Nth Cycle is developing a new process called “electro-extraction” to separate and extract rare minerals from solid waste or used batteries.
Gary Higgins / Boston Business Journal
It was a slower month in the world of venture capital funding in April. By our count, Boston startups raised around $368.4 million this month. That’s down from $904.5 million in March. Much of the drop was driven by a lower amount of funding flowing to Boston-area biotechs, which raised just over $100 million in April compared to more than $500 million last month. We’ll be watching for more startups to emerge flush with cash in May. In April, there were several fundraises worth noting, including new capital for several emerging fintech and healthtech companies.
Read about out all the deals, including links to our coverage or to the company’s announcements:
Biotech
- Vedanta Biosciences Inc., a company founded by Boston-based PureTech Health plc in 2010, brought in $106.5 million in venture capital to launch two mid- and late-stage studies for its microbiome therapeutics for gastrointestinal disorders.
Fintech
- Cambridge-based Insurify Inc. raised $22.4 million and plans to make more acquisitions to expand and diversify its insurtech product.
- Serial founder Greg Woolf is tackling digital identity fraud with his latest startup, FiVerity, as banks and credit unions continue to grow their online presence and digital services and as new advances in areas like AI provide fraudsters with more ways to commit financial crimes. The Boston-based company announced a $4 million seed financing round, led by Mendon Venture Partners.
- Boston-based Portrait Analytics, developers of a generative AI research platform for investment analysts, raised $3 million in pre-seed funding. The financing was led by .406 Ventures.
Robotics
- Veo Robotics in Waltham announced newly closed funding from the Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund, Safar Partners and Yamaha Motor Ventures for a total of $14 million. The full investment round including earlier closings totals $29 million.
Software
- Consensus, a search engine designed for scientific research, announced that it raised $3 million in new seed funding from several big-name investors. Its new capital is led by Draper Associates, a seed-stage venture capital firm founded in 1985. The firm’s previous seed-stage investments include companies like Tesla, SpaceX, Skype, Baidu, Twitch and Hotmail.
- Customers.ai announced the close of a $4.99 million Series A funding round led by ScOp Venture Capital with participation from New York Angels and Beyond Angels. Customers.ai helps companies search and directly connect with potential customers based on demographic information, such as the causes they support, their household income or their religion.
Cleantech
- Nth Cycle began raising venture funding for a $50 million round, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The filing notes that the company has already raised about $20 million from 12 investors toward its goal amount.
Healthtech
- Boston-based 1upHealth announced a $40 million Series C investment led by Sixth Street Growth.
- After raising over $15 million in a Series A, Gather Health opened its first primary care practice in Quincy for older adults.
- Healthcare analytics startup Arcadia secured $125 million for more acquisitions.
- ClinOne Inc., a software platform for patients, caregivers and sites participating in clinical trials, raised $10.5 million as part of an offering worth just over $12.3 million.
Funds
- Polaris Partners has raised approximately $355 million from 92 investors for its tenth fund.
- Solum Partners closed its second fund with $850 million in capital commitments. The investment management firm focused on the food and agriculture industry is based in Boston.
- Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. is putting another $100 million to diverse and overlooked companies.
- Boston-based .406 Ventures raised over $244 million towards its latest fund.
- Three longtime biotech venture capitalists joined together to form Cure Ventures. The team said they’ve already raised a $350 million inaugural fund and began deploying to six startups.
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