🔥 Your Two Week Boston Funding Roundup: 15 Startups That Raised Just Over $100M
Among them, a portable surgical environment for war zones and natural disasters, a tool that can measure how much carbon is stored in soil, and an HVAC analysis tool for building efficiencies 🔥
This newsletter is longer than what Gmail allows for an email. Open this in a browser to get the full issue.
If you’re new here, I’m Abigail! I’m a mechanical-engineer-turned-investor at Hyperplane, an AI/ML-focused, seed-stage venture capital firm in Boston. Every two weeks, this newsletter lists Boston’s latest financings and highlights local and macro economic happenings.
If you were forwarded this email, join the community of thousands of Boston’s best tech and finance folks reading alongside you!
🏝 Happy Tuesday ! (: I’m coming off of an incredible week in Costa Rica, and if anyone needs a place to add to their bucket list, Santa Teresa is a dream. And don’t just take it from me- last week, we spotted Gisele (yes, the one and only) and the Brady kids running along the beach looking perfectly photographable. Apparently, the supermodel now owns their home there. Happy to give recommendations if you’re looking for a reset, a parasympathetic nervous system reboot inclusive of activity of all types, nature, good food, nearly every kind of animal, and incredible, incredible people.
Likely a product of ADHD, I’m incessantly adding things to my “To Google” list. So, this week, I’m throwing out a brain dump of stuff I’m looking into this week in an attempt to stimulate conversation and augment my research process, please reach out if interested in chatting about any of it!
Interests this week (all of the random stuff I’m Googling and thinking about):
🌍 History and relevance of the current-day global alliances and their roles in global conflict, 🧪 Pharmaceutical marketing budgets and how they’re spent, 🏥 Why do remote patient monitoring companies with hardware components struggle to scale?, 🥗 Optimal nutrition and protein intake during marathon training, 🔴 Republican presidential candidates and platforms, 💸 VC firm LLC structures and why 4 LLCs result in tax advantages.
Boston news: Elephant Partners closed $800M for their fifth fund, according to a Form D filing. Boston-based email marketing company, Klayvio is expected to go public in September under the ticker KVYO. Cape Cod is opening an emergency room for dolphins stranded on their local beaches, the first in the northeast after seeing more mass strandings of dolphins than anywhere else in the world. Boston’s Mayor Wu is facing increasing pressure to enact a longterm solution to the overwhelming increase in violence on Mass Ave, historically known for its homeless population and public drug use, but TBD on the details.
NVIDIA is all the rage after *smashing* Q2 earnings due to a spike in Data Centre orders for AI infrastructure buildout, naturally. After posting $13.5B in revenue last quarter (not to mention the bizarre improvements enabling software-like gross margins of 70%, up from 43.5% the year before), NVIDIA now expects $16B next quarter- a 170% YoY growth rate if they hit it. These numbers are unheard of at this scale, and this now begs the question of longterm sustainability.
And so, with that, let’s get into it.
Boston Financings of 8/15-8/28
Financings are listed from smallest to largest. Biotech financings over $80M+ are usually not covered.
The total amount of disclosed funding over the last two weeks hit $103M
Kidogo | $20K | Digital Media
Producer of children’s edutainment from the African dispora, Kidogo Productions, has raised $20K of a $500K offering from 4 investors. Founded by Keeana Saxon, Kidogo (translating to “little” in Swahili) aims to produce inclusive online content for Black preschoolers and allies from all around the world. The company won MassChallenge’s 2022 Community Choice award.
NED Medical | $500K | Healthcare
NED Medical, a company pursuing more effective treatments for liver cancer patients with their product, the CombiSphere has raised $500K towards a $1.8M total offering amount. Founded by the former CTO of PAVmed, NED Medical’s product, CombiSphere, is a radioembolic microsphere aiming to transform oncology embolization from a palliative to a curative treatment. The company recently launched publicly.
inspace | $500K | Future of Work
A workplace booking platform for hybrid companies to manage their office space usage, inspace, has reportedly raised $500K. Their app allows employees to book desks, parking spaces, and conference rooms and lets them see who else is in the office that day, while providing the company with analysis on how their space is being used. Founded by Elena Beloshapkova, the company last raised a $2.6M Seed round from Softline Venture Partners, Storied Ventures, Flyer One Ventures, and NRG Ventures in January of 2022.
SurgiBox | $750K | Medical Devices
Inventors of The SurgiField™ System, a portable kit that provides a sterile environment for surgical procedures, SurgiBox, has raised $750K from 19 investors in the form of convertible notes. Founded in partnership with MIT’s D-Lab, SurgiBox’s product provides ready access to operating room environments in situations like natural disasters and war zones, and is composed of a bubble with armholes facing inward, a module that filters and controls air flow, and a battery. SurgiBox has obtained Humanitarian Use Exemption for the use of the SurgiField System in Ukraine. MIT News has more.
Cognius | $2M | Travel (?)
Founded out of Cogo Labs in 2013 as a travel-focused lead generation company now developing user experiences and content for several industries, Cognius, has raised $2M from 3 total investors. The company was previously named SmarterTravel and was founded by Anne Beckett and Jordan Saab who, according to LinkedIn, are no longer employees at the company. Robert Fisher, CEO of Cogo Labs, is listed as the Executive and Director on the filing.
Meetcaregivers | $2.2M | Senior Care
Online senior care marketplace, Meetcaregivers, has closed $2.2M of a $6.7M offering amount from the conversion of convertible notes. Latinx-founded, Meetcaregivers' facilitates the process of picking a caregiver by matching seniors with their ideal caregiver, lowering caregiver turnover rate to less than 30%, compared to the average 82%. They last raised a $1M Seed Round from MassMutual Catalyst Fund, Golden Seeds and TiE Angels Boston in 2021.
ScribeUp | $3M | E-Comm
Subscription management company for your e-commerce subscriptions, ScribeUp, has raised a $3M Seed round led by Mucker Capital. ScribeUp is a free service and works by scanning your bank accounts to identify all of your subscriptions, then connects these payments to a virtual payment card which protects against unwanted charges and provides a one-click cancellation of subscriptions. They reportedly have 10,000 active users and saves users an average of $700 annually from unwanted subscriptions.
Flux Cyber | $6M | Stealth (but safe bet it’s Cybersecurity)
Stealth-mode cyber security company, presumably an incubation out of Glasswing Ventures, Flux Cyber, has closed $6M from 4 total investors. The company lists Glasswing Ventures as its primary office, and the founder is listed as Ted Julian, co-founder of several startups, and Venture Partner and repeat founder for Glasswing Ventures. Prior to Flux, Ted served as SVP of Product at Devo, and before that, co-founded Resilient, a former investment of Glasswing Founding Partner Rick Grinnell’s.
DataCebo | $6.2M | Data Infra
MIT-founded provider of a synthetic data library built for enterprises, DataCebo, has raised $6.23M from 4 total investors. DataCebo’s core product, the Synthetic Data Vault is a set of open source software systems built to help enterprises generate synthetic data that mimics the real data, and was developed in a research lab called Data-to-AI, housed in MIT's Schwarzman College of Computing. According to Pitchbook, they last raised a $3M round from Uncorrelated Ventures and Zetta Venture Partners in 2021. More on how the product works here.
Aperio | $9M | Data
Developer of technology that detects data errors and inefficiencies in Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) sensors, Aperio, has raised $9M in a combined Series A-1 and Series A-2 round led by Momenta’s AIoT Ecosystem Fund, a fund under Adventech. Other investors included National Grid Partners, Chevron’s venture fund, and NextEra Energy. Founded in 2016, Aperio’s platform detects data anomalies for applications such as fleet monitoring, asset health, and sustainability by extracting data from physical measurements such as electrical current, pressure, temperature, etc. They last raised an $8.5M Series A led by National Grid Partners in 2020.
Tausight | $6M | Healthcare IT
Patient data security startup, Tausight, has raised an additional $6M round led by Polaris Capital, with participation from Flare Capital Partners and .406 Ventures. This comes after raising a $20M Series A in 2021. Founded in 2018 by David Ting, the cofounder and former CTO of Imprivata, Tausight automates the identification and classification of electronic protected health information (PHI), with expansion plans to cover more sensitive healthcare data categories.
Koverly | $7.6M | FinTech
Provider of a B2B payments solution for international payment flexibility, Koverly, has raised $7.6M Seed round over multiple funding tranches from Accomplice VC, Vinyl Capital, and One Way Ventures. The company provides U.S. import-export businesses with customized underwriting of up to $500K, determined within 24 hours, potentially granting enough extra working capital to unlock at least one additional inventory turn per year.
Yard Stick (this is a cool website) | $10.6M | Climate Tech
Yard Stick, a company making in-situ soil carbon measurement tools, has raised a $10.6M Series A led by Toyota Ventures, with participation from Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund, Lowercarbon Capital, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, and Pillar VC. Yard Stick aims to address the high costs associated with measuring the soil organ carbon (SOC) levels that result from the carbon sequestration method of underground carbon storage via spectroscopy. Yard Stick has more.
Clockworks Analytics | $16.1M | Property Tech
Clockworks Analytics, an HVAC analytics platform for buildings, has raised a $16.1M venture round led by Carom Growth Partners with participation from SE Ventures. Spun out of MIT’s Building Science Department and built on a form of AI that simulates a human expert’s decision-making, Clockworks’ platform is the largest fault detection and diagnostics (FDD) platform for the built environment with 420K connected assets. They last raised $8M from Carom Growth Partners, Evans Capital Management and Schneider Electric in 2020.
Superluminal | $33M | Healthcare (Drug Discovery)
Generative biology company leveraging machine learning for drug discovery, Superluminal, has emerged from stealth-mode and raised a $33M round led by RA Capital Management with participation from Insight Partners, NVIDIA, and Gaingels. Incubated by RA Capital, Superluminal’s platform’s predict-design-test architecture can model protein shapes and design compounds optimized for therapeutic effect. The discovery engine is powered by a pharmacokinetic and toxicology in-silico prediction capability.
Extras
Ikena Therapeutics | Acquisition | Healthcare
Ikena Therapeutics, a public oncology biotech focusing on Hippo and RAS signaling pathways for development methods, has acquired Pionyr Immunotherapeutics Inc, a clinical-stage biotech, in an all-stock transaction for $42.57M.
OnProcess | Strategic Investment | Supply Chain
Supply chain visibility company, OnProcess, has announced a new office location in San Jose, Costa Rica after a $5M investment from the Costa Rican Investment Promotion Agency (CINDE). “We arrived in Costa Rica in 2015 and were impressed by the local talent. This, and the proximity to the US, were key factors driving our growth efforts in the country,” - Mark Oldani, OnProcess COO.
Circle | Strategic Investment | Crypto
Coinbase is increasing support for stablecoins with an investment in Circle. Centre Consortium, which issues second-largest stablecoin USDC, has been dissolved as Coinbase acquires a minority share in Circle.
Swift Current | Project Financing | Renewable Energy
Solar project operating company, Swift Current Energy closed $779M in project financing for a 800 MWdc (593 MWac) Double Black Diamond Solar project. Currently under construction near Springfield Illinois, the project will be second largest single phase solar project in the US, producing enough energy per year to power more than 100,000 homes and reduce CO2 emissions by approximately 1 million tons per year, and is scheduled to be energized in 2024.
All for now!
Your Macro Briefing + Headlines 📉
Covering the upcoming numbers to watch for (🔜) , the relevant numbers of last week (🔙), and the tech headlines of the last two weeks (🆕).
🔜 Economy watch this week:
📢 Number releases: Today: CB Consumer Confidence, House Price Index, Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey. Tomorrow: Wholesale Inventories, GDP, Pending Home Sales. Thursday: Personal Income and Outlays (spending), Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index. Friday: the unemployment rates, S&P Global Manufacturing PMI.
📣 Earnings:
🔙 Economy watch last two weeks:
💼 Jobs: Initial jobless claims (for week of August 14th) fell unexpectedly by 10,000 to 230,000, and continuing claims (a proxy for how long it’s taking newly unemployed workers to find new jobs) is at 6-month lows!
⚙️US Business pace: S&P Global's purchasing managers indices (PMI) showed manufacturing plus services fell to 50.4 (below 50, an indicative proxy for an economic contraction), indicating manufacturing activity (and therefore the pace of US business) on the decline.
🏦 Jackson Hole: Jerome Powell spoke on Friday at the annual Kansis City Fed’s Jackson Hole Economic Symposium, and he kept it relatively unexciting in terms of new information (TLDR: economic growth has been better than expected, but we’re not out of the woods yet). The response? According to CME Group, the probability of a rate hike in November is now over 50% up from ~30%.
⚡️ Energy: Energy companies have now reduced the number of active oil rigs for 9 consecutive months, according to data released on Friday. This is a proxy for future oil output.
🌎 Global economy: BRICS will extend invitations to 6 of the 23 countries that applied to be members of the emerging markets syndicate. Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Saudia Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates will join Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa in the alliance of fast-growing economies that Goldman Sachs economist, Jim O'Neill predicted would collectively dominate the global economy by 2050.
🏡 Real estate: Zillow announced they will offer mortgages with a 1% down payment option for eligible homebuyers looking to own property in Arizona, and will contribute an additional 2% at closing.
💸 Earnings: Peloton has now missed its numbers for 9 quarters straight, Foot Locker missed their numbers for the second straight quarter attributed to inventory shrink, Abercrombie&Fitch shares soared after the company beat estimates, and Instagram has reportedly filed for an IPO.
AI Headlines and Product Releases
📲 The big one: NVIDIA is now estimated to be a $1T market opportunity after posting impressive numbers this quarter, beating revenue consensus estimates by 30% due to a spike in Data Centre orders for AI infrastructure buildout. Infrastructure always wins, folks.
⌨️ Llama: Meta released Code Llama, a ChatGPT-type model for writing code. Reportedly, the model works better than Codex and AlphaCode.
🤫 Gatekeeping no more: The Allen Institute for AI, or Al2, has released Dolmo, a huge text dataset that aims to democratize accessibility to the data upon which LLMs are trained, which today are trade secret kept close to the chest by LLM developers.
🗺 Figma participates in the conversation: The product of an internal hackathon at Figma, Jambot lets you visualize your research with mindmaps, powered by ChatGPT.
🇰🇷 And so does South Korea: South Korea’s largest search engine, Naver released its generative AI chatbot to compete with ChatGPT, HyperCLOVA X. Naver is working with Samsung on chip development to power the new product.
🔥 Hyped: Hugging Face reportedly raised $235M in a round led by Salesforce at a $4.5B post-money valuation. This is (also reportedly) 100 times its revenue.
🎨 OpenAI moving in on creators: OpenAI has acquired startup Global Illumination in its first public acquisition. Global Illumination builds AI tools and infrastructure for digital creators and experiences.
🆕 Headlines
🤨 Sus, to say the least: Russia confirmed the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner Group, a Russian private paramilitary group, after his plane crashed two months after he led a daylong mutiny against Moscow.
❌ Not a fan favorite: The SEC has proposed new regulations that would require private funds to provide their investors with more information more frequently, increase their liability for negligence, among other proposed requirements. Managers have threatened to sue the SEC if it follows through with the changes.
👎 Dumb, period: A conservative activist, Edward Blum has sued Fearless Fund, a VC fund investing in only black female-founded companies, for discrimination immediately following the case against affirmative action.
🇺🇦 Ukraine update: As Ukraine’s counteroffensive pushes on, heavy fighting in the east continues while Ukraine has claimed to have made advances in the south.
Under the current state of martial law in Ukraine determined nearly 18 months ago, elections in Ukraine have not been deemed possible. Despite this, Zelensky has suggested that Ukraine may hold a presidential ballot next year as scheduled.
🔴 2024: The Republican presidential debate last week was missing the country’s infamous star, Donald Trump. Viewership sank and Trump was laughing from his ivory tower as candidate Nikki Haley was viewed positively and Ron DeSantis metaphorically slipped on a banana.
💳 An end of a short-lived era: Mastercard and Binance are ending their crypto card partnership that is active in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Bahrain.
🇿🇼 Fraudulent? Zimbabwe’s President, Emmerson Mnangagwa was re-elected in an election that was allegedly plagued by fraud, starting another five-year term.
📉 WeWork or WeBroke? BlackRock, King Street, Brigade and other Wall Street firms are reportedly in talks regarding a potential bankruptcy filing plan for WeWork.
Events
🧑💼 Tech and Biz
Friday, September 8th, 4PM: MIT delta v Demo Day once again for visibility!
September 11th-15th: Startup Boston Week 2023! Grab your free tickets here. (And check out Rags Gupta of Hyperplane and myself on an investor panel on Friday!)
Tuesday, September 12th, 4:30PM: Greentown Labs hosts Climate Tech Career Fair at their Boston location in Somerville.
Thursday, September 14th, 4:30PM: MassMutual Ventures hosts Boston Tech Community members for an evening of cocktails, appetizers, and good conversation. Reach out to the team to snag an invite!
🤗 Other
Thursday, August 31st: Live music at the ICA by students from the Berkelee College of Music
Saturday and Sunday, September 9th-10th: The Boston Arts Festival in the North End (and it’s free)!
Saturday, September 16th: South Boston’s Street Fest showcasing over 100 participating Boston businesses, performances, and artists.
Relevant Reads (Just a few!)
Vector’s Capital released their 2023 ClimateTech Subsector Deep Dive Report, articulating a vision for achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.
FT partners put out their CEO Monthly Market Update: Global Fintech Coverage.
Frontline VC, a firm helping US B2B SaaS companies with European expansion, published their 2023 European Expansion Report.
Will Enterprise AI Models Be “Winner Take All?” by LightSpeed.