Gener8tor is bringing its latest series of training programs for entrepreneurs to Madison, WI, as part of a new partnership with the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s computer sciences department. Launched in 2012, Wisconsin-based Gener8tor coaches and invests in early-stage businesses through different types of programs. Its most recently introduced series is gALPHA, a three-week hackathon-accelerator hybrid. Gener8tor … Continue reading “Gener8tor Partners with UW-Madison CS Department on Mini-Accelerator”
Category: National
WARF’s Erik Iverson Announces New VC Funds, Therapeutics Program
The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s tech transfer office plans to invest $60 million in startups affiliated with the school over the next eight years and has launched a separate $50 million initiative aimed at commercializing UW-Madison research and discoveries in human therapeutics. Erik Iverson, managing director of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation—an independent organization that manages … Continue reading “WARF’s Erik Iverson Announces New VC Funds, Therapeutics Program”
Osram Greenlights Acquisition of Digital Lumens as IoT Powers Up
[Corrected 8/23/17, 5:30 pm. See below.] Lately, if you blink, you might miss the news of another sale of a Boston-area tech company. The latest is Digital Lumens. Germany-based lighting manufacturer Osram has agreed to acquire the nine-year-old Boston firm, which sells LED lighting systems equipped with sensors and controlled by software. The purchase price … Continue reading “Osram Greenlights Acquisition of Digital Lumens as IoT Powers Up”
Memphis Meats Cooks Up $17M Funding Round for Lab-Grown “Meat”
Memphis Meats says it has developed a way to grow animal cells into products that have the look, texture, and taste of meat from farm-grown chickens. The San Francisco Bay area startup is now working to scale up its production process, and it has raised $17 million in funding toward that goal. The Series A … Continue reading “Memphis Meats Cooks Up $17M Funding Round for Lab-Grown “Meat””
Vista Equity to Acquire Applause, as App Testing Firm Eyes Profits
The rise of smartphones, wearables, and other Internet-connected devices has enabled Applause to build what it says is a thriving business helping companies like Facebook and Starbucks test their apps and other digital products. Now, the decade-old firm, a stalwart of the Boston tech scene, intends to boost its growth with the help of a … Continue reading “Vista Equity to Acquire Applause, as App Testing Firm Eyes Profits”
FDA Clears Way for Filing on Psych Drug From Intra-Cellular, Shares Climb
The FDA has just lowered a key barrier standing between Intra-Cellular Therapies and potential approval of an experimental schizophrenia drug. Now the question is whether the mixed set of data the company has accrued to support the program will be good enough for regulators. Intra-Cellular (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ITCI]]) said the FDA has finished looking over responses … Continue reading “FDA Clears Way for Filing on Psych Drug From Intra-Cellular, Shares Climb”
Breaking Barriers & Building Bridges: Xconomy’s Diversity Award Finalists
Innovation comes from a steady flow of new ideas, and the desire to remain innovative and competitive is driving many institutional efforts to boost student and workforce diversity. The Xconomy Award finalists in the “Commitment to Diversity” category span academia and industry. A common thread among them is an effort to boost the diversity of … Continue reading “Breaking Barriers & Building Bridges: Xconomy’s Diversity Award Finalists”
Filestack, Maker of File Uploading API, Hires New CEO Sameer Kamat
San Antonio—Filestack, a startup offering software that aims to make uploading photos and other content to applications easier and more reliable, has hired a new CEO: Sameer Kamat, an executive and engineer who spent the last 15 years at data and application backup company Unitrends. Kamat started at Unitrends as a software engineer and worked … Continue reading “Filestack, Maker of File Uploading API, Hires New CEO Sameer Kamat”
The Downside of Immersive Tech: An Increasingly Isolated World
As an entrepreneur who has been involved in tech and media for over two decades, I have seen my share of disruptions (I so hate that word!) and even participated in a few. Back in the 1990s, while we were developing some broadband technologies at Sourcecom, my first startup, we also had to develop the … Continue reading “The Downside of Immersive Tech: An Increasingly Isolated World”
GNS Healthcare Adds $6M, Led by Amgen, for Machine Learning Tech
The investment arm of biotech giant Amgen has led a new $6 million round of funding in GNS Healthcare, CEO Colin Hill tells Xconomy. Amgen Ventures’ new investment is a part of the company’s Series C financing round, which now totals $23 million, says Hill, who is also GNS’s chairman and co-founder. Cambridge, MA-based GNS … Continue reading “GNS Healthcare Adds $6M, Led by Amgen, for Machine Learning Tech”
Scott Miller Talks Dragon Innovation’s Winding Journey to Avnet Deal
It’s funny how relationships can come full circle in the business world. The seeds of Dragon Innovation’s sale to Avnet, announced Tuesday, were planted over a decade ago in China, says Dragon co-founder and CEO Scott Miller. At the time, he was running iRobot’s operations there alongside his future Dragon co-founder Herman Pang, he says. … Continue reading “Scott Miller Talks Dragon Innovation’s Winding Journey to Avnet Deal”
With $45M in New Cash, Skytap Covers Terrain Missed by Cloud Giants
Despite their size, the cloud computing services provided by tech giants such as Microsoft, Amazon, and Google, don’t work for everyone. Skytap, a Seattle-based company that spun out of University of Washington at the dawn of cloud computing to help businesses move traditional IT functions to the cloud, on Tuesday announced it has raised $45 … Continue reading “With $45M in New Cash, Skytap Covers Terrain Missed by Cloud Giants”
After Y Combinator, May Mobility Ready to Test Self-Driving Fleets
[Corrected, 10:16 am. See below] There has been a lot of speculation about what Ann Arbor, MI-based May Mobility has been up to since the company began working in stealth mode early this year. The new company has to do with autonomous vehicles—one of the hottest fields in tech—but until this week its website revealed … Continue reading “After Y Combinator, May Mobility Ready to Test Self-Driving Fleets”
Avnet Acquires Boston Hardware Consultant Dragon Innovation
Dragon Innovation, the Boston-area hardware consulting firm, has been acquired by one of its partners, Avnet, for an undisclosed price. Phoenix-based global distributor Avnet (NYSE: [[ticker:AVT]]) says it offers a mix of product design and supply chain services. Prior to the deal, Avnet owned a portfolio of seven subsidiaries, and it has been on an … Continue reading “Avnet Acquires Boston Hardware Consultant Dragon Innovation”
Marketing Startup Sigstr Gets $5M From Hyde Park, HubSpot & Others
Sigstr, an e-mail marketing startup based in Indianapolis, says it has raised $5 million in Series A funding. The investment was led by Hyde Park Venture Partners, which was joined by HubSpot (NYSE: [[ticker:HUBS]]), Battery Ventures, Grand Ventures, and High Alpha Capital. Investors have pumped a total of $7 million into Sigstr, a company spokeswoman … Continue reading “Marketing Startup Sigstr Gets $5M From Hyde Park, HubSpot & Others”
HubSpot Dips Toe Further Into Startup Investing With Sigstr Deal
HubSpot is ramping up its startup investments as part of a larger strategic effort to augment the capabilities of its sales and marketing software tools. Some of the young companies HubSpot backs may become its partners—if they’re not already—by integrating their services with the larger company’s. The 12-year-old Cambridge, MA-based company made its first investment … Continue reading “HubSpot Dips Toe Further Into Startup Investing With Sigstr Deal”
DotCom Therapy Gets Shot at Silicon Valley VCs After Pitch Contest
DotCom Therapy, a Madison, WI-based startup that has developed software allowing the dozens of therapists it employs to provide remote speech therapy services to schoolchildren, captured first place in one of Wisconsin’s more closely watched pitch competitions on Monday. The contest DotCom Therapy won was the fourth annual “Pressure Chamber,” which is put on by … Continue reading “DotCom Therapy Gets Shot at Silicon Valley VCs After Pitch Contest”
Microsoft Can Recognize Speech as Well as Humans on Switchboard Task
Microsoft researchers have been steadily improving the accuracy of their speech recognition technology—a necessary precursor to many other artificial intelligence applications—achieving parity with human performance on a benchmark task called Switchboard last year. Since then, the bar for human parity has been moved. Another research group improved the human word error rate to 5.1 percent … Continue reading “Microsoft Can Recognize Speech as Well as Humans on Switchboard Task”
Liftoff: Kickstarter-Backed Overhaul of NASA Mission Control Is A Go
Houston—NASA’s Mission Control is on its way to getting a major facelift, thanks to the help of a few thousand friends. A 30-day Kickstarter campaign that ended on Saturday raised $506,905 from 4,251 backers—an amount that is more than double the campaign’s goal of $250,000. The project is aimed at helping to pay for a … Continue reading “Liftoff: Kickstarter-Backed Overhaul of NASA Mission Control Is A Go”
Austin’s Apollo Endosurgery Responds to FDA Note After Patient Deaths
Austin—Two years after gaining FDA approval to market a minimally invasive gastrointestinal balloon to combat obesity, Apollo Endosurgery (NASDAQ: [[ticker:APEN]]) is now dealing with fallout from patient deaths following implantations of the device. In a letter to healthcare providers dated Aug. 10, the FDA stated that seven deaths occurred in patients with liquid-filled intragastric balloon … Continue reading “Austin’s Apollo Endosurgery Responds to FDA Note After Patient Deaths”
Near The East River, Plans Emerge For NY’s Next Life Science Center
At a time when biotech incubators and shared spaces are beginning to multiply in Manhattan, work on what could rank among the city’s largest biotech centers—if it can all come together—is just getting underway. According to Paul Wexler, a longtime healthcare-focused real estate broker, construction should begin next year on what is being called the … Continue reading “Near The East River, Plans Emerge For NY’s Next Life Science Center”
On Drug Pricing: FDA Backs Up Its Calls for Increased Competition
FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb has been very public in expressing his desire to provide increased competition and greater choice to American consumers in a bid to drive down prices of prescription medicines. Recently, the agency he oversees took some unusual steps to back up those statements with action. Last week, the FDA approved the use … Continue reading “On Drug Pricing: FDA Backs Up Its Calls for Increased Competition”
Roundup: Grand Circus, STEM Initiatives, and a Lot of Cybersecurity
—Grand Circus, the coding school with campuses in downtown Detroit and Grand Rapids, is partnering with Facebook to offer a front-end developer bootcamp in October. The training course will combine Grand Circus’ front-end curriculum with React, an open-source JavaScript platform. Successful applicants will receive full scholarships and training in HTML5/CSS3, JavaSript, jQuery, React, Node.js, NPM, AJAX, … Continue reading “Roundup: Grand Circus, STEM Initiatives, and a Lot of Cybersecurity”
Nvidia Joins $20M Deal in Chinese Self-Driving Startup TuSimple
Nvidia (NASDAQ: [[ticker:NVDA]]), the Santa Clara, CA-based maker of specialized graphics processing chips that have become workhorses in artificial intelligence, has joined a group of investors that put $20 million into TuSimple, a Chinese startup developing self-driving technology for long-haul trucks. In a blog posted Wednesday, Nvidia says TuSimple has used Nvidia GPUs, the Nvidia … Continue reading “Nvidia Joins $20M Deal in Chinese Self-Driving Startup TuSimple”
Five Questions For … Geekdom Fund Co-Founder Michael Girdley
San Antonio—Michael Girdley grew up as a self-described “techie kid,” who whiled away the hours trying to take apart his Apple II computer. “I was always attracted to tech,” he says. That interest led him to pursue a computer science degree at Lafayette College and, eventually, land in ground zero of the Internet age in … Continue reading “Five Questions For … Geekdom Fund Co-Founder Michael Girdley”
Gravy Offers Creators, Brands New Ways to Cash in on Live Web Videos
Live online broadcasting has in recent years become an increasingly crowded segment of the media. Services such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter—which acquired Periscope in 2015—compete with YouNow and other standalone offerings to get users to watch and interact with live content. Gravy Live, a Madison, WI-based startup that was formed last year but just … Continue reading “Gravy Offers Creators, Brands New Ways to Cash in on Live Web Videos”
Bio Roundup: Frazier v. Trump, Data Dumps, New York Steps & More
The CEO of a major U.S. pharmaceutical company was in the news this week, but for a change not because of the cost of drugs. Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier (pictured) was the first of what quickly became a line of CEOs to exit President Trump’s manufacturing council, leading to its dissolution altogether. Frazier was widely … Continue reading “Bio Roundup: Frazier v. Trump, Data Dumps, New York Steps & More”
Boston Tech Watch: ZoomInfo, CloudHealth, Endurance, Smilo & More
[Updated 8/21/17, 11:34 am. See below.] This week in Boston tech, we’re tracking endings and new beginnings. It’s the end of an era at both 17-year-old ZoomInfo, which just got acquired, and 20-year-old Endurance International Group, which named the successor to its founding CEO. CloudHealth Technologies will move into new digs next year. GoPapaya is … Continue reading “Boston Tech Watch: ZoomInfo, CloudHealth, Endurance, Smilo & More”
Forward Fest, Markable, Kiio & More: This Week’s Wisconsin Watchlist
The launch of a weeklong entrepreneurship-focused conference and several new funding rounds are among these recent headlines from Wisconsin’s innovation community: —Startup founders, software geeks, investors, and others are gathering in Madison for the eighth annual Forward Fest, which kicked off Thursday and runs through Aug. 24. Click here to check out the full list … Continue reading “Forward Fest, Markable, Kiio & More: This Week’s Wisconsin Watchlist”
Alzeca Receives $11M for Early Alzheimer’s Detection Technology
Houston—Alzeca, which is developing an imaging agent to help doctors detect Alzheimer’s disease at its earliest stages, announced Thursday it has raised $11 million in a Series A round of funding. The Houston-based company has developed an imaging agent that it says can, when used with an MRI, detect the presence of abnormal brain proteins … Continue reading “Alzeca Receives $11M for Early Alzheimer’s Detection Technology”
Novo Nordisk Diabetes Drug Beats Lilly’s Trulicity in Head-to-Head Test
A Novo Nordisk drug candidate for type 2 diabetes beat Eli Lilly’s dulaglutide (Trulicity) in reducing blood sugar and body weight in patients studied in a late-stage clinical trial, the Denmark-based company says. The results could bring strong competition to one of Indianapolis-based Lilly’s top-selling products if Novo Nordisk’s experimental drug is approved by the … Continue reading “Novo Nordisk Diabetes Drug Beats Lilly’s Trulicity in Head-to-Head Test”
Expanding Tissue and Squeezing Cells: Meet Xconomy’s Young Innovator Award Finalists
The finalists in the Young Innovator category of the 2017 Xconomy Awards show that it’s never too early in life to start a company or invent a new technology. These four individuals (30 years of age or under) share a strong drive, even a restlessness, to build new things that make a difference. Three knew … Continue reading “Expanding Tissue and Squeezing Cells: Meet Xconomy’s Young Innovator Award Finalists”
Ripcord Raises Another $40M To Digitize Mounds of Paper Records
Ripcord, which raised $9.5 million in March, says it has landed another $40 million to expand the ranks of its robotic “workcells” that convert piles of paper documents into searchable digital records. The Hayward, CA-based startup uses automation, high-resolution cameras, and optical character recognition software to try to speed up the digitization process and reduce … Continue reading “Ripcord Raises Another $40M To Digitize Mounds of Paper Records”
On the Hudson, Two Developers Open NYC’s Latest Bio Startup Space
Two real estate developers, Taconic Investment Partners and Silverstein Properties, have unveiled plans to bring about 150,000 square feet of new wet lab space online on the West Side of Manhattan, the latest effort in an ongoing quest in New York City to provide startup biotech companies a local home to form and grow. Taconic … Continue reading “On the Hudson, Two Developers Open NYC’s Latest Bio Startup Space”
Join GE, IBM Watson & Others at Healthcare + A.I. on Nov. 2
On November 2, Xconomy will explore the intersection of healthcare and artificial intelligence at our newest event in the Boston area, Healthcare + A.I. We’re gathering top leaders from New England and beyond to discuss strategies that companies are using to bring A.I. to healthcare, the business challenges around those efforts, and how all of … Continue reading “Join GE, IBM Watson & Others at Healthcare + A.I. on Nov. 2”
U-M Impact Challenge Students Collaborate with Detroit Entrepreneurs
The University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business is a proponent of action-based learning, and of business being a force for positive change in the world. Those two philosophies combine this week for U-M’s annual Impact Challenge, where all 422 incoming graduate students spend four days in Detroit collaborating with local entrepreneurs. Organized by U-M’s … Continue reading “U-M Impact Challenge Students Collaborate with Detroit Entrepreneurs”
After Cybersecurity Shift, Black Duck Is Growing Fast & Eyeing Deals
Transforming a well-established company is a tricky feat. It looks like Black Duck Software has figured out how to pull it off. Xconomy recently checked in with the Burlington, MA-based company, which has been around since 2003. Under founding CEO Doug Levin, Black Duck made a name for itself by providing tools to help software … Continue reading “After Cybersecurity Shift, Black Duck Is Growing Fast & Eyeing Deals”
Private Equity Investors Have $740 Billion to Spend, Driving Valuations
Private equity investors have more capital at their disposal than at any time in more than a decade, which could boost prices for companies seeking acquisitions. As of Aug. 1, private equity firms in North America and Europe had secured $212.6 billion in new commitments this year, on pace to eclipse the “already stellar” fundraising … Continue reading “Private Equity Investors Have $740 Billion to Spend, Driving Valuations”
A Buck for a Workout? Kilter’s App Rewards Users for Hitting the Gym
It’s easy to see why customer loyalty programs have long been popular—think frequent flyer miles, cash back on credit card purchases, or working toward a free Frappuccino. Many of the best-known rewards programs are aimed at incentivizing consumers to spend more money, because that way they’ll earn more back. Madison, WI-based startup Kilter Rewards is … Continue reading “A Buck for a Workout? Kilter’s App Rewards Users for Hitting the Gym”
Techstars Cloud Graduate Ilos Videos Snags $1.5M Led By Austin VC
San Antonio—Ilos Videos, a St. Paul, MN-based startup that went through the final Techstars Cloud program in San Antonio in February 2016, has raised a $1.5 million seed round of funding led by Active Capital, an Austin-based firm operated by three former Rackspace employees. Founded in 2015, ilos develops software that helps people make videos … Continue reading “Techstars Cloud Graduate Ilos Videos Snags $1.5M Led By Austin VC”
Latest Immunotherapy Setback: Bristol Drugs Stumble in Kidney Cancer
The recent stumbles for cancer immunotherapy—specifically, combinations of treatments meant to help boost its effectiveness—continued late Tuesday with some disappointing news from one of the leaders in the field, Bristol-Myers Squibb. Bristol (NYSE: [[ticker:BMY]]) said that a Phase 3 trial testing two of its immunotherapies together in newly diagnosed kidney cancer patients, a study called … Continue reading “Latest Immunotherapy Setback: Bristol Drugs Stumble in Kidney Cancer”
Coming of Age: San Antonio Startups Experience Busy Summer of M&A
San Antonio—Business leaders have been working for years to recast the Alamo City’s image, in an attempt to brand it as a hub of tech and healthcare startups as much as it is a place for tourists to visit the home of Davey Crockett’s last stand, take a glitzy River Walk, and enjoy a stellar … Continue reading “Coming of Age: San Antonio Startups Experience Busy Summer of M&A”
120WaterAudit Brings Data Visualization to Contaminant Testing
In most of America, people expect clean, drinkable water to pour from the tap. However, there are deep cracks emerging in the nation’s aging water infrastructure, and the Trump administration’s Environment Protection Agency has been quietly working to “roll back” clean water protections in favor of industry priorities. Municipalities with tight budgets risk making disastrous … Continue reading “120WaterAudit Brings Data Visualization to Contaminant Testing”
PARC Spinout Metawave Adds A.I. to Metamaterials for Autonomous Cars
A serial entrepreneur in the field of metamaterials is building a new company to develop the technology for use in autonomous vehicles and wireless communications. Maha Achour co-founded Metawave early this year, spinning the company out of the storied PARC laboratories, a unit of Xerox, in Palo Alto, CA, with an exclusive license to commercialize … Continue reading “PARC Spinout Metawave Adds A.I. to Metamaterials for Autonomous Cars”
SnapApp Snaps Up $10.2M as Boston Marketing Tech Sector Surges
Marketing technology is continuing its run as one of the hottest industries of the summer in the Boston-area tech scene. The latest to cash in on the deal making is SnapApp, which on Tuesday announced it received a $10.2 million investment from earlier backer Providence Strategic Growth. Providence Strategic Growth, the growth equity affiliate of … Continue reading “SnapApp Snaps Up $10.2M as Boston Marketing Tech Sector Surges”
Letter To Uber Staff: Benchmark Says It Should Have Sued Ex-CEO Sooner
Silicon Valley venture capital firm Benchmark, one of the Uber investors that pressured Uber CEO Travis Kalanick to step down as CEO in June due to company leadership failures, issued an open letter to the company’s employees today explaining why it sued Kalanick last week. Benchmark says Kalanick failed to honor his written promise, made … Continue reading “Letter To Uber Staff: Benchmark Says It Should Have Sued Ex-CEO Sooner”
New gBETA Madison Class Includes Solar Electricity Startup NovoMoto
[Updated 8/14/17 11:39 p.m. See below.] Despite having a population of 77 million-plus, the Democratic Republic of the Congo only has access to only 1.3 gigawatts of electricity, says Aaron Olson, a graduate research fellow at the University of Wisconsin Fusion Technology Institute. To understand how miniscule that figure is, Olson says, consider that Madison, … Continue reading “New gBETA Madison Class Includes Solar Electricity Startup NovoMoto”
WatchHerWork Uses Crowdsourced Videos to Empower Professional Women
Houston—Denise Hamilton, founder and CEO of WatchHerWork, says that when it comes to achieving a better gender balance in the workplace, “If you can’t see it, you can’t be it.” That mantra has provided the motivation for her startup—a website that features women offering testimonials of their experiences navigating a variety of workplace issues. “I … Continue reading “WatchHerWork Uses Crowdsourced Videos to Empower Professional Women”
SoftBank-Backed Altaeros Wants Blimps to Deliver “SaaS in the Sky”
More than 4 billion people around the world lack Internet access, and some tech giants and small startups are betting the solution will come from floating or flying broadband-beaming equipment in the sky. It’s still unclear whether that strategy will, uh, take off. But the investment in this emerging sector is certainly growing. The latest … Continue reading “SoftBank-Backed Altaeros Wants Blimps to Deliver “SaaS in the Sky””
Dragonfly, eGenesis, Spero & More: Xconomy’s Startup Award Finalists
Startups play a critical role in the innovation economy that we chronicle at Xconomy—transforming new ideas that begin in a lab into the products and companies of tomorrow. No surprise, then, that the startup category in our first-ever Awards program was a particularly competitive one, loaded with private companies (no more than 5 years old) … Continue reading “Dragonfly, eGenesis, Spero & More: Xconomy’s Startup Award Finalists”