Last Week in Boston Tech Deals
$990M+ Raised by Eleven Boston Companies
Happy Monday
Last week, eleven Boston-area companies raised $990M+ from investors.
Stuff I’m Reading:
Boston Tech Financing News:
Transmit Security 🛡️
Transmit Security may have just broken records with this round. Last week, they raised a $543M Series A led by Insight Partners and General Atlantic, with support form Cyberstarts, Geodesic, SYN Ventures, Vintage, and Artisanal Ventures. The Israel and Boston-based company offers various biometric-based user authentication services for businesses. According to a Crunchbase interview, their ARR is "around $100M.”
Lendbuzz 💸
Online auto loan provider Lendbuzz has raised a $60M Series C led by Wellington Management, with participation from Goldman Sachs and MUFG Innovation Partners. In addition to equity, they raised $300M in debt from Goldman. They use AI to quickly assess the creditworthiness of foreign-born nationals and international students looking to purchase a car. The company has now raised a total of ~$800M in equity and debt.
Electric Hydrogen 🍃
Boston and SF-based renewable energy company Electric Hydrogen just announced a $24M Series A led by Carmichael Roberts at Breakthrough Energy Ventures, with participation from Prelude Ventures and Capricorn Investment Group. They’re working on a new kind of hydrogen electrolysis system with a focus on producing hydrogen at a low price and with low environmental impact.
Infinite Cooling 🏭
A new filing shows that Cambridge-based Infinite Cooling has raised a $12.2M Series A. The company previously raised a $4M seed round from Material Impact Fund in late 2019. The four-year-old wastewater management startup helps power plants recapture and recycle water using what they call Plume Abatement Technology. They essentially electrically charge water in cooling towers, which enables them to recapture that water in a mesh sheet and feed it back in to the cooling system.
NuvoAir 😮💨
Respiratory care management platform NuvoAir raised a $12M Series A led by AlbionVC, with participation from Kaya, Amino Collective, Spiltan, Industrifonden, and Novartis Pharma AG. The company provides software and accompanying hardware to help patients monitor lung function remotely. The tech is also being offered to researchers for clinical trials with respiratory endpoints. The current best practice for both respiratory illness diagnoses and collecting research data is relatively archaic, consisting of a low-tech, in-person series of breathing and cough tests.
Neurala 🕵️
Computer vision company Neurala just secured a $12M Series A co-led by Zebra Ventures and Pelion Venture Partners, with participation from others including Draper Associates, Friulia, AddValue, 360 Capital Partners, Idinvest Partners, Cougar Capital. Their product helps manufacturers enhance quality and prevent downtime by using AI to inspect the production line. When it comes to factory analytics, it seems like the two biggest fronts are machine-based sensors and visual sensors for detecting quality. Local machine-based sensor companies that I’ve written about previously include Machine Metrics and Datanomix. One relatively new Boston-based company that’s merging both visual and IoT data is IndustrialML.
FIGUR8 🦴
Musculoskeletal sensor wearable company FIGUR8 has raised its $12M Series A led by Taiwania Capital, with participation from E14 Fund, Phoenix Venture Partners, P5 Health Ventures, and NBA star Mo Bamba. The MIT spinout offers a set of sensors called Surface Mechanomyography Sensors (sMMGS) that are designed to quickly and accurately diagnose musculoskeletal problems.
Tive 🚚
Back in December, I wrote about the supply chain technology company Tive raising a $12M Series A. According to a new filing, the company has raised $7.5M in an $11M round. The Tive platform consists of hardware and software products that help monitor the physical condition of freight shipments to ensure quality. They can track things like temperature, light exposure, humidity, and location.
Jetcool Technologies ❄️
Littleton-based Jetcool Technologies just raised $3.25M in a $4M round, according to a new filing. They use a novel method of cooling power-dense electronic devices like GPUs, CPUs, and ASICs by spraying high-velocity cooling fluid directly onto them to save space and increase efficiency.
Wishroute 🙏
A new filing shows that Wishroute has raised $150K in a $750K round. The company is developing an SMS-based accountability tool that texts users to support them with diet, exercise, and self care motivation. It is offered directly to consumers or as a white label service for employers that want to better engage employees.
Proof Authentication 👍
Proof Authentication, which offers smartphone-based product authentication technology for brands, recently announced the close of their Series A and the appointment of a new CEO. According to their website, their patented product authenticity technology is currently embedded in 11 billion items worldwide.