Category: National

Homejoy Makes Getting Your House Cleaned Easy—and Cheap

The idea for HomeJoy started with a dirty apartment. Back in the summer of 2012, CEO Adora Cheung and her brother and cofounder Aaron were both engineers, working on ideas for tech companies out of Aaron’s Palo Alto apartment. After three years in the messy space, Aaron decided to find someone else to clean it, … Continue reading “Homejoy Makes Getting Your House Cleaned Easy—and Cheap”

PowerBridgeNY Draws New Ideas in Energy from the Academic Well

Lots of universities try to turn lab research into real businesses. Backing from a New York state agency may give some innovations in energy a head start. Last week, 13 teams from area universities pitched ideas to a panel of venture capitalists and energy industry experts, hoping to win a piece of grant funding. Some … Continue reading “PowerBridgeNY Draws New Ideas in Energy from the Academic Well”

Get a Shot, Have Some Bread: ImmusanT’s Plan For a Celiac Vaccine

For people with celiac disease, there’s one way to avoid symptoms: don’t eat gluten. But what if a vaccine and some booster shots could let you eat all the wheat-filled food you want, without all the nasty consequences? That’s the kind of thing a Cambridge, MA-based startup called ImmusanT is trying to prove is possible. … Continue reading “Get a Shot, Have Some Bread: ImmusanT’s Plan For a Celiac Vaccine”

Detroit’s Backstitch Offers Users a Way to Sift Through the Web’s Noise

If you’re like me, you spend your days toggling back and forth between a dozen or so tabs crowding the top of your computer screen: One for e-mail, a few for social media, a few for news, one to monitor college basketball in anticipation of the NCAA tournament, and one for celebrity gossip for when … Continue reading “Detroit’s Backstitch Offers Users a Way to Sift Through the Web’s Noise”

HIV Treatment Outlook Buoyed by Sangamo Gene Therapy

As the news emerged of Richmond, CA-based Sangamo Biosciences’s progress toward a gene therapy treatment for HIV infection, the media buzzed and investors boosted the company’s share price by 17 percent Thursday. For the first time, Sangamo (NASDAQ: [[ticker:SGMO]]) had tried its gene-editing platform on human subjects, and it found encouraging signs in small early … Continue reading “HIV Treatment Outlook Buoyed by Sangamo Gene Therapy”

Roundup: Illumagear, ComputeNext, Paul Allen, BPA

Seattle-area startups Illumagear, maker of safety lighting for construction workers, and ComputeNext, a cloud-services marketplace, attracted funding recently. Meanwhile, Paul Allen and the Bonneville Power Administration plan to bankroll researchers focused on artificial intelligence and the regional power system, respectively. And Cadence Biomedical landed a distribution partner in Asia. Read on for details. —ComputeNext, a … Continue reading “Roundup: Illumagear, ComputeNext, Paul Allen, BPA”

Marc Andreessen’s View From the Top: Talking Startups at Stanford

Marc Andreessen spoke at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business on Tuesday, March 4, to a packed audience that included his wife, Laura Arillaga-Andreessen, and his father-in-law, John Arillaga. Andreessen covered topics from his views on the current tech landscape to how he assesses entrepreneurial talent to his partnership with Ben Horowitz. He also shared thoughts … Continue reading “Marc Andreessen’s View From the Top: Talking Startups at Stanford”

Brushing Off Clinical Setback, Cerulean Tees Up $75M IPO

Cerulean Pharma whiffed on its first attempt to prove that a nanoparticle-based cancer drug its been developing could help terminally ill lung cancer patients live longer. Now the Cambridge, MA-based company is going public to get the financial backing to see if the drug has better luck treating other cancer types. Cerulean aims to raise … Continue reading “Brushing Off Clinical Setback, Cerulean Tees Up $75M IPO”

Madison Software Startup Drifty Raises $1M

[Updated 3/10/14, 12:48 pm, after speaking with Drifty officials.] Drifty, the Madison, WI-based startup that builds online platforms for people to create websites and mobile applications, has raised $1 million in a private securities offering, according to a document filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Arthur Ventures, a venture capital firm with offices … Continue reading “Madison Software Startup Drifty Raises $1M”

Five Ways To Avoid Losing Money as An Angel Investor

I have an angel investor friend—let’s call this friend “Alex.” Alex has great deal flow and works hard to pick the best opportunities for investment. Alex has been frustrated over the past several years, however, because she doesn’t seem to be making any money. This is despite solid operational performance by several of the companies … Continue reading “Five Ways To Avoid Losing Money as An Angel Investor”

Seattle BioMed Nabs $10M NIAID Grant to Develop HIV Vaccines

Scientists have tried for years to make an effective HIV vaccine, only to be thwarted by the shifty, mutating virus’s ability to evade the immune system. But vaccine development efforts continue, as evidenced by a bi-coastal collaboration Seattle BioMed has just put together to battle the virus. The nonprofit global health research center today is … Continue reading “Seattle BioMed Nabs $10M NIAID Grant to Develop HIV Vaccines”

Merrimack Valley Startups Pushing Local Innovation, Global Lessons

Thirty miles north of Boston, and a million miles from Silicon Valley, they have a different way of doing innovation. The city is Lawrence, MA. It’s an old mill town with the distinction of being one of the poorest cities in Massachusetts. It’s had the same problems that you’ll find in many towns around the … Continue reading “Merrimack Valley Startups Pushing Local Innovation, Global Lessons”

10 Takeaways From New York’s Life Science Disruptors

Disruption can come in all shapes and sizes. Sometimes it’s an activist trying to shake up a board. Other times it’s a group of local leaders hell-bent on reshaping a city’s life science culture. It might even come in the form of an executive forced to ax 90 percent of a company’s workforce and move … Continue reading “10 Takeaways From New York’s Life Science Disruptors”

Boston Tech Roundup: Optio Labs, AppZero, Hadapt, North Bridge

We’ve got a couple of startup financing deals, some layoffs, and venture capitalist retirements in this quick rundown of Boston-area innovation news to end the week: —Optio Labs, a Boston-based company that makes security software for mobile devices, has raised a $10 million Series A investment. The money comes from Optio Labs’ parent company, Allied … Continue reading “Boston Tech Roundup: Optio Labs, AppZero, Hadapt, North Bridge”

Tableau, Splunk Partnership Aims at Fast-Growing Unstructured Data

A terabyte log of clicks on your Web site isn’t particularly useful in its raw form. That starts to change when it’s indexed and searchable. It’s more useful still when non-experts can easily combine it with other data and visualize the story the data is telling. That process should be easier thanks to a technology … Continue reading “Tableau, Splunk Partnership Aims at Fast-Growing Unstructured Data”

NYU Setting Up Lab As a Hub for Entrepreneurs

A forthcoming center for entrepreneurs aims to help focus New York University’s efforts to help startups. There are lots of programs at NYU, including incubators and the last week’s entrepreneurial festival, designed to help founders build their ideas into businesses. But coordinating such resources when they’re spread across a large university can be a bit … Continue reading “NYU Setting Up Lab As a Hub for Entrepreneurs”

Colorado Startup Robauto Tries to Help Autistic People Using Robots

It can be notoriously hard for people with autism to communicate with other people and interact with the world around them. But a Boulder, CO-based entrepreneur thinks he may have found a solution that could make it a little easier for some—and that solution is a small robot that’s cheap enough for families to use … Continue reading “Colorado Startup Robauto Tries to Help Autistic People Using Robots”

Genentech Joins “What’s Hot in Cancer Immunotherapy” Apr. 22

Three of the world’s biggest drugmakers are chasing what many analysts consider to be the next multi-billion dollar opportunity in cancer immunotherapy. All three companies are going to show their stuff at the next big Xconomy Seattle event on April 22. Genentech, the South San Francisco-based biotech giant that’s part of Roche, is the third … Continue reading “Genentech Joins “What’s Hot in Cancer Immunotherapy” Apr. 22”

MI Social Entrepreneurship Challenge Offers Prizes, Pitch Opportunities

Michigan Corps, a non-profit organization supporting social innovation, and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation yesterday kicked off the 2014 Michigan Social Entrepreneurship Challenge, a statewide business competition with $60,000 in prizes—and more—on the line. It’s the competition’s second year, and Michigan Corps’ executive director Elizabeth Garlow says this time around, there are “tons” of new … Continue reading “MI Social Entrepreneurship Challenge Offers Prizes, Pitch Opportunities”

Carroll Raising Milwaukee Profile with Grad Entrepreneurship Program

Carroll University, Wisconsin’s oldest four-year higher education institution, is attempting to raise its profile in the Milwaukee startup community with a new graduate program in entrepreneurship taught by successful local entrepreneurs. The $13,500 intensive, 15-credit, four-month “boot camp” will accept 24 students for its inaugural program in the fall. The 168-year-old Carroll is located west … Continue reading “Carroll Raising Milwaukee Profile with Grad Entrepreneurship Program”

Wayfair Confirms $157M Series B as IPO Looms

One of the Boston area’s most closely watched private tech companies is sure giving people a lot to watch lately. Wayfair, the e-commerce company that sells home goods ranging from sofas to power drills, confirmed on Friday that it’s raised a $157 million Series B investment round. The money came from growth-capital investors and was … Continue reading “Wayfair Confirms $157M Series B as IPO Looms”

San Diego Life Sciences Roundup: Acadia, Ignyta, Tracon, & More

An ambitious bid to build the world’s biggest human genome sequencing operation in San Diego dominated the region’s life sciences news this week. Here are the details, along with other local developments. —J. Craig Venter, one of the pioneers of human genetic research, said he has co-founded a new San Diego-based company called Human Longevity … Continue reading “San Diego Life Sciences Roundup: Acadia, Ignyta, Tracon, & More”

East Coast Biotech Roundup: VentriNova, RainDance, Biogen, & More

Plenty of stories dot the roundup this week, as per usual. But on a personal note, I’d just like to say good luck to my colleague Luke Timmerman, who, as most Xconomy readers now know, is heading off to climb his latest mountain—a biography of Lee Hood. He’s a pro’s pro, a class act, and … Continue reading “East Coast Biotech Roundup: VentriNova, RainDance, Biogen, & More”

Dave McClure: Inspired by Dr. Seuss and Disrupting Venture Capital

[Corrected 3/7/14, 6:45 am. See below.] In the four years since Dave McClure co-founded the venture fund and incubator program 500 Startups, he has acquired a reputation as an outspoken geek, an entrepreneur’s entrepreneur, and an irreverent Silicon Valley insider who invests in Internet startups. When he came to San Diego last week, McClure was … Continue reading “Dave McClure: Inspired by Dr. Seuss and Disrupting Venture Capital”

Engine Maker EcoMotors Scores Second $200M Chinese Partnership

Allen Park, MI-based EcoMotors said this week that it has formed a joint venture with First Auto Works Jingye Engine Company (FAWJY) to develop, manufacture, service, and sell its advanced engine technology in China. Amit Soman, EcoMotors’ president and chief operating officer, says the deal is worth more than $200 million, and construction will start … Continue reading “Engine Maker EcoMotors Scores Second $200M Chinese Partnership”

Music Startup Echo Nest, Born at MIT, Bought by Spotify

It’s a big day for The Echo Nest. Like so many Boston-area tech startups, the company is becoming part of a much bigger team through an acquisition. The Somerville, MA-based music company said today it has been acquired by Spotify, the Swedish streaming-music giant that has become prominent in the U.S. in recent years. The … Continue reading “Music Startup Echo Nest, Born at MIT, Bought by Spotify”

ZS Pharma Raises $55M to Develop Drug to Treat Hyperkalemia

ZS Pharma, a Fort Worth-area biotech developing a chronic kidney disease drug, has raised $55 million in new equity financing. ZS Pharma will use the Series D funding round to continue to develop its lead drug candidate, ZS-9, an experimental treatment for people with hyperkalemia, and get the company to the point of filing new … Continue reading “ZS Pharma Raises $55M to Develop Drug to Treat Hyperkalemia”

Edison Shedding Light on Energy Production in Diseased Cells

Back in March 2013, Dainippon Sumitomo Pharma signed a deal worth $50 million or more to Mountain View, CA-based Edison Pharmaceuticals, a developer of drugs for disorders of energy metabolism.  The big pharmaceutical company from Japan liked the results. Less than a year later, it came back for more. The two companies have now formed … Continue reading “Edison Shedding Light on Energy Production in Diseased Cells”

Dallas Biotech Neos Therapeutics Raises $15.5M for ADHD Drugs

Neos Therapeutics has raised $15.5 million in a Series C round of venture financing to further develop its controlled-release technology for ADHD medications. The biotech startup says it has developed a mechanism for making liquids and pills that deliver their doses in a gradual, controlled manner over time, instead of all at once. Neos, based … Continue reading “Dallas Biotech Neos Therapeutics Raises $15.5M for ADHD Drugs”

Techstars Grad GoSpotCheck Wins Contest to Attend Google’s Demo Day

GoSpotCheck, a Denver-based software startup, is headed to California for the inaugural Google Demo Day. The company was selected by a panel of local judges to participate in the event, scheduled for April 2 at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, CA. The news was announced Tuesday on the Google for Entrepreneurs Google+ page. GoSpotCheck is … Continue reading “Techstars Grad GoSpotCheck Wins Contest to Attend Google’s Demo Day”

Colorado’s Ampio Pharmaceuticals Raises $63M+ in Stock Offering

Ampio Pharmaceuticals announced today it has raised net proceeds of $63.3 million following the completion of an underwritten public offering. Ampio (NYSE: [[ticker:AMPE]]), which is based in Greenwood Village, CO, focuses on developing therapies for inflammatory conditions. Its two most advanced drug candidates are aspartyl-alanyl diketopiperazine (Ampion), which could be used to treat osteoarthritis of … Continue reading “Colorado’s Ampio Pharmaceuticals Raises $63M+ in Stock Offering”

Farewell, Xconomy Readers. I’m Going to Climb a New Mountain

This is my last week on the job at Xconomy. After almost six years, I’m moving on. I’m going to finish writing a biography of Leroy Hood, the pioneer of high-speed DNA sequencing and genomic-based personalized medicine. And then I’ll see what’s next. When I first joined Xconomy, it had been founded 10 months earlier … Continue reading “Farewell, Xconomy Readers. I’m Going to Climb a New Mountain”

Biogen, Eisai Join Up in Alzheimer’s Drug Pact

Biogen Idec may be best known for its multiple sclerosis drugs, but the biotech giant is also giving itself a few more chances to succeed in the high-risk field of Alzheimer’s disease therapies. Cambridge, MA-based Biogen (NASDAQ: [[ticker:BIIB]]) today cut a wide-ranging deal with Japan’s Eisai. On one hand, Biogen grabbed the rights to co-develop … Continue reading “Biogen, Eisai Join Up in Alzheimer’s Drug Pact”

OnCourse Learning Sold to NY Private Equity Firm

OnCourse Learning, the Waukesha, WI-based provider of online professional training programs, has changed hands. New York private equity firm CIP Capital has acquired OnCourse Learning from Cleveland-based private equity firm The Riverside Company. Terms weren’t disclosed, but Dow Jones reported that Riverside earned a return that was 5.4 times greater than its investment made in … Continue reading “OnCourse Learning Sold to NY Private Equity Firm”

CloudBees Buzzes With $11M in New Cash as Verizon Cloud Rises

If you put your ear to the cloud, you just might hear a faint buzzing sound—the sound of a startup working with a telecom giant to disrupt an industry. CloudBees, a software startup based in Woburn, MA, said today it has raised $11.2 million in Series C funding led by Verizon Ventures, the VC arm … Continue reading “CloudBees Buzzes With $11M in New Cash as Verizon Cloud Rises”

3Tier Shares Global Wind, Solar Data in Google Maps Gallery

Among the many maps in Google’s new Maps Gallery depicting everything from Spanish postal code boundaries to Martian topography, is one showing how much sunshine graces every corner of the globe. The data underlying the Global Solar Map comes from Seattle-based 3Tier, the renewable energy information company acquired last year by Vaisala for about $14.7 … Continue reading “3Tier Shares Global Wind, Solar Data in Google Maps Gallery”

See You Tomorrow at New York’s Life Science Disruptors

We’re just one day away from our next biotech event, “New York’s Life Science Disruptors.” The event will be held from 5:30 – 7:00 pm at the Apella Event Space at the Alexandria Center for Life Science on East 29th Street in Manhattan. We’re showcasing the New York region’s most radical life science leaders, who will … Continue reading “See You Tomorrow at New York’s Life Science Disruptors”

Accelerant Launches Micro-Fund to Help Israeli Startups Come to U.S.

[Corrected, 1:50 pm, 3/5/2014. See below.] New York is the gateway for many international founders who want to make a splash in the United States, but setting up shop here can be tough. Eyal Bino, founder of Worldwide Investor Network (WIN) in New York, has been an advocate for bringing startups from overseas to this … Continue reading “Accelerant Launches Micro-Fund to Help Israeli Startups Come to U.S.”

4 Ways to Stop Social Media from Blowing Up In Your Startup’s Face

Social media offers startups a powerful platform to cost-effectively market their products and services, get their brand recognized, and engage with a wide audience of customers. Yet social media also throws up multiple risks. Many of these risks—be they security and privacy risks, compliance risks, or reputational risks—are not new. However, companies have become more … Continue reading “4 Ways to Stop Social Media from Blowing Up In Your Startup’s Face”

California VC Greg Robinson to Lead Wisconsin’s 4490 Ventures

4490 Ventures, Wisconsin’s new $30 million venture capital fund focused on information technology startups, has recruited a San Francisco Bay Area VC investor to lead the fund. Greg Robinson has been named 4490 Ventures’ general partner, the firm said today in a press release. Robinson was previously one of two partners at Peninsula Ventures, an … Continue reading “California VC Greg Robinson to Lead Wisconsin’s 4490 Ventures”

San Diego’s Connect Names Pharma Executive Greg McKee as CEO

Connect, San Diego’s nonprofit program that supports technology innovation and entrepreneurship, today named Greg McKee, a healthcare and financial industry executive, as CEO. He is the fourth leader at Connect, an organization founded in 1985 to help innovators start and build new biotech and technology companies. McKee, 50, succeeds the late Duane Roth, who led … Continue reading “San Diego’s Connect Names Pharma Executive Greg McKee as CEO”

DocuSign Raises Another $85M For Digital Transaction Platform

From a venture investing perspective, 2014 is off to a pretty slow start locally. So the news of an $85 million raise by DocuSign, a company started in Seattle a decade ago and still with a major presence here, is getting some attention. Headquartered in San Francisco, DocuSign, which provides electronic signature and document management … Continue reading “DocuSign Raises Another $85M For Digital Transaction Platform”

Craig Venter’s Latest Startup Gets $70M To Sequence Loads of Genomes

J. Craig Venter, the human genome pioneer, today unveiled a new San Diego-based venture with an ambitious goal of providing whole genome sequencing and cell-therapy-based diagnostic services for patients. Venter said he co-founded the company, Human Longevity Inc., or HLI, with Robert Hariri, who oversaw Celgene Cellular Therapeutics and Peter Diamandis of the X Prize … Continue reading “Craig Venter’s Latest Startup Gets $70M To Sequence Loads of Genomes”

Will Snyder’s Proposed Immigration Reforms Boost Entrepreneurship?

During his State of the State address in January, Michigan governor Rick Snyder, who likes to refer to himself as “the most pro-immigration governor in America,” unveiled a bold plan to revitalize beleaguered Detroit—and to boost economic growth in the whole state. He called on the federal government to grant Michigan 50,000 visas over five … Continue reading “Will Snyder’s Proposed Immigration Reforms Boost Entrepreneurship?”

Twitter, PayPal, & Fiksu at Mobile Madness 3/19: Here’s the Agenda

We are coming down the home stretch in preparation for Mobile Madness 2014: The Next Disruptors. It’s all happening in two weeks—Wednesday, March 19—at Microsoft NERD in Cambridge, MA. We are getting pumped. The full agenda is here. There have been some changes to the speaker lineup. In addition to keynote chats with Jason Jacobs, … Continue reading “Twitter, PayPal, & Fiksu at Mobile Madness 3/19: Here’s the Agenda”

Data Miner EquityMetrix Digitizes Energy’s Back Office

In energy exploration, millions, if not billions, of investment dollars are still largely tracked by paper. And paper is easily lost. A typical well changes hands about five times, according to Tom Agnew, founder and CEO of EquityMetrix in Dallas. “Every time the ownership changes, the records get boxed up and shipped to new company,” … Continue reading “Data Miner EquityMetrix Digitizes Energy’s Back Office”

Michelangelo, the UW Innovation Emerging From an Unusual Place

There’s a new product emerging from the University of Washington. It was just granted a patent. It is being adopted by other high-profile institutions. And it’s showing promise as the core of a startup company or licensing deal. “Ironically, it’s not from an engineering lab or some chaired faculty position,” said David Bluhm, who was … Continue reading “Michelangelo, the UW Innovation Emerging From an Unusual Place”

Merck Joins ‘What’s Hot in Cancer Immunotherapy’ Apr. 22

For years, Merck was a traditional small-molecule, pill-in-a-bottle company that was known for being skeptical and late to the biotech drug party. So why is Merck suddenly mobilizing real resources—people and money—in an unmistakable biotech quest to fight cancer by unleashing the immune system to fight tumors? Some of it has to do with Merck … Continue reading “Merck Joins ‘What’s Hot in Cancer Immunotherapy’ Apr. 22”

Building a Tech Hub in Land of Green Bay Packers, Paper Mills

Northeastern Wisconsin is best known for the Green Bay Packers and paper mills. Not exactly the building blocks for a booming tech startup hub, but a small group of techies and investors is trying to grow one there. It’s still a raw effort with a long way to go before the scene in Green Bay … Continue reading “Building a Tech Hub in Land of Green Bay Packers, Paper Mills”