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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.
- Providence-based NowRenting, a web-based software platform that automates the entire rental process for landlords, leasing agents and tenants, has been acquired by a San Francisco-based apartment search company called Zumper.
- Cranston-based jewelry startup Luca + Danni closed a growth capital funding round of $6.2 million. Ross-Simons, also of Cranston and marketed as “America’s favorite jeweler,” was the majority investor, with Boston-based VC fund PJC retaining a stake in the company.
- The state launched an online sports betting app last week, dubbed Sportsbook Rhode Island, the Providence Journal reports. The move allows users to bet from “anywhere in Rhode Island on a phone or computer.” However, participants must go to Twin River Casino with a photo ID to activate their accounts first.
- Cox Communications has announced the finalists for its #GetStartedRI pitch event. Interested entrepreneurs apply for the competition. If chosen, they will have the opportunity to share their company and vision in front of a panel of judges during the main event. Winners will receive a prize package worth more than $50,000. Finalists include Biotica Bio, Furrfighters, NeQter, Tank Vision and Uproot.
- Spanish management and business analytics provider MAPAL Software received an investment from Providence Strategic Growth, Axios’ Pro Rata newsletter reports. Terms of the deal were not disclosed
- Rhody Inno announced its 2019 Under 25 list to celebrate some of the top young entrepreneurs in the state. The innovators on our list are from all over Rhode Island, tackling a host of unique problems in different industries and companies. All are doing the kind of work that both bolsters the Rhody tech and startup ecosystem and has the potential to impact the whole world..
- The Social Enterprise Greenhouse has unveiled the 12 participants in its Health & Wellness Accelerator, which represent health-focused social ventures from both Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
- A new study shows Rhode Island’s greenhouse-gas emissions are 45 percent higher than expected, ecoRI reports. The study also outlines a path to statewide decarbonization, showing that emissions can be reduced by as much as 80 percent during the next 10 to 20 years.
- The Lincoln-based William M. Davies Jr. Career & Technical High School has unveiled a nearly 8,000 square foot advanced manufacturing center and renovated bio-manufacturing technology lab, the Providence Journal reports.
- A team of researchers from Brown University and Dartmouth College have received a $4 million grant from the National Science Foundation. They will use the grant to better understand the quantum technologies and the materials and the exotic quantum states that make these technologies possible.
