Last Week in Boston Tech Deals
Last Week in Boston Tech Deals
Digital Therapeutics, Giant Drills, Poop Analysis, and More
Happy Tuesday
Thanks for tuning in.
Last week, nine Boston-area tech companies raised $143M 👇
Stuff I’m Reading:
How Michael Dell turned his declining PC business into a $40B windfall
Shuttered startup “Brandless” has returned as an e-commerce rollup company
Boston Tech Financing Announcements:
ReversingLabs 🛡️
Cybersecurity company ReversingLabs just raised $56M in Series B funding led by Crosspoint Capital Partners, with support from ForgePoint Capital and Prelude Ventures. The 12-year-old company offers a hybrid cloud platform for threat intelligence across the entire software supply chain.
MEDRhythms 🚶♂️
Maine and Boston-based MEDRhythms just raised a $25M Series B co-led by Morningside Ventures and Advantage Capital, with participation from Werth Family Investment Associates. They’re developing digital therapeutics to help stroke survivors walk again. The product consists of sensors attached to the user’s shoes that measure their gait, while an accompanying app produces music that is intended to improve their walking abilities.
“Studies have shown that audio-motor pathways exist in the Reticulospinal tract, the part of the brain that is responsible for movement. Priming and timing of movements via these pathways demonstrate the motor system's ability to couple with the auditory system in order to drive movement patterns.” — MEDRhythms
Very cool. My question: Would the use of this system as a healthy runner have the potential to provide an edge, or are the returns diminishing?
Also worth noting, the Boston area now has a pretty large array of software-based drugs that are either FDA approved or in the approval process. Pear has FDA-approved insomnia and substance abuse treatments and Alkili Interactive is FDA-approved to offer a digital ADHD treatment.
BioBot Analytics 💩
Poop analyzing startup BioBot Analytics raised $16.1M, according to a new filing. Over the last year, the MIT spinout has been busy pulling insights from sewage wastewater to track the spread of COVID. They put out some interesting findings this week that South Boston’s sewage has twice the number of COVID virus samples as northern Boston.
Quaise ⛏️
Millimeter-wave drill developer Quaise just raised $12M led by Nabors Industries. The MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center spinout is building drilling technology that will allow them to dig 10-20km below the earth’s surface to harness geothermal energy.
It’s pretty hard to dig much deeper 40,000 feet below the earth’s surface (It took the Russians 20 years to get there). The founders learned that the bottleneck lied in building an effective drill bit — so they’re opting to use electromagnetic waves to blast through the earth’s crust.
Spoiler Alert 🍏
Food supply chain software company Spoiler Alert raised $11.3M according to a new filing. Their software allows suppliers to more effectively buy or sell excess food inventory before it spoils — helping them recover otherwise lost revenue and saving on inventory acquisition. The filing lists investors from Collaborative Fund, Acre Venture Partners, and Valley Oak Investments.
Golden Hearts Games 🎰
Gambling app developer Golden Hearts Games raised $10.9M according to a new filing. They offer a variety of gambling games where users have to donate to a charity to play.
OpenCity 🥤
Drive-thru technology company OpenCity raised $6.8M, according to a new filing. The company is developing a virtual assistant called Tori that is meant to replace humans in drive-thrus.
RailPod 🚇
Train track inspection company RailPod raised $2.5M, according to a new filing. The Greentown Labs and MassChallenge alumnus has developed a hardware system for inspecting the 140,000 miles of rail infrastructure in the US. It’s founded by Brendan English, who spent 15 years using AI to optimize safety at the US DOT.
Jebbit 🖥️
MarTech company Jebbit raised $2M, according to a new filing. They offer software that helps brands create interactive experiences on their websites to collect first-party data.