Bay State Startup Investments Soared in July—Internet the Busiest Sector
Robert Buderi8/11/09Follow @bbuderi
Investments in Massachusetts startups rose as fast in July as the Red Sox have fallen in August. Venture investors poured some $215 million into a whopping 25 deals last month. That marked a 54 percent jump over the $139.5 million invested in 15 deals in June, according to data provided to Xconomy by ChubbyBrain, a New York-based information services company developing tools for investors, startups, and aspiring entrepreneurs.
In addition to the venture investments, last month saw a shade over $197 million worth of debt financings, led by an enormous $191 million deal by Newton, MA-based wind farm developer and operator First Wind. This was a tremendous rise over last month’s two debt deals totaling $5.5 million.
See our tables of all July Bay State venture deals and debt financings on the second page of this post.
July’s biggest venture deal was the $50 Series D round done by Burlington, MA-based ConforMIS. The company provides customized knee implants for patients based on CT or MRI scans. That easily topped the next biggest deal of the month, the $30 million Series B round for Waltham, MA-based Avila Therapeutics. The round was led by new investor the Novartis Option Fund, which also agreed to co-develop Avila’s drugs for up to $200 million in upfront and future milestone payments.
Other highlights from the July ChubbyBrain data:
—The 25 venture investments spanned all stages, but nearly two-thirds involved early rounds, with 10 Series A deals and six Series B financings. That was a bit higher … Next Page »
