March was an incredible month for tech startup funding, with both Cambridge-based biotech company Rubius Therapeutics and Boston-based recruiting marketplace Scout Exchange raising $100 million each.
Beyond Rubius and Scout Exchange, other startups that raised large rounds this month include Desktop Metal ($65 million), Finally Light Bulb Company ($50 million) and WHOOP ($25 million).
Also, this past month we discovered that the total for the Series C round of True Fit is a little more than the $55 million announced in January: almost $58.6 million, according to a SEC document.
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Here are 23 Boston startups that raised money this month:
• Apifia, which also operates under the name Mavrck, raised almost $2.7 million in an equity offering, according to a new Form D.
• Aveta Biomics, a Bedford-based biotech company that is designing drugs to modulate up and downstream targets in a disease network, raised $1.1 million in an equity offering, according to a new Form D.
• The Cambridge Innovation Center (aka CIC) has raised $58 million from European real estate developer HB Reavis. The co-working campuses started in Kendall Square and are also in St. Louis, Boston, Miami, Netherlands, and Poland (in 2020), according to BBJ.
• Common Sensing, a Cambridge-based smart health technology manufacturer, raised over $6.6 million in an equity and option offering, according to a new Form D.
• Desktop Metal, a 3D printing company based in Burlington, Mass., raised $65 million from Ford Motor Company and Future Fund, bringing its total fundraising efforts to $277 million. Other investors include: BMW, Kleiner Perkins, Lux Capital, Bolt, Founder Collective, GE and GV (formerly Google Ventures).
• Finally Light Bulb Company, a Boston-based company that sells a new type of light bulb based on technology invented by Nikola Tesla, has raised a $50 million Series D round of financing, bringing its total funding to $93 million. The Series D round was led by Brian Kelley, a partner at private equity firm Lindsay Goldberg and former president of Coca-Cola Refreshments and a former CEO of Keurig Green Mountain.
Finally Light Bulb Closes $50M Series D Round to Support R&D, Expand Retail Network
• Flipside Crypto, a nine-month-old cryptocurrency investment service based in the South Station area, closed a $3.4 million equity financing round. The venture capital round, which CEO Dave Balter qualified as of seed stage, was led by True Ventures. The Chernin Group, Resolute Ventures, Boston Seed Capital, Converge and Founder Collective also took part in the round.
Flipside Crypto Closes $3.4M Seed Round to Predict Successful Crypto Investments With Data Science
• invisaWear, a Lowell, Mass.-based startup selling jewelry that works as disguised alarm system, raised a little over $36,000 in an ongoing Indiegogo campaign.
How a Recent UMass Graduate Invented a Discreet Alarm System Embedded in Jewelry
• Boston-based nonprofit organization Jumpstart announced it received its largest gift in its history: a $5 million gift over the next 10 years from Rob Waldron, CEO of Curriculum Associates, and his wife Jennifer, BBJ reported.
• LearnLux, founded by the sibling duo Rebecca and Michael Liebman, won the PerfectPitch competition at SXSW and received $400,000 in investments – $200,000 from Sound Ventures and another $200,000 from Marc Benioff, Mr. Salesforce himself.
• Cambridge-based software company Luminoso Technologies, one of nine artificial intelligence startups to watch in Boston, raised more than $11.8 million in an equity offering, according to a Form D filed with the SEC.
• MindChild Medical, a privately funded medical device company based in North Andover, Mass., raised $210,000 in a debt offering, according to a new Form D.
• Nift, a neighborhood gift card that has a code which unlocks a localized gift, has raised $16.5 million from Spark Capital, Foundry Group and Accomplice to give power back to small retailers.
• PreVeil, a Boston-based startup – one of BostInno’s cybersecurity startup to watch – that allows professionals with no tech knowledge to send secure, encrypted emails, has announced an undisclosed Series A investment from Spark Capital. This is the first outside investment in PreVeil; two of its founders, serial tech entrepreneurs Sanjeev Verma and Randy Battat, were the seed round investors.
• ReviveMed, a startup that completed the MIT “delta v” program last summer, filed another Form D that says that the company raised almost $1.2 million in an equity offering.
• Rubius Therapeutics raised $100 million from unnamed investors, according to BBJ. They also raised $120 million in June 2017, which was led by Flagship Pioneering. Rubius aims to cure cancer and other diseases by using genetically-engineered red blood cells.
• Scout Exchange, a recruiting software and marketplace, has raised $100 million from TRI Ventures. TRI is John Chuang’s investment firm that manages his fortune from founding Aquent, which is one of the world’s largest creative staffing agencies.
• Sleepbox has raised $250,000, according to an SEC filing. You can see Sleepbox’s little sleep sanctuaries here from our Office Envy Series.
• Sundots, a Cambridge-based startup co-founded by Chris Tolles and Emilia Javorsky, raised almost $97,000 in an Indiegogo campaign. Based in Harvard Square, the two-people company is commercializing a gummy for sun protection.
• Waltham-based Triib raised $1.2 million in an equity offering, according to a new Form D. The company is a provider of gym management software.
• True Fit, the data-driven personalization platform for apparel and footwear, announced in January the completion of a $55 million Series C round of financing. A new Form D filed with the SEC shows that the total for this round is a little more: almost $58.6 million, according to the document.
• Truelytics, a Wellesley, Mass.-based business intelligence platform for financial advisors, has raised almost $3 million in an equity, option and other right to acquire round, according to a new Form D.
• WHOOP, the Boston-based maker of the eponymous $500 wearable device that measures body strain, announced the completion of a $25 million Series C round of financing that included participation from a long list of backers and individual investors. The round was led by UAE71 Capital with participation from the National Football League Players Association and existing investors including Accomplice. Individual participants included David Stern, NBA commissioner emeritus and Jack Dorsey, co-founder and CEO of Twitter.
WHOOP Raises $25M from Multiple Backers—Including Twitter’s Jack Dorsey
