It’s time to catch up on some of the latest headlines in the Boston-area tech scene:
—Nuance Communications is planning to phase out the Swype mobile keyboard apps for iOS and Android smartphones, according to a post from Xda Developers, which said it got confirmation from Burlington, MA-based Nuance (NASDAQ: [[ticker:NUAN]]). Nuance bought Swype in 2011 for $102.5 million.
—S&P Global (NYSE: [[ticker:SPGI]]) said it has reached a deal to acquire Panjiva, which uses machine learning and related technologies to glean insights from data about global supply chains. Twelve-year-old Panjiva has offices in Cambridge, MA, New York, and Shanghai. Terms of the acquisition, which hasn’t closed yet, weren’t disclosed in a press release. (Read more about Panjiva’s origins in this profile from 2010.)
—Jobcase said it hauled in an additional $11.5 million in venture capital, following a $7 million investment announced in September. Providence Equity Partners led the latest investment, which is part of Jobcase’s Series A funding round, according to a press release. Cambridge-based Jobcase operates a social media platform for the American workforce.
—Dover Microsystems, a Waltham, MA-based cybersecurity startup spun out of Draper Laboratory, announced it pulled in $6 million in seed funding. The investment was led by Hyperplane Venture Capital, alongside contributions from Draper, Qualcomm Ventures, and the Hub Angels Investment Group, according to a press release e-mailed to Xconomy.
Dover said it is developing a hardware-based approach to fending off network attacks. It focuses on computer processors, aiming to ensure that only safe software instructions get carried out.
—As businesses and society grapple with the implications of increasingly sophisticated machines, Harvard University and MIT have together launched a new course exploring the ethics and regulation of artificial intelligence, the New York Times reported. And they’re not the only higher education institutions rolling out tech ethics courses—Stanford University, the University of Texas at Austin, and New York University are among the others, the Times reported.
—Micronotes, a Cambridge-based company that sells marketing automation tools to financial institutions, secured more than $3 million from investors, according to an SEC filing.
—Oneiro, a blockchain technology startup with operations in Europe and Boston, received a $3 million seed investment from Cosimo Ventures, which has offices in Boston and Dublin.
—FalconAI Technologies raised $2.9 million in equity and debt financing, an SEC filing shows. The startup, which has offices in Boston and Istanbul, Turkey, says it’s developing algorithms meant to improve business processes.
—Cambridge Electronics raised $2.6 million in equity funding, per an SEC filing. The Cambridge-based company is commercializing semiconductor material based on research conducted at MIT.
—Lastly, Bain Capital Ventures hired Adam Levin as a Boston-based partner, focused on investing in later-stage enterprise software and data services firms. Levin previously was a vice president at Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors in Los Angeles.
