Another $100 million for early stage investing in Boston. Check-out machines are becoming clock-in machines. A hundred-plus startups join MassChallenge’s latest cohort in Boston. Read on for more of this week’s Boston tech news.
—Rowing machine startup Hydrow added $7 million to the $20 million it raised in its Series A funding round in February. The new capital comes from Green Bay Packers Quarterback Aaron Rodgers’ Rx3 Ventures, The Raptor Group, The Yard Ventures, and Wheelhouse Partners, the company says. Hydrow—likened to the stationary bike and treadmill startup Peloton—also says it is launching nationwide shipping for its $2,199 indoor rowing machine.
—Sea Machines, a Boston startup developing autonomous control and perception systems for the maritime industry, is partnering with Hike Metals, a boat manufacturer in Ontario, Canada, to integrate its systems into search-and-rescue vessels. Sea Machines says its systems will enable the boats to complete autonomous search-and-rescue missions, plan waypoints for missions, collaborate with other vessels, remotely control the vessels, and avoid obstacles. The first phase of the collaboration will be tested aboard a 27-foot Hike Metal boat this summer on Lake Erie. Sea Machines raised a $10 million Series A funding round in December, led by Accomplice and Eniac Ventures.
—Boston-based marketing and advertising technology company Brand Networks has acquired Clickable and formed a new technology holding company called Azalea Commerce. The new company is backed by private equity firm AEA Investors as well as $40 million from an unnamed “strategic partner.” Azalea is setting an ambitious goal of helping retailers compete with closed ad ecosystems that Google, Facebook and Amazon have built up to dominate online advertising.
—Restaurant management startup Toast is moving from point-of-sale tech to back-office management with the rollout of a new payroll and human resources system. The Boston-based company says the system streamlines the process of on-boarding new employees–a common task in an industry that sees high rates of staff turnover. The HR system also allows workers to clock in using the point-of-sale portal devices. In April, Toast raised $250 million in a round led by TCV and Tiger Global Management.
—Startup accelerator MassChallenge announced its Boston cohort of companies for 2019. The group of more than 100 startups are mostly from the healthcare and life sciences sector (33 percent); followed closely by high tech (32 percent); general, retail, or consumer goods (20 percent); social impact (10 percent); and cleantech and energy (5 percent). Forty-nine percent of the companies have a female founder and 20 percent have a founder of color, MassChallenge says.
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