Did you know that tomorrow marks the 44th anniversary of the Moon landing? That’s right, Apollo 11 landed on the Moon on July 20th, 1969, and Neil Armstrong made history when he became the first person to step onto the lunar surface. We’ve come a long way since then in regards to innovation. In fact, it’s hard to believe that this major milestone was marked only 44 years ago. In celebration, we thought it would be fun to focus on innovation in Boston—you know, since that’s kind of what we do here at BostInno—and ask the folks behind some of Boston’s most active venture capital organizations about the milestones experienced by the VC community over the past year. The feedback was, well, out of this world.
Here are 44 major milestones in Boston-area venture capital over the past year, in no particular order:
- “Massachusetts venture firms raised $1.88 billion collectively during the [first quarter of 2013], or almost half of [the $4.1 billion in investments to venture firms nationwide] since the beginning of the year,” according to Thomson Reuters and the National Venture Capital Association. — The Boston Globe
- Atlas Venture and Polaris Partners led local VC firms supporting startup activity for the first half of 2013.
- Battery Ventures, with Austin Ventures and the Vallery Fund, announced the OpenIncubate accelerator.
- Highland Capital accepted nine teams into its sixth annual Summer@Highland program.
- Battery Ventures closed $900 million in two new funds.
- The closing of Spark Capital’s $450 million fund.
- The closing of Third Rock Ventures’ $516 million round—the largest to date.
- New England Venture Capital Association (NEVCA) membership climbed from 68 to 90 member firms.
- The closing of Atlas’ $265 million ninth fund.
- The closing of Matrix Partners’ $450 million tenth fund.
- Five VCs from Boston-area firms were named to Forbes’ Midas List.
- The addition of Chris Lynch, described as “peerless and a force of nature,” to the Atlas team. — Jeff Fagnan, Atlas Venture
- The promotion of Kent Bennett, who heads up Bessemer Venture Partners’ data science practice in Cambridge, to partner.
- Bessemer’s Steve Kraus was named President of NEVCA.
- Jit Saxena, founder of Netezza, joined the board of Hadapt.
- Gus Weber left Polaris for ESPN.
- The addition of former Square VP, Jared Fliesler, to the Matrix Partners team.
- Dave Balter started a new seed fund focused on retail, dunnhumby Ventures.
- NEVCA’s Sheryl Sandberg event sold out to an audience of 500 in an unheard of 24 hours, with more than 500 on a waiting list and hundreds tuning into the livecast. Want to lean in? Check out this list of local women-led startups.
- Wayfair raised $36.3 million to expand Joss & Main.
- Nanigans raised $5.8 million, led by Avalon Ventures.
- Smart Lunches raised $1.6 million.
- Groupize raised $2.1 million from Golden Seeds and Launchpad Venture Group.
- peerTransfer raised $6.4 million to accommodate global expansion.
- Dailybreak raised $2 million from GSV, Charles River and Highland Capital to ramp up sales.
- Infinio raised $10 million from Bessemer and Highland.
- Yottaa raised $16 million in Series C round.
- Objective Logistics raised $65 million in Series A round.
- Affirmed Networks raised $51 million in Series C round.
- Actifio raised $50 million Series D round.
- InsightSquared raised $8 million Series B round.
- CustomMade raised $18 million.
- Bessemer portfolio company Verastem had successful IPO with current market cap of $320 million.
- Bessemer portfolio company, and 50 on Fire award winner, Ovascience’s successful IPO with current market cap of $222 million.
- bluebird bio’s $116.1 million IPO.
- Epizyme’s $88.7 million IPO.
- Battery Venture portfolio company Neolane was acquired by Adobe for $600 million.
- Priceline’s $1.8 billion acquistion of KAYAK.
- Oracle’s $2.1 billion acquisition of Acme Packet.
- Avis’ $500 million acquistion of Zipcar.
- Twitter came to Boston, acquiring both Crashlytics and Bluefin Labs.
- Matrix portfolio companies Zendesk, HubSpot, JustFab, Panzura and Gilt demonstrated exemplary growth. “Helping these companies scale and flourish is extremely rewarding for us.” — David Skok, Matrix Partners
- NEVCA’s Internship Hub on BostInno, offering free listings, garnered more than 35,000 views, featured more than 160 opportunities and gave startups of all stages their pick of the city’s most talented students.
- NEVCA kicked off its first-ever NEVY Awards show, recognizing an amazing roster of winners.
With new deals closing, appointments made and funds being raised continuously in our hustling and bustling Hub of the Universe, this list doesn’t cover all of the latest and greatest in local VC. Add your thoughts in the comments below!
