Sapphire Energy, Inc. Secures $100,000,000 Series B Financing Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=636d2ab9-c278-4372-b5e0-b394f402241a&Preview=1 Date 5/29/2008 Company Name Sapphire Energy, Inc. Mailing Address 2658 Del Mar Heights Rd Del Mar, CA 92014 Company Description Company scientists have built a platform that uses sunlight, CO2, photosynthetic microorganisms and non-arable land to produce carbon-neutral alternatives to petrochemical-based processes and products. First up: renewable gasoline. Website Undisclosed Transaction … Continue reading “Sapphire Energy, Inc. Secures $100,000,000 Series B Financing Round”

Sapphire Energy, Inc. Lands $100,000,000 Series B Financing

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=636d2ab9-c278-4372-b5e0-b394f402241a&Preview=1 Date 5/29/2008 Company Name Sapphire Energy, Inc. Mailing Address 2658 Del Mar Heights Rd Del Mar, CA 92014 Company Description Company scientists have built a platform that uses sunlight, CO2, photosynthetic microorganisms and non-arable land to produce carbon-neutral alternatives to petrochemical-based processes and products. First up: renewable gasoline. Website Undisclosed Transaction … Continue reading “Sapphire Energy, Inc. Lands $100,000,000 Series B Financing”

American Science and Engineering Lands $6.2M NATO Contract

American Science and Engineering, based in Billerica, MA, announced yesterday that it has received a $6.2 million contract from the NATO C3 Agency to deliver its X-ray screening systems for cargo and vehicles to security checkpoints. AS&E’s Z Portal and other inspection technologies compete in the same space as Acton, MA-based Passport Systems.

MIT Thinkers Weigh in on the Most Important Advances About to Change the World

Think helper robots anyone can afford. Or garden and household waste that powers your home, personalized digital fabrication, and well, not living forever, but for a lot longer, thanks to tissue-regeneration technology and other disease prevention advances. MIT has polled a group of top researchers about the most important economy-boosting, life-changing technologies and advances they … Continue reading “MIT Thinkers Weigh in on the Most Important Advances About to Change the World”

Foster-Miller Awarded $400 Million Military Contract

Updated, May 29: Those robots must be doing something right. Less than a month after its 2000th TALON military robot went out into the world, Waltham, MA-based Foster-Miller has been awarded its biggest robot contract yet—for more of the same. The $400 million award calls for Foster-Miller to deliver an unspecified number of additional TALON … Continue reading “Foster-Miller Awarded $400 Million Military Contract”

Jury Awards Medtronic $250 Million in Patent Suit Against Boston Scientific

Boston Scientific lost an early round in a patent dispute with Medtronic. A federal jury in Texas awarded Medtronic $250 million in damages late yesterday, saying that the Natick, MA, company infringed on three patents for cardiac stent delivery and balloon catheter technology. Boston Scientific (NYSE: [[ticker:BSX]]) said today in a statement that it plans … Continue reading “Jury Awards Medtronic $250 Million in Patent Suit Against Boston Scientific”

Verenium Commissions Ethanol Plant

Cambridge, MA-based Verenium will hold a dedication ceremony tomorrow in Jennings, LA, for the nation’s first demonstration-scale cellulosic bioethanol plant, the company announced today. The plant will use Verenium’s specialty enzymes to break down biomass from sources other than food crops into as much as 1.4 million gallons of ethanol per year. Technology Review’s Kevin … Continue reading “Verenium Commissions Ethanol Plant”

Why Isn’t Lionbridge King of the Globalization Jungle?

Being the leader of the pride, it seems, doesn’t guarantee you a nice meal everyday. Waltham, MA-based Lionbridge Technologies (NASDAQ: [[ticker:LIOX]]) may be the world’s largest provider of localization services, helping hundreds of other companies from Microsoft to Merrill Lynch to Pfizer go global by translating their websites, product manuals, software programs, and drug warnings … Continue reading “Why Isn’t Lionbridge King of the Globalization Jungle?”

No Quick Sale, Icahn Says in Letter to Biogen Idec Shareholders

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn wants Biogen Idec’s shareholders to believe he’s capable of doing more than just agitate for a sale of the company to the highest bidder. He wants them to think his people can bring valuable expertise to the board. Two of the activist investor’s three nominees to the Biogen board, Alex Denner … Continue reading “No Quick Sale, Icahn Says in Letter to Biogen Idec Shareholders”

EnvIO Networks, Inc. Lands $10,000,000 Series B Funding Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=b18d5b8e-0219-43a4-b8a0-796fb7c79ea1&Preview=1 Date 5/28/2008 Company Name EnvIO Networks, Inc. Mailing Address One Tech Drive Andover, MA 01810 Company Description We’re delivering a product that defines a new category of mobile application, bringing content to subscribers in new and innovative ways. Website http://www.envionetworks.com Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction Amount $10,000,000 Transaction Round Series B … Continue reading “EnvIO Networks, Inc. Lands $10,000,000 Series B Funding Round”

Laser Light Engines Inc. Obtains $5,000,000 Series A Funding

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=c96a69c4-ce2e-4d7b-8f3f-a0088b1087b0&Preview=1 Date 5/28/2008 Company Name Laser Light Engines Inc. Mailing Address 135 South Road Bedford, MA 01730 Company Description Laser Light Engines is a new company developing an innovative digital light source to upgrade the future cinema experience. Website http://www.laserlightengines.com Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction Amount $5,000,000 Transaction Round Series A Proceeds … Continue reading “Laser Light Engines Inc. Obtains $5,000,000 Series A Funding”

Ontela, Inc. Receives Series B Financing

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=623c48ff-c00f-4699-8ae1-a4d2013de20c&Preview=1 Date 5/28/2008 Company Name Ontela, Inc. Mailing Address 506 Second Avenue Seattle, WA 98104 Company Description The Ontela PicDeck™ platform brings simple and reliable image services to popular mobile phone handsets, helping both wireless carriers and image service providers deliver more value to their customers. With a click of the shutter, … Continue reading “Ontela, Inc. Receives Series B Financing”

comScore Networks Acquires M:Metrics for $44,300,000

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=0ebcb5d2-8f3f-4882-9488-124835430f84&Preview=1 Date 5/28/2008 Company Name M:Metrics Mailing Address 316 Occidental Avenue S Seattle, WA 98104 Company Description M:Metrics is the pioneer in measuring consumer consumption of mobile content and applications, benchmarking the performance of carriers, handset OEMs, platform vendors, media companies and others. Website http://www.mmetrics.com Transaction Type M&A Transaction Amount $44,300,000 Transaction … Continue reading “comScore Networks Acquires M:Metrics for $44,300,000”

Emergent BioSolutions Buys Protein Sciences for $78M

Emergent BioSolutions, based in Rockville, MD, announced today an agreement to acquire the assets and operations of Meriden, CT-based Protein Sciences, a maker of flu vaccines, in a deal worth up to $78 million. Emergent will pay up to $28 million in cash, $20 million in stock, and up to $30 million for commercialization milestones … Continue reading “Emergent BioSolutions Buys Protein Sciences for $78M”

Syntonix, Biovitrum Test New Hemophilia Drug

Specialty pharmaceutical company Biovitrum of Stockholm, Sweden said today that it has begun human clinical tests of its new anti-hemophilia drug, a recombinant form of a blood-clotting protein called Factor IX that it is developing in collaboration with Waltham, MA-based Syntonix. The company said it had initiated dosing studies of the drug on patients with … Continue reading “Syntonix, Biovitrum Test New Hemophilia Drug”

Proteomics Company Wins North of Boston Business Plan Prize

In case you haven’t heard enough about business plans lately (think MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition, the Ignite Clean Energy Competition, and the $200K MIT Clean Energy Entrepreneurship Prize), here’s another bit of news that might have passed unnoticed: Differential Proteomics, a biotech startup based in Beverly, MA, recently won the $10,000 first prize in the … Continue reading “Proteomics Company Wins North of Boston Business Plan Prize”

High Hopes and Expectations About Tomorrow’s Science and Technology Challenge

(A commencement address to graduates of Eberly College of Science, Penn State University, delivered on May 17, 2008) It is an honor to be asked to address you on this wonderful day of promise for an exciting future. As a Professor for the past 35 years, I understand the important achievement this day represents for … Continue reading “High Hopes and Expectations About Tomorrow’s Science and Technology Challenge”

Alnylam Inks $1 Billion Deal with Takeda

Talk about staking a claim to local biotech turf. Early this morning, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company, Japan’s biggest drugmaker, announced jointly with Cambridge, MA-based Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ALNY]]) that the two companies have signed a strategic partnership deal that is potentially worth more than $1 billion over five years. This comes on the heels of Takeda’s … Continue reading “Alnylam Inks $1 Billion Deal with Takeda”

Evergreen Rakes in the Green, NxStage Plans Two-Stage Deal, Atlas Places Big Bet on MicroRNA, & More Deals News

Smaller deals were the rule last week, but this first one marked an exception. —Evergreen Solar (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ESLR]]) of Marlboro, MA, inked about $1 billion worth of new long-term sales deals. The company, which was formed in 1994 to commercialize “string ribbon” solar-cell manufacturing technology invented at MIT, now has long-term agreements with eight customers … Continue reading “Evergreen Rakes in the Green, NxStage Plans Two-Stage Deal, Atlas Places Big Bet on MicroRNA, & More Deals News”

AeroSat Lands $14,000,000 New Funding Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=22120314-b4f3-4bf8-8f3f-e102b07644f8&Preview=1 Date 5/27/2008 Company Name AeroSat Mailing Address P.O. Box 176 Temple, NH 03084 Company Description AeroSat Corporation develops, produces and distributes mobile wireless communications solutions to increase the flow of information to and from people on the move, whether on land, on sea, or in the air. From its patented core … Continue reading “AeroSat Lands $14,000,000 New Funding Round”

Pelago Lands $15,000,000 Series B Financing Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=b29b7170-cb85-417c-9fda-6269d6a2a2a0&Preview=1 Date 5/27/2008 Company Name Pelago Mailing Address 1201 3rd Ave. Seattle, WA 98101 Company Description Pelago was founded in early 2006 with a DNA of innovation, customer obsession, bias for action and, of course, a relentless commitment to having fun. We’re incredibly proud of the all-superstar team we’ve assembled to date, … Continue reading “Pelago Lands $15,000,000 Series B Financing Round”

Vantos, Inc. Secures $10,690,000 Series B Funding Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=5710d6b0-0ef2-45e3-9368-9c3387eb488f&Preview=1 Date 5/27/2008 Company Name Vantos, Inc. Mailing Address 605 1st Ave Seattle, WA 98104 Company Description VANTOS is singularly and passionately focused on being the global leader in the Enterprise Investigation Management market. From minor office misconduct to international financial crimes, companies can spend millions of dollars conducting workplace investigations. Website … Continue reading “Vantos, Inc. Secures $10,690,000 Series B Funding Round”

Brightcove Opens Japanese Subsidiary

It’s International Week for the local Internet video cluster. Yesterday we reported on ExtendMedia’s deal with Bell Canada enabling Canadian Internet users to download movies on same day the films are available on DVD. Now there’s news that Cambridge, MA-based Brightcove is opening a subsidary in Japan. Brightcove, founded in 2005 by former General Catalyst … Continue reading “Brightcove Opens Japanese Subsidiary”

Maine Names Tech Stars

It’s not just about lobsters, vacations, and Stephen King. Maine’s technology community is booming. On Wednesday, TechMaine, the state’s trade association for the tech sector, announced the winners of its 5th not-quite-annual (they skipped a year) Technology Awards. The awards highlight the achievements of tech firms across the state. We thought you’d be interested to … Continue reading “Maine Names Tech Stars”

Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics: The Definitive Rundown on New England Biotech

It’s official: 2007 rocked for New England biotech. Whether you look at IPOs, mergers, or venture activity, the region is consistently among the nation’s leaders. And on a per capita basis, it might even be unsurpassed. Such was the word (except for the per capita bit, which we added) this week from Ernst & Young’s … Continue reading “Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics: The Definitive Rundown on New England Biotech”

HyperMed, Inc. Garners $4,000,000 New Funding

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=dbc79e96-3975-43c5-9fb5-878a10932222&Preview=1 Date 5/23/2008 Company Name HyperMed, Inc. Mailing Address 305 Second Avenue Waltham, MA 02451 Company Description HyperMed, Inc., the leader in applying hyperspectral technology to medical applications. HyperMed’s flagship diagnostic device, OxyVu-1™, received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance in November, 2006 for use in assessing patients for poor tissue … Continue reading “HyperMed, Inc. Garners $4,000,000 New Funding”

Shares of Evergreen Solar Shine After $1 Billion Contract News

Evergreen Solar (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ESLR]]), a solar-power-product manufacturer that Xconomist Bill Aulet calls one of the poster children for clean-energy success, got a nice bump on the stock market this morning after announcing it has inked about $1 billion worth of long-term sales deals The Marlboro, MA-based firm, which went public in 2000, yesterday announced an … Continue reading “Shares of Evergreen Solar Shine After $1 Billion Contract News”

ExtendMedia Extends Movie Downloads to Canada

U.S. residents have access to a growing number of online video portals, such as Movielink, Cinemanow, and Apple’s iTunes store, where they can buy or rent movies for download on the same day they’re available in retail stores on DVD. Thanks to the complexities of international licensing, however, most of these services aren’t accessible to … Continue reading “ExtendMedia Extends Movie Downloads to Canada”

Rocky Mountain High: Atlas Venture Is Banking on microRNA for Miragen

Look out, heart disease. This week’s announcement of Boulder, CO-based Miragen Therapeutics closing a Series A round worth $8 million is the opening salvo in a new fight against the dreaded disease—and the coming-out party for an intriguing new company. The founding investors are Waltham, MA-based Atlas Venture and Colorado-based Boulder Ventures. Although Miragen is … Continue reading “Rocky Mountain High: Atlas Venture Is Banking on microRNA for Miragen”

The Executive Bloggers of Boston

The Cluetrain Manifesto, the classic book on how the Internet has changed the way consumers relate to corporations, was published in 1999. The word “blog” appears nowhere in it. (While the term “weblog” had been coined a couple of years earlier, it wasn’t until late 1999 that the short form “blog” caught on as a … Continue reading “The Executive Bloggers of Boston”

A Diagnostics Non-Profit Takes the 100K Prize, Greenfuel Gets a $13.9M Bump for Algae Bioreactors, Beth Israel Teams With Google, and More Life Sciences News

For-profit firms are the bread and butter of the New England biotech startup scene, but it was nice to see a new non-profit getting a little love last week. Here’s that and the rest of the week’s life sciences news. —A non-profit venture aimed at providing cheap, portable, easy-to-use diagnostics tools for healthcare workers in … Continue reading “A Diagnostics Non-Profit Takes the 100K Prize, Greenfuel Gets a $13.9M Bump for Algae Bioreactors, Beth Israel Teams With Google, and More Life Sciences News”

ZoomInfo Ad Targeting Spinoff Launches in SF

A few months ago, when we zoomed in on ZoomInfo, the Waltham, MA-based business database company was beta testing an ad-targeting service designed to quickly identify website visitors and serve up ads customized for people in their specific job categories. It’s all about business demographics, or “bizographics.” As Wade wrote, “In a way, ZoomInfo’s service … Continue reading “ZoomInfo Ad Targeting Spinoff Launches in SF”

Vlingo Survey Finds Epidemic of “DWT”—Driving While Texting

Text messaging, a longstanding habit among many Asian and European mobile phone users, is finally catching on with Americans. A major survey commissioned by Cambridge, MA-based speech-to-text software company Vlingo shows that 55 percent of all U.S. mobile subscribers send text messages—and 42 percent use their phones for texting as much as they do for … Continue reading “Vlingo Survey Finds Epidemic of “DWT”—Driving While Texting”

Telecom Transport Management Obtains $20,000,000 New Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=1a71ce7e-7033-4c3b-a467-548cc5d556fa&Preview=1 Date 5/21/2008 Company Name Telecom Transport Management Mailing Address 146 N. Canal St Seattle, WA 98103 Company Description TTM offers a best-in-class combination of network quality, surveillance, and price, using a combination of owned and leased radio and landline-based technologies. TTM adds value to its customers’ operations by reducing network complexity, … Continue reading “Telecom Transport Management Obtains $20,000,000 New Round”

NGenera Corporation Acquires Talisma Corporation for Undisclosed Sum

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=7b2bd579-913a-4534-ac01-8fcb1e46b493&Preview=1 Date 5/21/2008 Company Name Talisma Corporation Mailing Address 411 108th Avenue N.E. Bellevue, WA 98004 Company Description Talisma is a leading provider of web-driven customer service solutions that integrate the power of email, chat, real-time collaboration and telephony applications with a mature, robust multi-channel interaction management platform, comprehensive analytics and a … Continue reading “NGenera Corporation Acquires Talisma Corporation for Undisclosed Sum”

Wilson TurboPower Boosted by 500K

Wilson TurboPower has received $500,000 from the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative to develop its MIT-invented industrial heat exchanger, which is expected to lower the cost of electricity generation from biomass and fuel cells, the Woburn, MA-based firm announced today. The funding was provided through the collaborative’s Sustainable Energy Economic Development Initiative, which supports commercialization of renewable … Continue reading “Wilson TurboPower Boosted by 500K”

Negroponte Unveils 2nd Generation OLPC Laptop: It’s an E-Book

I’m “live blogging” from the One Laptop Per Child Foundation’s day-long media event at the MIT Media Lab. The big news is that OLPC founder Nicholas Negrponte has just unveiled the design for the foundation’s second-generation laptop, which isn’t really a laptop at all but a double-screened, fold-up electronic book. Below are five shots of … Continue reading “Negroponte Unveils 2nd Generation OLPC Laptop: It’s an E-Book”

The Next Big Thing in Energy Innovation and Investing? Let’s Talk Water

Energy innovation and investing are exploding right now. Technological breakthroughs are seen as perhaps the greatest hope to solving our dire energy challenge. However, what is often overlooked is the link between finding or creating new sources of energy and the effects on food and water. Indeed, if you think of energy as a coin, … Continue reading “The Next Big Thing in Energy Innovation and Investing? Let’s Talk Water”

Beth Israel Deaconess Is First Boston Hospital to Integrate with Google Health

Boston isn’t just home to a bevy of top-rated hospitals—it’s also the birthplace of medical informatics, or the storage and retrieval of health data. (The MUMPS programming language—for Massachusetts General Hospital Utility Multi-Programming System—was written in 1966 and is still one of the most widely used languages for creating database-driven clinical applications.) So it isn’t … Continue reading “Beth Israel Deaconess Is First Boston Hospital to Integrate with Google Health”

Gotuit and Lifetime Let Viewers Call the Shots

If you think the director got it wrong, well go ahead and change the movie. That is the basic idea behind a new service, offered by cable television channel Lifetime, using technology developed by Gotuit in Woburn, MA. Lifetime’s “Movie Mash-up” works like video clip-art. You drag scenes from the channel’s movie library, combine them … Continue reading “Gotuit and Lifetime Let Viewers Call the Shots”

Volcano Corporation Acquires Novelis, Inc. for $15,000,000

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=40b8e8b9-fdbc-405e-954b-0fb33bb8e1ca&Preview=1 Date 5/20/2008 Company Name Novelis, Inc. Mailing Address 13 Branch Street Methuen, MA 01844 Company Description Novelis is a private company developing a proprietary forward-looking ultrasonic imaging catheter with integrated RF ablation to facilitate image guided, guidewire-based crossing of chronic total occlusions in the coronary and peripheral vasculature. Investigational Device – … Continue reading “Volcano Corporation Acquires Novelis, Inc. for $15,000,000”

World Energy Prepares for Nation’s First Carbon-Allowance Auctions

A Massachusetts energy-trading startup is gearing up to host the nation’s first auction for greenhouse gas emissions allowances. The details are still being worked out, but if all goes according to plan, World Energy Solutions (TSX: [[ticker:XWE]]) of Worcester will conduct the online auction—in which power-plant owners will buy and sell the rights to emit … Continue reading “World Energy Prepares for Nation’s First Carbon-Allowance Auctions”