Latest news with #AaronPressman
Boston Globe
4 days ago
- Business
- Boston Globe
Venture funding for Mass. startups drops to lowest in years, as other states rise
Only 158 companies here received funding in the second quarter, the lowest quarterly number in at least a decade. Startups collected a total of $2.6 billion in new money, down 37 percent from a year ago and the least in any quarter since 2017. (The drop comes after some The biggest deals in the quarter were for cancer imaging startup Lumicell in Newton, which raised almost $200 million, biotech drug developer Antares Therapeutics in Boston, which raised $177 million, and Advertisement The drop for Massachusetts came despite growing VC funding for startups in some other states. California-based startups, fueled largely by the ongoing AI boom, raised $42.6 billion, a 71 percent increase from last year's second quarter. Arizona posted a nearly 10-fold gain to $3.1 billion, mostly for Advertisement The fundraising picture for local VC investment firms was equally grim. Just six Massachusetts-based venture capital firms raised a total of $1.1 billion in the first half of 2025, PitchBook said. That's on pace for the lowest total in over a decade. Last year, 32 venture funds raised a total of $6.3 billion. Aaron Pressman can be reached at
Boston Globe
10-06-2025
- Health
- Boston Globe
The 2025 Tech Power Players in the health tech sector
Five years ago, MacRae helped run a study that used anonymized data from iPhone and Apple Watch users to make connections between physical activity and heart health. The research showed, among other results, that physical activity could reduce the impact of aging on cardio fitness. A new study will cover research ranging from improving sleep to warding off the effects of aging. MacRae grew up in Scotland, coming to the Boston area in 1991 for a fellowship at Harvard. The study data could be used to train artificial intelligence models. 'Having a data stream like this is actually incredibly valuable,' MacRae says, 'and would allow people to predict things that you might not have imagined otherwise.' Advertisement More tech power players to watch in the health tech sector: Explore more sectors Aaron Pressman can be reached at
Boston Globe
07-05-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
Amazon's newest robot gains a sense of touch
In Amazon's vast storage warehouses, such as its Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up The company Advertisement Now Vulcan can also Humans will still load many items onto the shelving pods. Vulcan will concentrate on filling cubbies at the lower and higher sections of the eight-foot-tall pods. That should spare the human workers from bending and stretching in ways that could cause repetitive stress injuries. Advertisement 'Vulcan is really good at doing that part of the job,' Dresser said. 'So we provide better work environment, safer work environment, for our employees.' While that may require fewer workers loading the pods, Amazon will add jobs in robot maintenance, Dresser said. 'As we deploy more robots, we need more skilled folks that are helping us with maintenance,' he said. So far the Vulcan robots have only been installed at a facility in Spokane, Washington, and Hamburg, Germany. The plan is to deploy thousands of the touch-sensing bots at warehouses around the world, Dresser said. The team that designed Vulcan named the bot after the Roman god of fire and blacksmithing, he said. 'The team is a builder team and they like this connotation of a forge and building something new,' Dresser said. Amazon has already manufactured more than 750,000 of its other types of robots at its facilities in Westborough and North Reading. The Amazon Robotics unit was created more than a decade ago when the company bought local startup Kiva Systems, helping stoke Aaron Pressman can be reached at
Boston Globe
29-04-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
How e-commerce sites are trying to help shoppers avoid tariffs
Some gadget prices are already higher, including Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Popular Chinese e-commerce site Temu, which Advertisement But as that stock runs down, Temu is showing the import charge at checkout on items that must be shipped from China, CNBC Advertisement At Kickstarter, a favorite spot for snagging cutting edge and specialty consumer tech gear, the site is giving sellers the option of a post-sale price hike to account for tariffs. Consumers agree to pay for products at a specific price on Kickstarter months, sometimes even years, before the products are ready for sale. With tariffs coming into play only recently, that could have left sellers unable to meet the price they originally promised. So Kickstarter is letting sellers The White House is not happy about import tax disclosures, however. After a But line item disclosures could be the least of consumers' tariff worries if all of the new levies take effect. Then again, the president has backed off multiple times. Aaron Pressman can be reached at
Boston Globe
14-04-2025
- Automotive
- Boston Globe
Massachusetts delays rules requiring EV heavy truck sales
Manufacturers, claiming they could not meet the minimums, then imposed strict limits on sales of diesel-powered trucks in the state. State officials initially rejected requests to waive the rules, citing the need to transition to electric vehicles to reduce air pollution and meet climate goals. That led to an impasse, with local dealers and buyers, ranging from tow truck companies to landscapers and freight haulers, Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up But on Monday, the Department of Environmental Protection, which oversees the rules, said manufacturers who could not meet the EV truck minimums in 2025 and 2026 would not be penalized as long as they sold diesel trucks in the state. Advertisement 'Manufacturers must continue investing in their manufacturing and distribution networks to ensure a smooth transition to electric trucks,' the department said in a statement. 'Massachusetts remains committed to making the transition to electrification work for all and will continue to advance our whole-of-government approach to support this transition in the transportation sector.' Advertisement Of more than 186,000 registered medium- and heavy-duty trucks in Massachusetts at the beginning of the year, only 301 were fully electric or plugin hybrids, up from 98 a year earlier, according to Truck owners have said electric models can cost double or more the price of diesel trucks and are not yet available for all uses. They also noted a lack of adequate charging stations on highways that can handle large trucks. Environmental groups said the state should not have backed down, and they accused manufacturers of failing to prepare for the rules, which were adopted four years ago with the 2025 start date. The minimum purchase requirements were 'imminently achievable, which is why delaying its enforcement is so regrettable,' said Jason Mathers, Associate Vice President for the Zero-Emission Truck Initiative at the Environmental Defense Fund. 'Massachusetts residents cannot afford to wait.' The Transportation Association of Massachusetts, representing truck operators and servicers, expressed appreciation for the delay. 'We are eager to collaborate with the Healey Administration, our stakeholder groups of end-users, and manufacturers to continue our efforts to reduce emissions from the transportation sector,' the group said in a statement. 'Our hope is that going forward, today's DEP decision encourages all stakeholders to work together to develop practical and attainable strategies for working towards the additional reduction of emissions from the transportation sector.' Aaron Pressman can be reached at
