Rowan: Hey, folks — I'm back! Many thanks to Lucy and Gin for filling in for me. Both of them will be back on the Beat in the coming weeks, too.

 

O.K. Let's roll.

Rowan: One year ago, geneticist Stephen Elledge was hard at work trying to figure out how to use his genetic sequencing platform to target SARS-CoV-2. A decorated professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital, Elledge's strategy was to take high-throughput genetic approaches to target specific antibodies.

 

As the coronavirus pandemic gripped the U.S., Elledge, working with Tomasz Kula of Harvard and Brigham and Women's and H. Benjamin Larman of Johns Hopkins University, alongside a slew of other researchers, spent the spring modifying a machine-learning model so it could accurately classify Covid-19 patients and detect related antibodies. Their results, the scientists wrote in November when the research was published in Science, could proved "a stepping stone" to use those antibodies in the treatment of Covid-19.

 

Meanwhile, Boston-based life sciences venture capital firm the Longwood Fund was playing a longer game. Principal Lea Hachigian and her team wanted to get the technology out of the lab and into hospitals — and develop it for uses beyond the coronavirus.

 

"When we saw [Elledge] take the system, modify it quickly to look at Covid and then get this amazing wealth of data within a couple of months, we were sold, at that point, that hey, this is a really powerful tool and can be directed immediately toward other diseases," Hachigian said. "If it can do this with SARS-CoV-2, think of the other diseases."

 

Hachigian and her team launched ImmuneID in 2020 using Elledge's technology. (The two had worked together previously on the launch of TScan Therapeutics, a Waltham-based cancer drug developer that raised a $100M Series C round just last month.) Hachigian now heads up the startup as CEO, and on Wednesday, the company officially emerged from stealth with $17M in seed funding.

 

Read more: Longwood Fund-backed precision immunology startup launches with $17M

• Boston-based Sontiq acquired Arizona cybersecurity firm Cyberscout for an undisclosed amount.

 

• Boston-based IP solutions provider Anaqua acquired Hawaiian global IP cost-estimating software provider Quantify IP. No financial terms were disclosed.

 

• Desktop Metal completed its $300M acquisition of EnvisionTEC, a provider of volume production photopolymer 3D printing solutions for end-use parts.

 

• binx health partnered with McKesson for the sale and distribution of the binx io point-of-care disease testing platform in the U.S. The platform provides results in about 30 minutes.

 

• Cloud storage provider Nasuni announced a partnership with Google Cloud. (FYI, Nasuni's office is pretty cool.)

• Tripadvisor – B2B Product Marketing Specialist
• The RepTrak Company – Systems Engineer
• Nexthink – Full Stack Engineer
• act2financial – Software Engineer

• Meet the MassChallenge startup reimagining financial planning — BostInno
• Taxie wants to make the ride-sharing industry environmentally sustainable — BostInno
• Cancer biotech Cyteir raises $80M, plans to double headcount this year — BostInno
• New York Sues Amazon, Saying It Inadequately Protected Workers From Covid-19 — New York Times

• Denver's Capitan wants to make it easier to manage a climbing gym — Colorado Inno

• Startup raises $25M as it tries to give homebuyers an edge — Atlanta Inno

• Omnia Fishing raises $2.1M in venture capital — Minne Inno

Lucy: On the heels of a $150M new round of funding, a local robotics company has become the latest Massachusetts tech business to hit "unicorn" status with a $1B valuation.

 

Wilmington-based Locus Robotics announced on Wednesday it raised $150M in a round led by Tiger Global Management and Bond. Existing investors Scale Venture Partners and Prologis Ventures, the venture capital arm of Prologis, participated in the Series E round.

 

In an interview with the Business Journal, Locus Robotics CEO Rick Faulk said that the company is the first robotics company ever in Massachusetts to become a unicorn.

 

"It feels very exciting," Faulk said.

 

Read more: With $150M investment, Locus Robotics hits unicorn status, plans hiring spree

 

 

Gin: Privately held software company OutSystems, which has offices in Boston, says it’s valued at $9.5B after a $150M capital raise. The round was led by Abdiel Capital and Tiger Global.

 

The company plans to funnel the money toward research and development and its sales strategy.

 

OutSystems focuses on “scalable, adaptable” software with little coding, using a combination of visual design and automation to aid the process of building mobile and web-based applications.

 

Read more: Software company OutSystems claims $9.5B valuation

 

 

• Higher ed-focused AI chatbot developer AdmitHub secured $14M in Series B funding led by Rethink Education with participation from ECMC Group's Education Impact Fund and Kresge Foundation's impact investment fund.

 

• Immunotherapy startup Elicio Therapeutics closed a $73M Series B round. The company did not disclose investors.

• Catalant hired Carina Hatfield as head of software product and Bill Bing as SVP of finance. The Boston-based software company also promoted Jake Simpson to chief revenue officer.

 

• Maynard-based B2B sales software provider Kaon Interactive promoted John Heffernan to COO.

• DEADLINE ALERT: Today is the last day to apply for the Cybersecurity Mentorship Program hosted by the MassCyberCenter at the MassTech Collaborative. The program pairs diverse college students from across the Commonwealth with mentors from the state’s cybersecurity sector. Learn more and apply here.

 

• And ANOTHER deadline alert: Today is the last day for BIPOC founders to be considered for three new programs from the MIT Enterprise Forum Cambridge: the Start Smart Seminar that begins on Feb. 22, the spring 2021 Mentor Program cohort and the June 2021 Startup Spotlight. Applications for the next cohort will open soon.

 

• Nominations for BostInno's 2021 Tech Madness competition are closing soon. Submit your startup for a chance to participate in this year's bracket. You have until Friday, Feb. 19.

 

• MassVentures opened its funding cycle for the Small Business Innovation Research Targeted Technologies (START) grant program. START helps entrepreneurs transfer their research into businesses. More here.

 

• Applications are open for the six-week Massachusetts Covid-19 Connect Tech Innovation Challenge accelerator. Connect Tech innovations developed will enhance resiliency against future disruptions in industries including e-commerce, manufacturing, digital health, fintech and edtech. Learn more and apply by Feb. 19.

Rowan: We're just over 24 hours away from the next Mars rover landing (if all goes well). NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is ready to attempt to land the agency’s fifth rover on the Red Planet, this time with the goal of gleaning whether there was ever life there.

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Meet the Author:

Rowan Walrath: rwalrath@americaninno.com