11/06/09

LogMeIn Stockholders To Cash In

Woburn, MA-based remote control software company LogMeIn (NASDAQ: LOGM), which went public in July, said today that early investors plan to sell 2.9 million of their shares in a secondary public offering. At this afternoon’s share price of around $19.35, that would bring the stockholders some $56.1 million. Venture backers Prism VentureWorks and Polaris Venture Partners are among LogMeIn’s largest shareholders. LogMeIn said it will also sell 100,000 company-owned shares in the offering.

Bitwave Raises $1.3M of $6M Round

Bitwave Semiconductor of Chelmsford, MA, has raised $1.33 million out of a planned $6 million Series C equity funding round, according to regulatory documents. The company makes radio-frequency integrated circuits for portable devices. Bitwave collected $10 million in Series B funding from Apex Venture Partners, TVM Capital, and ECentury Capital Partners in August, 2008.

Game Over for Zeemote

Zeemote, a Chelmsford, MA-based startup that developed a handheld game controller for use with games on mobile handsets, has closed its doors and is putting its assets up for sale, according to a story today in Mass High Tech. Founded in 2005 by Boston-area entrepreneur Beth Marcus, the company worked with handset manufacturers Nokia, Samsung, LG, Sony Ericsson, and RIM to make its Bluetooth-based device compatible with their phones. Mass High Tech spoke with a partner from Zeemote backer Commonwealth Capital Ventures who confirmed the closure but offered no further details.

RXi Replaces CEO

RXi Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: RXII), the Worcester, MA-based developer of RNA interference drugs, said today that Noah Beerman has replaced Tod Woolf as president and CEO. Beerman, 47, was most recently chief business officer of Indevus Pharmaceuticals. The company said the leadership switch was part of a succession plan as it looks to advance into product development. Woolf will remain on the company’s scientific advisory board.

11/03/09

Flybridge Leads 10gen B Round

10gen, a New York-based startup developing the open-source database MongoDB, has raised $3.4 million in Series B venture backing from Boston’s Flybridge Capital Partners and returning investor Union Square Ventures, Flybridge said yesterday. MongoDB is similar to Google’s BigTable and is considered one of the leading examples of non-relational or “NoSQL” database, designed to be sliced up into many parts and implemented across a large computing grid. “We believe MongoDB has the ability to become the predominant platform for web application development,” said Flybridge general partner Chip Hazard in yesterday’s announcement.

EnvIO Releases iPhone App

Andover, MA-based envIO Networks has spent several years developing a recommendation technology called “Social Genome” that helps mobile phone owners find applications they’ll like based on the preferences of their friends and acquaintances. Today envIO introduced software called Chorus that applies the Social Genome technology to the 100,000-plus apps in the Apple iTunes App Store. Chorus, which is itself an iPhone app, lets users see which other apps their friends are using and how they’re rated. “iPhone users already ask friends and colleagues about cool, new apps. Chorus makes it simple,” Linda Barrabee, a former Yankee Media and Jupiter mobile analyst who is an advisor to envIO, said in a statement.

11/02/09

Harvard to Buy Wind Power

Boston, MA-based First Wind said today that Harvard University has contracted to purchase half of the power generated by its Stetson II wind project in Maine. First Wind is expected to break ground on the project, an extension of its existing wind farm in Stetson Hill near Danforth, ME, this month. The 15-year contract could supply Harvard’s Cambridge and Allston campuses, which consume nearly 250 million kilowatt-hours of electricity each year, with up to 10 percent of their power needs, the company said, making it the biggest wind-power consumer of any New England university or college.

Greylock Adds Reid Hoffman as Partner

Greylock Partners, a Silicon Valley venture firm formerly based in the Boston area, announced today it has hired Reid Hoffman, the co-founder and executive chairman of LinkedIn, as a partner. Hoffman, who has also been an angel investor, will focus on early-stage consumer Internet and software investments, as well as advise entrepreneurs from Greylock’s portfolio companies. Greylock also announced it has closed a new $575 million venture fund. The VC firm has previously backed companies like LinkedIn, Facebook, Data Domain, Farecast, and ZipCar.

GTC Raises $10M from LFB Biotech

Framingham, MA-based GTC Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ:GTCB) said it has raised $10 million through the sale of its shares to French biotech drug maker LFB Biotechnologies, a major shareholder in GTC. GTC chief executive Christian Béchon also revealed in a statement that the company planned to reduce expenses by $5 million to $6 million in 2010, focusing resources on its recombinant human antithrombin (ATryn) and Factor VIIa products. This morning a company spokesman declined to provide details on the actions GTC plans to take to reduce its expenses.

10/29/09

iRobot Lanches Healthcare Unit

IRobot (NASDAQ:IRBT), the Bedford, MA-based maker of robots such as the Roomba for vacuuming and the PackBot for the military, revealed today that it has created a healthcare unit to focus on developing robots that help seniors live independently in their homes. Technology veteran Tod Loofbourrow is heading the new healthcare unit as its president and will report directly to iRobot CEO Colin Angle, according to the company. Angle is expected to discuss the company’s healthcare strategy today at the TEDMED conference in San Diego.

Singapore Backs ScanScout in $8.5M B Round

ScanScout, a Boston-based provider of in-stream online video ads, said it has completed its $8.5 million Series B round of venture capital with an investment from EDB Investments, a firm that invests on behalf of the government of Singapore. ScanScout is also establishing an office in Singapore as part its expansion into the Asian market. The firm’s previous investors include General Catalyst Partners, Time Warner (NYSE:TWX), First Round Capital, and Baseline Ventures, according to its website.

10/28/09

$2.5M for CorNova

CorNova, a Burlington, MA-based developer of coronary stents with platinum surfaces, has raised $2.5 million of a proposed $6 million in equity financing, according to an SEC filing. The filing does not list the investors in the round, but peHUB writes that the firm’s previous investors include AdvanSource Biomaterials (formerly named CardioTech International) and Implant Sciences (AMEX:IMX), both of which are based in Wilmington, MA, as well as Siemens Venture Capital.

Interlace Gets FDA Clearance

Interlace Medical, a Framingham, MA-based developer of medical devices for gynecologists, said today that the FDA has granted the firm clearance to market its MyoSure device for removing fibroids and polyps from the uterus without requiring incisions. About 80 percent of women develop uterine fibroids in their lifetime, and the annual cost of treating them in the U.S. is more than $2 billion, according to Interlace. The firm said it was gearing up to commercialize the device in June when it announced the closing a $20.5 million Series C round of financing.

10/27/09

Polaris Venture Adds Google Vet

Polaris Venture Partners, which has its main office in Waltham, MA, has tapped former Google employee Jon Steinberg to be an executive in residence at the venture firm, VentureWire reports. VentureWire writes that Steinberg, a former strategic partner development manager at Google (NASDAQ:GOOG), will be based in the New York office of Polaris. Polaris also has an office in Seattle.

LaunchCapital Aims to Fill Lending Gap

LaunchCapital, a Cambridge, MA-based firm focused on early-stage financing, revealed today on its website that it has launched a lending option for small businesses. The firm plans to lend up to $150,000 to young businesses that are within six months of gaining revenue, and the deals would provide LaunchCapital with a small equity stake in the businesses rather than charging high interest rates to cover the risk of such loans, said Elon Boms, managing director of LaunchCapital. Boms writes about the gap in available financing that his firm seeks to fill with its new lending product.

Raytheon Pays $350M for BBN

Raytheon Company (NYSE:RTN) said yesterday that it has wrapped up its buyout of Cambridge, MA-based BBN Technologies for about $350 million. The amount of the purchase was not disclosed when the Waltham, MA-based provider of defense systems first announced the deal last month. Wade put the buyout in perspective and explained what BBN has meant to the development of the Internet and the Boston innovation scene over the past several decades.

10/26/09

Layoffs at GamerDNA

GamerDNA, the Cambridge, MA-based startup building an online community where avid gamers can find recommendations for new games, has cut its staff nearly in half, shrinking from 13 employees to seven, according to a story today in Mass High Tech. Jon Radoff, the company’s founder and CEO, confirmed the layoffs in an e-mail to Xconomy, but declined to discuss them further, saying he was “trying to focus more on the future than the tough decision we just had to make.” GamerDNA, formerly called GuildCafe, raised $3 million in Series A funding from Boston’s Flybridge Capital Partners in April 2008.

Axeda Adds $9M from JMI, MMV

Axeda, the Waltham, MA-based startup that makes a cloud-based system for wireless tracking of company assets, announced today that it has completed a $5 million Series B funding round led by JMI Equity of San Diego and Baltimore. At the same time, the company raised $4 million in venture debt from MMV Financial of Toronto.

American Well Goes to Well for $10M

American Well, the Boston-based company that provides a Web-based system in use by several large health plans to let their members consult with doctors over the Internet, has raised $10 million in new equity funding, according to a regulatory filing today. The documents don’t name the funders in the round, continuing the company’s track record of secrecy around the amount of financing it’s raised and the identities of its investors.

Bezos, Spark Invest $7M in Aviary

Boston-based Spark Capital has led a $7 million Series B investment in Aviary, a creative design software startup based in Long Island, NY. Bezos Expeditions, the Seattle-based investment firm of Jeff Bezos from Amazon, participated in the round as an existing investor. Aviary makes cloud-based software for graphic design, audio editing, and other digital creation services. As part of the deal, Mo Koyfman of Spark Capital is joining Aviary’s board.