MIT Announces 'The Engine,' a $150M Venture Fund & AcceleratorMIT President Rafael Reif announced Wednesday night that the Institute will launch The Engine, a new accelerator program with a planned $150 million venture fund to support startups innovating in the science and technology spaces, providing them with funding, space and a network of expertise. Tech industry leaders from GE to VCs made it clear they view this upcoming accelerator: as a prime opportunity to retain our local tech talent. [ BostInno ] Sexism in Silicon Valley is bad, but it may be even worse in HollywoodThere was a time when tech PR maven Brooke Hammerling felt she had to grin and bear it when someone mistreated her or one of her female co-workers. “We’re much less tolerant of that now than we were, even ten years ago,” Hammerling recalled on the latest episode of Recode Media with Peter Kafka. “Ten years ago, there were clients and press that would call me ‘baby,’ that would say, ‘Come over here, sit next to me, sweetheart.’ I probably laughed it off even though there was this anger inside of me, or embarrassment.” “I hope the next generation, the women who have come through my doors, are learning that that’s not acceptable,” she added. “I can come in and be a mean mama bear.” [ Recode ] Soylent is halting sales of its meal-replacement powder because it has made people sickSoylent is halting sales of its famous meal-replacement powder because it has made some users sick. The buzzy US startup announced in a blog post on Thursday it is stopping sales of the powder, designed to be mixed with water and drunk instead of eating solid food, because a "handful of consumers" have fallen ill after consuming it. [ Business Insider ] Audrey Gelman needed a place to work when she was on the go and loved the idea of a supportive women's-only zone. So she launched The Wing. With her birthday festivities in mind, the native New Yorker decided to launch The Wing, a women’s space that is part social club, part coworking studio, and part beauty salon (they offer blowouts). The pink-accented offices are tucked into a loft space in the Flatiron district of New York. [ Fast Company ] Refinery29's Christene Barberich: Don't Let Indecision Be Your DownfallChristene Barberich, co-founder of Refinery29, describes the moment she realized she wouldn't walk away from her company. [ Inc. ] LATEST FUNDING Wochit, which helps publishers make lots of videos, really fast, raised $13 millionDigital publishers have seen the future, and it is video. Mark Zuckerberg says so. But videos aren’t tweets or pictures of your kids: Someone has to create them, and that takes time. Enter Wochit, a startup that helps publishers speed things up via software that can create videos with minimal human intervention. Wochit says its service allows more than 350 clients, including Time Inc, USA Today and Tronc (Tronc!), to produce 1,200 videos a day. [ Recode ] Russia’s Busfor raises $20M to wrap up bus ticketing across Eastern Europe and AsiaWhile Uber and others fight over private car transportation, there remains an elephant in the room which has simply not been disrupted yet and which actually carries far more people on the planet: Buses.You may laugh at the idea, but we are not talking about creating an “Uber
for buses” here. The complication for passengers is not the bus coming to you, but the ability to travel farther than most disconnected bus companies will allow. Sorting out the hell of a medium, or even long-distance journey by bus would drive most people mad. Time tables are unconnected, as are ticketing platforms and, of course, prices. Perhaps this is why Berlin startup GoEuro has raised $146 million to create a multi-mode search tool that compares and combines rail, air, bus and car for European destinations. Jeff Bezos, Mayo Clinic back anti-aging startup Unity Biotechnology for $116 million Every once in a while someone in Silicon Valley brings up the possibility of living forever, or at least a really long time, but first we’re going to need to figure out a way to enjoy all those extra years. Unity Biotechnology is a startup focusing on medicines to help us do that by slowing the effects of age-related diseases. And the company announced it has pulled in a whopping $116 million in Series B financing today — some of which came from Amazon’s Jeff Bezos. [ Tech Crunch ] ForeverCar just landed a $10M Series AToday, Chicago-based ForeverCar.com — a marketplace to help users shop and compare vehicle protection and warranty products — announced the close of a $10 million Series A. The round was led by CMFG Ventures, with additional participation from Chicago’s KDWC Ventures and SAP Fieldglass founder Jai Shekhawat, among other returning investors. According to a company statement, the round will be used in part to fuel efforts in future innovation, but also to expand its current reach among credit unions, banks, auto insurers and dealers across the country. [ Built in Chicago ] India’s electric bike startup just raised $31m from two-wheeler giant Hero Ather Energy, India’s potential two-wheeled answer to Tesla, is raising US$31 million in fresh funds from two-wheeler king Hero MotoCorp, the world’s largest seller of motorcycles and scooters, the companies said on Thursday.Hero will get to own as much as 30 percent in the Bangalore-based startup through the investment. The money is to come in tranches, and Ather has received about US$27 million of the entire amount so far. [ Tech in Asia ] Perkbox, an employee engagement platform, picks up £2.5M backing from Draper Esprit Perkbox, a U.K. startup that offers an employee engagement platform to help companies retain employees (and customers), has picked up £2.5 million in backing from publicly listed European VC Draper Esprit. The new round — its first since it raised a very modest £350,000 five years ago and before several pivots — comes at the same time as the company’s equity crowdfunding campaign, which launched this week. [ Tech Crunch ] Bonesupport raises $37 mlnBonesupport AB said Oct. 27 that it raised $37 million in equity and debt funding led by Tellacq AB. Other investors included current shareholders such as HealthCap, Lundbeckfond Ventures, Industrifonden, AP3 (The Third Swedish National Pension Fund) and Carl Westin. The debt finance was provided by Kreos Capital. Bonesupport, of Lund, Sweden, provides products to treat patients with fractures and bone voids caused by trauma, infection, disease or related surgery. [ PE Hub ] Cloudian passes begging bowl round VCs to net $41m for object storage dev poolCloudian, the S3-or-bust object storage software startup, has passed a VC begging bowl around and raised $41m in a D-round of funding. Total funding is now, Cloudian says, $79m, and the cash is going to be used for software engineering, expanding sales and marketing, and building out its international operations. [ The Register ] China's Advantech Capital Partners Ltd. has led a US$65 million series B funding round in a two-year-old Chinese robotic start-up Rokid at a US$450 million valuation. Existing investor IDG Capital Partners and new investor Walden International also participated in the round. Founded in 2014 by Misa, formerly the head of Alibaba's advanced technology research unit M-Team, Rokid is developing a family service robot shaped as a drop of water. [ China Money Network ] Goldman Sachs joins $10m nanoPay funding roundNanoPay, a Canadian payments outfit which now owns the MintChip cloud-based digital currency, has raised $10 million in a Series A funding round joined by Goldman Sachs. Goldman's merchant banking division was joined in the round by APAGM Services, Jarnac Capital Management and Rohatton. MintChip was developed by the Royal Canadian Mint, promising to bring the benefits of cash into the digital age, providing users with instant, private, secure, and fee-free access to their money. [ Finextra ] BrainCheck raises $3 million for app to monitor brain healthA Houston-based startup called BrainCheck has raised $3 million in seed funding for an app that helps users understand, by simply playing some games on an iPad, if they or a loved one may have suffered a concussion. Founded in 2014 by Dr. David Eagleman, a neuroscientist at Baylor College of Medicine, BrainCheck adapts to an interactive format the accepted assessments that neuropsychologists and neurologists administer to patients offline. [ Tech Crunch ] LATEST EXITS General Electric Pursues Deal With Baker Hughes General Electric Co. is in talks to merge its oil-and-gas business with Baker Hughes Inc.,according to people familiar with the matter, a transaction that would dramatically reshape the industrial giant. GE has approached the oil-field-services company about a deal, the people said, but details of the talks couldn’t be learned and they could break down before an agreement is reached. [ WSJ ] Hearst Acquires Aviation Software CompanyHearst said on Wednesday that it is acquiring aviation software firm Camp Systems, in a deal that will boost the storied media firm’s investments in the transportation sector. The value of the deal was not disclosed. Sources familiar with the matter said the deal valued the company at roughly $2 billion, including debt. [ Fortune ] Qualcomm to Buy NXP Semiconductors for $39 BillionQualcomm Inc.’s agreement to pay $39 billion for the world’s largest developer of chips for automobiles represents a huge bet on cars becoming the next smartphone—a way to roll together communications and services once handled by dozens of other devices. San Diego-based Qualcomm isn’t the first tech company to eye the automotive industry for expansion, and the jury is still out on whether the deal will help make cars smarter and safer. But it shows the degree to which interest in turning cars into digital-technology showcases have cast a gold rush-like spell over chip-makers, software developers and venture-backed startups. [ WSJ ] FUND RAISED Freeport closes $518 mln for latest fund Freeport Financial Partners LLC, a middle-market direct lending manager, has raised $518 million for its third fund. The limited partners of Freeport First Lien Loan Fund III included public and private pension plans, insurance companies, endowments and foundations in North America and Europe. Fund III will invest in senior-secured first lien, floating rate loans to private equity-owned U.S. middle market companies that have revenues between $25 million and $100 million. FIRSTavenue served as the fund’s placement agent. [ PE Hub ] Underscore.VC's First Fund Is Actually $85M & Here's How They Structured IUnderscore.VC targeted $75 million for its first fund,
but now is set to announce the fund is closed at an oversubscribed figure of $85 million. And, according to Underscore, this is only the first of "many funds over a lifetime." Founded in 2015 as Assemble.VC, Underscore is a Boston-based seed-to-A firm focusing on investments in cloud intelligence. Michael Skok and John Pearce, co-founders and partners at Underscore.VC alongside C.A. Webb, told us they have a "multigenerational" vision for Underscore.VC. Younger associates at the firm joined the general partners in meeting with limited partners during fundraising, Pearce said--which could help Underscore avoid the generational shift that doomed Skok's prior firm, North Bridge, and firms that came before it. [ bostinno.streetwise.co ] Curated by Venture Pulse Team. Find us on : [ Venturepulse.org, CrunchBase, AngelList ] |