Ten Boston Tech Companies Raised $110M Last Week
Digital Health, Cybersecurity, Fantasy Gaming, and More
Happy Monday!
Some of us were lucky enough to have a long weekend. Here’s what I’ve been reading with the spare time:
Solving the Challenge of Funding Growth of the SaaS Economy — Harbus
VC Fund Returns are More Skewed Than You Think — Seth Levine
Zoom Telephonics in Merger Talks with Dyn Founder’s Startup — BBJ
Quarterly VC Funding for Female Founders at 3 Year Low — Pitchbook
Boston VC Financing Deals:
Linus Health 🧠
Linus Health, a company building software for analyzing brain health, just raised $9.9M from what looks like Tamarisc Ventures. The Waltham-based company is developing a platform that collects digital measurements on users and leverages AI to give them a holistic picture of their brain health, which could be used to recommend medical interventions, lifestyle changes, or prescriptions.
The Form D lists Tamarisc Managing Partner David Bates as a co-founder as well as REMUS Capital investor William Souillard-Mandar as a VP of AI and Analytics. It also lists Alvaro Pascual-Leone, who currently serves as the Senior Scientist at the Hinda and Arthur Marcus Insitute for Aging Research in Boston.
Onapsis 🛡️
Onapsis just raised a $55M Series D led by CDPQ, with participation from NightDragon, .406 Ventures, LLR Partners, and Arsenal Venture Partners. It’s a cybersecurity and compliance company focusing on preventative vulnerability solutions, compliance controls, and real-time threat detection. The eleven-year-old company has now raised a total of over $115M
More:
See the pitch deck that landed Onapsis $55M
Preservica 💾
Digital preservation company Preservica just raised $3.8M from Mobeus Equity Partners. The eight-year-old company specializes in helping businesses and governments safely store and maintain data for decades. While some data is worth discarding or updating, other data could become valuable after years of accumulation, or necessary for regulatory purposes.
The main problems with storing data for decades at a time is the risk of data corruption, file format obsolescence, and data accessibility. Preservica stores multiple copies of files in multiple locations on behalf of companies, and automatically updates those files as current formats become dated.
OmniView Sports 🏀
OmniView Sports, a sports streaming company focusing on engagement from fantasy players, just raised a $630K seed round. Their product, YourZone, is a hardware product and mobile app that helps viewers integrate live games with their fantasy league and sportsbook information. It connects with a user’s cable box and delivers a customized feed to help them keep track of the games and stats they care about.
JobGet 💸
Year-old mobile job application company JobGet announced that they secured $2.1M in seed funding led by Pillar VC, with participation from Data Point Capital, Crocker Mountain Capital, EO Ventures, and individual angels. Last December, they received a $250K grant from the MIT Inclusive Innovation Challenge and they previously won $50K as a MassChallenge Gold Winner. JobGet is a mobile app that helps users find gigs with hospitality, restaurant, and retail companies instantly without a resume.
Ovation 🧪
Ovation, a company building a Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) for molecular diagnostics labs, has raised $21M. The Cambridge-based company has previously raised over $13M from investors including Madrona Venture Group, Longfellow Venture Partners, and StageDotO.
Ovation gives you lab workflows, sample tracking, document management, personnel training, external portals, and a partner ecosystem for revenue cycle management, clinical interpretation, consulting services, and business analytics – all in a low-cost, out-of-the-box, cloud-based platform that can be implemented in a fraction of the time of other LIMS systems.
Oort 🔎
Oort, a cybersecurity company that recently left stealth mode, has raised $3.5M according to a Form D. It’s run by Matt Caulfield, who previously worked software engineering roles at Citi, Lockheed Martin, and Cisco. They specialize in Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM), connecting vendors and other third parties to a company’s internal applications with ease. According to the Ponemon Institute, third-parties account for over half of all data breaches across distributed companies.
NormShield 🛡️
Cyber risk rating company NormShield just raised $7.5M in Series A funding led by Moore Strategic Ventures, with participation from Glasswing Ventures and Data Point Capital.
Similar to Oort, (listed above):
“NormShield provides a platform that tells people which vendors pose the highest risk to a given company without creating more work. It also works as a cyber risk rating system that can measure the cost associated with a potential third-party cyber breach, so users can know the risk every organization in their ecosystem poses in terms of costs.”
They’re going up against companies like Boston-based BitSight, who has raised $151M+ to provide a standard in the world of cybersecurity ratings and is currently used by 1,800 customers.
Realtime Robotics 🦾
According to a Form D, industrial automation company Realtime Robotics has raised $2M out of a $10M round. Realtime develops specialized processors and software for industrial robots and autonomous vehicles. They make it easier for factories to program and engage with robots in a factory environment. Last October I noted that they raised an $11.7M Series A from Mirai Creation Fund. They’re also backed by corporates including Hyundai, Toyota AI Ventures, Mitsubishi, and Omron.
Tone 📱
In late August, I wrote that Tone had raised $1.3M for its SMS marketing platform. TechCrunch reported last week that the company has officially closed a $4M seed round led by Bling Capital, with participation from Day One Ventures, One Way Ventures, and TIA Ventures. It’s a conversational AI product similar to Drift, but with a focus on engaging lost eCommerce customers via text message.
When people close out of a web page with a loaded cart, a follow-up email is usually sent to their inbox. However, according to Tone, a follow-up text message can retrieve far more lost customers than follow-up emails.
More:
Wellesley-based Arist, which launched out of YC’s summer batch, has a similar thesis on building a company around the high-engagement rates that SMS yields.
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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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