[Corrected and clarified, 1:30 p.m. 1/25/10, see page 2] Come Wednesday, we’ll learn a lot more about Apple’s presumed slate device. What we know right now, first hand, is a big fat nothing. Apple keeps a famously tight lid on its employees, suppliers, and partners, the only exception being the occasional strategic leak designed to … Continue reading “The Apple Paradox: How a Company That’s So Closed Can Foster So Much Open Innovation”
Category: National
UW Adds Heavy Hitters from High Tech and Biotech to Turn More Ideas Into Companies
Two big names from the Seattle high tech and biotech scene—Rick LeFaivre of OVP Venture Partners and Pathway Medical’s Tom Clement—are taking new jobs at the University of Washington to help turn some of its most promising research ideas into new startup companies. LeFaivre and Clement are joining the rebranded UW Center for Commercialization as … Continue reading “UW Adds Heavy Hitters from High Tech and Biotech to Turn More Ideas Into Companies”
Cubist Maintains Growth Streak, As Investors Fear Generic Threat, Thin Pipeline
Cubist Pharmaceuticals has grown into one of the big success stories in biotech industry of the past few years, based almost entirely on the sales of a single product. The Lexington, MA-based company’s big hit is an intravenous antibiotic for deadly infections called daptomycin (Cubicin). Even though this has propelled Cubist into profitable territory, the … Continue reading “Cubist Maintains Growth Streak, As Investors Fear Generic Threat, Thin Pipeline”
Working Our Way Out of San Diego’s Capital Formation Drought
As Xconomy has reported on many occasions, hometown venture capital firms have been receding from the startup scene in San Diego. This new reality might not seem apparent because the broader economic downturn has slowed activity across the board, and because some venture capital continues to flow into San Diego’s life sciences and technology companies … Continue reading “Working Our Way Out of San Diego’s Capital Formation Drought”
Ground Truth Emerges from Stealth, Provides New Window Into Mobile Internet Usage
It’s been hard to keep a company like Ground Truth under wraps for this long. The secretive Seattle startup, led by prominent entrepreneurs Sterling Wilson and Michael “Luni” Libes, is emerging from stealth mode today, after raising $2.6 million in venture funding from Voyager Capital and Steamboat Ventures last summer. Although many in the startup … Continue reading “Ground Truth Emerges from Stealth, Provides New Window Into Mobile Internet Usage”
Top Trends for the Decade Ahead in Venture, Tech, Genomics, IP, and More Innovative Fields
We hit a nerve last month when we asked leading innovators in high-tech, biotech, cleantech, and venture capital to write guest editorials about the transformational changes they see coming in their fields over the next decade. We got so many thoughtful submissions from the advisers we call “Xconomists,” and other tech leaders, that we figured … Continue reading “Top Trends for the Decade Ahead in Venture, Tech, Genomics, IP, and More Innovative Fields”
New Surveys Suggest Venture Investing Reset at Lower Level in 2009; We Break Out Data for Boston, San Diego, & Seattle
The picture of venture capital investments in U.S. startups filled in a bit this week, with the results of two more VC surveys aligning generally with the findings we reported earlier this month from ChubbyBrain, the New York data services company that tracks the innovation economy. New surveys from Dow Jones VentureSource and the MoneyTree … Continue reading “New Surveys Suggest Venture Investing Reset at Lower Level in 2009; We Break Out Data for Boston, San Diego, & Seattle”
Time Inc. Scoops Up StyleFeeder, Ironwood Sets Sights on Potential $266.7 M IPO, FloDesign Reveals $34.5M Financing, & More Boston-Area Deals News
It was a short week, but the list of deals that New England’s tech and life sciences firms inked in that span is a long one. Let’s dive in: —StyleFeeder, the Cambridge, MA-based personalized shopping website, was acquired by New York magazine publishing giant Time Inc. for an undisclosed sum. Lexington, MA-based Highland Capital Partners … Continue reading “Time Inc. Scoops Up StyleFeeder, Ironwood Sets Sights on Potential $266.7 M IPO, FloDesign Reveals $34.5M Financing, & More Boston-Area Deals News”
Amylin Braces for Big Event of 2010, the (Hoped-For) Approval of Once-Weekly Diabetes Drug
Amylin Pharmaceuticals CEO Dan Bradbury likes to list his company’s priorities in a well-organized series of little bullet points. But this is the year the San Diego-based company is counting on one event to dwarf all others, as it seeks FDA approval for an injectable diabetes treatment that only needs to taken once a week. … Continue reading “Amylin Braces for Big Event of 2010, the (Hoped-For) Approval of Once-Weekly Diabetes Drug”
Ekos, Listening to Docs, Takes Ultrasound Clot Buster From the Legs to the Lungs
Ekos has been hearing scuttlebutt from doctors over the past few months about a new way of using its ultrasound technology to treat dangerous blood clots in a new organ—the lungs. The company hadn’t seriously considered investing in it, but over the past few months, anecdotes from doctors kept pouring in. So now the Bothell, … Continue reading “Ekos, Listening to Docs, Takes Ultrasound Clot Buster From the Legs to the Lungs”
American Well CEO Shares Vision on Future of Virtual Doctor Visits and How Healthcare Reform Will Boost His Company
A little more than a year ago, American Well was still waiting for its first customer to launch its Web-based system, which enables real-time interactions between patients and doctors over the Internet. Then on January 15, 2009, after much anticipation, the system went live for the Hawaii Medical Service Association, the Hawaii franchise of Blue … Continue reading “American Well CEO Shares Vision on Future of Virtual Doctor Visits and How Healthcare Reform Will Boost His Company”
A Very Brief Follica Update for Our Loyal Readers
Ever since it announced its $5.5 million Series A funding round in January 2008, we have covered the news of Follica, the Boston area startup out to bring a scientific approach to developing novel ways of treating and, perhaps one day even curing, baldness and other hair-follicle disorders. These stories, including news of Follica’s $11 … Continue reading “A Very Brief Follica Update for Our Loyal Readers”
Friend or Foe: How Apple Is Forcing Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and AT&T to Raise Their Game
Apple’s increasing overlap with other technology companies—including mainstays of the Seattle and Boston scenes—is one of the biggest business trends of the year. It doesn’t matter whether you are the world’s biggest software company (Microsoft), a Web search and advertising titan (Google), an online retail giant (Amazon), a wireless carrier (AT&T), a digital music startup … Continue reading “Friend or Foe: How Apple Is Forcing Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and AT&T to Raise Their Game”
OccuLogix Raises $1.7M in Round Targeting $5M
OccuLogix, a biotech startup founded near Toronto, Canada, in 1996 to develop ophthalmic treatments for age-related macular degeneration and glaucoma, apparently has relocated in San Diego, according to an SEC filing. In its Form D filed today, OccuLogix discloses that it has raised more than $1.7 million from investors in a round that intends to … Continue reading “OccuLogix Raises $1.7M in Round Targeting $5M”
Elevation Pharmaceuticals Raises $30M to Develop Aerosol Treatments for Pulmonary Diseases
San Diego-based Elevation Pharmaceuticals, a biotech startup developing aerosol-based treatments for respiratory diseases, said today it has raised a tranched $30 million in Series A venture funding. It’s a sizable round for the local life sciences community, but other recent fundings have come close. Last month, VentiRx raised $25 million, Pfenex got $24 million, and … Continue reading “Elevation Pharmaceuticals Raises $30M to Develop Aerosol Treatments for Pulmonary Diseases”
State Cleantech Experts Debate Policy, Finance, and Global Opportunities at MITEF Event
“The easy answer is, ‘Of course it will,’” said panel moderator Jesse Berst, the head of Redmond, WA-based research and consulting firm GlobalSmartEnergy. He was referring to the title of last night’s event in downtown Seattle organized by the MIT Enterprise Forum: “Will Green Return the Green?” It’s a reasonable question, especially here in Washington … Continue reading “State Cleantech Experts Debate Policy, Finance, and Global Opportunities at MITEF Event”
Merck’s Alan Sachs, on RNAi’s Big Challenge: Delivery, Delivery, Delivery
Merck hasn’t said much in public about what it’s doing in the field of RNA-based therapies, since it paid the jaw-dropping sum of $1.1 billion to acquire Sirna Therapeutics back in October 2006. So when I had the chance last week to sit down for an exclusive interview in San Francisco with Merck’s RNA therapeutics … Continue reading “Merck’s Alan Sachs, on RNAi’s Big Challenge: Delivery, Delivery, Delivery”
6 Goals for Fixing Genzyme: Xconomy’s Q&A With Relational Investors’ Ralph Whitworth
Former T. Boone Pickens protégés David H. Batchelder and Ralph V. Whitworth co-founded San Diego-based Relational Investors in 1996, and their privately owned asset management firm now serves some of the largest pension funds in the world. Whitworth, a lawyer who was president of the Washington D.C.-based United Shareholders Association before joining Batchelder in San … Continue reading “6 Goals for Fixing Genzyme: Xconomy’s Q&A With Relational Investors’ Ralph Whitworth”
A Baldness Update from Histogen; Sequenom Agrees to Settle a Suit; the Life Sciences Job Outlook Improves & More San Diego Life Sciences News
There were new developments over the past week in some big ongoing stories. —Histogen CEO Gail Naughton told Bruce the San Diego-based biotech expects to report results from a one-year follow-up of study of its experimental baldness treatment by the end of this month. Histogen plans additional clinical studies on volunteers with male-pattern baldness—all of … Continue reading “A Baldness Update from Histogen; Sequenom Agrees to Settle a Suit; the Life Sciences Job Outlook Improves & More San Diego Life Sciences News”
Dendreon’s New Operations Man, Acucela Enters Fast Growth Phase, JP Morgan Recap, & More Seattle-Area Life Sciences News
News flow was light on the biotech beat this week, partly because of the MLK Day holiday, and everybody needed a little rest after the networking frenzy at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference. —One of the more interesting interviews I had last week at the JP Morgan conference was with Hans Bishop, the new chief … Continue reading “Dendreon’s New Operations Man, Acucela Enters Fast Growth Phase, JP Morgan Recap, & More Seattle-Area Life Sciences News”
Roche Prepares to Make Devices for Drug Using Halozyme Therapeutics Technology
San Diego-based Halozyme Therapeutics (NASDAQ: [[ticker:HALO]]) received some good news today. Its partner Roche announced plans to invest $182 million in two European factories that will produce a device designed to deliver a drug formulated with Halozyme’s enzyme technology. The Roche drug is trastuzumab (Herceptin), which is used to treat women with an aggressive form … Continue reading “Roche Prepares to Make Devices for Drug Using Halozyme Therapeutics Technology”
Genomics Laid the Foundation for Big Global Health Advances To Come This Decade
In science, success is often measured in small advances in understanding. But in the past decade, technology has led to large leaps of new knowledge that has been well utilized in the battle against global infectious disease. And, this decade holds even greater promise. Genomics is an excellent example. We’ve seen the genomics revolution begin … Continue reading “Genomics Laid the Foundation for Big Global Health Advances To Come This Decade”
Disruption in the Wind: Talking with FloDesign’s New CEO, Lars Andersen
On Tuesday, FloDesign Wind Turbine of Wilbraham, MA, announced that it has raised $35 million in Series B funding from a list of marquee venture capital firms and hired a new CEO to go along with the new money. Both moves are aimed at setting the company on the path to commercialization of its unusual … Continue reading “Disruption in the Wind: Talking with FloDesign’s New CEO, Lars Andersen”
Bill Gates, Opening Up to World of Social Media, Rolls Out New Website and Twitter Feed
It feels like the dawn of a new era. As of yesterday, Bill Gates is officially on Twitter, where he has already attracted more than 235,000 followers in the first day or so. Gates also just announced a new website, called the Gates Notes, where he will be sharing his thoughts (that extend greater than … Continue reading “Bill Gates, Opening Up to World of Social Media, Rolls Out New Website and Twitter Feed”
“CrisisCamp” Hacker Session Planned in Cambridge to Help Haiti
Crisis Commons, a non-governmental organization formed last year to apply information technology to disaster management and humanitarian relief efforts, will mount a “CrisisCamp” session for Boston-area developers this Saturday in Cambridge. It’s the second weekend in a row the group has organized such sessions; similar camps took place last weekend in Los Angeles, Washington D.C., … Continue reading ““CrisisCamp” Hacker Session Planned in Cambridge to Help Haiti”
Visible Gets $22M to Expand, Tantalus Tracks Down $14M for Smart Grid, Avnera Closes $10M for Audio Chips, & More Seattle-Area Deals News
The past week has been pretty busy in the Northwest, with a number of deals in software, Internet, electronics, and cleantech. And the activity wasn’t limited to Seattle—there’s a fair bit of news from Vancouver and Portland as well. —Tantalus, a Burnaby, BC-based company that develops wireless networks for smart-grid applications, raised $14 million in … Continue reading “Visible Gets $22M to Expand, Tantalus Tracks Down $14M for Smart Grid, Avnera Closes $10M for Audio Chips, & More Seattle-Area Deals News”
Lessons in Stealth Communications: V-Vehicle Tries to Keep Technology Details Under Wraps
One problem with being a stealthy company is the difficulty in setting the record straight. The News-Star of Monroe, LA, reported yesterday that V-Vehicle, the San Diego-based startup automaker building a factory in Northeastern Louisiana, is “apparently testing prototypes of its mystery car,” but that may be overstating the matter. The newspaper quotes David Hitchcock, … Continue reading “Lessons in Stealth Communications: V-Vehicle Tries to Keep Technology Details Under Wraps”
Knome Challenged to Keep in Step with Falling Genetic Sequencing Prices
Knome, the personal genomics startup co-founded by leading Harvard geneticist George Church, is navigating rapid change in its business. The Cambridge, MA-based launched in 2007 to make whole-genome sequencing and analysis a personal luxury item rather than just a marvel of modern science, but now it’s facing more competition on the sequencing side of its … Continue reading “Knome Challenged to Keep in Step with Falling Genetic Sequencing Prices”
Hardware vs. Software: The Defining Technology Battle of This Decade
History repeats itself, it seems, because the defining technology battle of this decade is going to come straight from the 80s: it’s hardware versus software. [tweet] Every decade brings substantial advancements to both software and hardware, but in certain decades the strategic importance of one versus the other shifts dramatically in many segments. I’m using … Continue reading “Hardware vs. Software: The Defining Technology Battle of This Decade”
Performable Wants to Take the Guesswork Out of Web Marketing
Being a large Web company has its benefits. If you have hordes of visitors to your website and hordes of programmers on staff, you can afford to study potential site changes using “multivariate testing”—a fancy term for presenting different pages to different visitors and measuring which ones induce the behaviors you want, be it clicking … Continue reading “Performable Wants to Take the Guesswork Out of Web Marketing”
Acucela Enters Fast-Growth Phase As Macular Degeneration Drug Advances to Key Trial
Brain teaser time: Name the Bothell, WA-based biotech company that has never raised a nickel from local VCs, has scored a partnership with a Big Pharma company, operates on a cash-flow positive basis, and plans to more than double in size from 40 employees to about 100 this year. Think it’s Alder Biopharmaceuticals? Guess again. … Continue reading “Acucela Enters Fast-Growth Phase As Macular Degeneration Drug Advances to Key Trial”
IkaSystems Raises $120M, New CEOs of Qteros, Bind, and Quanterix Dish the Dirt, & More Boston-Area Life Sciences News
This week Ryan and Luke had several great interviews with some of the newest CEOs in New England life sciences. Those and the rest of the week’s biotech, devices, and health IT news below. —Luke caught up with Steve Gullans, a managing director with Excel Venture Management, who reports that his Boston-based venture firm is … Continue reading “IkaSystems Raises $120M, New CEOs of Qteros, Bind, and Quanterix Dish the Dirt, & More Boston-Area Life Sciences News”
Google Ventures’ Joe Kraus Joins OpenCandy’s Board of Directors
I profiled San Diego-based OpenCandy just last week, and the Web-based distributor of open-source software already is providing an update. Excite founder Joe Kraus, who participated in OpenCandy’s Series A funding round as an angel investor, has joined the company’s board of directors. According to a statement issued by the company, Kraus will be joining … Continue reading “Google Ventures’ Joe Kraus Joins OpenCandy’s Board of Directors”
Ken Myer, Outgoing Head of WTIA, on the Challenges of Trade Associations and Nonprofits—and His Future
First Rob Glaser, then Ken Myer. Who’s next? (These things always seem to come in threes.) As a journalist, it can be hard to take off a holiday like MLK Day—you never know what juicy news you’re going to miss. Myer announced yesterday that he’s stepping down from his post as CEO and president of … Continue reading “Ken Myer, Outgoing Head of WTIA, on the Challenges of Trade Associations and Nonprofits—and His Future”
Tantalus Raises New Financing for Smart-Grid Wireless Technologies
[Updated 1/20/10, 10:10 am. See below.] Cleantech wireless networking firm Tantalus, based in Burnaby, BC, has raised about $13.5 million in new equity financing, according to a regulatory filing. The round was led by the Silicon Valley firm Redpoint Ventures, and other existing investors also participated, according to a press release issued by Tantalus after … Continue reading “Tantalus Raises New Financing for Smart-Grid Wireless Technologies”
FloDesign Wind Turbine Gets $35 Million and a Danish CEO
Wilbraham, MA-based FloDesign Wind Turbine, whose radical jet-engine-like design for a new form of wind turbine has whisked it from the world of student business plan competitions to national prominence in under three years, says it has raised a big chunk of new cash and installed a new chief executive. In an announcement today, FloDesign … Continue reading “FloDesign Wind Turbine Gets $35 Million and a Danish CEO”
MP3.com Founder Michael Robertson Explains Apple’s Cloud Music Strategy
San Diego’s Michael Robertson, who founded several startups since he sold MP3.com in 1997, offered some observations about online music providers and other aspects of the digital music business when we talked in late November. Today he offers more insights in a post for TechCrunch that explains why Lala, the Palo Alto, CA, digital music … Continue reading “MP3.com Founder Michael Robertson Explains Apple’s Cloud Music Strategy”
Thermo Fisher’s $145M Buyout of Ahura Scientific Good News for Arch, Castile, and Other Venture Backers
Waltham, MA-based research products giant Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE:[[ticker:TMO]]) has agreed to pay $145 million in cash to acquire venture-backed Ahura Scientific, according to a press release. The proposed deal is expected to close later this quarter, and it’s big a potential payday for Wilmington, MA-based Ahura’s venture backers such as Arch Venture Partners, which … Continue reading “Thermo Fisher’s $145M Buyout of Ahura Scientific Good News for Arch, Castile, and Other Venture Backers”
Atlas Venture’s Fagnan Describes Consolidation as Tactical, Not Strategic
Atlas Venture, an early stage venture investing firm with offices in Waltham, MA, and London, announced today that it will consolidate its operations, downsize its UK office, and bring almost all of its active investment professionals together under one roof in the Boston area. That roof likely won’t be Atlas’s current office 890 Winter Street … Continue reading “Atlas Venture’s Fagnan Describes Consolidation as Tactical, Not Strategic”
IkaSystems Gets Capital Infusions from Essex Woodlands Health Ventures and Providence Equity Partners
IkaSystems, a Southborough, MA-based provider of software for the healthcare payer market, said it has finalized an investment from New York City and Palo Alto, CA, private equity fund Essex Woodlands Health Ventures, a month after reeling in capital from Providence Equity Partners. The terms of both deals were undisclosed, but Venture Wire reports that … Continue reading “IkaSystems Gets Capital Infusions from Essex Woodlands Health Ventures and Providence Equity Partners”
San Diego Biotechs Seem Poised to Start Hiring, But Chemists Will Face a Tough Time
Indications are that employment in San Diego’s life sciences industry appears to be stabilizing, good news after a tumultuous year in which hundreds of experienced scientists and business professionals lost their jobs. Recruiter Meredith Dow says layoffs appear to have slowed and some startups, for the first time in months, are beginning to talk about … Continue reading “San Diego Biotechs Seem Poised to Start Hiring, But Chemists Will Face a Tough Time”
Quanterix CEO Sets Sight on Early Detection of Cancer, Neurological Diseases in the Blood
The new CEO of Quanterix isn’t afraid to dream big, and say it out loud. “We participate in an $8 billion market,” says CEO Dave Okrongly, referring to the business of antibody-based diagnostics. “Quanterix can be a platform for that whole $8 billion market.” Okrongly was named CEO of the Cambridge, MA-based company in September, … Continue reading “Quanterix CEO Sets Sight on Early Detection of Cancer, Neurological Diseases in the Blood”
Early Results In for Venture Fund-Raising, OpenCandy Sees Sweet Growth, UCSD B-School Launches Venture Fund, & More San Diego BizTech News
It’s that time of year when young analysts turn to thoughts of venture investments won and lost. We’ve got the early returns, and more details will shake out in coming weeks, so get a head start now. —It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Venture investments in cleantech startups nationwide … Continue reading “Early Results In for Venture Fund-Raising, OpenCandy Sees Sweet Growth, UCSD B-School Launches Venture Fund, & More San Diego BizTech News”
Dendreon’s New Operations Man, Hans Bishop, Aims to Keep Provenge Trains Running on Time
Dendreon has a new man on the spot, and his name is Hans Bishop. The Seattle biotech company (NASDAQ: [[ticker:DNDN]]) settled the raging debate last year about whether its immune booster can help men with prostate cancer live longer without serious side effects. Now the company has graduated to a less glamorous, but equally important … Continue reading “Dendreon’s New Operations Man, Hans Bishop, Aims to Keep Provenge Trains Running on Time”
Washington Startups Raised $21.7M in December, Down from $44.4M in Previous Month
Just a quick recap of the venture deals in Washington state from the last month of 2009. Things really slowed down heading into the dead of winter, with just four venture financings, all in software and Internet, worth a total of $21.7 million (see table below). That’s less than half the money invested in November, … Continue reading “Washington Startups Raised $21.7M in December, Down from $44.4M in Previous Month”
Top Five Trends in the Future of Work
We are increasingly a knowledge-based economy in the U.S., and work can be delivered digitally from anywhere. Take NightHawk Radiology in Coeur d’Alene, ID, for example—they are providing radiologists to any hospital that needs real-time availability and lower costs. They work online from Switzerland and Australia, but it could just as easily be Wenatchee or … Continue reading “Top Five Trends in the Future of Work”
Kiva’s Robots Go to Work Sorting Medical Devices at Boston Scientific
Robotics startup Kiva Systems of Woburn, MA, and medical device giant Boston Scientific (NYSE: [[ticker:BSX]]) said today that Kiva’s robots will be used to automate order fulfillment in two Boston Scientific warehouses, one in New England and one in the Netherlands. It’s a big win for Kiva, whose shelf-toting robots are increasingly common in the … Continue reading “Kiva’s Robots Go to Work Sorting Medical Devices at Boston Scientific”
StyleFeeder Acquired by Time Inc.
[Updated, see below] Time Inc., the New York-based magazine publishing giant, has acquired Cambridge, MA-based personalized shopping site StyleFeeder in a deal that closed on Friday. StyleFeeder founder and chief technology officer Phil Jacob, who I reached at his home this evening, confirmed the news, which was first publicly reported just before 8:00 p.m. Monday … Continue reading “StyleFeeder Acquired by Time Inc.”
Five Top Innovations to Look for in Search-Based Marketing in 2010
—Personalization based on predicted intent instead of past behavior (based on cookie). —More robust “universal search:” Better results for text and descriptive searches on videos, pictures, inside games, and applications. —GPS-based hyper-targeting of search results and advertising on smartphones. —Ubiquitous and non-text search: Search as an integrated activity rather than a separate activity into videos, … Continue reading “Five Top Innovations to Look for in Search-Based Marketing in 2010”
MLK Day
Posting will be light today as Xconomy’s offices are closed in observation of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service. For those of you looking for a way to pitch in in your own city or town, Serve.gov has a searchable database of volunteer opportunities. If you or your organization would like to aid … Continue reading “MLK Day”