August was a busy month for Boston startups that were fundraising during the peak of summer. Make hay while the sun shines, right?
As usual, there were a few big rounds: Waltham-based data management firm Actifio raised $100 million at a valuation of $1.3 billion. North Reading, Mass.-based TraceLink, which makes software to help pharmaceutical companies track down counterfeit versions of their drugs, has raised $93 million and Renovia, a company dedicated to discovering and delivering digital therapeutic and diagnostic devices for women with pelvic floor disorders, raised $42.3 million. And Salsify, a Boston-based product content management platform for retail brands, announced that it has raised a $43 million in a Series D round led by Greenspring Associates.
These were the biggest funding rounds for startups. August was eventful for VCs to fundraise too: Flare Capital, which invests in early-stage and emerging healthcare technology companies, is looking to raise $200 million for its second fund, early-stage fintech fund Vestigo Ventures completed raising its Fund I with $58.9 million. Polaris Partners, which manages funds in healthcare and technology and has offices in Boston and San Francisco, announced its first and final close for Polaris Growth Fund I, a fund worth $175 million and Boston said hello to the new cryptocurrency & blockchain fund -- Co-founder and partner Matt Walsh's Castle Island Ventures has raised $30 million for its first venture capital fund.
FYI, we cover startup funding news in the BostInno Beat newsletter every weekday. Stay on top of who’s getting funded by signing up right here. See you in the inbox.
Listed below are other startups that raised money in August.
• Appcues, a Boston-based user onboarding software company, raised a $10 million Series A round led by Sierra Ventures. Accomplice Ventures also participated in the round along with several notable angels. Here’s the full list.
• BabelBark, a Newton, Mass.-based developer of software products for veterinary practices, raised $4.5 million in Series A funding.
• Metal 3D printing startup, Digital Alloys raised $12.9 million in a Series B round led by G20 Ventures and joined by Boeing HorizonX Ventures, Lincoln Electric, and prior investor Khosla Ventures.
• Edmit, a provider of an online, broker-like platform that helps high school students and their families get the best possible financial deal for college, raised a total of $2.3 million in seed and pre-seed funding. “This round should give us two years of runway, at least,” Nick Ducoff, co-founder and CEO of Edmit, told me. During this period, Ducoff added that he and Edmit co-founder Sabrina Manville will focus on long-term investments, including product development, product market fit and strategic hires
• Formlabs, a designer and manufacturer of 3D printing systems headquartered in Somerville raised $15 million in funding from venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates.
• Inari Agriculture Inc., a Cambridge-based agtech startup that wants to craft “personalized seeds” for farmers, raised $40M in Series B funding, bringing its total funding to $55 million.
• E-commerce personalization startup Infinite Analytics raised $4.5 million, according to a Form D. Its product, Infinite Search, provides personalized search results to visitors, enabling product discovery and conversion.
• Kebotix, a Cambridge-based materials discovery company that’s still in stealth, raised over $5 million of seed finance from investors led by Boston-based One Way Ventures. The company was founded late last year by a group of Harvard University scientists.
• MeQuilibrium, a startup that uses behavioral psychology and neuroscience to provide online stress management solutions for employees, raised $7 million in a Series C round led by HLM Venture Partners of Boston with participation from current investors Chrysalis Ventures and Safeguard Scientifics.
• Five Microsoft Scholarships for Civic Innovation, which identify and support startups that help public officials deliver improved services to private citizens and enhance government effectiveness, were awarded to MassChallenge teams. Abridge News, Inkrypt, Zoba, Pilleve and Means Database took home $5,000 each.
• Qeepsake (pronounced as “Keep-sake”), a Waltham-based SMS service that helps customers build a journal of memories of their kids, raised $500,000 in an equity round.
• Boston-based RateGravity, a startup that provides an automated service for matching homebuyers with low-interest mortgages, raised just under $1.45 million in a funding round.
• Cambridge-based biotechnology company, RootPath, that develops personalized T cell therapy platform to bridge precision medicine and cancer immunotherapy, announced a $7 million seed funding round led by Sequoia China with participation from Volcanics Venture, BV (Baidu Ventures) and Nest.Bio Ventures.
• WordPress parent company Automattic has made an investment in Boston-based podcast platform RadioPublic, AllAccess reported.
• Cambridge-based Vecna Robotics, which was founded in 1998 by a consortium of MIT engineers, raised $13.5 million in an equity round.
• Somerville-based WaveSense raised $3 million in a seed round led by Rhapsody Venture Partners. The startup just came out of stealth mode and is running pilots with global players in the automotive and technology sectors.
• Email productivity startup Yesware raised $15 million from top investors and CEO Matthew Bellows stepped down.
