New CEOs, Mega Rounds and good ol’ Ops News

Everywhere else, designers seem to find great solutions that make things easier, more comfortable, but the airline industry has missed this trend and is trying really hard to make travel worse.

Say NO to fart class seating!

Oh, and did you hear about Boston-based Perch HQ LLC (E-commerce business) monster "Series A" round"...$775M. No chum change for a Series A round.

The State of Manufacturing

The PMI Index slightly increased in May.

Orders and Backlogs keep growing very strong.

Compared to full year 2019, it registers ~20% increase in demand.

Raw material prices across the board are up significantly.

More challenging news comes from Southern China, specifically the Guangdong Province, the powerhouse for many consumer and electronics products.

Power restrictions have been in place for many companies since mid-May, and some companies can only operate 4 days per week which further exacerbates the ongoing supply chain challenges. (Source Reuter)

Greentown Labs introduced 26 new startups that joined the popular Greentech Space in Q2/2021. From AgTech, Buildings to Manufacturing and Transportation, it's always great to see these companies taking advantage of this incredible space & community Greentown Labs has created.

If your startup creates any product, specifically any hardware, and you haven't yet checked out FORGE, you certainly should. They can connect you to great manufacturers and assist in guiding you through the process of commercialization. Their public Rocket Pitch Sessions are awesome.

Twenty-five startup ventures from the Harvard i-Lab, Launch Lab X Geo, and Pagliuca Harvard Life Lab pitched their business plans in May at the 10th annual Harvard President's Innovation Challenge awards ceremony for a share of the $510,000 in price money. Here are the winners.

Find the latest updates of the hottest Boston Startups here.

American Robotics has been named the WINNER of this years' Airwards in the Software- Enabling Flights and Operational Management category! Congrats! More on this here.

Evergreens was named a finalist in the Cleantech category of the Mass Innovation Network's Eddie Awards. Congrats! See the story here.

GelSight welcomes a new CEO, Youssef Benmokhtar. In addition, GelSight was named a finalist in the Tech and AI category of the Mass Innovation Network's Eddie Awards. Find out more here. (Source: BusinessWire)

Helios Sports announced their Partnership with Pure Hockey to bring their smart technology for performance benchmarking to hockey players across the US. Find out more here.

LiteBoxer raised a $20 million Series A to create a whole new category of at-home fitness equipment that's fun and engaging as playing a sport. Congrats! Read more about this here. (Source: PRNewswire)

Righthand Robotics is nominated for the 2021 Robotics and Automation News Readers' Awards. More on this here.

WaveSense joined Partners for Automated Vehicle Education (PAVE). More on this here.

WiTricity opened a new office and product development lab in Auckland, New Zealand. (Ok, we at NPA are truly jealous now... I hope we get to visit someday). Read more about this here.

The world gained 5.2M millionaires last year during the Covid crisis. The US accounted for nearly a third of these new millionaires. The Hustle is real! CompoundInterest (Source: The Guardian)

Bummer...we didn't win Bezos's ticket to fly into space. Here is what it takes for an average person to prep for space travel. BetterStartTrainingNow (Source: Protocol)

Another amazing NFT is coming up in a Sotheby's auction next month. Tim Berners-Lee, who invented the World Wide Web, will sell the source code that made the first web browser work. 101100011 (Source: Fast Company)

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