Morning view of Roger Williams statue overlooking downcity Providence, Rhode Island. Photo Credit:
kickstand, Getty Images
Kenneth C. Zirkel
At the end of every month, we recap the biggest tech and startup happenings in Rhode Island. We have an archive of past roundups here. To get this info weekly (Tuesday afternoons, to be exact), sign up for the Rhode Island Inno Beat newsletter.
Let’s take a look.
- Hasbro has entered a definitive agreement to acquire the London-based company Entertainment One in an all-cash transaction valued at $4 billion.
- Global wind turbine maintenance company Boston Energy will make the Cambridge Innovation Center its center of U.S. operations, Commerce Rhode Island announced in a statement. The move will create more than 50 jobs in Rhode Island.
- Jeffrey Grybowski announced he would step down as co-CEO of Ørsted U.S. Offshore Wind, the Providence Journal reports.
- GoPeer, a platform designed to connect high school students with local, college-age tutors, closed an oversubscribed $265,000 funding round. Participants include Deborah Quazzo, managing partner at San Francisco-based GSV AcceleraTE and Slater Technology Fund.
- The Slater Technology Fund, the most active investor of its kind in Rhode Island, announced it would invest $250,000 in Ocean State-based laundry-as-a-service company HappyNest.
- RI Bio, the 2011-born group that works to coalesce the life science industry throughout southeastern New England, announced that its new Entrepreneur in Residence will be John “Jay” Round, Newportri.com reports.
- Venture Café, a global nonprofit whose mission is to broaden, connect and support the innovation community through a public network of spaces and programs, has officially launched in Providence.
- Rhode Island-based Nuts ‘N More, which was featured on popular pitch show “Shark Tank” in 2013, was named shark Mark Cuban’s second-best investment made on the show, Inc. Magazine reported. In a story by GoLocalProv, it indicates that the company received an initial investment of $250,000 for 35 percent from Cuban and Robert Herjavec when its sales were $100,000. Since then, its sales have exceeded $30 million.
- Sprout CoWorking hosted the Rhode Island Inno event Women in Inno to honor women in innovation in the Ocean State and discuss issues involving women and technology.
- Pangea, a Brown University-launched startup that creates a P2P marketplace for college students looking for side hustles and jobs, detailed its plans to pivot to RI Inno.
