Category: Boston

World Energy Joins NASDAQ

Worcester, MA-based World Energy, which runs online auctions for energy contracts as well as carbon emissions allowances, said today that its stock will be listed on the NASDAQ exchange under the ticker symbol XWES. Since its 2006 IPO, the company has traded only on the Toronto Stock Exchange, under the system XWE. “Gaining increased exposure … Continue reading “World Energy Joins NASDAQ”

Atlas Backs ProtAffin

Waltham, MA-based Atlas Venture and Conshohocken, PA-based SR One, the venture arm of GlaxoSmithKline, co-led a €14.1 million ($18.4 million) Series B round of financing for ProtAffin, according to an announcement from the Austrian biotech startup. Return backers Aescap Venture, Entrepreneurs Fund, and Z-Cube joined the deal, the proceeds from which will be used to … Continue reading “Atlas Backs ProtAffin”

Crossroads 2009

Crossroads, now in its 16th year, has become the largest venture fair in the eastern United States. Taking place over two days in New Haven, this year’s event will feature select northeastern later stage Tech, IT, and Life Science companies. The fast-paced event is geared to the high-tech, high-growth entrepreneur and investor. Prior companies have … Continue reading “Crossroads 2009”

Down is the New Up: Two Suggestions for How CEOs Can Cope With the Downturn

For the last six months VCs thought they were really funny whenever they used the phrase “flat is the new up.” This crept into the VC lexicon at the beginning of the current crisis to refer to the small victories investors boasted about when raising capital for their portfolio companies. Actually the reality is quite … Continue reading “Down is the New Up: Two Suggestions for How CEOs Can Cope With the Downturn”

Avila Therapeutics May Have Found “Achilles’ Heel” of Hepatitis C Virus

Avila Therapeutics emerged from stealth mode in December and told Xconomy about its secret sauce to systematically create permanent, covalent bonds with protein disease targets. Now the Waltham, MA-based biotech (pronounced AH-vill-uh) reports that its experimental drug for hepatitis C virus may be able to wipe out multiple variations and mutated forms of the virus. … Continue reading “Avila Therapeutics May Have Found “Achilles’ Heel” of Hepatitis C Virus”

Cleaner Water Through Biotech? 349Q Kills Water-Borne Microbes with RNAi

“Biotechnology” and “water purification” aren’t usually themes that you hear mentioned in the same sentence. There are plenty of biotech startups aiming to use cutting-edge molecular approaches like RNA interference (RNAi) to develop profitable new drugs—but fewer people, if any, talk about how these technologies might help people in developing countries where safe drinking water … Continue reading “Cleaner Water Through Biotech? 349Q Kills Water-Borne Microbes with RNAi”

Akamai Appeals Limelight Damage Reversal

On Friday a judge in the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts overturned a February 2008 jury verdict that had ordered Tempe, AZ-based content distribution network Limelight Networks to pay Cambridge, MA-based Akamai Technologies $45 million in damages for patent infringement. Limelight successfully challenged the jury award based on new case law. Akamai immediately said it … Continue reading “Akamai Appeals Limelight Damage Reversal”

Vertex’s Telaprevir Passes Test in Tough-To-Treat Hepatitis C Patients

Vertex’s telaprevir is starting to stand the test of time. The experimental drug for hepatitis C is showing today that it can cure about half of the patients who failed to respond to standard treatments. That’s about triple the cure rate for patients who tried a second round of the existing drugs. The latest findings … Continue reading “Vertex’s Telaprevir Passes Test in Tough-To-Treat Hepatitis C Patients”

MITX Digital Strategy Series: Who Owns Data?

Register for this MITX event and you’ll create a data record. By the end of this session, you may have a better idea about who owns it. Or not, but the debate should be interesting. Details and registration information on the event web site.

Social Media Summit: What’s the ROI of Social Media?

Investment in employee blogs, Twitter, YouTube, customer communities and other social media keeps growing, but what is it worth? As the use of social media grows, practitioners are getting down to the practical issues of deciding what to measure and how to quantify results. The morning keynote, breakout sessions, and workshop at this half-day event … Continue reading “Social Media Summit: What’s the ROI of Social Media?”

2009 Sustainable Energy Summit

UMass Amherst and Co-op Power team up to present this year’s Sustainable Energy Summit with the theme “This is the Year! Now is the Hour!” This two-day event includes exhibitors, keynote speakers, childrens’ programming, and professional training for “green jobs.” Schedule and regitration information can be found at the Co-op Power web site.

Let’s Talk About Tomorrow, People—at Next Week’s Xconomy Biotech Forum

My mental soundtrack the last few weeks has been heavily weighted toward Ziggy Marley’s cheestastic “Tomorrow People,” and I’ll tell you one of the reasons why: I’m getting really excited about our upcoming Xconomy Forum, called Tomorrow’s Biotech—Innovators and Innovations. I’ll confess to not quite getting what Mr. Marley meant by this idea of tomorrow … Continue reading “Let’s Talk About Tomorrow, People—at Next Week’s Xconomy Biotech Forum”

Boston-area Mobile Investments Spike to $215 Million in First Quarter

Investors put $215 million into mobile technology companies in the Boston area in the first quarter of 2009, according to figures released today by Mobile Monday Boston, the local chapter of the global association for mobile professionals. That’s the largest amount raised by the mobile sector in the last five quarters, and it went to … Continue reading “Boston-area Mobile Investments Spike to $215 Million in First Quarter”

Cutting the Cable: It’s Easier Than You Think

In a column published last July, I vacillated publicly about whether it was time to stop paying extortionate rates to my local cable provider, Comcast, for the privilege of watching 17 minutes of commercials with every hour of programming. Well, it took me a while, but in early March I finally cut the cord. I … Continue reading “Cutting the Cable: It’s Easier Than You Think”

Biogen Idec To Show Off MS Drugs at Seattle Neurology Meeting

Biogen Idec is the world’s largest maker of multiple sclerosis drugs, and to keep it that way, the company needs to stay on the good side of neurologists. So when a large number of these docs get together for a scientific meeting, it’s time to start wooing. This is at the top of Biogen’s agenda … Continue reading “Biogen Idec To Show Off MS Drugs at Seattle Neurology Meeting”

Brightcove Forges Adobe Alliance, Investors Give in to DemandWare’s $15M Demands, Fate Therapeutics and Stemgent Team Up on Stem Cell Tech, & More Boston-Area Deals News

There’s much to report from New England’s tech and life sciences sectors this week. Let’s get started. —Clarus Ventures of Cambridge, MA, joined with the likes of InterWest Partners and Arch Venture Partners to lead a $10 million Series A financing for Ann Arbor, MI-based Lycera. The startup is developing treatments for autoimmune diseases based … Continue reading “Brightcove Forges Adobe Alliance, Investors Give in to DemandWare’s $15M Demands, Fate Therapeutics and Stemgent Team Up on Stem Cell Tech, & More Boston-Area Deals News”

Fate Therapeutics and Stemgent Team Up to Offer Stem Cell Advances to the Research Market

San Diego-based Fate Therapeutics and Stemgent, a provider of stem cell research products headquartered in Cambridge, MA, have joined forces to offer new developments in so-called induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell technology for research purposes. The joint effort could provide Fate with a new source of money to develop drugs based on the same technology. … Continue reading “Fate Therapeutics and Stemgent Team Up to Offer Stem Cell Advances to the Research Market”

Powerspan Raises $50 Million

Portsmouth, NH-based Powerspan, which is developing electro-catalytic oxidation systems that remove pollutants from flue gas at coal-fired electrical plants, said today that it has closed a new $50 million financing round led by new investors George Soros, Tenaska Energy, Inc., AllianceBernstein LP, and Persimmon Tree Capital. Existing investors NGEN Partners LLC, The Beacon Group, The … Continue reading “Powerspan Raises $50 Million”

GreatPoint in Deal with Dow

Cambridge, MA-based GreatPoint Energy, which is developing technology that converts coal into cleaner-burning natural gas, said today that it has struck an agreement with Dow Chemical Company (NYSE: [[ticker:DOW]]) giving Dow the right to buy natural gas generated at GreatPoint’s facilities. Dow was the lead investor in GreatPoint’s $103 million equity financing round in 2007, … Continue reading “GreatPoint in Deal with Dow”

GlycoFi Figures Heavily into Drug Giant Merck’s Follow-on Biologics Plans

We’ve seen it before. A large pharmaceutical company buys a small biotech firm, the acquired startup ships its science and technology to the big buyer, and we never hear about the little company again. But GlycoFi, a Lebanon, NH, life sciences startup acquired by U.S. drug giant Merck for $400 million nearly three years ago, … Continue reading “GlycoFi Figures Heavily into Drug Giant Merck’s Follow-on Biologics Plans”

TopCoder—Crowdsourcing Software Long Before Crowdsourcing Got Cool

Can competitions and prizes get you to the Moon? Google thinks so—it’s backing the $30 million Lunar X Prize, which will be awarded to the first privately funded team that sends a remote-controlled robot to the Moon, drives it 500 meters, and collects video of the trip. Back here on Earth, the $10 million Archon … Continue reading “TopCoder—Crowdsourcing Software Long Before Crowdsourcing Got Cool”

Powerspan Corporation Secures $50,000,000 Series D Funding

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=b3364226-f7af-4925-8c07-95791ed49721&Preview=1 Date 4/23/2009 Company Name Powerspan Corporation Mailing Address 100 International Drive Portsmouth, NH 03801 Company Description Powerspan develops and commercializes proprietary, multi-pollutant control and carbon dioxide (CO2) capture technology for electric power plants. Website http://www.powerspan.com Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction Amount $50,000,000 Transaction Round Series D Proceeds Purposes The investment will … Continue reading “Powerspan Corporation Secures $50,000,000 Series D Funding”

First Wind Secures $376M For UT Project

Royal Bank of Scotland is leading a group of investors providing $376 million in financing for Boston-based First Wind‘s project to build a 97-turbine wind farm in Milford, UT, the company announced today. The other lenders include Banco Espirito Santo, Banco Santander, BNP Paribas, CoBank, HSH Nordbank, KeyBank, Société Générale and Credit Suisse. Separately, First … Continue reading “First Wind Secures $376M For UT Project”

Pop Goes the (Venture) Weasel…

So the first quarter venture funding data were just released and the news for entrepreneurs was decidedly bad. It is pretty clear the party for “easy money”—particularly for cleantech companies–is emphatically over. Venture-backed companies raised only $3.9 billion in Q109, which is basically half what they raised this time a year ago. New England companies … Continue reading “Pop Goes the (Venture) Weasel…”

DemandWare Raises $15 Million

Woburn, MA-based DemandWare has closed a $15 million Series D funding round, according to a regulatory filing cited this morning by Mass High Tech and PE Hub. The company, which offers hosted e-commerce storefronts for companies such as Zabars and Barneys, obtained the funding from Waltham, MA-based North Bridge Venture Partners and Cambridge, MA-based General … Continue reading “DemandWare Raises $15 Million”

Infinity Halts Trial of Lead Cancer Drug, Tysabri Sales Short of Projections, Myomo Slashes Staff, & More Boston-Area Life Sciences News

It’s not all bad news this week for New England’s life sciences firms (my headline notwithstanding), but there certainly were a few somber notes. —Infinity Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:[[ticker:INFI]]) of Cambridge, MA, halted a late-stage trial of its lead cancer drug among patients with relapsed forms of malignant stomach tumors after interim results showed that more patients … Continue reading “Infinity Halts Trial of Lead Cancer Drug, Tysabri Sales Short of Projections, Myomo Slashes Staff, & More Boston-Area Life Sciences News”

Phase Forward Buys Waban for $14M

Phase Forward (NASDAQ:[[ticker:PFWD]]), a Waltham, MA-based provider of data management software for clinical trials and drug safety, says that it has acquired Waban Software for $14 million in cash. Waban, based in Cambridge, MA, and with offices in Mumbai, India, sells software for automation and compliance of clinical trials analysis and reporting. Waban, which will … Continue reading “Phase Forward Buys Waban for $14M”

Dataupia Helps Consumer Giants Tackle Big Data

Foster Hinshaw has a theory. The most successful consumer-oriented companies—the Wal-Marts, Amazons, L.L. Beans, and Staples of the world—are successful not just because they understand their customers, but because they can operationalize that understanding. They collect massive amounts of information about past transactions and store it in data warehouses, and they actively mine those warehouses … Continue reading “Dataupia Helps Consumer Giants Tackle Big Data”

Parasol Therapeutics Moves to Neighborhood with $3.25M in Seed Funding—Hunting for Universal Therapeutic to Battle Drug-Resistant Flu

Parasol Therapeutics, a stealthy biotech startup co-founded by MIT bioengineering professor Ram Sasisekharan, has raised $3.25 million in a seed round of venture capital to develop new treatments and diagnostics initially for influenza, says Alan Crane, a general partner at Polaris Venture Partners and chairman of Parasol. On top of taking on the global flu … Continue reading “Parasol Therapeutics Moves to Neighborhood with $3.25M in Seed Funding—Hunting for Universal Therapeutic to Battle Drug-Resistant Flu”

Cognex Cuts 85 Staff

Cognex, a Natick, MA-based company that makes machine-vision sensors and systems for industrial automation, announced cost-cutting measures today that will include executive pay cuts and the elimination of 85 employees and contractors. “Unfortunately, conditions have deteriorated beyond what we had anticipated last fall, and because we currently see no sign of improvement in the near … Continue reading “Cognex Cuts 85 Staff”

Xconomy Wins Its Twitter Struggle–How Wade Reclaimed Our Good Name

After a months-long struggle, Xconomy has finally evicted the squatter who usurped our namesake account on Twitter. It took perseverance, Zen, and knowing folks in high Tweeting places to pull it off. But as of last night, Xconomy is on the Twitter air. Thank you Bijan. Thank you Twitter. And thanks to CNET for the … Continue reading “Xconomy Wins Its Twitter Struggle–How Wade Reclaimed Our Good Name”

Wakonda Taps Borden for Exec Chairman Role

Wakonda Technologies, a Woburn, MA-based startup developing highly efficient solar photovoltaic products, says that Peter Borden has joined the firm as executive chairman. Borden was previously an executive at Applied Materials (NASDAQ:[[ticker:AMAT]]), a Santa Clara, CA-based provider of products and services for advanced materials manufacturing. Wakonda relocated from upstate New York to Massachusetts after closing … Continue reading “Wakonda Taps Borden for Exec Chairman Role”

UMass Lab in $60M Merck Deal

The Massachusetts Biologic Laboratories, a Boston lab that is part of the University of Massachusetts Medical School, will share an upfront fee of $60 million with Princeton, NJ-based biotech firm Medarex (NASDAQ:[[ticker:MEDX]]) that U.S. drug giant Merck (NYSE:[[ticker:MRK]]) is paying for an exclusive worldwide license to two monoclonal antibodies that the UMass lab and Medarex … Continue reading “UMass Lab in $60M Merck Deal”

Redstart Systems’ Voice Command Software Replaces the Keyboard and Mouse—and Not Just for Dictation

If you want to dictate notes into your computer without typing, speech recognition software like Dragon Naturally Speaking, from Burlington, MA-based Nuance Communications (NASDAQ: [[ticker:NUAN]]), works surprisingly well these days. Even without training, dictation software can hit accuracy rates of 99 percent; once it learns your personal speech patterns, it’s nearly flawless. But using speech … Continue reading “Redstart Systems’ Voice Command Software Replaces the Keyboard and Mouse—and Not Just for Dictation”

Myomo Running Lean After Slow Initial Sales of Robotic Elbow Brace

Boston-based medtech startup Myomo has cut its staff by 66 percent and adopted a more virtual business model over the past year, due to slower-than-expected initial sales of its highly acclaimed robotic elbow brace for stroke victims, company co-founder and interim CEO Steve Kelly tells Xconomy. Kelly says that the angel-funded startup “hit a wall” … Continue reading “Myomo Running Lean After Slow Initial Sales of Robotic Elbow Brace”

HighRoads Inc. Garners $3,000,000 New Funding Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=78be467f-4d28-4033-899b-83230e64a3c2&Preview=1 Date 4/21/2009 Company Name HighRoads Inc. Mailing Address 150 Presidential Way Woburn, MA 01801 Company Description IE-Engine Inc. is the leading developer of Human Resource Cost Management (HRCM) software. The Company’s Web-based applications enable HR decision makers at Global 1000 organizations to make better strategic decisions, reduce costs and increase the … Continue reading “HighRoads Inc. Garners $3,000,000 New Funding Round”

Demandware Inc. Garners $15,000,000 Series D Funding

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=862c12ff-c077-4a3a-8e3e-dffaf770a857&Preview=1 Date 4/21/2009 Company Name Demandware Inc. Mailing Address 10 Presidential Way Woburn, MA 01801 Company Description Demandware provides an enterprise-class ecommerce platform, delivered as a service, which offers online retailers the merchandising control, flexibility, functionality and interoperability of a full ecommerce application suite with a usage-based pricing model. Website http://www.demandware.com Transaction … Continue reading “Demandware Inc. Garners $15,000,000 Series D Funding”

DOE Award for QD Vision

Watertown, MA-based QD Vision, which makes solid-state lighting devices based on nanotech “quantum dot” technology, said today it has been awarded $700,000 from the U.S. Department of Energy for a joint R&D project with MIT electrical engineering professor Marc Baldo. The project’s goal is to make organic light emitting diodes more power-efficient and pleasing in … Continue reading “DOE Award for QD Vision”

RunKeeper Crosses Marathon Finish Line

[Update, April 21, 2009: The third RunKeeper video has now been posted.] Maybe Jason Jacobs’ foot injury wasn’t quite as bad as he was suggesting last week. Just minutes ago the CEO of Boston-based FitnessKeeper, which makes a popular iPhone run-tracking application called RunKeeper, crossed the finish line of the Boston Marathon with a very … Continue reading “RunKeeper Crosses Marathon Finish Line”

Hubspot, Hybernaut Bury the Twitter Hatchet, For Now

All’s well that ends well. For a while, it looked like the argument last week between Cambridge’s Hubspot and Beta House co-founder Brian Del Vecchio over how startups should use Twitter—a debate carried out on Twitter itself, of course—was going to get ugly. Del Vecchio, known on Twitter as @Hybernaut, was bothered by the way … Continue reading “Hubspot, Hybernaut Bury the Twitter Hatchet, For Now”

U.S. Venture Funding Plummets (Yada Yada), But New England Less So—Region’s Top 10 Deals of Q1

The silver lining in the big black rain clouds that were this weekend’s first quarter venture capital investment reports was that New England actually did better than just about anywhere else. As Bruce reported on Saturday, the nation’s venture outlays in Q1 tanked more than 50 percent, to their lowest levels in more than a … Continue reading “U.S. Venture Funding Plummets (Yada Yada), But New England Less So—Region’s Top 10 Deals of Q1”

Alnylam to Receive European Patent

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:[[ticker:ALNY]]), a Cambridge, MA-based developer of RNA-interference (RNAi) drugs, says that the European Patent Office will grant the firm a patent related to its “Tuschi I” patent series covering the use of double-stranded RNA molecules for RNA-interference. The patent, which the company expects to be issued in four months, covers claims such as … Continue reading “Alnylam to Receive European Patent”

Epizyme Unveils Technology, Targeting Cancer with Epigenetic Drugs

Despite being forthcoming about its big-name venture backers—MPM Capital and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers—Cambridge, MA-based Epizyme has been one of several biotech startups in the Boston that are being demure about the details of their technology. So I was intrigued when the company contacted me recently to let me know that it was lifting … Continue reading “Epizyme Unveils Technology, Targeting Cancer with Epigenetic Drugs”

Brightcove Basks In Light of Adobe’s New Strobe

Cambridge, MA-based video hosting provider Brightcove has long had all of its eggs in Adobe Systems’ basket: the company’s entire platform is built around Adobe’s Flash streaming media format. But now the two companies’ relationship is growing even closer. At the National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas today, Brightcove and San Jose, CA-based … Continue reading “Brightcove Basks In Light of Adobe’s New Strobe”

First Quarter Venture Investments Plunge 50 Percent Nationwide

There was a time when venture capital partners used to tell me that venture investing is unaffected by the overall economy, because it takes five to 10 years to realize returns in startup investments. In January 2008, Deepak Kamra of Menlo Park, CA-based Canaan Partners said, “Most venture-backed companies don’t have a lot of debt, so they’re not … Continue reading “First Quarter Venture Investments Plunge 50 Percent Nationwide”

Clarus Backs Michigan Biotech

Clarus Ventures, a Cambridge, MA-based venture firm, has co-led a $10 million closing of Series A round of financing for biotech startup Lycera, of Ann Arbor, MI, according to the company. Lycera—which is developing chemical drugs for autoimmune diseases based on discoveries at the University of Michigan and New York University School of Medicine—says that … Continue reading “Clarus Backs Michigan Biotech”