Boston-based Currensee announced today that it’s opening its online community for foreign currency traders to all comers, after nearly six months of private beta testing. The company also said that it has closed its Series A funding round, raising $6 million from North Bridge Venture Partners in Waltham, MA. “It’s a major milestone for us,” … Continue reading “Currensee Opens Currency-Trader Community, Closes $6M Venture Round”
Category: Boston
Notes from Dogpatch Labs’ Housewarming Party—and a List of Initial Inhabitants
It was a cold and drizzly night (how’s that for original writing?) last Thursday, and I was running late. But Dogpatch Labs Cambridge was holding its housewarming party across the street from Xconomy World Headquarters, so I braved the elements to stop in. I walked into a crowded house of 70 folks or so, boxes … Continue reading “Notes from Dogpatch Labs’ Housewarming Party—and a List of Initial Inhabitants”
MoneyTree Survey of VC Activity Sees Pace of Investments Strengthening
Let optimism reign. A third survey of recent VC activity shows that venture investments increased 17 percent during the third quarter, compared with the previous quarter. While the actual numbers vary, the findings of the MoneyTree Report from PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association, based on data from Thomson Reuters, reinforces the more optimistic … Continue reading “MoneyTree Survey of VC Activity Sees Pace of Investments Strengthening”
REvolution Computing Secures $9,000,000 New Financing
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=d3c1aaa7-e7d0-44b5-a47f-0c7fe38cc531&Preview=1 Date 10/20/2009 Company Name REvolution Computing Mailing Address One Century Tower 265 Church Street New Haven, CT 06510 Company Description With over 1 million users and growing, the open source language known as “R” has emerged as the de facto standard for developing computational statistics and predictive analytical software. REvolution Computing … Continue reading “REvolution Computing Secures $9,000,000 New Financing”
Synageva BioPharma Corp Lands $12,000,000 New Financing Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=bb2b42fc-02b6-4cde-b85c-c382c5bfd01b&Preview=1 Date 10/20/2009 Company Name Synageva BioPharma Corp Mailing Address 60 Hickory Drive Waltham, MA 02451 Company Description Synageva BioPharma’s ultimate goal is to improve patient lives by providing access to breakthrough novel, next generation (i.e. significantly improved), and certain follow on protein therapeutics. Synageva’s proprietary platform technologies, including SEPTM, provide a … Continue reading “Synageva BioPharma Corp Lands $12,000,000 New Financing Round”
Mintera Corporation Obtains $4,100,000 New Funding Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=f21906ed-42a1-48d4-a0a2-ffa3821056cf&Preview=1 Date 10/20/2009 Company Name Mintera Corporation Mailing Address 35 Nagog Park Acton, MA 01720 Company Description Mintera was founded in 2000 to be the technology leader enabling next generation 40 Gbps optical transport in metro-core, regional, long- haul and ultra long-haul optical networks. Website http://www.mintera.com Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction Amount … Continue reading “Mintera Corporation Obtains $4,100,000 New Funding Round”
Augmenix Snags $6.1M
Waltham, MA-based Augmenix, the maker of implantable material to minimize the side effects of radiation therapy, said today it has closed a Series B round of financing worth $6.1 million. Ascension Health Ventures led the round, and was joined by Versant Ventures, Pinnacle Ventures, Catalyst Health Ventures, and several private investors, the company said. The … Continue reading “Augmenix Snags $6.1M”
Kauffman Acquires StudentBusinesses
StudentBusinesses.com, a startup founded by a group of Harvard College graduates nearly two years ago to help entrepreneurial university students network with potential investors, advisors, and collaborators, has been acquired by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation of Kansas City, MO, according to CEO and co-founder Travis May. The purchase price was undisclosed. The company’s online … Continue reading “Kauffman Acquires StudentBusinesses”
HubSpot Gets $16 Million to “Put Mass Behind SaaS”; Marketing Automation Company Has Plans to Go Public, CEO Says
It’s a big day at HubSpot, the Cambridge, MA-based marketing technology startup founded three years ago by local investor-entrepreneurs Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah. The company announced that it has raised a $16 million Series C financing round, led by new investor Scale Ventures, with existing investors General Catalyst Partners and Matrix Partners also joining … Continue reading “HubSpot Gets $16 Million to “Put Mass Behind SaaS”; Marketing Automation Company Has Plans to Go Public, CEO Says”
Hydra, Cubist Seek New Pain Drugs
Cambridge, MA-based Hydra Biosciences said today it has formed a partnership with Lexington, MA-based Cubist Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:CBST]]) to develop new pain medications. Hydra will receive $5 million upfront, plus another $5 million annually for two years to support Hydra’s R&D, with an option to renew the partnership. The deal focuses on Hydra’s work on … Continue reading “Hydra, Cubist Seek New Pain Drugs”
TechStars Boston is Homeless, But Will Return in 2010—Director Finds Shelter in Dogpatch Labs
One of the worst things that happened in the Boston entrepreneurial community this year was that Y Combinator decamped to do all its incubating of new tech companies in Silicon Valley. One of the best things that happened was that a few months later, TechStars moved right in to fill the void. The incubator camp … Continue reading “TechStars Boston is Homeless, But Will Return in 2010—Director Finds Shelter in Dogpatch Labs”
Lots of Energy on Tap at MIT Energy Night
You know how Hollywood always goes overboard with gizmos and hijinks when it’s trying to represent young people doing science? (I’m thinking especially of 1980s movies like WarGames, Real Genius, and Weird Science.) Well, the MIT Museum in Cambridge, MA, looked exactly like that last Friday as the annual “MIT Energy Night” event showcased dozens … Continue reading “Lots of Energy on Tap at MIT Energy Night”
HubSpot Receives $16,000,000 Series C Financing
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=6d0e1526-b856-40bc-95ae-0854db07b6b6&Preview=1 Date 10/19/2009 Company Name HubSpot Mailing Address One Broadway 5th Floor Cambridge, MA 02142 Company Description HubSpot is an Internet marketing software platform that enables your company to get more leads from your website by driving more prospects to your website and converting more of them into leads. HubSpot software tracks … Continue reading “HubSpot Receives $16,000,000 Series C Financing”
Faster, Cheaper Stem Cells: Fate Therapeutics Co-Founder, With Scripps Team, Finds Key
One of the scientific co-founders of San Diego-based Fate Therapeutics, along with his team at The Scripps Research Institute, is reporting a major advance that will make it faster, cheaper, and potentially practical on an industrial scale to turn adult cells into stem cells that can morph into any type of cell in the human … Continue reading “Faster, Cheaper Stem Cells: Fate Therapeutics Co-Founder, With Scripps Team, Finds Key”
Charles River Lays Off 115 in Quebec
Wilmington, MA-based Charles River Laboratories (NYSE: [[ticker:CRL]]) has eliminated 115 positions at subsidiary CTBR Bio-Research in Senneville, Quebec, according to an article yesterday in the Montreal Gazette. A spokesperson quoted in the article attributed the cuts to the postponement of contract clinical research and development projects by the company’s pharmaceutical-industry clients. It’s not Charles River’s … Continue reading “Charles River Lays Off 115 in Quebec”
Is Venture Up or Down? Dow Jones Survey Shows Retreat in Q3 VC Activity, Flatly Contradicting Rival Report
After reporting earlier this week that third-quarter venture capital investments were up 14 percent nationwide over the second quarter—based on data from New York-based ChubbyBrain—we now have data from Dow Jones VentureSource for the same period that shows almost the opposite: a 5.5 percent decline in venture capital deployed during the quarter. Instead of the … Continue reading “Is Venture Up or Down? Dow Jones Survey Shows Retreat in Q3 VC Activity, Flatly Contradicting Rival Report”
Jackpot Rewards Raises $12M
Jackpot Rewards, a Newton, MA-based startup that runs cash-back rewards programs and sweepstakes for online shoppers, has raised just over $12 million in new financing in the form of convertible debt, according to regulatory documents filed today. We profiled the company in February 2008, when it first announced its plans to give away a $1 … Continue reading “Jackpot Rewards Raises $12M”
Ballmer in Boston: Microsoft CEO on New England Startups, Competing with Apple, and the “New Normal” of IT
Microsoft is adjusting to a “new normal” with levels of demand for information technology that may be permanently lower than in the past—but it will still vie aggressively with competitors such as Apple for the dollars of consumers and enterprises, CEO Steve Ballmer told an audience in Boston today. In a rare visit to New … Continue reading “Ballmer in Boston: Microsoft CEO on New England Startups, Competing with Apple, and the “New Normal” of IT”
Flexion Therapeutics Gets $33M For Faster, Cheaper Drug Development
[Update: 10/16/09, 3:18 pm Eastern] Flexion Therapeutics, the Woburn, MA-based company that seeks to reduce the time and expense of drug development’s risky early steps, has raised $33 million in a Series A venture round, according to a statement. Earlier in the day, we reported the deal was for $20 million, out of a potential … Continue reading “Flexion Therapeutics Gets $33M For Faster, Cheaper Drug Development”
Thank You, Microsoft
This article was written with Michael Greeley, general partner at Flybridge Capital Partners and chairman of the New England Venture Capital Association. Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer is here in Cambridge this morning meeting with community leaders, and presumably also with his own staff to learn how things are going at Microsoft’s New England Research and Development … Continue reading “Thank You, Microsoft”
Demo Meet-up (with Xconomy)
Join Matt Marshall, VentureBeat founder and executive producer of tech conference Demo, for Demo’s Boston meet-up. Matt and his crew will be in town looking for startups interested in presenting their products or companies at the spring edition of the semi-annual tech event next year. Xconomy Founder Bob Buderi will be there as well—so we … Continue reading “Demo Meet-up (with Xconomy)”
Join Xconomy at Demo Meet-Up Next Thursday
Demo conference executive producer (and VentureBeat founder) Matt Marshall and his posse will be in town next Thursday scouting out startups interested in unveiling their companies or products at the spring edition of the semi-annual tech event. We’re planning on knocking back a beer or two (or maybe something stronger) with Matt and the Demo … Continue reading “Join Xconomy at Demo Meet-Up Next Thursday”
The Kauffman Foundation: Bringing Entrepreneurship Up to Date in Kansas City
Before I came to Xconomy, I didn’t know much about the Kansas City-based Kauffman Foundation beyond what I heard on the radio. If you’re an NPR listener like me, you’ve probably heard their underwriting plug that says it’s the “Foundation of Entrepreneurship.” But then I started covering stories like the foundation’s annual New Economy Index, … Continue reading “The Kauffman Foundation: Bringing Entrepreneurship Up to Date in Kansas City”
Cisco Snags Starent for $2.9B, Rocket Software Raises $91.9M, & More Boston-Area Deals News
Not much deals news to round up this week, thanks to the Monday holiday and the fact that last week’s roundup slipped to this week. But just in case you missed it… —Tewksbury, MA-based Starent Networks (NASDAQ:[[ticker:STAR]]) agreed to be acquired by technology giant Cisco (NASDAQ:[[ticker:CSCO]]) for a healthy $2.9 billion. Starent, which went public … Continue reading “Cisco Snags Starent for $2.9B, Rocket Software Raises $91.9M, & More Boston-Area Deals News”
Flexion Therapeutics Secures $33,000,000 Series A Funding
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=261bcfe5-9389-49a5-ac75-0a2f8c696d10&Preview=1 Date 10/16/2009 Company Name Flexion Therapeutics Mailing Address 300 TradeCenter Woburn, MA 01801 Company Description Flexion Therapeutics advances drug candidates through clinical proof of concept and beyond, in partnership with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. By providing expertise and sharing risk, Flexion effectively expands the portfolios of its partners. Website http://www.flexiontherapeutics.com Transaction … Continue reading “Flexion Therapeutics Secures $33,000,000 Series A Funding”
Augmenix Obtains $6,100,000 Series B Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=0db3f518-5f0f-4084-8b6f-4ce027f9f671&Preview=1 Date 10/16/2009 Company Name Augmenix Mailing Address 204 2nd Avenue Waltham, MA 02451 Company Description Augmenix™, Inc. is a privately held medical device company developing in-situ formed, space-filling hydrogels specifically for radiation oncology and cancer surgery indications. Augmenix, Inc.’s initial product will be the first synthetic tissue spacer designed and indicated … Continue reading “Augmenix Obtains $6,100,000 Series B Round”
Jackpot Rewards Receives $12,000,000 New Financing
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=43025522-b19f-47ad-a341-43a6d9b1d4fa&Preview=1 Date 10/16/2009 Company Name Jackpot Rewards Mailing Address 275 Grove Street Newton, MA 02466 Company Description The company operates on online lottery website. Website http://www.jackpotrewards.com Transaction Type Debt Transaction Amount $12,000,000 Transaction Round Undisclosed Proceeds Purposes Proceeds purposes were not disclosed. M&A Terms Venture Investor Undisclosed
Future Forward 2009
This year’s installment of the Future Forward Retreat hits on New Marketing, New Rules of Angel Investing, Visualizing Information in New Ways, and the catchy “Long Road to Global Domination.” As a bonus, participants will be able to suggest their own topics for lunchtime roundtable discussions. The afternoon program includes demo sessions from promising New … Continue reading “Future Forward 2009”
Deep Dive Into MA Deals Data for Q3—With Lots of Pictures
Just about everyone loves a good pie…chart, that is. If you’re one of those, read on. On Tuesday, we ran a story here in Boston about all the September venture deals in Massachusetts—and then my colleague Bruce followed that up a bit later that same day with a national roundup of third-quarter venture figures. Both … Continue reading “Deep Dive Into MA Deals Data for Q3—With Lots of Pictures”
How to Tap Russia for Biomedical Breakthroughs: Lessons from Boston BioCom
Boston is an international hotbed of biotech research. So why would a company called Boston BioCom specialize, as it does, in bringing biomedical discoveries to the Hub from Russia? To hear the folks at Boston BioCom tell it, Russia has some biotech brawn of its own. New York-based drug giant Pfizer (NYSE:[[ticker:PFE]]) invested $10 million … Continue reading “How to Tap Russia for Biomedical Breakthroughs: Lessons from Boston BioCom”
What Boston’s Life Sciences Community is Taking for Granted
I spent an enlightening week in Tokyo earlier this month participating in the Kauffman Fellows Japan Summit. This summit was the brainchild of three visionary Kauffman Fellows who are on a mission to instill entrepreneurship into the Japanese culture. During the three days we heard about the current (dismal) status of venture capital and entrepreneurial … Continue reading “What Boston’s Life Sciences Community is Taking for Granted”
Appswell Tests the Crowdsourcing Model for iPhone Apps
Last time I checked, there were 85,000 iPhone applications in Apple’s iTunes App Store, a number that seems to grow by thousands every week. But most of those apps were dreamed up by developers, not by average users. Now there’s a way for anyone with a bright idea for an iPhone app to submit it—and, … Continue reading “Appswell Tests the Crowdsourcing Model for iPhone Apps”
Alkermes Anti-Addiction Drug Fares Well in Clinical Trials, Amgen Takes Aim at Drug-Development Success Rate, & More Boston-Area Life Sciences News
It’s been a short week and a long weekend since last I rounded up New England’s life sciences news, but there were still a few stories worth mentioning. —Luke took an in-depth look at giant Amgen’s (NASDAQ: [[ticker:AMGN]]) efforts to boost its rate of success in getting new drugs to market. Though Amgen is based … Continue reading “Alkermes Anti-Addiction Drug Fares Well in Clinical Trials, Amgen Takes Aim at Drug-Development Success Rate, & More Boston-Area Life Sciences News”
Sirtris Advancing No. 1 Drug into Mid-Stage Clinical Trials for Type 2 Diabetes
Cambridge, MA, biotech standout Sirtris has been a quieter operation since it became a subsidiary of drug giant GlaxoSmithKline last summer. But the firm’s drugs, heralded for their potential anti-aging effects, appear to be advancing through the clinic without a hitch. Brian Gallagher, senior director of corporate development at Sirtris, disclosed during a recent meeting … Continue reading “Sirtris Advancing No. 1 Drug into Mid-Stage Clinical Trials for Type 2 Diabetes”
Book of Odds Comes Out of Stealth to Make Intuitive Sense of Statistics—But Can It Sell Ads?
Despite the fact that “Google it” is now synonymous with “look it up,” Google itself isn’t a primary reference source. It merely aggregates facts and claims from everywhere else. If you wanted to create a genuinely new reference work on the scale of a dictionary or an encyclopedia—even if it lived online—you’d still have to … Continue reading “Book of Odds Comes Out of Stealth to Make Intuitive Sense of Statistics—But Can It Sell Ads?”
Q3 Venture Deals Regain Some Lost Altitude, With $6B Invested Nationwide
The storm may not have entirely passed, but the venture capital industry unbattened the hatches during the three months that ended in September. At least that’s the sense I get from a 69-page report on U.S. venture investing, which we get from New York-based ChubbyBrain, an information services firm developing tools for investors, startups, and … Continue reading “Q3 Venture Deals Regain Some Lost Altitude, With $6B Invested Nationwide”
Alkermes’ Anti-Addiction Drug, Key to Company Pipeline, Passes Early Test
Alkermes, the Cambridge, MA based biotech company, said today that a strategically important drug it is developing to help people beat addictions was found in a pair of early-stage clinical trials to be safe and practical as a once-daily pill. The Alkermes drug, called ALKS 33, was found to be well-tolerated, absorbed into the bloodstream … Continue reading “Alkermes’ Anti-Addiction Drug, Key to Company Pipeline, Passes Early Test”
$92M for Rocket Software
Newton, MA-based enterprise software firm Rocket Software has raised $91.9 million in equity financing, according to an SEC filing. PeHUB reports that that the filing comes on the heels of private equity firm Court Square Capital Partners’ investment in Rocket, but that neither firm would talk about the financing. The SEC filing does not indicate … Continue reading “$92M for Rocket Software”
MIT Venture Capital Conference
The MIT Venture Capital & Private Equity Club presents the 12th annual MIT Venture Capital Conference. From the conference website: “Against the background of a quickly changing economic environment, the 2009 conference will illuminate the critical trends and opportunities available in this ‘Brave New World.’ How have dramatic shifts in the political and financial worlds … Continue reading “MIT Venture Capital Conference”
Innovation Day at the Massachusetts State House
The Joint Committee on Economic Development & Emerging Technology of the Massachusetts state legislature, together with the Massachusetts Legislative Biotechnology Caucus, the New England Venture Capital Association, MassBio, MassMEDIC, Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council, MITX and the New England Clean Energy Council, is organizing a morning of presentations by innovative technology companies in the state. The … Continue reading “Innovation Day at the Massachusetts State House”
Investors Lighted $228M Fire Under Massachusetts Startups in September
It wasn’t just school that people got back to in September—it was startup funding. After slowing noticeably in August, the total venture investment into Massachusetts startups last month hit its highest level since we began tracking the monthly figures in June. All told, investors put $228 million into 25 deals involving Bay State startups. That … Continue reading “Investors Lighted $228M Fire Under Massachusetts Startups in September”
Cisco Buying Starent for $2.9B
Technology giant Cisco (NASDAQ:[[ticker:CSCO]]) plans to acquire Tewksbury, MA-based Starent Networks (NASDAQ:[[ticker:STAR]]), a provider of wireless infrastructure products used to transfer data to mobile devices such as smartphones, for a whopping $2.9 billion, Cisco reports this morning. Both companies’ boards of directors have approved the deal, which is expected to close in the first half … Continue reading “Cisco Buying Starent for $2.9B”
How Twitter Got an App Store: The Oneforty Story (Part 2)
The second big thing in the genesis of Twitter app store oneforty (the first being proof that a real economy was possible on Twitter—see Part 1 of the oneforty story) was that Laura Fitton couldn’t find anyone besides herself to manage the company. As readers of the initial installment of this story will remember, Fitton … Continue reading “How Twitter Got an App Store: The Oneforty Story (Part 2)”
Medical Device Startups Getting Squeezed by Recession, Lawmakers, Says E&Y Report
People who make a living creating innovative medical devices—whether it’s an ultrasound diagnostic tool, a stent to prop open clogged arteries, or an MRI machine—are an unhappy bunch these days. Let us count the ways, as described in the second annual medical device industry analysis being released today by Ernst & Young. Because unemployment is … Continue reading “Medical Device Startups Getting Squeezed by Recession, Lawmakers, Says E&Y Report”
Boston-Area Entrepreneurs and Innovators Take to the Streets in Mobile Scavenger Hunt
What would you think if I told you that a 20-year-old with an iPhone could turn hundreds of Boston’s sharpest entrepreneurs, business leaders, and students into human game pieces on a life-sized game board? Last Friday, that is exactly what happened as The Quest for Innovation put the spotlight on Boston’s history of entrepreneurship and … Continue reading “Boston-Area Entrepreneurs and Innovators Take to the Streets in Mobile Scavenger Hunt”
Rocket Software Obtains $91,900,000 New Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=5591d30a-c3d2-46bd-8b55-1adc9ccb3602&Preview=1 Date 10/13/2009 Company Name Rocket Software Mailing Address 275 Grove Street Newton, MA 02466 Company Description Rocket is a privately held, consistently profitable (since our inception in 1990), software manufacturer headquartered in Newton, Massachusetts, USA. Our engineers are primarily located in one of our R&D labs or programming clusters in the … Continue reading “Rocket Software Obtains $91,900,000 New Round”
Cisco Systems Acquires Starent Networks Corp. for $2,900,000,000
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=c5deec68-30f9-4c94-b9dc-b2d7393d33ed&Preview=1 Date 10/13/2009 Company Name Starent Networks Corp. Mailing Address 30 International Place Tewksbury, MA 01876 Company Description Starent Networks has been focused on delivering a superior subscriber experience with next-generation services. Website http://www.starentnetworks.com Transaction Type M&A Transaction Amount $2,900,000,000 Transaction Round Proceeds Purposes M&A Terms Under the terms of the agreement, … Continue reading “Cisco Systems Acquires Starent Networks Corp. for $2,900,000,000”
Angels Who Charge Entrepreneurs to Pitch: the Debate Heats Up
It’s an Xconomy holiday today, but I couldn’t resist a quick pointer post to an argument heating up across the Web—one that is related to a story we ran here last week about a new Cambridge, MA-based group, Revolutionary Angels, which announced its plans to hold a quarterly business plan competition. Revolutionary Angels drew fire … Continue reading “Angels Who Charge Entrepreneurs to Pitch: the Debate Heats Up”
Epizyme Grabs $32M, A123 Systems’ IPO Enriches BU, & More Boston-Area Deals News
It’s a nice change from previous weeks this year to be writing about IPOs and big exits for venture firms. At least in Boston and environs, big paydays for investors and entrepreneurs seemed to be materializing. And startups from a variety of innovation sectors secured capital to fuel their movement toward hoped-for exits. Not sure … Continue reading “Epizyme Grabs $32M, A123 Systems’ IPO Enriches BU, & More Boston-Area Deals News”
Adobe, Omniture, and the End of the “Mad Men” Marketing Era
I’ve been predicting for a while that the marketing agencies and website developers that don’t have deep technical capabilities in search engine optimization will be left by the side of the road. Now we’re seeing it come to pass with Adobe’s $1.8 billion buyout of Omniture. [Adobe Systems announced the acquisition on Sept. 15, and … Continue reading “Adobe, Omniture, and the End of the “Mad Men” Marketing Era”