Last Week in Boston Tech Deals and Happenings (10/20-10/27)
Big week for MarTech & AdTech M&A, OwnUp brings it "home," and more...
Welcome Back!
For those who are first-time readers, nice to meet you! You can learn more about my newsletter here and about me at www.nickstu.art.
First, MassChallenge happened this week. If you missed it, check out some of the winners here. Boston winners included EnVision Endoscopy, JobGet, Legacy, Pison, and Axonis.
Some M&A News…
Quite a bit happened in Boston M&A this week. Lots of AdTech & MarTech Deals.
This week Roku bought AdTech company Dataxu for a reported $150M. Dataxu, based in Boston, has raised upwards of $90M in venture capital since its inception in 2009. $150M marks a huge markdown from their proposed acquisition price in previous years. Originally, they had sought a $1B+ exit and lowered their sights to $500M in 2017. Their last post-money valuation reached $390M, per Pitchbook, following their Series F financing round. Yikes.
3D CAD platform Onshape has been acquired by PTC for $470M. With that said, Onshape’s Series D had boosted its valuation to almost $700M. The WeWork effect seems to be hitting hard this month.
Target Data Acquires Boston-Based Social Media Agency Social Fulcrum.
Mastercard (NYSE:MA) has purchased Boston-based SessionM to bolster their customer engagement abilities. In total, SessionM raised $97.5M in venture capital from their Series A through Series E. On the day of the deal (10/22), Mastercard was down 4.75% at closing.
Inmar has acquired Boston-based OwnerIQ for an undisclosed amount. Per Inmar, “Together, Inmar and ownerIQ will enable retailers to unlock the power of their first-party data for effective and measurable marketing campaigns thus accelerating commerce for CPG clients.”
AT&T-owned Xandr purchased Clypd on October 21st for an undisclosed sum. Clypd is a “sell-side programmatic platform that uses data to help advertisers target television viewers more precisely.”(Adnews).
MA-based AutoGuide Mobile Robots will be acquired by Teradyne (NAS:TER). The deal is worth a reported $165M.
Aerospace component manufacturer Aerowave was purchased by Plymouth Rock Technologies (CNQ:PRT) for an undisclosed amount this week.
Attivio, a Boston-based B2B search service founded in 2007, was acquired by ServiceNow (NYS:NOW) for an undisclosed amount. Their last post-money valuation was $144M.
Lastly, in funnier-sounding M&A news, MA-based Nye Lubricants acquired Fuchs Petrolub for an undisclosed amount this week. All jokes aside, Fuchs is the world’s largest independent lubricant manufacturer and Nye lubricates pretty much everything.
Now for VC Financing Rounds
Fintech, ConstructionTech, NanoTech, and more raised capital this week.
OwnUp, previously known as RatesGravity, raised a Series A this week. I’m getting some mixed signals on the reported size, but the deal was between $8.5M and $17.74M. It was led by Link Ventures. OwnUp has developed “a web-based home loan marketplace to connect home buyers and lenders.” They have been around the block in Boston, raising capital from a variety of incubators/accelerators and VCs including Raizlabs XLR8, Masschallenge, DCU Fintech Innovation Center, Techstars Boston, Listen Ventures, and Launch Capital.
According to Crunchbase, Voxel8 raised a Series B this week for an undisclosed amount. The lead investor was DSM Venturing. Voxel8 is a Somerville-based startup bringing “novel materials to 3D printing.” Check out some of the fascinating applications for their technology here.
Image: Voxel8’s Activelab Digital Fabrication System
Per TechCrunch, “Vendr, already profitable, raises $2M to replace your enterprise sales team” The round was led by F-Prime Capital. I think this “profitable” thing might be a fad — I’ve never heard of it, but I’ll do some research this weekend and ask my finance professors.
TellBio Inc raised $1.5M, per their SEC Form D. Details on the company are scarce, but according to Linkedin, their Executive Chairman is the current CEO of Yumanity Therapeutics out of Cambridge. Chances are it has something to do with the treatment or diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases.
PE-backed digital optimization platform SiteSpect raised a $1M mezzanine round this week
VoltDB raised a $10.24M Series C this week. VoltDB’s “in-memory SQL database combines streaming analytics with transaction processing in a single, horizontal scale-out platform.” They have raised $46.67M to date.
ACTNano, a protective nano-coating solution for cars, IoT and electronics, raised $850K. They have raised undisclosed amounts of funding in the past. You can read more about their story here.
Paperless Parts raised $1.05M in an Angel Round, bringing their total raised to $4.55M. They’re the “Provider of a smart marketplace intended to offer custom parts and make manufacturing more accessible.”
MiRTLE Medical, the producer of a medical device that monitors patients during MRI scans, raised a $1.33M Angel Round, bringing their total raised to $2.92M. They claim that 300K patients annually are excluded from MRI’s due to the inability to monitor a patient’s health during the procedure. This could include trauma patients, patients with heart problems, or “frightened” patients like children.
Beam Organics raised a $5M Seed Round led by Obvious Ventures. Other investors included C2 Ventures and Camwood Capital Group. Beam is a new DTC wellness brand offering a variety of CBD products. Beam’s co-founders, Matt & Kevin, are ex-professional athletes with a vision of using CBD to cure just about anything that ails you. Their website is also very fresh, kudos Alright Studio. The DTC food space is explosive right now. Earlier this summer, Boston-based Verb Energy raised as well. They let users text a number and receive a caffeine-filled snack.
Image: One of Beam’s CBD product bundles with tincture, salve, and protein
Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed my third addition to Boston Tech Deals & Happenings. Please don’t hesitate to reach out with questions, corrections, or suggestions for my next post.
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