A plaza in downtown Providence.
Grant Welker
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.
- The Providence-based private equity firm Nautic Partners acquired Aurora Plastics, an Ohio-based producer of polyvinyl chloride and other customized polymer compounds. No financial terms were disclosed.
- The U.S. Department of Defense announced that Raytheon Missiles and Defense in Portsmouth was awarded a cumulative $9.5 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for its “science and technology research for the SSBN Security Technology Program.”
- Textile firm Propel LLC was awarded a Phase III contract to design, build, and prototype an improved "damage control duit," a line of protective gear for emergency responders combating steam line leaks onboard submarines.
- Warwick-based Vertspec, a startup behind software that optimizes and automates drone flight paths, raised $75,000 in equity and debt in a $2 million funding round, according to an SEC filing.
- Middletown's KVH Industries, Inc. received a $7.9M fiber optic gyro order from Escribano, a Spanish defense contractor, for its new Guardian 30 remotely controlled turret, according to a press release.
- The RI Gives Vax Challenge awarded grant funding to CartwheelRI, a grocery delivery nonprofit that delivers fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as wholesale goods such as dried beans, rice, coconut milk and more, to anyone in Providence.
- The Providence Business Journal reports that researchers at Miriam Hospital are seeking local participants to join a new national study trying to determine if the Moderna vaccine stops the spread of Covid-19.
- The National Institute of General Medical Sciences infused $19.9M into Brown University to support translational biomedical research, according to a press release.
- Nine Rhode Island-based companies made this year's Inc. 5000 list, the financial magazine's annual ranking of the fastest-growing privately held companies in the country. Meet them here.
- BlueSwell, New England's first incubator dedicated to early-stage bluetech startups, hired Katherine Woolford as a new program manager — and she wants to position the region as a leader in the ocean economy.
