Boston Startup Community News & Content

Venture capitalist Katie Rae is trying to prove that “tough tech” is worth the tough work. The Engine, the $200 million fund she leads, invests in startups whose products require years of research and development before they’re ready. In short, they’re startups that many other venture capitalists avoid—like one firm that’s pursuing a viable form

The law firm Gunderson Dettmer Stough Villeneuve Franklin & Hachigian LLP has brought on the former co-chair of WilmerHale’s emerging companies and venture capital practice to its Boston office. David Gammell joined Gunderson on Monday after nearly six years at WilmerHale. He counsels startups and venture and growth-equity funds on financings, merger, intellectual property strategy

Reggora, a Boston-based startup that claims its software can “streamline the appraisal process,” now has $3 million in its coffers to help grow it business. The company announced Monday that it raised $3 million in seed funding, which it plans to use to expand across the country and enhance its platform. Reggora is an appraisal

A venture capital firm led by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has invested in a startup that is trying to significantly cut carbon emissions from steel manufacturing. Breakthrough Energy Ventures led a $20 million funding round in Boston Metal, which is developing a process to reduce carbon emissions in steel making by using electricity instead of traditional pollution-heavy techniques. Iron

After narrowly losing a bid for Congress, Dan Koh has gone back to the private sector. Koh became a high-profile addition to the leadership team at the Boston startup HqO, joining as a partner last week. Koh plans to bring the tech-minded approach he took at City Hall as Mayor Marty Walsh’s chief of staff

Did a law signed in August by President Trump kill one of Jeff Bezos’s Boston investments? It sure seems that way. The impact on Bezos, one of the many ducks who populate Trump’s personal shooting gallery, was probably not intentional. But the law, which took effect in November, is making life more complicated for Boston

The median net worth for black households in Boston is $8, compared with $247,500 for white households, according to a study published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. The disparity is so great that when the Boston Globe published an investigation into how it got to be that way, people thought the number was a typo. Racial

For nearly a decade, Google’s secretive X division has been cooking up what it calls “moonshots” — projects that take on some of the most elusive problems in technology. Now, one of the effort’s big bets is touching down in Cambridge. X, now an independent arm of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, announced last week that