Megarounds in the Boston Ecosystem
Plus Nine Companies That Raised Over $59M
Megaround Update
I wanted to revisit megaround numbers in Boston this year. Defined as venture rounds exceeding $100M in size, they’ve become a driving force for total capital investment in the ecosystem. I haven’t run any numbers YoY, but my guess is that this has either been a record-breaking year, or very close to it. I included a few companies that teeter on the line of life science, but as I’ve wrote in the past, that line is rapidly blurring. Some companies are also internationally based, like Nexthink and Aqua Security.
I’d also like to know what the percentage of megarounds is to total capital raised in major hubs like NY/SF/LA vs here. My guess is it would show Boston having proportionately less early-stage activity here…but still growing!
Did I miss any? Let me know.
Stuff I’m Reading:
Boston Tech Financings:
Realtime Robotics 🤖
Realtime Robotics announced a $31.4M Series A tacking on to their $11.7M Series A funding that I wrote about in Oct’19. The funding came from investors including HAHN Automation, SAIC Capital Management, Soundproof Ventures, Heroic Ventures, SPARX Asset Management, Omron Ventures, Toyota AI Ventures, Scrum Ventures and Duke Angels. They’re building an operating system for production floors that helps robots operate efficiently in structured, unstructured, or collaborative environments. For more on the topic of microlocation and “cobot” robotics, revisit the Boston Robotics report put out by Fabric Media and The New England Venture Capital Association.
XRHealth 👓
Medical VR company XRHealth just raised $9M from Discount Tech after debuting several VR-based treatment offerings in late 2020. They provide a variety of physical and psychological treatment telehealth kits that are delivered through VR. They utilize existing VR hardware (HTC Vive Focus, Oculus Quest, or Oculus Go), renting it out to users, and have developed the software and platform behind it. After a 25 module training program, existing clinicians can join the platform for extra income by treating patients remotely in VR.
Etiometry 👩⚕️
Etiometry, which provides software to help clinicians visualize and investigate subtle changes in patient conditions, just raised $9M in Series A-3 funding. I previously covered this round when a filing surfaced in April when 33% of the round was filled. The round was led by SKK 9i Ventures, with participation from Shamrock Holdings and others.
Electra Vehicles ⚡
Electra Vehicles, a startup offering EV fleet analytics and battery pack operations software, just raised a $3.6M seed round from investors including LIFTT, LaunchPad Venture Group, and Italy-based Club degli Investitori. The five-year-old company can help the owners of EV fleets run simulations to understand what the optimal battery pack setup would look like for their vehicles.
Kudos 👶
Eco-friendly D2C diaper company Kudos just raised $2.4M in Seed funding from a stacked syndicate including Foundation Capital, XFund, PJC, Precursor Ventures, Liquid 2 Ventures, SV Angel, Underscore VC, Alpha Bridge Ventures, and more. They’re the only disposable diaper company to use 100% cotton on a baby’s skin, alongside other plant-based components in the diaper. Competing diaper liners, according to the company, contain potentially harmful plastics and volatile organic compounds. They offer the these diapers as a monthly subscription service for $78/mo or as needed for $14 a box.
Foundation Devices ₿
Foundation Devices, creator of the passport Bitcoin wallet, just raised a $2M+ Seed Round led by Bolt, with participation from ex-Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan and others. I last wrote about the company in September 2020 when they raised undisclosed funding from Animal Ventures, Fulgur Ventures, Great American Mining, Inflection and Visary Capital alongside the launch of pre-orders. Tyler Mincey of Bolt will join the company’s board.
They make a hardware wallet that differentiates itself from competitors by focusing on quality UX and open source components. The central idea to any Bitcoin wallet is, “Not your keys, not your cheese.” As convenient as it is to store your crypto on an exchange, you don’t truly own it unless you, and only you, possess the private key to said wallet. What I like about Foundation is its mission to bring the open source, verifiable, and sovereign nature of Bitcoin into the physical world. Many popular hardware wallets don’t use open source components, so you’re forced to trust that the wallet developer hasn’t purposely or accidentally included any vulnerabilities.
Even Jack Dorsey is now stressing the importance of a completely open source and non-custodial Bitcoin wallet, saying he might try to build one at Square:
Syrup 🛍️
1984 Ventures just led a $1M Seed Round into Syrup, with support from Harvard i-Labs, HBS, and other angels. The company is building a machine learning model that improves retail inventory management by forecasting demand and optimizing inventory allocations.
Sendal 🏡
Smart home-as-a-Service company Sendal just raised $625K in a $1.2M round, according to a Form D. They produce smart home management software specifically for home builders to offer services to residents.
Kodex 🤝
Kodex, a year old startup creating workflows for public <> private data exchanges, just raised $300K according to a new filing. The company was founded by Matt Donahue, who previously worked in the counterterrorism unit of the FBI. They want to standardize the legal process of agencies seeking data on users by creating a dashboard for companies to manage these requests.