What can a Boston tech startup learn in Silicon Valley? Besides how to avoid a "superstorm" like Sandy, plenty. Boston-based Privy is taking part in the 500 Startups accelerator out in California. The company, which helps restaurants and local businesses manage online promotions, says it’s getting a surprisingly global education in web and mobile advertising. Let’s hope Privy shares some of those lessons learned when it returns to Boston in February 2013.
Meanwhile, in biotech news, Cambridge-based Ensemble Therapeutics has formed a new partnership with Germany’s Boehringer Ingelheim to develop a new class of drugs. The deal could be worth up to $186 million.
Our startup of the week comes from Natick and is working on data storage as a service. Nasuni has just raised $20 million and is looking to disrupt traditional storage vendors like IBM and EMC.
In other tech deals, Litle & Co., a Lowell-based e-commerce payment processing firm, is being acquired by Vantiv for $361 million.
A new study says Harvard and MIT rank behind Stanford University, in the amount of venture capital raised by alumni. That’s not all that surprising; but let’s see how their companies shake out after the social-web bubble bursts and people start to appreciate the tech infrastructure that keeps our society afloat.
