It’s easy to forget that Arlene Weintraub, Xconomy New York’s editor, has been running a one-woman show since joining us in April. Sure she’s had loads of help from her colleagues across the Xconomy network. But still, the whole of New York tech and life sciences is a big monster of a beat for one … Continue reading “Xconomy’s New York Team Doubles in Size, Plots East Coast (Biotech) Takeover”
Category: National
How to Innovate in a Hypersocial World: Q&A with Gail Goodman, CEO of Constant Contact
Constant Contact is a digital marketing company led by babes. I don’t mean women, though that is true, actually. And I don’t mean babies in the crying, needy, or naïve sense, but rather the youngest-in-the-family sense. Let me start over. As it turns out, many of the senior management team of Waltham, MA-based Constant Contact … Continue reading “How to Innovate in a Hypersocial World: Q&A with Gail Goodman, CEO of Constant Contact”
With Debut of Pokki Desktop Apps, OpenCandy Founders Create New Corporate Identity
San Diego’s OpenCandy has a new name today—SweetLabs. The change coincides with the beta launch of Pokki, a new platform the company has developed to provide desktop users with an “always on” experience more commonly found among apps for smartphones. “We’re spoiled by having all these incredible apps on our mobile devices,” says Chester Ng, … Continue reading “With Debut of Pokki Desktop Apps, OpenCandy Founders Create New Corporate Identity”
Independa Unveils Integrated App to Link the Independent Elderly with Care-Givers
A little more than two years after Kian Saneii founded Independa, the San Diego wireless health startup says it is making its integrated telecare app, Angela, available Friday for beta testing. The program, which will be generally available in September, provides a very simple interface that enables the elderly to send and receive e-mail, download … Continue reading “Independa Unveils Integrated App to Link the Independent Elderly with Care-Givers”
Nimbus, Seeded by Bill Gates, Raises $24 Million For Computer-Aided Drug Discovery
Nimbus Discovery burst out of stealth mode in March with seed funding from none other than Microsoft chairman Bill Gates. Now Nimbus, a Cambridge, MA-based company that specializes in computer-aided drug discovery, is chalking up a second impressive milestone: It has raised a Series A funding round of $24 million, with money from Gates and … Continue reading “Nimbus, Seeded by Bill Gates, Raises $24 Million For Computer-Aided Drug Discovery”
Verve Wireless Charts Local Media Trends on Mobile Devices
[Corrected 6/27/11 8:25 pm. See Below] When I profiled Verve Wireless almost nine months ago, the Encinitas, CA-based startup was providing its web-based technology for some 750 newspaper publishers and broadcast stations throughout the United States. Today, more than 1,200 local newspapers and broadcasters use Verve’s platform to publish their content and serve ads to … Continue reading “Verve Wireless Charts Local Media Trends on Mobile Devices”
The Supreme Court’s 7-2 Decision on Video Games as Free Speech Masks a 5-4 Split
The Supreme Court today released its opinion regarding California’s attempt to ban the sale of so-called violent video games to those under 18. My company, Vindicia, filed an amicus brief in the case, Brown v. Entertainment Merchant’s Association, to make sure the Court was aware of the ramifications of the California law in the digital … Continue reading “The Supreme Court’s 7-2 Decision on Video Games as Free Speech Masks a 5-4 Split”
Lost In Translation: Ford Teams With Nuance Communications To Master Human Language
“Call John Smith.” “I wanna call John Smith.” At first glance, these sentences look pretty similar. But try telling that to the voice recognition technology behind Ford Motor’s SYNC system. You might as well be speaking Greek. Voices recognition software has come a long way in recent years. Google’s Android platform, for example, allows users … Continue reading “Lost In Translation: Ford Teams With Nuance Communications To Master Human Language”
Verenium and Novus Collaborate to Develop New Enzymes for Animal Markets
San Diego-based Verenium, which retained a library of industrial enzymes following last year’s buyout of its cellulosic biofuels business, is announcing a strategic collaboration today with Novus International, a St. Louis, MO-based maker of animal nutrition and health products. The partners plan to jointly develop and commercialize a series of enzymes from Verenium’s late-stage product … Continue reading “Verenium and Novus Collaborate to Develop New Enzymes for Animal Markets”
Fighting the Froth and Fluff: New York Tech Investors See Strengths in Digital Media Startups, Challenges in “Me-Tooism”
Venture capitalists and early-stage investors in New York may occasionally pull on their Wellington boots to wade through the muck of startups flooding the market, but they are not grumbling about it. The trick is sifting through the me-too entrepreneurs that develop ideas along the lines of Foursquare, which raised $50 million last Friday, and … Continue reading “Fighting the Froth and Fluff: New York Tech Investors See Strengths in Digital Media Startups, Challenges in “Me-Tooism””
Doximity, Chirply, IPO Anxiety: The 1-Minute Version of Last Week’s Bay Area BizTech News
I’m in re-entry mode after a week’s vacation in northern Michigan, which means I’m catching up on everything my colleagues published while I was away. Here’s a quick rundown of last week’s business and technology news from Xconomy San Francisco (including a couple of pieces I wrote before my trip): —The IPO market may be … Continue reading “Doximity, Chirply, IPO Anxiety: The 1-Minute Version of Last Week’s Bay Area BizTech News”
Qualcomm Moves to Expand Development of Augmented Reality, VCs See More Funding for Cloud Computing, Ortiva Gets $2M, & More San Diego BizTech News
Qualcomm has been funding some impressive R&D work on augmented reality (AR) at its research centers around the world. Could the technology really revolutionize the mobile graphical user interface? It’s time to find out. Your roundup begins now. —Qualcomm’s Jay Wright outlined the San Diego wireless giant’s strategy for advancing augmented reality by encouraging development … Continue reading “Qualcomm Moves to Expand Development of Augmented Reality, VCs See More Funding for Cloud Computing, Ortiva Gets $2M, & More San Diego BizTech News”
Betting That Biotech Will Bring the FDA to Heel? Don’t Count On It
When Minnesota Democrat Al Franken and Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown line up on the same side of an issue, my first guess would usually be that it’s to vote on some meaningless resolution in favor of apple pie. Or, like now, it could be a sign that a controversial, potentially transformative piece of legislation is … Continue reading “Betting That Biotech Will Bring the FDA to Heel? Don’t Count On It”
Genentech Scoops Up Tumor-Starving Drug Program From Forma Therapeutics In Rare Deal
Genentech doesn’t acquire many drugs from other people, partly because it has a prolific internal R&D operation. But the South San Francisco-based unit of Roche, the world’s biggest maker of cancer treatments, is announcing an unusual deal today in which it is paying to get an early-stage cancer drug program from Cambridge, MA-based Forma Therapeutics … Continue reading “Genentech Scoops Up Tumor-Starving Drug Program From Forma Therapeutics In Rare Deal”
Tachi Yamada, Former Gates Foundation Leader, Joins Frazier for New VC Gig
Tachi Yamada ran what you could call the world’s largest nonprofit venture fund for high-risk, high-reward global health ideas the past five years. Now he’s going to apply that same feel for risk and reward in the traditional venture capital business. Yamada, 66, the former president of global health at the Bill & Melinda Gates … Continue reading “Tachi Yamada, Former Gates Foundation Leader, Joins Frazier for New VC Gig”
Black Duck Adds Jobs, Sees Transition to Helping Software Developers Use Open Source Tools
Black Duck Software CEO Tim Yeaton says his Waltham, MA-based company is fulfilling a mission that it set out on when he started two and a half years ago. “We enable organizations that are building software products and applications to use open source components successfully in their development,” Yeaton says. Black Duck was initially known … Continue reading “Black Duck Adds Jobs, Sees Transition to Helping Software Developers Use Open Source Tools”
The Auto Magnate and the Scientist: How Mass General is Working With Lee Iacocca to Find a Diabetes Cure
What happens when a guy who got wealthy selling cars hands millions of dollars to a scientist and tells her how to spend it? Folks attending the American Diabetes Association conference starting today in San Diego are getting a hint of the answer to that question. Denise Faustman, director of the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) … Continue reading “The Auto Magnate and the Scientist: How Mass General is Working With Lee Iacocca to Find a Diabetes Cure”
Nuance Slaps Vlingo With False Advertising Lawsuit As Latest Move In Legal Battle
The patent litigation between Burlington, MA-based Nuance Communications (NASDAQ: [[ticker:NUAN]]) and Cambridge, MA-based Vlingo is nothing new. A false advertising lawsuit is, though. Earlier this week, Nuance filed such a lawsuit against Vlingo in Suffolk County Superior Court. The suit asserts that Vlingo, on its website and elsewhere, “makes numerous false and misleading representations of … Continue reading “Nuance Slaps Vlingo With False Advertising Lawsuit As Latest Move In Legal Battle”
A San Diego Sampler from the War on Diabetes
The American Diabetes Association begins its 71st annual scientific conference today at the San Diego Convention Center, drawing more than 13,500 endocrinologists, scientists, and others involved in diabetes research and health care. You could argue that in the comfort of the modern world, the twin epidemics of diabetes and obesity have replaced famine among the … Continue reading “A San Diego Sampler from the War on Diabetes”
PopCap’s Big Moment: Acquisition or IPO, with Pitfalls and Promise Either Way
Whether it forges ahead with previous hopes for an IPO, or jumps at an acquisition, it’s clear that Seattle-based PopCap Games is unlikely to leave 2011 without being transformed. The question is, which outcome is better for PopCap? Just a few days ago, the storyline seemed pretty clear. Profitable for years and with few investors … Continue reading “PopCap’s Big Moment: Acquisition or IPO, with Pitfalls and Promise Either Way”
Merck’s Julie Gerberding, Former CDC Director, on the Future of Vaccines
Not many pharmaceutical executives can say with a straight face that if they are successful, they will really help millions of people live significantly longer and healthier lives around the world. Julie Gerberding, the former director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has been in one of those rare positions for about … Continue reading “Merck’s Julie Gerberding, Former CDC Director, on the Future of Vaccines”
Biogen Eyes Cambridge Move, Vertex Licenses Alios Drugs, Concert Nabs GSK Payment, & More Boston-Area Life Sciences News
We didn’t bring you a life sciences roundup last Friday due to some time constraints, but some of the weeks’ headlines were too important to skip altogether. So here are two weeks worth of biotech profiles, partnership announcements, personnel moves, financing news, and more. —The American Chemical Society awarded its highest honor, the Priestley Medal, to … Continue reading “Biogen Eyes Cambridge Move, Vertex Licenses Alios Drugs, Concert Nabs GSK Payment, & More Boston-Area Life Sciences News”
Wind Turbine Supplier Danotek Closes In on $20M Series B Financing
Danotek Motion Technologies is finalizing a deal to secure $20 million in new financing, company officials told Xconomy. The startup, based in Canton Township, MI, will use the money to scale up production of its permanent magnet generators for wind turbines. The company’s existing investors, which include Khosla Ventures, CMEA Capital, GE Energy Financial Services, … Continue reading “Wind Turbine Supplier Danotek Closes In on $20M Series B Financing”
Vigix Raises $1.5M More, Looks to Reinvent Vending with Networked Kiosks
News flash: This company actually makes physical stuff for businesses. Not social software, not a mobile app or backend system, not a retail website or aggregator. And it has been able to raise some new money to expand its product. Its goal: to provide automated kiosks (see image, right) for dispensing everything from loyalty cards … Continue reading “Vigix Raises $1.5M More, Looks to Reinvent Vending with Networked Kiosks”
Neurologix Forges Ahead on Gene Therapy Treatment for Parkinson’s
On June 8, Neurologix (NASDAQ: [[ticker:NRGX]]) released positive data from a trial of its experimental gene therapy treatment in patients with Parkinson’s Disease. It was the latest in a string of impressive announcements from the Fort Lee, NJ-based company, which has been on a roll since March, when the journal Lancet Neurology published six-month results from … Continue reading “Neurologix Forges Ahead on Gene Therapy Treatment for Parkinson’s”
GE and VCs Invest $63M in 10 Cleantechs Through “Ecoimagination Challenge”
Fairfield, CT-based GE (NYSE: GE) and four venture capital partners said today they plan to invest a total of $63 million in 10 cleantech companies developing energy-related concepts in solar, communications and software, and building efficiency. The funding represents the second phase of a crowd-sourcing challenge, this time focused on “Powering Your Home,” that GE … Continue reading “GE and VCs Invest $63M in 10 Cleantechs Through “Ecoimagination Challenge””
Inception 1 Raises $5M, VCs Pessimistic About U.S. Biotech Funding, EU Approves Amylin’s Once-a-Week Diabetes Drug, & More San Diego Life Sciences News
It was not a week for a lot of life sciences news, but what we’ve got is pretty interesting. Judge for yourselves; our roundup begins now. —A global survey of venture capitalists released this week reveals substantial pessimism among VCs about venture investment levels in U.S. life sciences startups over the next five years. The … Continue reading “Inception 1 Raises $5M, VCs Pessimistic About U.S. Biotech Funding, EU Approves Amylin’s Once-a-Week Diabetes Drug, & More San Diego Life Sciences News”
Chirply Brings Crowdsourcing—and Good Art—to Greeting Cards
In this era of Kindles and iPads and cloud-based data storage, the idea of an Internet startup that’s actually focused on paper is more than an anachronism—it’s almost a contradiction in terms. But that’s Chirply, a Y Combinator-backed company in San Francisco that sells high-end greeting cards—and soon notebooks and wrapping paper—printed with designs from … Continue reading “Chirply Brings Crowdsourcing—and Good Art—to Greeting Cards”
Allozyne’s Backdoor IPO, Sound Pharma Fights iPod Deafness, Mirina Vs. Marina Ends, & More Seattle-Area Life Sciences News
Seattle biotech hasn’t had an IPO in a long time, but this week one biotech startup found a way to get onto the NASDAQ without doing the usual road show to entice investors. —One of Seattle’s top private biotech companies, Allozyne, essentially agreed to acquire a shell of a public company, San Francisco-based Poniard Pharmaceuticals … Continue reading “Allozyne’s Backdoor IPO, Sound Pharma Fights iPod Deafness, Mirina Vs. Marina Ends, & More Seattle-Area Life Sciences News”
Tagify Plans to Mature Before Seeking Investors After Win at Startup Weekend NYC
Amid the ideas brewed in the carnival atmosphere at Startup Weekend New York City earlier this month was another attempt at tackling the rapidly growing issue of contact management. The team that created Tagify.us, an app that crowdsources information about users’ personal contacts, won first place at the end of the 54-hour event (June 10-12). … Continue reading “Tagify Plans to Mature Before Seeking Investors After Win at Startup Weekend NYC”
XSITE 2011: The Entrepreneurship Era. First We Brought You Pictures, Now We Have A Video.
Xconomy editor Gregory Huang declared official recess for the heavy events season in Boston’s technology and startup communities. After a week that included WebInno, TechStars Demo Day, Angel Bootcamp, and an awesome all-day innovation forum, I’m not objecting. But we don’t want you to forget about this year’s installment of XSITE: The Xconomy Summit on … Continue reading “XSITE 2011: The Entrepreneurship Era. First We Brought You Pictures, Now We Have A Video.”
Link Between Cardiovascular And Metabolic Diseases? That’s What Esperion Therapeutics Founder Has Been Trying To Tell You
Last month, I wrote about Roger Newton, the former Pfizer executive who co-discovered the blockbuster cholesterol-lowering drug atorvastatin (Lipitor). Newton, now the CEO at a reborn version of his original company, Esperion Therapeutics in Plymouth, MI, said in the interview he thought doctors overprescribe statins like Lipitor to treat heart disease at the expense of … Continue reading “Link Between Cardiovascular And Metabolic Diseases? That’s What Esperion Therapeutics Founder Has Been Trying To Tell You”
PopCap Games, Previously Talking Plenty About an IPO, Now Subject of $1B Buyout Report
Seattle’s PopCap Games, which makes well-known casual game titles like Bejeweled and Plants vs. Zombies, has been making lots of noise about its plans to possibly seek an IPO later this year. Of course, one result of a lot of IPO talk is sometimes an acquisition, and that may also be in the cards. This … Continue reading “PopCap Games, Previously Talking Plenty About an IPO, Now Subject of $1B Buyout Report”
Allozyne Acquires Poniard Pharmaceuticals, Finds Backdoor Route to NASDAQ
Sometimes biotech startups can find a backdoor route to going public without going to all the trouble of doing an IPO, and that’s what Seattle-based Allozyne just did today. Allozyne, the developer of a long-lasting protein drug for multiple sclerosis, said today it has agreed to a merger with San Francisco-based Poniard Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:PARD]]) … Continue reading “Allozyne Acquires Poniard Pharmaceuticals, Finds Backdoor Route to NASDAQ”
Yipit Raises $6 Million More to Aggregate Daily Deals
New York’s Yipit, an aggregator of daily deals, said it raised $6 million in a Series B funding round led by Highland Capital Partners, based in the Boston area. The news was first reported by TechCrunch. Vinicius Vacanti, co-founder of Yipit, said existing investors RRE Ventures, DFJ Gotham Ventures, and IA Ventures also participated in … Continue reading “Yipit Raises $6 Million More to Aggregate Daily Deals”
Case Closed on Mirina vs. Marina, as Accelerator Startup Changes Name
There won’t be any more Mirina vs. Marina stories to kick around here anymore. Seattle-based Mirina, the privately-held developer of microRNA therapies, has dropped its trademark infringement lawsuit against Bothell, WA-based Marina Biotech (NASDAQ: [[ticker:MRNA]]). Mirina, a startup at Accelerator, has changed its name to Groove Biopharma, according to Accelerator CEO Carl Weissman. “Every single … Continue reading “Case Closed on Mirina vs. Marina, as Accelerator Startup Changes Name”
Braemar Energy Ventures Finds Value in Energy Technology, Both Clean and Conventional
During a panel discussion with three cleantech investors at the Energy Infotech Forum in New York City yesterday, an audience member posed a provocative question: “What won’t you invest in?” he asked. Scott DePasquale, a partner at Braemar Energy Ventures, responded “consumer space travel.” DePasquale was only half kidding. Ever since Braemar was founded in … Continue reading “Braemar Energy Ventures Finds Value in Energy Technology, Both Clean and Conventional”
XSITE 2011, TechStars Demo Day, the Bruins, and Coolio: 25 Things to Remember From Boston’s Hell Week
Ladies and gentlemen, after last week I hereby declare the end of high season for tech events in Boston. We’ve had our celebrations, drunk our grain, and talked our heads off. Now, before we start getting some things done around here, let’s reflect just a little more. The following took place during a 24-hour period … Continue reading “XSITE 2011, TechStars Demo Day, the Bruins, and Coolio: 25 Things to Remember From Boston’s Hell Week”
Nuance Buys SVOX, Aveo Sells $100M in Stock, CSN Grabs $165M, & More Boston-Area Deals News
New England biotechs and IT startups don’t seem to indicate a summer slowdown. They’ve been inking some pretty massive financing deals this week, as well as an acquisition or two. —Cambridge, MA-based drug developer Aveo Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:AVEO]]) raised $100 million, selling 5.75 million shares of stock at $17.50 apiece in an underwritten public offering. … Continue reading “Nuance Buys SVOX, Aveo Sells $100M in Stock, CSN Grabs $165M, & More Boston-Area Deals News”
Cyterix Develops New Twist on an Old Idea, With ‘Smart Bomb’ Cancer Drugs
The folks at The Column Group like to back some of the edgiest ideas in biomedicine, and their counterparts at SV Life Sciences tend to avoid some of the risky early steps in cancer drug R&D. So I had to wonder what these two venture firms were thinking earlier this month when they poured $9.2 … Continue reading “Cyterix Develops New Twist on an Old Idea, With ‘Smart Bomb’ Cancer Drugs”
Fighting iPod Deafness, Sound Pharma Focuses on Teens Cranking up the Volume
The iPod made tiny earbuds supercool. But the digital music revolution has created some damaging consequences, as millions of young people listen to songs for hours every day at sometimes deafening volumes. Most of them won’t turn down the noise anytime soon, and as millions develop early forms of hearing loss, it is creating a … Continue reading “Fighting iPod Deafness, Sound Pharma Focuses on Teens Cranking up the Volume”
VC Survey Highlights Anxiety Over Weak IPO Market
There must be some way out of here, but venture capitalists around the world say the current level of initial public offering (IPO) activity is too anemic to sustain the venture capital industry in the United States and eight other countries, according to a global VC survey. In the United States, 91 percent of the … Continue reading “VC Survey Highlights Anxiety Over Weak IPO Market”
Who’s That (Virtual) Girl? Ford Uses Motion Capture Technology to Design Worker-Friendly Factories
Play too many video games and you might get repetitive strain injuries (RSI). But Ford Motor is adopting video game technology so its workers don’t get RSI. The company, based in Dearborn, MI, is using Hollywood-style motion capture technology (the kind that makes Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers so lifelike on Madden 2011) to … Continue reading “Who’s That (Virtual) Girl? Ford Uses Motion Capture Technology to Design Worker-Friendly Factories”
ScaleXtreme’s $11M, led by Ignition and Accel, Shows Stronger Valley Ties with the Northwest
Personal connections between Silicon Valley and the Pacific Northwest are what make deals flow between the two regions. Today’s example is Bellevue, WA-based Ignition Partners taking the lead role for an $11 million Series B investment in Palo Alto, CA’s ScaleXtreme, a provider of online IT management software. This particular cross-border connection is personified by … Continue reading “ScaleXtreme’s $11M, led by Ignition and Accel, Shows Stronger Valley Ties with the Northwest”
Qualcomm Claims Leadership in Augmented Reality, Sees Huge Potential on Its View Screen
I’ve never been particularly fond of the term “killer app,” which has thankfully receded from the lexicon of tech writers—no doubt from heavy overuse. But during Qualcomm’s Uplinq conference for mobile app developers earlier this month, I was struck by the potential “killerness” of the wireless giant’s initiative in mobile augmented reality, or AR. What … Continue reading “Qualcomm Claims Leadership in Augmented Reality, Sees Huge Potential on Its View Screen”
XSITE 2011: The Entrepreneurship Era. The Day in Pictures
Close to 400 people showed up to Babson College last Thursday for our flagship all-day event, XSITE: The Xconomy Summit on Innovation, Technology, & Entrepreneurship. This year’s conference focused specifically on what we’ve called The Era of Entrepreneurship, taking a look at a driving force in innovation and social and economic impact. We kicked off … Continue reading “XSITE 2011: The Entrepreneurship Era. The Day in Pictures”
Tesaro Snags Huge $101M Venture Round to Develop Cancer Drugs
Who needs the risky, messy business of early drug discovery? A number of top venture capitalists and public investors have shown, through a monster $101 million Series B investment in Waltham, MA-based Tesaro, that the preferred bet of the day is on a proven team of people aspiring to push cancer drugs through the later … Continue reading “Tesaro Snags Huge $101M Venture Round to Develop Cancer Drugs”
CSN Stores, Bootstrapped No More, Takes In $165M from Battery, Spark, Great Hill, HarbourVest
So much for becoming a billion-dollar company without taking venture capital. But I guess we saw this coming. Boston-based CSN Stores, an online retailer and bootstrapped success story, has raised a first financing round of $165 million from Battery Ventures, Great Hill Partners, HarbourVest Partners, and Spark Capital. The news was reported in the Wall … Continue reading “CSN Stores, Bootstrapped No More, Takes In $165M from Battery, Spark, Great Hill, HarbourVest”
ExtraHop, Profibrix, Avalara Lead Way Toward $70M in Equity Deals for WA Companies in May
Companies working on IT management, drug development, and software of all kinds led the way to about $70 million worth of equity deals in Washington state during May, according to data compiled by CB Insights. The top investment went to ExtraHop Networks, which reeled in $14 million in an over-subscribed round led by Meritech Capital … Continue reading “ExtraHop, Profibrix, Avalara Lead Way Toward $70M in Equity Deals for WA Companies in May”
On Quirky’s Site, Anyone Can Invent a Hit Consumer Product
[Updated 6/21/09 3:30 p.m. See below.] On June 15, Jake Zien stood outside the Bed Bath & Beyond store on 6th Avenue in New York gazing at a giant poster of himself in a sprawling window display. The display features his product, Pivot Power, a flexible power strip that he invented with the help of Quirky—a … Continue reading “On Quirky’s Site, Anyone Can Invent a Hit Consumer Product”