Biogen Idec is making another step towards building itself into a neurological diseases drug specialist. The Weston, MA-based biotech company (NASDAQ:[[ticker:BIIB]]) said today it has acquired a subsidiary of the Swiss biotech firm Neurimmune Holding to gain worldwide rights to antibody drugs against three specific proteins, which might cause neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, ALS, … Continue reading “Biogen Idec Buys Drug Rights from Neurimmune for $32.5M”
Category: National
Harvard Business School Launches Fund to Invest In Lean Startup Model
Harvard Business School announced today that it is launching a $50,000 fund to help student startups roll out prototypes in the winter months. The Minimum Viable Product Fund, which was proposed by three first-year MBA students and is funded by the school’s Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship, will award 10 teams with about $5,000 apiece … Continue reading “Harvard Business School Launches Fund to Invest In Lean Startup Model”
How SunRun Applies Financial and Software Muscle to Home Solar Installation
Sometimes we tech reporters get so wrapped up in writing about cool new technologies that we overlook other, equally important forms of innovation. Recently I visited SunRun, a San Francisco startup that installs photovoltaic panels on residential buildings and charges homeowners for the electricity they generate. I was expecting to hear a lot about the … Continue reading “How SunRun Applies Financial and Software Muscle to Home Solar Installation”
XDx, After a Long Slog in Molecular Diagnostics, Predicts First Profit in 2011
The numbers tell a sobering story at Brisbane, CA-based XDx. Ten years in business. Five years with a diagnostic product on the market. About $140 million of capital invested. And after all that, projections are that the company might start running in the black for the first time next year, its 11th year in business, … Continue reading “XDx, After a Long Slog in Molecular Diagnostics, Predicts First Profit in 2011”
MeLLmo Raises $10M as Roambi Expands Compatibility
MeLLmo, the Del Mar, CA-based startup that specializes in visualization software for displaying business intelligence on mobile devices, says it has closed its third and biggest round of funding—$10 million from private investors. The company has now raised total funding of $20 million since MeLLmo was founded in January 2008. As MeLLmo founder Santiago Becerra … Continue reading “MeLLmo Raises $10M as Roambi Expands Compatibility”
Survey Shows Venture Industry’s Outlook Brightening for 2011
Venture capitalists and venture-backed CEOs are feeling more optimistic about 2011, according to the fifth annual outlook survey being released today by the National Venture Capital Association and Dow Jones VentureSource. The most recent “Venture View” survey is based on responses from more than 330 VCs and 180 executives that were collected nationwide at the … Continue reading “Survey Shows Venture Industry’s Outlook Brightening for 2011”
Northern Power Systems Tapping Michigan Partners for Utility-Scale Wind Business
Northern Power System, the Barre, VT-based wind energy firm, has made some progress in its years-long pursuit of the lucrative market for utility-grade wind turbines. The company has made much of this progress here in Michigan. Last month the company shipped its first prototype of a utility-scale, 2.2-megawatt wind turbine to Traverse City, MI-based Heritage … Continue reading “Northern Power Systems Tapping Michigan Partners for Utility-Scale Wind Business”
LS9 Pockets $30M for Renewable Fuels, in Deal Led by BlackRock
LS9 got itself a new CEO earlier this month, and now it’s got a lot more cash in the bank, too. The South San Francisco-based developer of renewable fuels—whose technology is based on synthetic biology research at UC Berkeley and Harvard University—has pulled in $30 million in equity financing, according to a regulatory filing today. … Continue reading “LS9 Pockets $30M for Renewable Fuels, in Deal Led by BlackRock”
Babson’s MBA Program Plants a Flag in San Francisco’s SoMa
Cementing the expansion of its entrepreneurship-focused Fast Track MBA program to the Bay Area, Babson College announced today that it has signed a seven-year lease on 7,000 square feet of space at 135 Main Street in San Francisco’s startup-saturated South of Market (SoMa) neighborhood. As we wrote in a September profile, the Massachusetts-based school is … Continue reading “Babson’s MBA Program Plants a Flag in San Francisco’s SoMa”
Polaris To Open Dogpatch in Dublin, Nabs Funding From Irish National Pensions Reserve Fund
Polaris Venture Partners is opening up a Dogpatch Labs incubator in Dublin, Ireland, the first international location for its network of startup workspace communities, according to an announcement last week by Ireland’s National Pensions Reserve Fund (NPRF). The organization also revealed that it had invested $50 million in Waltham, MA-based Polaris through its Innovation Fund … Continue reading “Polaris To Open Dogpatch in Dublin, Nabs Funding From Irish National Pensions Reserve Fund”
Fighting Alzheimer’s: New Hope in a New Year Through Innovation
The toll of Alzheimer’s disease on patients, their families, and our society is devastating. Alzheimer’s robs people of their memories, their identities and ultimately their lives. And the cost to society can’t be ignored. According to a new study, “Medicines in Development for Alzheimer’s Disease,” without effective new drugs and other therapies that curtail or … Continue reading “Fighting Alzheimer’s: New Hope in a New Year Through Innovation”
TechShop Opens Up Shop, mSpot Puts iTunes in the Cloud, Twitter Collects $200M, & More Bay Area BizTech News
As the holidays (you know, that breather right before CES) approached, Bay Area entrepreneurs and investors rushed to announce a series of product rollouts, openings, deliveries, and deals last week. —Palo Alto, CA-based mSpot rolled out a cloud music service catering to iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch owners, beating Apple to the punch. —Nissan delivered … Continue reading “TechShop Opens Up Shop, mSpot Puts iTunes in the Cloud, Twitter Collects $200M, & More Bay Area BizTech News”
Navy Drives Biofuel Production With Goal to Buy 336M Gallons a Year by 2020, Enhancing San Diego’s Role as Center for Algae Biofuels
The U.S. military’s interest in developing algae biofuels dates back at least three years, when the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) began to assess the technical capabilities needed to produce JP-8 grade jet fuel. By the end of 2008, DARPA awarded separate contracts to San Diego’s General Atomics and SAIC, now based in McLean, … Continue reading “Navy Drives Biofuel Production With Goal to Buy 336M Gallons a Year by 2020, Enhancing San Diego’s Role as Center for Algae Biofuels”
Sanofi Taps Avila Therapeutics for Covalent Cancer Drugs in Potential $800M Deal
Avila Therapeutics is ending 2010 with a bang. The Waltham, MA-based drug development startup has snapped up a deal worth up to about $800 million with the French drug giant Sanofi-Aventis (NYSE:[[ticker:SNY]]), Avila said this morning. Sanofi is paying for access to Avila’s technology for identifying potential cancer drugs that silence tumor-related proteins with durable … Continue reading “Sanofi Taps Avila Therapeutics for Covalent Cancer Drugs in Potential $800M Deal”
Nissan Delivers First Leaf EVs, San Diego’s Drop Down Deals Launches Website, Connect Issues its Most Innovative New Product Awards, & More San Diego BizTech News
San Diego’s BizTech news was slowing down as Christmas approached, so this week’s roundup will be short and sweet. —Drop Down Deals, a San Diego startup funded by a private investment group called Sambreel Holdings, launched a new website to complement the free downloadable Web browser plug-in the company introduced last month. Once loaded on … Continue reading “Nissan Delivers First Leaf EVs, San Diego’s Drop Down Deals Launches Website, Connect Issues its Most Innovative New Product Awards, & More San Diego BizTech News”
Raytheon Buys Applied Signal for $490M
A pretty big merger in defense tech this morning. Waltham, MA-based Raytheon (NYSE: [[ticker:RTN]]) announced it has agreed to acquire Sunnyvale, CA-based Applied Signal Technology (NASDAQ: [[ticker:APSG]]) for $38 per share—about $490 million in cash. The deal is slated to close in the first quarter of 2011, and is not expected to have a material … Continue reading “Raytheon Buys Applied Signal for $490M”
iStocking Stuffers: The Best Apps for That iPad Under the Tree
So you know someone who’s lucky enough to be getting an Apple iPad as a Christmas present. Well, that’s just the beginning of the adventure. The next step is to get their device loaded up with great apps—and naturally, they’ll want a few that show off the iPad’s remarkable capabilities. Today I’m sharing my ideas … Continue reading “iStocking Stuffers: The Best Apps for That iPad Under the Tree”
GlobalScholar’s Kal Raman, Fresh Off $160M Deal, Seeks to Build an Oracle for K-12 Schools
Kal Raman has one of those classic poor-boy-makes-good life stories. He was born and raised in a village in India, hungry, with no electricity, no running water. The poor boy grew up to make a small fortune in the executive ranks in the U.S. at companies like Wal-Mart, drugstore.com, and Seattle-based Amazon. Now Raman, a … Continue reading “GlobalScholar’s Kal Raman, Fresh Off $160M Deal, Seeks to Build an Oracle for K-12 Schools”
Compass Healthcare Aims to Navigate NH Healthcare Shopping Business to New Regions
[Correction—11 am ET on 12/20/10. See below.] We’re still unable to go online and shop for a medical procedure like we would for a plane ticket. At least for some people in New Hampshire, however, Compass Healthcare Advisers has made it easier to go online or call an 800 number to choose certain healthcare services … Continue reading “Compass Healthcare Aims to Navigate NH Healthcare Shopping Business to New Regions”
How Michael French, a Military Brat Turned Dealmaker, Kept Marina Biotech Alive
Not once has J. Michael French scraped together more than six months of operating cash for his company since he became CEO in June 2008. More than once, almost any rational person would have concluded bankruptcy was imminent. Yet 30 months have come and gone and French’s company, Bothell, WA-based Marina Biotech (NASDAQ: [[ticker:MRNA]]), is … Continue reading “How Michael French, a Military Brat Turned Dealmaker, Kept Marina Biotech Alive”
Nutshell Building New CRM Software From Scratch, With A Big Focus On Mobile
For Guy Suter, starting from scratch is a good thing. At least when it comes to user interfaces, he says. His Ann Arbor-based startup Nutshell is building a customer relationship management software system from the ground up that he says offers a better user experience than what’s long been out on the market. Suter first … Continue reading “Nutshell Building New CRM Software From Scratch, With A Big Focus On Mobile”
iStocking Stuffers: The Best Apps for That iPad Under the Tree
NEXT APP >> 1. Angry Birds HD — Chillingo, $4.99 — This game has been at the top of the iPhone and iPad charts for months, but it seemed so goofy and frivolous that I resisted buying it for a long time. That was dumb. It is goofy and frivolous, but in a totally addictive … Continue reading “iStocking Stuffers: The Best Apps for That iPad Under the Tree”
Nasuni Nets $15M Series B to Help Businesses Manage and Access Their Data in the Cloud
Well, we couldn’t go into the holiday season in Boston without a new data storage deal. Nasuni, a cloud storage startup based in Natick, MA, has closed $15 million in Series B financing led by new investor Flybridge Capital Partners. Existing investors North Bridge Venture Partners and Sigma Partners also participated in the round, which … Continue reading “Nasuni Nets $15M Series B to Help Businesses Manage and Access Their Data in the Cloud”
Krush Founder Gina Ashe, Survivor of Horrific Car Crash, Has New Lease on Startup Life
As an entrepreneur, sometimes it doesn’t matter how much money you raised, from whom, or even what your company is building. Sometimes it just matters that you’re alive. Meet Gina Ashe, the co-founder and CEO of stealthy Internet startup Krush, based in Cambridge, MA. She isn’t talking much about her new business yet, but a … Continue reading “Krush Founder Gina Ashe, Survivor of Horrific Car Crash, Has New Lease on Startup Life”
For Startups, Is Friction Always Bad?
There’s probably nary a Web entrepreneur who hasn’t had a forehead-slapping “Why didn’t I build Groupon?” moment at some point in 2010. Well, I had an experience like that this week, reading Devin Friedman’s superb article “The Viral Me” in the December issue of GQ. It’s all about the Y Combinator venture incubator in Mountain … Continue reading “For Startups, Is Friction Always Bad?”
Washington Startups Collect $24M in November, Med Devices Lead the Way
It looks like startup investors laid low during turkey month, when tech and life sciences companies collected a total of $24.4 million in equity-based funding across 19 deals. The November total shrunk from this summer and early fall, when the state’s startups pulled in anywhere from $50 million to $80 million per month in financing, … Continue reading “Washington Startups Collect $24M in November, Med Devices Lead the Way”
Genentech Loses Avastin Battle, Fluidigm’s Second Chance at an IPO, Ion Torrent’s Debut, & More Bay Area Life Sciences News
Genentech dominated the Bay Area life sciences headlines this week. Some of the news was good, some not so good. —The FDA said it plans to revoke its approval of South San Francisco-based Genentech‘s blockbuster antibody drug, bevacizumab (Avastin), for women with breast cancer. The drug, the first of its kind shown to cut off … Continue reading “Genentech Loses Avastin Battle, Fluidigm’s Second Chance at an IPO, Ion Torrent’s Debut, & More Bay Area Life Sciences News”
DARPA Backs Pulmatrix’s Lung Treatment, Adimab Scores More Pharma Partners, Semprus Secures $18M, & More Boston-Area Life Sciences News
New England’s life sciences companies headed into the holiday break with mostly good news. —Syndax Pharmaceuticals reported results from a mid-stage clinical trial which suggest that its lead drug, entinostat, might help lung certain cancer patients with a particular molecular marker live longer. The Waltham, MA-based startup, co-founded by researchers from the Salk Institute for … Continue reading “DARPA Backs Pulmatrix’s Lung Treatment, Adimab Scores More Pharma Partners, Semprus Secures $18M, & More Boston-Area Life Sciences News”
Mobisante, Striving to Put Ultrasound on Smartphones, Raises Cash from WRF Capital
Mobisante has a vision of taking the next step in miniaturization of ultrasound technology, and today it has raised some of the cash it needs to carry out the idea. The Redmond, WA-based company has raised an undisclosed amount of seed financing from Seattle-based WRF Capital. Mobisante plans to use the cash to finish some … Continue reading “Mobisante, Striving to Put Ultrasound on Smartphones, Raises Cash from WRF Capital”
Inside Project 11 Ventures: A Chat with Katie Rae and Reed Sturtevant
Does the world really need another seed-stage technology investment fund? Maybe not—but Boston entrepreneurs can use all the expertise they can get. That’s where Project 11 Ventures comes into play. In the increasingly crowded field of early-stage tech investing, Project 11, which is co-led by Reed Sturtevant and Katie Rae, is taking a very hands-on … Continue reading “Inside Project 11 Ventures: A Chat with Katie Rae and Reed Sturtevant”
TechShop’s “Innovation Cathedral” Comes to San Francisco—Serving Craftsmen and Entrepreneurs on the Gold’s Gym Model
As a Web journalist, I don’t need many tools. Give me a laptop, a smartphone, and an Internet connection, and I’m basically a roving newsroom. But don’t ask me to make anything other than words: in my loft, the closest thing to a power tool is the kitchen blender. To build, say, a robot dog, … Continue reading “TechShop’s “Innovation Cathedral” Comes to San Francisco—Serving Craftsmen and Entrepreneurs on the Gold’s Gym Model”
Launched in November, Drop Down Deals Already at Profitability
A new San Diego startup, Drop Down Deals, is launching a website today that is intended to complement the free downloadable Web browser plug-in the company officially unveiled last month. The company has developed a clever approach to help online shoppers quickly identify and apply valid discount coupons to their purchases. In an interview a … Continue reading “Launched in November, Drop Down Deals Already at Profitability”
Ramius Buys Cypress Bio, Genoptix Reportedly Exploring Possible Sale, Anaphore Gets Japanese Partner, & More San Diego Life Sciences News
It’s less than 10 days before Christmas, but San Diego’s life sciences community doesn’t seem to be ready for vacation. The business news wires have been crackling with reports of buyouts, rumored buyouts, deals, and major product launches. Fortunately, we’re here to sort it all out for you. —As corporate courtships go, the unsolicited offer … Continue reading “Ramius Buys Cypress Bio, Genoptix Reportedly Exploring Possible Sale, Anaphore Gets Japanese Partner, & More San Diego Life Sciences News”
Ann Arbor’s Shepherd Intelligent Systems Hopes to Move to the Front of the Bus in GPS Fleet-Tracking Biz
If you’ve ever taken a bus … anywhere … then you know all about an unwritten Law of Motion that goes something like this: A body that arrives at a bus stop tends to stay at rest. A long time. A Second Law might state that the velocity of the bus’s arrival is in inverse … Continue reading “Ann Arbor’s Shepherd Intelligent Systems Hopes to Move to the Front of the Bus in GPS Fleet-Tracking Biz”
Microsoft and Sentillion: A Progress Report on a Crucial Health IT Acquisition
It was a big day last February when Sentillion, the Andover, MA-based provider of healthcare software, announced its acquisition by Microsoft (NASDAQ: [[ticker:MSFT]]) was complete and that the company and its 110 employees (most of whom are in Massachusetts) would be folded into the technology giant’s Health Solutions Group. The deal (exact terms of which … Continue reading “Microsoft and Sentillion: A Progress Report on a Crucial Health IT Acquisition”
Adaptive TCR Seeks to Dominate New Industry, Ultrasound on an iPhone, AVI Names CEO, & More Seattle-Area Life Sciences News
The medical meeting season has passed, and pretty soon Seattle biotechs will go into hibernation for the holidays. But here are a few headlines to catch up on you may have missed in the last week. —Washington’s Life Sciences Discovery Fund had never invested in a corporation until October, when it agreed to pump $5 … Continue reading “Adaptive TCR Seeks to Dominate New Industry, Ultrasound on an iPhone, AVI Names CEO, & More Seattle-Area Life Sciences News”
Massachusetts Startups Snag $175M In November, Money Raised For Drugs, Robots, Ice Cream, Bras
Last month, the total dollars Bay State startups brought in slimmed down from October, but there was a harvest of smaller deals. Nearly a third of the month’s equity deals (12 of 37) rang in at under $1 million each. All told, startups in the tech and life sciences raised $174.7 million in equity-based funding, … Continue reading “Massachusetts Startups Snag $175M In November, Money Raised For Drugs, Robots, Ice Cream, Bras”
EveryScape and Bing Ramp Up 3-D Virtual Tours in Local Search Results
Here’s an interesting snapshot of a small startup working with a tech giant to change how people check out local establishments on the Web—and also how those establishments advertise online. The startup is Newton, MA-based EveryScape, which creates 3-D panoramic tours of restaurants and other businesses from photos of their interiors. The tech giant is … Continue reading “EveryScape and Bing Ramp Up 3-D Virtual Tours in Local Search Results”
Cypress Bioscience, After Months of Give and Take, Agrees to a $255M Buyout
After months of rejected offers and dueling media statements, Cypress Bioscience (NASDAQ: [[ticker:CYPB]]) says today it has agreed to a buyout-and-merger deal that will combine the San Diego drug development company with Royalty Pharma, a New York firm that holds a revenue-generating portfolio of drug royalty interests. Ramius V&O Acquisition, an affiliate of the $7.8 … Continue reading “Cypress Bioscience, After Months of Give and Take, Agrees to a $255M Buyout”
Zipcar Pulls in $21M, Adds Case and Mahoney to Board
Zipcar has added big money and big-name board members to its fleet, according to two different company announcements today. The Cambridge, MA-based car-sharing service said it has raised a $21 million Series G financing, with Meritech Capital Partners leading with a $20 million investment and Pinnacle Ventures contributing $1 million. It also added a big corporate … Continue reading “Zipcar Pulls in $21M, Adds Case and Mahoney to Board”
With UW Partnership, Novel Moves a Step Closer to “The Matrix” for Businesses
When we last checked in with Brayden Olson, it was early fall, and the wunderkind co-founder and CEO of Redmond, WA-based videogame startup Novel was busy telling us about his company’s massively multiplayer online game, Empire & State. That was all well and good. But the real intrigue behind Novel is its plan to develop … Continue reading “With UW Partnership, Novel Moves a Step Closer to “The Matrix” for Businesses”
Streaming Music for Apple iTunes Users, Courtesy of mSpot
When Apple bought streaming music company Lala a year ago, observers thought it might herald a day when Apple customers would be able to stream their iTunes music to their iPhones and iPod Touch players. That hasn’t happened yet, and if it ever does, it won’t be Lala’s engineers who do it—I’m told that what’s … Continue reading “Streaming Music for Apple iTunes Users, Courtesy of mSpot”
BG Medicine Eyes $70M IPO, Nano-Terra Picks Up $17.2M, Rive Technology Raises $25M, & More Boston-Area Deals News
Lots of nice deals to report this week from New England’s tech and life sciences sectors. —E-mail archiving provider Sonian indicated to the SEC that it had raised $4 million in an equity offering that could total $9 million. Previous backers of the Needham, MA-based firm include Prism VentureWorks and Summerhill Venture Partners. —BG Medicine … Continue reading “BG Medicine Eyes $70M IPO, Nano-Terra Picks Up $17.2M, Rive Technology Raises $25M, & More Boston-Area Deals News”
Adimab Adds Genentech, Lilly, and Human Genome Sciences to Growing List of Partners
Adimab has made its name for assembling a high-profile roster of Big Pharma partners that use its technology to discover new antibody drugs. Today, the Lebanon, NH-based company is announcing a new batch of partners—Genentech, Eli Lilly (NYSE:[[ticker:LLY]]), and Human Genome Sciences (NASDAQ:[[ticker:HGSI]])—which add greater heft to co-founder and CEO Tillman Gerngross’s argument that his … Continue reading “Adimab Adds Genentech, Lilly, and Human Genome Sciences to Growing List of Partners”
Real Time Farms, From Former Android Developer, Offers Crowdsourced Local Food Guides for Farmer’s Markets and Restaurants
“Android kind of felt like a startup,” Ann Arbor native Karl Rosaen says of the original development team for Google’s mobile phone platform. Rosaen says the entire team could fit inside a single conference room at the company headquarters. As a software engineer he saw Android go from the initial device launch to a technology … Continue reading “Real Time Farms, From Former Android Developer, Offers Crowdsourced Local Food Guides for Farmer’s Markets and Restaurants”
Facebook Has the Nation’s Happiest Employees, Glassdoor’s Employee Survey Says
Facebook, the Palo Alto, CA-based social networking giant with half a billion users worldwide, has won the highest overall rating of any company in a 2010 survey of U.S. employees. Meanwhile, Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg received a 96 percent approval rating from survey respondents, putting him among the top eight CEOs in the … Continue reading “Facebook Has the Nation’s Happiest Employees, Glassdoor’s Employee Survey Says”
Q&A on Startups and Investing Strategy with Massachusetts Clean Energy Center’s “State Angel” Arif Padaria
It’s tough out there for angel investors and venture capitalists—not to mention entrepreneurs scrambling for money so they can build the next big thing. Nothing surprising there, but it’s especially true in cleantech and energy, where the exit market has not yet matured, and the process of building early-stage companies is as thorny as ever. … Continue reading “Q&A on Startups and Investing Strategy with Massachusetts Clean Energy Center’s “State Angel” Arif Padaria”
Report: Genoptix is on the Auction Block
One of San Diego’s profitable biotech success stories, Genoptix, is reportedly looking to be acquired. Carlsbad, CA-based Genoptix (NASDAQ: [[ticker:GXDX]]) has hired an investment bank, Barclays, to seek out buyers of the company, according to a report today by Bloomberg News, which cited two people familiar with the situation. Takeover speculation helped drive the stock … Continue reading “Report: Genoptix is on the Auction Block”
Nissan Turning Over New Leafs, and EV Car Owners Are Electrified
Nissan has begun to deliver production models of its new Leaf all-electric vehicle in California and elsewhere. La Jolla resident Tom Franklin picked up his blue Leaf yesterday afternoon at a dealer in San Diego, just three days after the Japanese carmaker delivered its first 2011 model, a black Leaf SL, to Redwood City, CA, … Continue reading “Nissan Turning Over New Leafs, and EV Car Owners Are Electrified”
Life Technologies Debuts Ion Torrent Machine, Next Big Bet on Fast, Cheap Sequencing
Life Technologies turned heads four months ago with a bold acquisition of one of the hot startups in the field of faster/cheaper gene sequencing, and now it says the new product is ready for prime time. The Carlsbad, CA-based company (NASDAQ: [[ticker:LIFE]]) said today it has started selling what it calls the Ion Personal Genome … Continue reading “Life Technologies Debuts Ion Torrent Machine, Next Big Bet on Fast, Cheap Sequencing”