Boston Tech Watch: Dill the Pickle Robot, Via Separations & More

March 19, 2019

There’s robotics news, clinical research companies raising cash, and plenty of early-stage venture capital money moving in the Boston technology world this week. Read on for more:

—Via Separations, a startup developing energy-efficient filtration technology, has raised $4.8 million in a Series A funding round. Safar led the round, which saw participation from PRIME Impact Fund, The Engine, Embark Ventures, and the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center. The Somerville, MA-based startup says its filtration technology reduces energy use by 90 percent and has applications in the food and beverage industry as well as in pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, and paper and chemical production.

—Clinical informatics startup Ovation.io has raised a $5 million Series A funding round led by Madrona Venture Group. The Cambridge, MA-based company says its software is an “out-of-the box solution for molecular diagnostics,” and handles sample tracking, client relations, electronic health record integrations, revenue cycle management, reporting, operational intelligence and results analytics. Also participating in the Series A were Borealis Ventures, Nat Turner, Zach Weinberg, StagedotO, and David Shaw. Ovation.io last raised capital in May 2017 when it took in $1.5 million from StageDotO and other investors.

—ProdPerfect, a developer of an application build-and-testing platform, has raised $2.6 million in seed funding in a round co-led by New York-based Eniac Ventures and Los Angeles-based Fika Ventures, according to a press release. The funding will help Boston-based ProdPerfect scale operations and make new hires. Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator joined in the funding round.

—Packing and handling robotics startup Pickle Robot has raised $3.5 million, according to an SEC filing. The Cambridge, MA-based company recently spun out of research-and-development firm Leaf Labs. The startup’s robot, named Dill, is designed to work alongside humans, loading and unloading trucks, and moving boxes onto and off pallets, according to Pickle Robot.

—Startup accelerator program MassChallenge has named a new managing directorfor sBoston operations: Caitlin Reimers Brumme, formerly the director of Harvard Business School’s Impact Collaboratory. Prior to Harvard Business, Reimers Brumme was director at Social Finance US.

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