The latest venture capital numbers are in, and they’re not all pretty. A first-quarter report from CB Insights says the $6.9 billion invested by VCs nationwide is up from the same period in 2012. But Massachusetts dropped to number three behind California and now New York, with $600 million invested in 75 companies. On the bright side, the top three VC funds raised during the quarter went to Bay State firms --namely Battery Ventures, Third Rock Ventures, and Spark Capital.
In other innovation news…
---Newton-based TripAdvisor is acquiring Jetsetter, a travel-deals site from e-commerce firm Gilt. This is the latest in a string of acquisitions that includes Tiny Post, Wanderfly, and Where I’ve Been.
---Our deal of the week is a $30 million venture round for Syros Pharmaceuticals, a Watertown spinoff from the Whitehead Institute and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Syros is developing cancer drugs based on new insights into how genes are regulated.
---And lastly, whatever happened to Unica? The Waltham marketing and analytics firm went public in ‘05 and was bought by IBM in 2010. Now it’s integrated into Big Blue’s marketing machine, but its founder, Yuchun Lee, has left after 20 years to join VC firm General Catalyst. And that, my friends, is the circle of life in the innovation community.
