oxford … Continue reading “Can Evernote Make You into a Digital Leonardo?”
Tyco Secures Surveillance-Video-Analysis Firm Intellivid
Tyco International, the Bermuda-based conglomerate focused on safety and security technologies, said today that it has acquired Intellivid, a venture-backed startup in Cambridge, MA, that makes software for analyzing digital video from in-store security cameras. As a result of the acquisition, the terms of which were not disclosed, Intellivid will be folded into Tyco’s American … Continue reading “Tyco Secures Surveillance-Video-Analysis Firm Intellivid”
Bluefin Sells Sub to Horizon Marine, Competes with iRobot for Big Navy Contract
Greg told you last month about Bedford, MA-based iRobot’s collaboration with the University of Washington to turn its Seaglider undersea robot into a commercial product. Not to be outdone, Cambridge, MA-based Bluefin Robotics announced this week that it has received its first commercial contract for a similar autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), the Spray Glider. And … Continue reading “Bluefin Sells Sub to Horizon Marine, Competes with iRobot for Big Navy Contract”
Wakonda Raises $9.5 Million for New Solar Cell Technology, Relocates to Medford
Rochester Institute of Technology spinoff Wakonda Technologies will use a $9.5 million Series A venture round announced today to pursue a new technique for manufacturing photovoltaic cells that are more efficient but cost less than mass-market solar cells. Backers for the startup, which is moving from New York state to Medford, MA, include Advanced Technology … Continue reading “Wakonda Raises $9.5 Million for New Solar Cell Technology, Relocates to Medford”
EMC’s Iomega and Mozy Divisions Offer Combined Desktop and Cloud-Based Backup
As Bob observed in a March story, EMC (NYSE: [[ticker:EMC]]), the Hopkinton, MA-based information infrastructure and content management firm, is very good at acquiring companies whose technologies fit with its existing technology architecture. But it isn’t so well known for actually melding the technologies from various acquisitions into new products. VMware (NYSE: [[ticker:VMW]]), for example, … Continue reading “EMC’s Iomega and Mozy Divisions Offer Combined Desktop and Cloud-Based Backup”
EnerNOC Signs up Rhode Island
Boston-based EnerNOC, which pays organizations to join “demand response” pools whose members agree to cut back on power usage during times of peak electrical demand, said today that it has added a major new partner: the State of Rhode Island. Under a five-year contract, EnerNOC will add city, town, and government-related buildings in Rhode Island … Continue reading “EnerNOC Signs up Rhode Island”
3Com-Realtek Settlement Replaced by $70 Million Licensing Agreement
Marlborough, MA-based 3Com and Realtek Semiconductor Corporation of Hsinchu, Taiwan, said yesterday that they’ve resolved a longstanding patent dispute over Realtek network controller chips that 3Com claimed appropriated aspects of its parallel processing technology. 3Com won a $45.3 million judgment against Realtek in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in April, … Continue reading “3Com-Realtek Settlement Replaced by $70 Million Licensing Agreement”
Lycos Introduces Drag-and-Drop “Web 2.0 Publishing for the Masses”
Back in May we wrote about the re-launch of Lycos Cinema, which Waltham, MA-based Lycos had tricked out with a new chat interface that lets up to 10 friends in different locations watch and comment on the same movie simultaneously. It turns out that was just the first step in a multi-part strategy to reinvent … Continue reading “Lycos Introduces Drag-and-Drop “Web 2.0 Publishing for the Masses””
With New $9.5 Million Funding Round, ThingMagic Gets a Fix on Smaller RFID Readers
The RFID business is getting hot again. A few weeks ago, Waltham, MA-based RFID software maker OATSystems was gobbled up by New Jersey’s Checkpoint Systems, and last week Greg reported that Seattle-based Impinj had sold off its memory business and bought Intel’s RFID division. Now Cambridge, MA-based ThingMagic, an MIT spinoff that makes hardware for … Continue reading “With New $9.5 Million Funding Round, ThingMagic Gets a Fix on Smaller RFID Readers”
NeoSaej Collects $7 Million More for MoneyAisle
MoneyAisle.com, a reverse-auction site where lenders compete to offer potential banking customers the highest rates for certificates of deposit and high-yield savings accounts, is getting a big boost from the financial industry itself. NeoSaej, the Burlington, MA-based company behind MoneyAisle (profiled here last month), said today that it has raised over $7 million in new … Continue reading “NeoSaej Collects $7 Million More for MoneyAisle”
Skyhook Launches in Europe
Boston-based Skyhook Wireless, which makes embedded location-finding software for a range of devices from mobile phones to digital camera memory cards, said today that it has launched sales and operations efforts in Europe. It will make its formal European debut at a Mobile Monday London gathering tonight, and it’s already working with companies like UK-based … Continue reading “Skyhook Launches in Europe”
InnovationRx Launches
Newton, MA-based InnovationRx, a medication reminder service that we profiled on June 24, has officially opened its doors to patients. The service, organized with Northeastern University’s School of Pharmacy, lets patients upload lists of their medications, then helps them create a customized plan for taking and refilling their prescription drugs on time—in part via e-mail, … Continue reading “InnovationRx Launches”
Venrock, Panorama Lead $7 Million Round for Shopflick
Los Angeles-based Shopflick, creator of a platform for Web-based video product tours and advertisements, announced today that it has raised a $7 million Series A venture round. The round was led by Menlo Park, CA-based Panaroma Capital and Venrock, which has offices in New ork, Menlo Park, CA, and Cambridge MA.
7/11 = 3G
iPhone 3G madness has struck Boston. This morning our team of reporters fanned out across the city —well, okay, just across Boylston Street in Boston and the Cambridgeside Galleria in Cambridge—to snap a few pictures of the lines of eager iPhone 3G buyers assembling outside Apple and AT&T retail locations. We even managed to escape … Continue reading “7/11 = 3G”
You’re Listening to Radio Lab—Or You Should Be
I drove from Boston to northern Michigan last weekend to hang out with my parents over the 4th of July. It’s a 15-hour trek—plus another two or three hours if you forget your passport and you have to go south around Lake Erie instead of straight through Canada. But I didn’t mind the drive, because … Continue reading “You’re Listening to Radio Lab—Or You Should Be”
Courion Automates Computer Access To Keep Data Where It’s Supposed to Be
January, 2008: French bank Societe Generale discloses that it has lost $7.1 billion, thanks to unauthorized trading by a single employee, Jerome Kerviel, who apparently breached various controls on access to the bank’s computer systems. March, 2008: UCLA Medical Center fires 13 workers and disciplines a dozen others for snooping in the confidential medical files … Continue reading “Courion Automates Computer Access To Keep Data Where It’s Supposed to Be”
Apple Launches iPhone App Store Ahead of Schedule; Boston and Seattle Startups Featured
Apple had promised to unveil the new App Store section of iTunes—where, for the first time, iPhone and iPod Touch owners will be able to get third-party applications for their devices—on July 11, the same day that the new iPhone 3G goes on sale. But in a typical bit of Apple surprise marketing, the App … Continue reading “Apple Launches iPhone App Store Ahead of Schedule; Boston and Seattle Startups Featured”
Aspect Acquires BlueNote Networks
Chelmsford, MA-based Aspect Software, which makes call center equipment and software, said yesterday that it has bought most of the assets of BlueNote Networks, a Tewksbury, MA, company with technology that helps companies integrate Internet-based communications into their existing business software. Aspect CEO Jim Foy said the acquisition would help Aspect’s customers treat their call … Continue reading “Aspect Acquires BlueNote Networks”