How can entrepreneurs today build big new global companies—what ideas are paying off, and what previously successful strategies no longer work? Which fields or geographies likely hold the keys to future success? This year’s Napa Summit will bring together leading high-tech innovators, executives, and investors with unique perspectives on the U.S. and global innovation landscapes … Continue reading “The Napa Summit 2013: New Rules for Growth”
Category: New York
Six Reasons Why Illumina Has Nothing to Fear from Thermo/Life
Illumina doesn’t need luck. But the San Diego-based company just caught a break this month, which will make it easier to continue crushing all who dare challenge its supremacy in genomics. The gift I’m referring to was the mega-merger a couple weeks ago between Waltham, MA-based Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE: [[ticker:TMO]]) and Carlsbad, CA-based Life … Continue reading “Six Reasons Why Illumina Has Nothing to Fear from Thermo/Life”
Forma Strikes $200M Deal With Celgene to Discover Cancer Drugs
Forma Therapeutics has never had trouble finding partners who want access to its early-stage drug discovery team, when most companies are cutting back there. But the Watertown, MA-based company is entering into a different kind of deal with Celgene that could turn Forma into a bigger enterprise that discovers, develops, to someday markets its own … Continue reading “Forma Strikes $200M Deal With Celgene to Discover Cancer Drugs”
Paddle8 Receives $4,825,002 New Financing Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=2d837b95-f442-42f3-8f0a-2783b37ebd1d&Preview=1 Date 4/29/2013 Company Name Paddle8 Mailing Address 132 Mulberry Street New York, NY 10013 Company Description Paddle8 creates context for artworks by inviting influential cultural figures to participate as curators. Each month, a guest curator introduces a grouping of works selected around a theme. Website http://www.paddle8.com Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction … Continue reading “Paddle8 Receives $4,825,002 New Financing Round”
Swifto Obtains $2,500,000 New Financing
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=571d985d-300b-408f-b152-b75a0ffa3c6d&Preview=1 Date 4/27/2013 Company Name Swifto Mailing Address 349 5th Avenue New York, NY 10016 Company Description Swifto takes dog walking as a service a step further by controlling the entire user experience from end-to-end, providing clients with the ability to view the route of their walker on a live map through … Continue reading “Swifto Obtains $2,500,000 New Financing”
RunPee App Tells You When It’s Safe to Take Potty Breaks at Movies
With summer fast approaching, chances are many people will cram into movie theaters for a couple hours to watch superheroes and spaceships streak across the screen, and drink gallons of sugary beverages. The RunPee app suggests to users the optimal times between explosions and plot points for the resulting dash to the restroom. That may … Continue reading “RunPee App Tells You When It’s Safe to Take Potty Breaks at Movies”
Automatic’s App Puts Your Smartphone in Charge of Your Car
My car is probably the dumbest machine I own. It’s a 2000 Honda Accord, meaning it’s got none of the cool in-dash electronics found in today’s latest models, like the MyFord Touch entertainment system from Ford, the OnStar safety and navigation system from GM, or the iDrive computer system from BMW. But what I do … Continue reading “Automatic’s App Puts Your Smartphone in Charge of Your Car”
Can Biotech Learn From the TV Production Market?
The recent Xconomy piece on Noubar Afeyan’s ideas for a biotech ”innovation supply chain” got me thinking about how other industries strike a reasonable balance between their big distributors and smaller creative types. I don’t work in the biotech sector but, as a 37-year-old with cystic fibrosis, I am interested in the end-products. I live … Continue reading “Can Biotech Learn From the TV Production Market?”
East Coast Life Sciences Roundup: Bind, Gen9, Radius, Cydan
Hello, Xconomy readers! I figured I’d formally introduce myself here, as I’ve grabbed the reins on these East Coast Life Sciences roundups and will be compiling them moving forward. I’ve been an avid Xconomy reader for several years while working as a healthcare writer for The Deal, and have always admired the quality of the … Continue reading “East Coast Life Sciences Roundup: Bind, Gen9, Radius, Cydan”
Talk Market Receives $1,976,860 New Funding Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=f3c7fc23-7df8-4ab2-a239-38ca5d32bf6d&Preview=1 Date 4/26/2013 Company Name Talk Market Mailing Address 1255 Park Avenue New York, NY 10029 Company Description Submit Talk Market is a television shopping channel hosted by you! Anyone with a product to sell can upload a video featuring their product and be a part of our unique and entertaining marketplace. … Continue reading “Talk Market Receives $1,976,860 New Funding Round”
AnyoneGame Lands $1,000,000 New Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=7e4ab66b-55a6-4688-8558-d133b2aa3341&Preview=1 Date 4/26/2013 Company Name AnyoneGame Mailing Address Undisclosed New York, NY 10017 Company Description In the first two weeks since launch, Andronikov said the app was installed 80,000 times. It reached No. 1 in the App Store’s music category, and its users are pretty active, having recorded a total of 500,000 … Continue reading “AnyoneGame Lands $1,000,000 New Round”
Aquaintable Garners $40,000 Seed Funding
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=b6dc49de-d579-4efd-a3ad-be2c17beefb6&Preview=1 Date 4/26/2013 Company Name Aquaintable Mailing Address 214 W. 29th St. 5th Floor New York, NY 10001 Company Description Online dating app for meeting friends-of-friends, rather than strangers. Website http://www.acquaintable.com Transaction Type Accelerator Transaction Amount $40,000 Transaction Round Seed Proceeds Purposes The company will use the proceeds to accelerate its initial … Continue reading “Aquaintable Garners $40,000 Seed Funding”
Cognical Receives $40,000 Seed Funding Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=dd59721e-1ba9-4b44-a89b-da2345313dd0&Preview=1 Date 4/26/2013 Company Name Cognical Mailing Address 214 West 29th St 5th Floor New York, NY 10001 Company Description We build algorithm-based underwriting engines for lenders that see those hidden and predictive patterns in application data. Every engine is customized for a lender’s unique customer base, and our learning algorithms improve … Continue reading “Cognical Receives $40,000 Seed Funding Round”
Assured Labor Garners $5,500,000 New Financing Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=afde6aeb-5dfc-4f4a-8e78-ad624aac79a3&Preview=1 Date 4/25/2013 Company Name Assured Labor Mailing Address 36 East 12th Street New York, NY 10003 Company Description Assured Labor’s innovative service is optimized for the way people in emerging markets really find jobs. We understand that while employers may use the internet on a daily basis, their workforce rarely does. … Continue reading “Assured Labor Garners $5,500,000 New Financing Round”
Pivotal Seeks Better Enterprise Cloud, with EMC Roots and GE Cash
Can you think of the last time you heard about a startup that had 1,250 employees and a valuation of over $1 billion on the day it launched? I can’t. But then, Pivotal isn’t your typical startup. Unveiled today at a San Francisco press event led by its CEO Paul Maritz, Pivotal is an independent … Continue reading “Pivotal Seeks Better Enterprise Cloud, with EMC Roots and GE Cash”
Shapeways, MakerBot, and Lux Capital Stoke Ambitions for 3-D Printing
Layer by layer, 3-D printing continues to build up its presence as more funding lands in a local player’s pockets. On Tuesday morning, New York’s Shapeways, which makes products on demand with its printers, announced it had raised $30 million in a Series C round led by Andreessen Horowitz. Later that afternoon, Shapeways CEO Peter … Continue reading “Shapeways, MakerBot, and Lux Capital Stoke Ambitions for 3-D Printing”
NY’s Venture Challenge Is Tomorrow—Last Chance to Get Tickets
We’re really excited about tomorrow morning’s Xconomy Forum—New York’s Venture Challenge: Building Big to Last. Tickets have been selling fast, and today is the last chance to get yours without paying the walk-in rate. The event starts at 9:30 am, with networking and coffee beginning an hour before that. So grab those last tickets and … Continue reading “NY’s Venture Challenge Is Tomorrow—Last Chance to Get Tickets”
The Devil is in the Details: What BioPharma Press Releases Don’t Say
While my primary focus is on the research side of the business, I have to admit that for many biotechs, their survival may be tied to the art of the deal. Kevin Kinsella of Avalon Ventures shared his thoughts with Xconomy readers awhile back on the increasingly hard bargains that Big Pharma is extracting from … Continue reading “The Devil is in the Details: What BioPharma Press Releases Don’t Say”
Online Resources Will Upend the Textbook Industry
Can a free tablet app render traditional textbooks and publishers obsolete? Will new software for grading papers and short essays replace teachers? Education has experienced a wave of progress in recent times thanks to open education resources, online colleges and mobile computing. Not only have students and teachers benefited from access to resources, but even … Continue reading “Online Resources Will Upend the Textbook Industry”
DuckDuckGo Pushes Its Privacy-Geared Search Engine at Gel Conference
Many search engine providers try to balance the privacy of users with leveraging the wealth of data they can collect—but not the developer of DuckDuckGo. CEO and founder Gabriel Weinberg simply does not want to know what people are looking for on the Web when they use his platform. He spoke in New York about … Continue reading “DuckDuckGo Pushes Its Privacy-Geared Search Engine at Gel Conference”
A Few Free Startup Tix Left for Thurs Event With Tumblr, Warby Parker
We are getting down to the wire for this Thursday’s New York Venture Challenge: Building Big to Last—and we are pumped here at Xconomy. The core of the morning event will be three entrepreneur-investor stories featuring the founders of Warby Parker, Tumblr, and Everyday Health alongside one of their main venture capital backers (Joel Cutler … Continue reading “A Few Free Startup Tix Left for Thurs Event With Tumblr, Warby Parker”
Kendall Square’s New Rules
With the events surrounding the Boston Marathon bombing last week, I have found it difficult to think about much else. Xconomy had previously invited me to write about the upcoming transformation MIT is bringing to Kendall Square. When it came time to sit down and write this piece, my first reaction was to pass. But … Continue reading “Kendall Square’s New Rules”
Biotech Execs Aren’t Ready to Prove Drugs Have Value, E&Y Says
The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act last year as constitutional. President Obama won re-election. After years of runaway spending on healthcare, the well established policy on healthcare in this country is that access needs to go up, and costs need to come down. While many other groups are coming to terms with … Continue reading “Biotech Execs Aren’t Ready to Prove Drugs Have Value, E&Y Says”
Workfolio Secures $700,000 New Financing
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=14b5d7a0-edd1-4775-98fd-174d5bf8177d&Preview=1 Date 4/23/2013 Company Name Workfolio Mailing Address 568 Broadway New York, NY 10012 Company Description Workfolio develops products and services that enable people to be more visible and get the most from the work they do. Website http://www.workfolio.com Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction Amount $700,000 Transaction Round Undisclosed Proceeds Purposes The … Continue reading “Workfolio Secures $700,000 New Financing”
Shapeways Obtains $30,000,000 Series C Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=5530c6be-462a-456a-9eb4-5f1efffee1b1&Preview=1 Date 4/23/2013 Company Name Shapeways Mailing Address 419 Park Ave South New York, NY 10016 Company Description Shapeways is the source for limitless personal production. With a growing online community and marketplace, we’re a NY start-up that harnesses 3D printing to help you make, buy and sell anything you want. Website … Continue reading “Shapeways Obtains $30,000,000 Series C Round”
PoachIt Obtains $1,000,000 Seed Funding Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=34af2935-08b2-4353-97dc-c86aa9b4057e&Preview=1 Date 4/23/2013 Company Name PoachIt Mailing Address Undisclosed New York, NY 10001 Company Description We’ve been called a lot of things: price mavericks, deal ninjas, and the only coupon you’ll ever need. Delighting our users makes us proud, because PoachIt was built simply to make your life a little easier and … Continue reading “PoachIt Obtains $1,000,000 Seed Funding Round”
uBeam Obtains $510,000 New Financing Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=ca4d1f6e-c9b0-4e0a-8d38-d3c96ac216d5&Preview=1 Date 4/23/2013 Company Name uBeam Mailing Address 12 W. 57th St. New York, NY 10019 Company Description uBeam beams electricity through the air to charge all of your portable electronics remotely and wirelessly. It’s like Wi-Fi for energy. Website http://www.ubeam.com Transaction Type Debt Transaction Amount $510,000 Transaction Round Undisclosed Proceeds Purposes … Continue reading “uBeam Obtains $510,000 New Financing Round”
PivotDesk Expands to Help NYC, SF Startups Solve Real Estate Needs
When building a company, entrepreneurs have enough challenges, like perfecting their product and finding customers. Playing the guessing game about how much office space they need shouldn’t have to be one of them. That’s what David Mandell, co-founder and CEO of PivotDesk, thinks. The Boulder, CO.-based company and TechStars Boulder 2012 alum has created an … Continue reading “PivotDesk Expands to Help NYC, SF Startups Solve Real Estate Needs”
From Assets to Zen: Building Successful Drug Hunting Relationships
[Editor’s Note: This post was co-authored by Jessica Yingling, founder of Little Dog Communications.] A wise person once said, “Select your partner wisely. Because that person will be either 90 percent of your happiness or 90 percent of your misery.” While she presumably was referring to partners in love, this could also easily apply to … Continue reading “From Assets to Zen: Building Successful Drug Hunting Relationships”
Roger Ehrenberg to “Unpack” the Founder-Investor Bond at NY Venture Challenge
Want a chance to watch Roger Ehrenberg, managing partner of IA Ventures, pick the brains of Spark Capital’s Bijan Sabet and Tumblr founder David Karp? Join Xconomy this Thursday, April 25, at our “New York’s Venture Challenge” event where Ehrenberg will lead a discussion about what it takes to create the right dynamic to nurture startups … Continue reading “Roger Ehrenberg to “Unpack” the Founder-Investor Bond at NY Venture Challenge”
A Biotech Innovation Supply Chain: Reality or Fantasy?
Biotech has always been a bit like an open-air market bazaar. Now the industry needs to become a little more stable, more predictable. It ought to be part of something you could call an “innovation supply chain.” At least, that’s the view of Noubar Afeyan, the managing partner of Cambridge, MA-based Flagship Ventures. Biotech is … Continue reading “A Biotech Innovation Supply Chain: Reality or Fantasy?”
Voxy Receives $1,228,000 New Funding Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=0a164cb2-359c-4c3b-a548-ad8dcea28346&Preview=1 Date 4/22/2013 Company Name Voxy Mailing Address 632 Broadway New York, NY 10012 Company Description Voxy is about learning from what’s around you. From your life. Our unique bite-size language lessons use fresh, entertaining, topical content of your choosing, whether that be a story about your favorite team, some juicy gossip … Continue reading “Voxy Receives $1,228,000 New Funding Round”
East Coast Life Sciences Roundup: Thermo, Alkermes, Acorda, Epizyme
One big story—the Boston Marathon bombing—dominated the news this week. Boston’s healthcare system rose to the challenge of treating so many injured victims, as reported in this terrific post by Atul Gawande of the New Yorker. While the investigation into the tragedy continues, many East Coast biotech companies carried on with their business and accomplished … Continue reading “East Coast Life Sciences Roundup: Thermo, Alkermes, Acorda, Epizyme”
When iMovie Isn’t Enough, Amateur Video Producers Can Go Pro
When you hear people in the tech world talking about “consumerization,” they’re usually referring to complex business software that’s been overhauled to look and feel more like personal technology. But consumerization is washing over other parts of the software market too. One of them is professional media creation and editing. Photoshop is a great example. … Continue reading “When iMovie Isn’t Enough, Amateur Video Producers Can Go Pro”
Venture Funding Slows as VC Industry Contracts, & Top 10 Deals List
Overall venture capital activity slowed in the U.S. during the first three months of 2013, with venture capitalists investing $5.9 billion in 863 deals nationwide, according to the MoneyTree Report released today. Compared with the previous quarter, VC funding was off nearly 12 percent and the deal count was down almost 15 percent. Venture firms … Continue reading “Venture Funding Slows as VC Industry Contracts, & Top 10 Deals List”
David Tisch Asks NYU Prez How Schools Can Help Student Entrepreneurs
In a fireside chat, David Tisch, managing founder of early-stage investment fund BoxGroup, asked New York University President John Sexton how universities can be more in line with the needs of students who want to launch startups. Tisch, an NYU alum and former managing director of TechStars NYC, spoke with Sexton last week as part … Continue reading “David Tisch Asks NYU Prez How Schools Can Help Student Entrepreneurs”
Bootstrapping With A Paycheck
Entrepreneurs looking to launch their startups are often faced with myriad difficult decisions, chief among them being the question of seed financing. If you’ve ever found yourself asking, “How can I fund this?” or “Can I fund this on my own, while I’m still holding my current job?” the answer is yes—you absolutely can. Vasu … Continue reading “Bootstrapping With A Paycheck”
Adarza BioSystems Garners New Funding Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=e69ec533-504e-4478-8209-bb871c9e7eea&Preview=1 Date 4/18/2013 Company Name Adarza BioSystems Mailing Address 150 Lucius Gordon Dr West Henrietta, NY 14586 Company Description Adarza BioSystems, Inc is an early stage medical diagnostics company developing a rapid and label-free biological assay platform for measuring clinical and point-of-care (POC) samples. This technology is fully arrayable, potentially allowing hundreds … Continue reading “Adarza BioSystems Garners New Funding Round”
Psilos Spells Out Hot Areas for Health Technology Investing
The water’s fine in the healthcare-and-technology market, and institutional investors should come on in. That’s the message from Psilos Group, a healthcare-focused venture firm based in New York City and Corte Madera, CA, in an outlook report on healthcare economics released today. It’s the fifth annual edition of the report, and it points to four … Continue reading “Psilos Spells Out Hot Areas for Health Technology Investing”
Tigerlabs Health Accelerator to Pair Corporate Needs with Startups
Eager to nurture ripe ideas from startups in the healthcare IT sector, Tigerlabs Health accelerator in Princeton, NJ today announced it has launched an additional program to match industry needs with entrepreneurs. New York-Presbyterian Hospital and the Merck Global Health Innovation fund will help choose startups to join a select group within the accelerator—and leverage … Continue reading “Tigerlabs Health Accelerator to Pair Corporate Needs with Startups”
When Hell Froze Over—in the Harvard Business Review
In my 21 years as an entrepreneur, I would come up for air once a month to religiously read the Harvard Business Review. It was not only my secret weapon in thinking about new startup strategies, it also gave me a view of the management issues my customers were dealing with. Through HBR I discovered … Continue reading “When Hell Froze Over—in the Harvard Business Review”
Welcome to Xperience, The New Consumer Section of Xconomy
It’s been a busy spring here at Xconomy. Last month we added a seventh city to our national network—Xconomy Boulder/Denver. And today we’re excited to announce Xperience, a new section designed to guide consumers to the best technologies for their lifestyles. You might have stumbled across Xperience already. We “soft-launched” the section on March 28 … Continue reading “Welcome to Xperience, The New Consumer Section of Xconomy”
University Grants Could Aid Data Science Push in New York, Seattle
The New York Times turned its attention last weekend toward education of data scientists, highlighting a budding “rivalry” between New York City and Seattle. The paper’s Education Life section focused on the relative merits of the two cities as big data hubs, and efforts to build curricula in this field at universities around the country. … Continue reading “University Grants Could Aid Data Science Push in New York, Seattle”
Booker Lines Up $27.5M in Series B Round Led by Bain Capital Ventures
More funding means even more new hires in the works at Booker in New York. The company today announced it raised $27.5 million in a Series B round led by Bain Capital Ventures with participation from prior investors Grotech Ventures, Vital Financial, Revolution Ventures, and TDF Ventures. Booker, which developed a cloud-based service management platform … Continue reading “Booker Lines Up $27.5M in Series B Round Led by Bain Capital Ventures”
MGH-Veridex Device Enters Challenging Arena in Cancer Testing
Mehmet Toner wants cancer doctors to be able to see what he can see. Most oncologists rely on imaging tools like CT scans, and perhaps only a single biopsy, to learn what they can about patients’ tumors and the biological traits of their cancer cells. Toner, a biomedical engineering specialist, says he can track the … Continue reading “MGH-Veridex Device Enters Challenging Arena in Cancer Testing”
Re-thinking Clinical Trials for the World of Crowdsourcing
Disruption isn’t a word normally associated with clinical drug development, but nevertheless it is coming. We can feel the rumblings of it. New technologies and technology-enabled techniques for productivity in mainstream business applications are slowly making their way into the clinic. There are signals that drug development is starting to catch up with the general … Continue reading “Re-thinking Clinical Trials for the World of Crowdsourcing”
Booker Receives $27,500,000 Series B Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=b95f8f8c-d6fc-43a5-b1c3-4dc5558792fb&Preview=1 Date 4/16/2013 Company Name Booker Mailing Address 22 Cortlandt Street 18th Floor New York, NY 10007 Company Description Booker helps small and multi-location businesses run and grow successfully by replacing everything from manual methods to disconnected software with a unified web-based platform, accessible from any device. Website http://www.booker.com Transaction Type Venture … Continue reading “Booker Receives $27,500,000 Series B Round”
SunnyBump Secures New Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=3d837c7c-5e8e-44c5-8a88-86bd720060a0&Preview=1 Date 4/16/2013 Company Name SunnyBump Mailing Address 401 West 14th Street 4th Floor New York, NY 10014 Company Description Sunnybump collects and curates the best products for newborns. With the help of parents who’ve been there before and the experts who know, Sunnybump will help you find the baby products that … Continue reading “SunnyBump Secures New Round”
Acorda Stock Climbs on Post-Stroke Study
Acorda Therapeutics (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ACOR]]) put itself on the map three years ago when the FDA approved dalfampridine (Ampyra) to improve walking in patients with multiple sclerosis. Now, the Hawthorne, NY-based biotech is at it again, hoping that some promising data can open up a new revenue stream for its sole drug on the market. Acorda … Continue reading “Acorda Stock Climbs on Post-Stroke Study”
Rewarding High-Risk Innovation: The Case for Carried Interest
As Washington grapples with the deficit, nothing generates more emotion than tax “loopholes.” A priority “loophole” target in the budget that President Obama sent to Congress last week is the treatment of managers’ carried interest in private equity funds as capital gains, which he characterizes as “unfair” and the key reason for the low tax … Continue reading “Rewarding High-Risk Innovation: The Case for Carried Interest”