When San Diego’s downtown EvoNexus incubator held its official ribbon-cutting ceremony five months ago, Jonny Simkin was eager to brief me about SwoopThat, a Web startup he created with two friends in 2010 after graduating from Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, CA. He founded the website to offer textbooks substantially below the prices listed in … Continue reading “HubEdu Departs San Diego’s Downtown Incubator After Bay Area Buyout”
Category: National
Jumptap, Mobile, & the Four Horsemen of the Consumer Apocalypse
If you want to see the future of the tech world, come to the back entrance of the CambridgeSide Galleria mall. With your back to the water, go through the first door on your left and take the elevator to the fifth floor. But hurry, because by the end of summer, it will all be … Continue reading “Jumptap, Mobile, & the Four Horsemen of the Consumer Apocalypse”
NanoString Makes IPO Prep Move, Adds Finance Vet to Board
NanoString Technologies just enlisted the kind of person that it will need if it’s ever going to grow up into a public company. The Seattle-based genetic instrument and diagnostic company said today it has added Greg Norden, the former chief financial officer of Wyeth, to its board of directors. Norden spent 21 years at Wyeth, which … Continue reading “NanoString Makes IPO Prep Move, Adds Finance Vet to Board”
Yapta Taps Business Travel Veteran as New CEO
Airline price-tracking startup Yapta has found its new CEO: James Filsinger, a travel industry veteran who will be in charge of growing the Seattle company’s footprint in the big-bucks market for business services. Filsinger comes to Yapta after a short stint running EZYield.com, which helped hotels sell their rooms online by giving managers a single … Continue reading “Yapta Taps Business Travel Veteran as New CEO”
Ooyala: The Online Video Startup That Isn’t Out to Destroy Hollywood
“Ultimately, Silicon Valley has to stop trying to kill Hollywood and start helping it evolve.” So says Sean Knapp, co-founder and chief technology officer at Mountain View, CA-based video management startup Ooyala. It’s not a common viewpoint among Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, who are usually pretty blunt about their disdain for the movie and TV industries. … Continue reading “Ooyala: The Online Video Startup That Isn’t Out to Destroy Hollywood”
From Big Data to Games: NYC Startups Pitch FinTech Innovations
For the second year in a row, New York’s FinTech Innovation Lab is holding its demo day during a brutal heat wave. But perhaps the weather serves as an apropos metaphor: financial technology is hot, particularly in New York City, home to many of the companies these startups are targeting. The FinTech Innovation Lab, a … Continue reading “From Big Data to Games: NYC Startups Pitch FinTech Innovations”
Basho, aPriori, Savitz VC Fund, & More Boston Deals News
Acquisitions, investments, new VC funds, and strategic partnerships have made up the New England deals news in the last week. —Shareaholic, a Cambridge, MA-based maker of software for sharing and discovering Web content, closed a $3 million round of funding led by Kepha Partners, and joined by returning angel investors, General Catalyst Partners, NextView Ventures, and 500 … Continue reading “Basho, aPriori, Savitz VC Fund, & More Boston Deals News”
Vivus Wins FDA Approval for Obesity Drug, After Long, Messy Day
Vivus has been pushing for more than two years to get its new obesity drug cleared for sale by the FDA, and after one last long, confusing day, it finally got its wish. The FDA said today that the Mountain View, CA-based company (NASDAQ: [[ticker:VVUS]]) has gotten the green light to start selling the combo … Continue reading “Vivus Wins FDA Approval for Obesity Drug, After Long, Messy Day”
Detroit4Detroit’s Digital Philanthropy Off to a Brisk Start
Detroit4Detroit, the first-of-its-kind microphilanthropy initiative in an American city, has met its goal of recruiting 150 citizen philanthropists to fund community-improvement projects using a strategy that’s heavy on social networking and other digital tools. The goal of Detroit4Detroit—which is managed by Michigan Corps and Citizen Effect with a financial assist from the Knight Foundation—is to turn everyday Detroiters into … Continue reading “Detroit4Detroit’s Digital Philanthropy Off to a Brisk Start”
EMC Execs, iRobot Upgrades, and Zipcar & Denzel: Some Tech Tidbits
A few Boston-area public tech companies we’re keeping an eye on this week… —Some rumors coming out of Hopkinton, MA-based EMC (NYSE: [[ticker:EMC]]) and Palo Alto, CA-based VMware (NYSE: [[ticker:VMW]]). EMC president and chief operating officer Pat Gelsinger is replacing Paul Maritz as VMware CEO, according to a report in CRN. And the companies are … Continue reading “EMC Execs, iRobot Upgrades, and Zipcar & Denzel: Some Tech Tidbits”
T-Mobile’s Bobsled Tackles the App Market, Racks Up 2M Users
You’d have to be a little nuts to tackle a new voice and messaging service for a wireless carrier. Sure, those have been the carriers’ bread-and-butter services for many years. But these days, revenues from voice and text services are dropping like a brick—a decline that’s being hastened along by Internet-based alternatives from smartphone companies … Continue reading “T-Mobile’s Bobsled Tackles the App Market, Racks Up 2M Users”
Stealthy Gen9 Rolls Out BioFab for Large-Scale Gene Manufacturing
For the past three years, Cambridge, MA-based Gen9 has been quietly building something that its founders believe has been sorely lacking in biotech: an affordable and efficient way to synthesize genes on a massive scale. Those founders are pioneers in the field of synthetic biology: Joseph Jacobson, an MIT professor and specialist in the field … Continue reading “Stealthy Gen9 Rolls Out BioFab for Large-Scale Gene Manufacturing”
Flash Sale Site Totsy Plans to Use New Funds to Reach More Customers
The crowded field of private flash sale websites makes it hard to stand out, but New York’s Totsy plans to get ahead of the pack by focusing on parents looking for deals on baby products and other wares. The two-and-a-half-year-old company announced today it has raised $18.5 million in Series B funding led by previous … Continue reading “Flash Sale Site Totsy Plans to Use New Funds to Reach More Customers”
Entrepreneurship Flowers Far Away from Silicon Valley
These days, the media are getting better at reporting on entrepreneurship outside Silicon Valley. Within Silicon Valley, however, people tend to be somewhat cocky about the region’s place in the entrepreneurship landscape. But technology entrepreneurship is happening all around the world, and here at the 1M/1M global virtual incubator we have always tried to present … Continue reading “Entrepreneurship Flowers Far Away from Silicon Valley”
In Unexpected Plus, BioSurplus Raises $2.4M in Oversubscribed Round
Preston “Cinco” Plumb says he had no thought of expanding beyond San Diego, much less the United States, seven years ago when he bought a business that buys and sells used biotech equipment. Since then, he says BioSurplus sales have grown by five times, and the company has expanded to Fremont, CA; Incheon, South Korea; … Continue reading “In Unexpected Plus, BioSurplus Raises $2.4M in Oversubscribed Round”
The Innovation Lessons Marissa Mayer Will Take to Yahoo [Video]
Timothy Koogle, Terry Semel, Jerry Yang, Carol Bartz, Tim Morse, Scott Thompson, Ross Levinsohn, Marissa Mayer. One of these names is not like the others. When you list the eight people who have led Yahoo since 1995, counting the interim leaders Morse and Levinsohn, the obvious anomaly is Mayer. At 37, she’s the youngest person … Continue reading “The Innovation Lessons Marissa Mayer Will Take to Yahoo [Video]”
Life Technologies Buys Navigenics in New Gene Diagnostics Strategy
Life Technologies (NASDAQ: [[ticker:LIFE]]), the Carlsbad, CA-based maker of gene sequencing equipment, says today it has acquired Navigenics, the venture-backed startup in Foster City, CA, that provides personalized genomics testing for consumers. Life says the deal represents the company’s first step in a strategy to build out its molecular diagnostics business through select acquisitions, internal … Continue reading “Life Technologies Buys Navigenics in New Gene Diagnostics Strategy”
MedImmune Cuts 200 Jobs in Bay Area, Keeping Hayward R&D Site
MedImmune, the biotech unit of U.K.-based pharma giant AstraZeneca, is making some significant cuts to its R&D operations in the Bay Area. MedImmune said today it is closing down its Mountain View, CA and Santa Clara, CA research and development sites, while consolidating infectious disease and vaccine work at other sites, including one in Hayward, … Continue reading “MedImmune Cuts 200 Jobs in Bay Area, Keeping Hayward R&D Site”
Venture Investment Hits Highest Level Since Dot-Com Era
Venture capitalists invested some $8.1 billion in more than 800 deals in the second quarter, registering the highest such total in more than a decade, according to a new report from the analysts at CB Insights. The totals represent a fairly modest uptick from the second quarter last year: A 5 percent rise in dollars, … Continue reading “Venture Investment Hits Highest Level Since Dot-Com Era”
Genome Dynamics on Taking Overactive Bladder Biomarker Tests Mainstream
Though the pharmaceutical industry seems to want to do its best to make us giggle with its cutesy advertising campaigns, to Martin Bluth, an overactive bladder is no laughing matter. Bluth, co-founder of Detroit-based Genome Dynamics International (GDI), says treatments for overactive bladders represent a $26 billion market—and that’s not including the social costs of … Continue reading “Genome Dynamics on Taking Overactive Bladder Biomarker Tests Mainstream”
Alnylam Stock Climbs on Positive Early Trial for Amyloidosis
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals has been trying to shift from a technology platform company into a more mature drug developer the past few years. Today its shares climbed more than 40 percent as it got some stronger signs that it could be on track to make its first marketable drug, for a rare disease called TTR amyloidosis. … Continue reading “Alnylam Stock Climbs on Positive Early Trial for Amyloidosis”
Health Incubator Boom Driven by Demand, Says Healthbox’s Jenna Rose
Startup incubators have been multiplying so fast there’s talk of a bubble, and there’s no sign of slowdown anytime soon. Jenna Rose says the growth is justified and has come from both entrepreneur and investor demand. You could say that she’s biased, given that she’s the director of Healthbox, a Chicago-founded health startup accelerator that … Continue reading “Health Incubator Boom Driven by Demand, Says Healthbox’s Jenna Rose”
Shareaholic’s Jay Meattle on the Future of Content Discovery & the Social Graph
Any company that plays at the intersection of “big data” and “killing off Facebook” gets my attention. OK, the latter part isn’t really what Shareaholic is about, but the startup is trying to create a new kind of social graph that will rival Facebook in its reach and relevance for consumers, publishers, and advertisers. With … Continue reading “Shareaholic’s Jay Meattle on the Future of Content Discovery & the Social Graph”
WebCollage Takes Ad Copy Mobile for Top Retailers
If you click to the product page for L’Oreal Healthy Look Sublime Mousse medium brown hair color on Walgreens.com, you’ll pull up a detailed product description, a list of ingredients, and even a video review from a happy customer named Jen. Search for the same product on CVS.com and you’ll find identical content pertaining to … Continue reading “WebCollage Takes Ad Copy Mobile for Top Retailers”
Thermo Fisher Picks Up One Lambda for Nearly $1B
[Corrected 8/10/12, 7:30 pm. See below.] Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE: [[ticker:TMO]]), the Waltham, MA-based provider of lab tools and life sciences instruments, announced today that it has signed a definitive agreement to buy Canoga Park, CA-based One Lambda for $925 million. The deal is expected to close in fourth quarter of this year and to be immediately … Continue reading “Thermo Fisher Picks Up One Lambda for Nearly $1B”
San Diego’s Tealium Raises $10.5M to Advance Tag Management System
Tealium, the four-year-old San Diego startup that created a Web-based service to make it easier for enterprise network marketing staffers to manage their own Web page tags, says today it has raised $10.5 million in Series B financing. Tealium co-founder Ali Behnam tells me that Boston’s Battery Ventures provided nearly all of the funding, except … Continue reading “San Diego’s Tealium Raises $10.5M to Advance Tag Management System”
A Summer Reading List for Biotech Pros
[Updated: 7/17 9:15 am PT] Summer is here, so there’s a bit of a lull on the average biotech pro’s schedule. If there’s ever an opportunity to take a breather from the relentless scientific, medical, and investor meetings that dominate the industry calendar, this is it. Time to catch up on reading a few good … Continue reading “A Summer Reading List for Biotech Pros”
PrePlay Pushes Games for Sports Predictions to TV’s “Second Screen”
Sports will always be a huge draw for entertainment dollars, so it is no surprise that a bevy of software and platform developers want their share of this market. Many large media companies and independents crank out apps for fantasy sports leagues. PrePlay, a two-year-old startup based in New York, has adopted a different strategy … Continue reading “PrePlay Pushes Games for Sports Predictions to TV’s “Second Screen””
EcoMotors Closes $32.5 Million Series C Round—Eyes China Expansion
Allen Park, MI-based EcoMotors, maker of energy efficient engines, this week announced that it had raised $32.5 million in a Series C round of financing led by New York-based Braemar Energy Ventures. Also participating in the round were Bill Gates and Menlo Park, CA-based Khosla Ventures, who previously invested $23 million in an earlier round of financing. To … Continue reading “EcoMotors Closes $32.5 Million Series C Round—Eyes China Expansion”
7 Ways We Can Work Together to Restore E-Mail Sanity
Just like you, I’m locked in a perpetual battle against e-mail. I spend the whole day fending off the incoming messages, like some cranky old dude standing on his porch with a weed whacker. I feel compelled to do this, because if I don’t, my inbox will quickly swell beyond my ability to tame it. … Continue reading “7 Ways We Can Work Together to Restore E-Mail Sanity”
Kala, ImmunoGen, Boring Biotech, & More Boston Life Sciences News
CEO news, clinical trials, startup financing, and boring biotech companies made up the New England life sciences news this week. —Cambridge, MA-based Lantos Technologies, an MIT spinout working on 3D imaging technology for the ear, has pulled in $3.8 million of a $6.6 million equity offering, according to an SEC filing. —West Bridgewater, MA-based Cardiosolutions received … Continue reading “Kala, ImmunoGen, Boring Biotech, & More Boston Life Sciences News”
DocuSign Raises Another $47.5M
Updated 7/13 DocuSign, a well-funded provider of software that captures and transmits electronic signatures, has raised nearly $47.5 million in additional financing to pay for continued growth. The investment, which puts total financing in DocuSign above $100 million, was led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Accel Partners, Comcast Ventures, and SAP Ventures also invested in … Continue reading “DocuSign Raises Another $47.5M”
Microsoft Confirms Bing Fund, a New Angel Investment Vehicle
Microsoft’s enthusiasm for early stage companies is getting turned up another notch. Today, the company is pulling back the curtain on its new Bing Fund, an angel investment program targeting online and mobile startups. The fund is headed by Rahul Sood, a former entrepreneur who sold niche computer maker VoodooPC to Hewlett-Packard in 2006. Details … Continue reading “Microsoft Confirms Bing Fund, a New Angel Investment Vehicle”
San Diego Life Sciences Roundup: Halozyme, Sophiris, Arena, & More
Plans by Bedford, MA-based Hologic to acquire San Diego’s Gen-Probe, are moving ahead. We’ve got the latest details, along with the rest of the innovation news in San Diego’s biotech, diagnostics, and medical device sectors. —San Diego’s BioNano Genomics, which is getting ready to introduce its nanoAnalyzer System, has raised almost $11.6 million in a … Continue reading “San Diego Life Sciences Roundup: Halozyme, Sophiris, Arena, & More”
Michigan Pre-Seed Capital Fund Invests $600K in Three Tech Startups
The Michigan Pre-Seed Capital Fund announced this week that it has invested $600,000 in three tech startups: Flocktag, Larky, and FreeStride Therapeutics. To date, the Michigan Pre-Seed Capital Fund has invested $16.5 million in 75 Michigan companies. While Flocktag and Larky both want to leverage customer satisfaction and their hunger for discounts, FreeStride Therapeutics is working on treatments for … Continue reading “Michigan Pre-Seed Capital Fund Invests $600K in Three Tech Startups”
Xconomist of the Week: ATV’s Bob Hower on “A” Startups, IPOs, & the God of VC
The venture capital industry is in flux. A lot of firms and funds are contracting. Big guys are doing more later-stage investments (see GitHub). Little guys are trying to innovate with early stage companies. Fund investors are trying to figure out how to get more bang for their venture buck. In the midst of all … Continue reading “Xconomist of the Week: ATV’s Bob Hower on “A” Startups, IPOs, & the God of VC”
Crocodoc’s HTML Document Viewer Infiltrates the Enterprise
It wasn’t that long ago that you could only read Word documents in Word, you could only view PowerPoint decks in PowerPoint, and you could only read PDFs in Acrobat. But without fully realizing it, we’ve come to the end of an era—the era when reading a digital document required a specialized document viewer (usually … Continue reading “Crocodoc’s HTML Document Viewer Infiltrates the Enterprise”
The Echo Nest Nabs $17M More for Smarter Music Tech
The Boston-area startup financing train keeps rolling this week. The Echo Nest, a Somerville, MA-based music tech company, has raised a $17.3 million Series C round led by new investor Norwest Venture Partners (also a recent investor in Boston-based Gemvara). Previous investors including Matrix Partners and Commonwealth Capital also participated. The company, which closed a … Continue reading “The Echo Nest Nabs $17M More for Smarter Music Tech”
MyPod Studios is Choosy about Picking Online Videos for Its Platform
With the Web swamped by a morass of puerile videos of cats at play and the like, New York-based startup MyPod Studios has set out to build a digital oasis for viewers who are selective about what they watch. CEO Jay Miletsky says his platform only hosts content that he and the staff decide are … Continue reading “MyPod Studios is Choosy about Picking Online Videos for Its Platform”
Life Science Innovation NW Notes: SeaGen, NanoString, Viket, & More
Fifty years ago at the World’s Fair, Seattle’s visionaries were thinking about exploring space. Today, the CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation observed, more of the region’s innovators are focused on “terrestrial” matters like global health and biotech. Whether that’s good or bad for mankind, we can debate another day. But as Jeff … Continue reading “Life Science Innovation NW Notes: SeaGen, NanoString, Viket, & More”
ImmunoGen Emerges from Genentech’s Shadow With Novel Cancer Drugs
When ImmunoGen (NASDAQ: [[ticker:IMGN]]) said yesterday that it had started human trials of a new drug to treat ovarian cancer and other solid tumors, the announcement marked a coming out of sorts for the Waltham, MA-based company. That’s because for most of the past decade or so, ImmunoGen has been inextricably linked with biotech giant … Continue reading “ImmunoGen Emerges from Genentech’s Shadow With Novel Cancer Drugs”
Insta-Friends? Spanish Hacker Reports Big Instagram Privacy Hole
Instagram was never the most private of apps. The photos you share there are public by default, meaning they’re visible to all of your followers. And you can “follow” any Instagram user you like—unless that user has selected the “photos are private” option in the app’s privacy settings. In that case, the user has to … Continue reading “Insta-Friends? Spanish Hacker Reports Big Instagram Privacy Hole”
Asteroid Miners to Hitch Rides on Richard Branson’s New Rocket
Planetary Resources, a startup that hopes to mine precious materials from asteroids, is partnering with a leading name in private space exploration: Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic. The deal calls for Bellevue, WA-based Planetary Resources to use Virgin Galactic’s new LauncherOne spacecraft to send “constellations” of its telescopes into orbit near the Earth. Those telescopes are … Continue reading “Asteroid Miners to Hitch Rides on Richard Branson’s New Rocket”
In Finding Things to Do, Mobile App Uses Calendar for Search
Jan Anton, the CEO of San Diego-based uTemporis, is a little guarded about the genesis of Time to Enjoy, a free, location-based mobile app intended to answer the perennial question, “Is there anything for us to do?” The app, available for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, pulls in data (from San Diego’s Eventful and … Continue reading “In Finding Things to Do, Mobile App Uses Calendar for Search”
In Search of Meaningful GAIN in Renewal of Prescription Drug Act
The repercussions of the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on the Affordable Care Act have largely overshadowed another key healthcare milestone—President Obama’s signing Monday of the Prescription Drug User Fee Act, also known as PDUFA V. Originally passed in 1992, PDUFA V re-authorizes the FDA to collect fees from drug sponsors to speed the review and … Continue reading “In Search of Meaningful GAIN in Renewal of Prescription Drug Act”
Kinvey, Out to Kick Butt and Build Mobile Backends, Lands $5M in VC
Let’s just get the backend jokes out of the way, shall we? Kinvey is building big, beautiful backends for mobile developers. Kinvey puts the “BaaS” (backend as a service) in “Badass.” Kinvey will be doing a Sir Mix-a-Lot cover called “Baby Got BaaS.” (Can you believe that song is 20 years old? OK, I can.) … Continue reading “Kinvey, Out to Kick Butt and Build Mobile Backends, Lands $5M in VC”
Data, Analytics, & Finding Your OKM: Mixpanel Goes Beyond Page Views
What’s the true measure of success for a startup? That depends on what you’re trying to accomplish. If you work at Path, the San Francisco-based mobile social network, it’s probably not useful to obsess over how many people have downloaded your iOS or Android apps, or even how often the apps are opened or how … Continue reading “Data, Analytics, & Finding Your OKM: Mixpanel Goes Beyond Page Views”
Backupify Brings In $9M More from Symantec & VCs, Fends Off Acquirers
An old-school tech company in a new-school world. That’s what I’d call Backupify. The Cambridge, MA-based startup sits squarely at the intersection of cloud computing, data management, online backup, and now, security. Its big market opportunity is in the cloud—backing up data from business apps and social media— but its culture is firmly rooted in … Continue reading “Backupify Brings In $9M More from Symantec & VCs, Fends Off Acquirers”
Startup Superpowers, And How Big Companies Can Get Them Too
For nine years, I worked for one of the largest tech companies in the world, which will go unnamed at this particular time. I had so many ideas and was hopeful that my input and entrepreneurial spirit would be cultivated. Instead, I was consistently shut down and ended up feeling virtually powerless, like a cog … Continue reading “Startup Superpowers, And How Big Companies Can Get Them Too”
Protagonist Criss-Crosses Pacific, in Search of New Peptide Drugs
If your definition of hard work depends on getting to the office at 7 am every day, then Dinesh Patel might sound pretty lazy. He doesn’t usually pull out of his driveway for work until 9 am. He has a business reason for starting late, and it has little to do with beating traffic (although … Continue reading “Protagonist Criss-Crosses Pacific, in Search of New Peptide Drugs”