The Big One

A breakdown on the day’s biggest Inno story.

Lucy: While we’re all still trying to make sense of the fact that we’re back to work, we are once again remembered that the news never sleeps—especially Boston M&A deals, I would say.

Persistent Systems, an enterprise software builder with more than 9,000 employees and offices in the U.S., Asia, Canada, Europe and South Africa, acquired Herald Health, a local digital health startup that seeks to help doctors manage electronic medical records more effectively.

Herald Health was a part of last year’s first digital health cohort of PULSE@MassChallenge, the six-month Boston accelerator that partners startups with various entities working in healthcare. Together with 30 fellow startups, the company was in the program from January to June 2017.

Bradford Diephuis, co-founder and CEO of Herald Health, told me that they first got in touch with Persistent Systems in April. Both the companies were working independently at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where Herald Health launched in 2015.

Diephuis didn’t disclose how many employees work at Herald Health, but said that they realized that strategic acquisitions could allow them to deploy their product more easily and directly than building an in-house sales team. Around six months ago, the company was still actively fundraising.

In The Know

The Inno stories you need to read today.

Walmart Is Testing Grocery-Picking Robots Made in North Billerica – BostInno
Resonant Energy Brings Solar Power to Nonprofits, Low-Income Family Homes – BostInno
Want to Sound Like Barack Obama? This New Boston Startup Gives Your Voice a Makeover – BostInno
Mass. Ranks Low For Growth Of Women-Owned Businesses – Bostonomix

Elsewhere in Inno

Stories from around the Inno network we think you’ll dig.

– Announcing the Inaugural Coolest Companies 2018 Nominees – Rhode Island Inno
– Amazement and Disappointment: My Experience with Magic Leap One – Atlanta Inno
– GoKart Labs Backs Employee Ideas as Part of Internal Ventures Program – Minne Inno

Making Moves

Inside the people, companies and organizations making moves in Boston.

Lucy: Speaking of M&A news, here’s another update for you, Beat readers. Boston-based OpsGenie, whose technology helps DevOps and IT-operations teams more seamlessly manage critical IT alerts and incidents, has signed a definitive agreement to be acquired by Atlassian for $295M.

Sri: Between 1990 and 2013, global production of palm oil more than quadrupled, rising from 14.5M tons to 67.3M tons. And that number is expected to be 128.20M tons by 2022, making the global palm oil industry worth $88B. The world needs an alternative to palm oil and a Boston startup has a solution. C16 Biosciences, which has graduated from accelerators Greentown Labs, in Somerville, and Y Combinator, in Silicon Valley, makes a lab-grown alternative to palm oil, which it claims is 20% cheaper and isn’t destructive. Using synthetic biology, the C16 team was able to create a viable alternative to palm oil by using yeast, that grows in tap water, and giving it a feedstock or carbon source to multiply. Read more: This Boston Startup is Trying to Solve the World’s Palm Oil Problem

Lucy: As the seasons change and summer gives way to autumn, this could be the perfect time for professional change as well. This fall, there are a number of companies hiring in Boston, ready to see what you can bring to their team. Here’s our handy list. Read more: Boston Startups and Tech Companies Hiring in September

Sri: Hack attack: DraftKings is suing a group of unknown hackers that launched a cyberattack, briefly knocking its website offline. In August, the hackers launched a pair of what are known as “distributed denial of service” attacks, or DDoS attacks, flooding DraftKings’ web hosting servers with massive amounts of fake internet traffic. The unusual lawsuit is an attempt to unmask the hackers by forcing information out of a series of third-party companies that control the proxy networks and IP addresses. BBJ has more.

Player Personnel

Who’s moving where.

Sri: 2020 On-site (2020), which provides on-site vision care for businesses and schools, announced the appointment of Alexis McLaughlin as the new CEO. McLaughlin will also join 2020’s Board of Directors and comes from Luxottica Retail, where she was SVP/general manager of retail licensed brands.

Lucy: Toast is adding Mike Lemire as director of restaurant success. Previously, he was VP of customer success and support at Notarize.

In The Community

The events and happenings to know about tonight and this week.

Sri: NOT just for entrepreneurs: If you’re a HR professional in Boston, this is for you. On Thursday, September 6th, from from 5:30 – 8:00 p.m., Compt is hosting a not-so-traditional Happy Hour event for HR & People Operations professionals in Boston at 303 Congress St, 6th floor. “We’re setting up informal roundtables to get the conversations and learning lessons flowing. The twist is that the tables will feature People Operations topics where there’s overlap with marketing. There will be tables on employee experience, instead of customer experience. Also, employee personas, data, employer branding, and training and education. Stay at one table all night or rotate around the tables, whatever strikes your fancy.”

Lucy: FYI, we’re heading into a stacked season of conferences, interesting workshops and engaging panel discussions. Our fresh edition of BostInno Approved for September is here to help you plan your busy agenda. Read more: BostInno Approved: September’s Top Tech & Startup Events in Boston

Random

The fun stuff.

Lucy: Following Apple, Amazon just reached $1T in value–yes, $1 Trillion, or $1,000,000,000,000. My question stands: If private companies having valuations of at least $1B are “unicorns,” how should we refer to public companies having valuations of at least $1T? Centaurs? Chimeras? Phoenixes? Krakens? Send ideas my way.