Last Week in Boston Tech Deals
Pickles, Fish Food, and Lingerie?
Last week, Twelve Boston Startups Raised $51M in Capital
This week has made me more bullish than ever for humanity
Things seem pretty bad right now, especially when we’re spending the majority of our waking hours in front of screens reading about everything. However, the last few weeks have made me more bullish on the human race than ever before. I’m sure many of you have seen posts circulating about what happened during the last economic downturn:
What’s even more interesting than the companies that are being built right now are the people that are being inspired to change the world. There are millions of teenagers out there getting their first college acceptance letters right now, opting to study the many branches of life science. Some are likely to become the most mission-driven, passionate, and innovative epidemiologists of our time. They’ll have a unique global perspective on how to protect and propel the human race.
Right now, middle school kids all around the world are stuck in their houses, armed with the world’s knowledge at their fingertips. For the next few months, they’ll be glued to their iPads, watching YouTube videos about science and technology. The mental models of the world that they are developing today will drive them to solve the most pressing problems of tomorrow. The last time I was cooped up inside during a weekend-long storm, I started this newsletter. I may not be saving the world, but a little isolation helped me build something I’m proud of.
Some unsolicited advice from a former child to my parent readers:
I don’t have to tell you about how quickly kids grow up, I’m sure you think about it every day. But make sure you take this extra time at home with the young ones to tell them stories about your childhood, make a family tree, dust off the collection of board games, and just have some fun! You never know when the next time is that you’ll all be forced to hang out under the same roof for several weeks straight.
Before you know it, that dreaded day will come when they’re “too cool” to quarantine with their parents. Nowadays, it doesn’t get much cooler than spending a full afternoon with my mom! Sometimes it takes a global pandemic to get back to the basics and spend some wholesome time with family.
Some uplifting news you may have missed:
We just figured out how to remove a lung, clean it, and put it back inside a lung cancer patient.
Greece just swore in their first female president, Katerina Sakellaropoulou
If you’re new to my emails and posts, welcome! My name is Nick Stuart and I write a weekly newsletter on tech VC financing trends in the Boston area. You can learn more about me on my website here and about the micro-VC I help run here.
VC Financing Deals:
Modulate 🎤
Cambridge-based Modulate just raised $4M in Seed Funding led by 2enable Partners with participation from Hyperplane VC, Sierra Ventures, Third Kind VC, Everblue Management, and Crush Ventures. The three-year-old startup uses AI to allow gamers to get custom voice skins for their in-game characters. They offer an SDK that integrates directly into game development projects for real-time audio conversion in their games. If you’re familiar with games like Fortnite, you know that customizable aspects of video games are quickly becoming core revenue drivers. People get games for free and spend money on in-game purchases, like a Ninja skin.
Not only does this sound super fun, but I think it also might support a pretty interesting niche of gamers that have gone under the radar for a while. Some people don’t like talking online due to social anxiety or shyness. Anyone who played Modern Warfare 2 knows that the online gaming community can be toxic as hell. A quick Google search uncovers hundreds of forums with people talking about being too shy to talk or ashamed of their voice when talking over online video games. Ideally, people should just be nicer, but part of the magic of video games is the ability to immerse yourself in a new identity. I think Modulate’s voice skins provide a new and interesting dimension to this. It won’t be long before VR allows us to fully integrate ourselves into the digital world and live a completely different “life” online.
Ok, Bloomer 💓
Apologies for that horrible pun. Bloomer Health Tech, a Cambridge-based medical device company, just raised $3M led by Material Impact, with participation from One Brave Idea. The company is re-imagining heart health monitoring for women by developing a bra that measures a variety of health metrics. They make bras out of washable fabric with ECG technology embedded inside. The bras measure ECG data, pulse rate, respiratory rate, heart rhythm, and more. It’s connected via Bluetooth to a mobile application. The company has previously gone through Draper University, Start-Up Chile, MIT Delta V, and MIT Sandbox. Here’s a great piece on Bloomer by BostInno.
SeaTrac 🛥️
SeaTrac Systems, a three-year-old autonomous sea vehicle company of out Marblehead, just raised $900K in Seed Funding from the LA CleanTech Incubator. They are developing an autonomous, solar-powered sea vehicle that collects a boat-load of data (Sorry, I had to do another awful pun). The SeaTrac system allows researchers to collect data at sea for several months at a time using wireless communications and manual controls if necessary. According to LinkedIn, the company consists of three employees; Marvin Duncan, Buddy Duncan, and James Herman.
TireTutor 🚗
TireTutor, a Brookline-based shopping platform for car tires, just raised $140K from so far undisclosed investors. Back in 2019, they went through MIT Delta V. They use a proprietary algorithm to provide transparent tire pricing and recommendations to shoppers. They also offer dealer management software to help tire sellers optimize their supply chain, improve their online presence, and get more customers. The company is led by Jason Abrahams, an ex-CarGurus Director and Sloan School of Management graduate.
BondLink📝
BondLink, a five-year-old Boston company specializing in investor relations, just raised $4M in SAFE notes from so far undisclosed investors, in what appears to be a $6M round. The company’s software makes it easy for municipal bond issuers to connect with potential investors. They help municipalities set up investor relations websites and update them with relevant data on the sale. It’s pretty much like TireTutors but for bonds. They help investors easily search for, save, and get alerts on relevant investments. They were previously backed by Coatue Management and Franklin Templeton Investments, with a total raised now at $12.5M.
Black Swan Power 👻
A Cambridge-based stealth-mode company called Black Swan Power just raised $1M in Angel Funding from undisclosed investors. According to Linkedin, it is led by Richard Gilles, an expert in resource and energy efficiency that sits on the Governor’s Net Zero Energy Advisory Council of Massachusetts. Here’s a description of the company from its EVP of Strategy and Corporate Relations, Thomas Houston:
“Taking the next leap forward in the most advanced and new source of energy of the 21st century patented and validated by the US Government Army Core of Engineers. Working primarily with the USA Government and the largest American cable company. The new form of energy is 98% green technology witch uses no rare earth minerals or toxic materials.”
enVerid 💨
Westwood-based enVerid just raised a $20M Series B from so far undisclosed investors. The company has developed energy-efficient air ventilators that can remove all known molecular contaminants from indoor air. Current HVAC systems must pull air from the outdoors constantly to maintain clean air at a comfortable temperature. By effectively recycling indoor air, enVerid can help customers save up to 30% on annual energy costs. The company has previously been backed by Leumi Partners, the US Department of Energy, OurCrowd, Teuza, and NOW Labs. Their total raised is now $36M
KnipBio 🐟
Aquaculture startup KnipBio is raising ~$1.72M from Launchpad Venture Group, led by Ray Riley. The multi-billion-dollar aquaculture market is all about breeding and harvesting freshwater and saltwater animals. The company is centered around the idea that feed-stock for these animals is expensive, unhealthy, and wasteful. Also, current fishmeal products are actually pretty bad for fish. KnipBio takes a unique approach to developing fish food by converting the biowaste from ethanol production into a nutritious, protein-packed feed. Their replacement, the KnipBio Meal, is proving to be easier to digest and able to reduce fish mortality rates.
Also read: Alphabet’s new moonshot project is all about precision aquaculture.
Spotted Media 🙈
MarTech company Spotted Media just raised $1.1M in Series B funding from so far undisclosed investors in what looks to be a $5.3M round of funding. They specialize in generating and analyzing data about celebrity influencers and gauging how good of a fit they might be to endorse a company’s product. They provide “Disgrace Insurance” to companies in the case that the celebrity that endorsed them gets “canceled.” Here’s a piece by Vox covering the college admissions scandal with mention of how Spotted would handle the outcry. If only the Roy family from Succession had used this…
nFerence 🧠
According to an SEC filing, nFerence has raised $9.6M in equity. I wrote about them in early January when they secured $60M in Series B financing from the Mayo Clinic and NTT Venture Capital.
“The company uses neural networks to map out knowledge from scientific literature and other sources of data. By “Synthesizing the world’s biomedical knowledge,” they hope to augment the ability of healthcare and pharmaceutical professionals to make informed decisions. The ability to compute and understand massive amounts of biomedical research and data could be a huge benefit for drug discovery and development teams, among other similar fields.
Dock Health 🏥
Dock Health has raised $3M in a $3.5M funding round, per a Form D uncovered by BostInno. The company has developed a HIPAA-compliant task management and collaboration tool for the healthcare industry. Sort of like a Trello for hospitals, it helps healthcare workers manage clinical tasks in a collaborate way, without worries about data privacy. The company has previously gone through MassChallenge and the Boston Children’s Hospital Innovation & Digital Health Accelerator.
Grillo’s Pickles 🥒
Last March, Boston saw its first venture-backed pickle company, Grillo’s Pickles, after they raised a $4.6M round from Centerman Capital and Breakaway Innovation Group. According to a new Form D filing, they have now raised an additional $2M in equity from so far undisclosed investors. The company began as a modest pickle cart in downtown Boston and has since made its way into a variety of restaurants and grocery chains. According to my roommates, they are in fact delicious and the juice goes well with a shot of Jameson.
Thanks for reading!
That’s all from me until next week — If you’d like to connect with me, you can find me on Linkedin and Twitter or check out my website at nickstu.art.
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