Who let the pigs out?

Loads of start-up info, funding news, DIY Dentistry, and more below.

The State of Manufacturing

The April PMI Index of 60.7% dropped by 4 percentage points from its absolute high in March.

The electronics component allocation situation is getting worse as we see more lead times going to 40-60+wks.

The general industry consensus is that we will not see improvements in the electronics space until Q1 or Q2 in 2022.

Inventories are trending into a dangerously low range again.

Harvard Business Review published insights into how we got ourselves into this Global Semiconductor Shortage.

These are several lessons learned we all should take away and incorporate in our future supply chain plans.

Need more dough for your startup? Here are 8 Accelerators and Grants specifically for BIPOC, women, veterans. There are some with $100k up for grabs. #diversity #inclusion (Source: Lioness)

And here is The Big One.

Our friends at MassRobotics released the World's First open-source AMR (autonomous mobile robots) interoperability standard. Standardization is essential to allow for the broad deployment of these technologies, and this is a great step in the right direction.

Boston startups raised more than $1.2B in April. Notable hardware companies were:

Interns, Interns, Interns.... we only have the superstars

Rising Sophomore studying Mechanical Engineering and German at the University of Rhode Island interested in pursuing an internship. Particularly interested in clean/renewable energy, test engineering, or materials engineering. I worked part-time during high school and previously interned with a startup events company, researching startups. I am very willing to work hard to learn new skills. Please contact me at owen_hefferman@uri.edu or 781-999-5366. (Owen Hefferman)

And a shameless plug for ourselves:

NPA is looking for a Purchasing / Supply Chain Intern. Please send resumes to hello@newpageassociates.com

Find the latest updates of the hottest Boston Startups here.

American Robotics Ondas Holdings announced a definitive agreement to acquire American Robotics for $71 million. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter. Get the full scope here. (Source: Businesswire)

Boston Materials closed an $8 million Series A round to expand deployment of their high performance and sustainable carbon fiber technology. Congrats BM gang!. Read more about this here. (Source: PRNewswire)

Blackburn Energy launched a Hardware As A Service program that eliminates the upfront cost of initial installation and the RelGen Hybrid Charging units. Find out more here. (Source: Blackburn Energy)

Embr Labs latest Wave 2 has won the 2021 IF DESIGN Product design award. Congrats! See the story here. (Source: IF World Design Guide)

Brio Systems was selected as the Only Employer-Specific COVID-19 Testing Honoree in Fast Company's 2021 World-Changing Ideas Awards. Find out more here. (Source: PRNewswire)

Righthand Robotics unveiled its RightPick^TM Center Europe. The new Center is located in Nürnberg, Germany to strengthen their presence in Europe. More on this here. (Source: Intrado)

Tertill secured a $4.5M seed round to accelerate further product development of its solar-powered, weed-snipping robot for home gardens. More details can be found here. (Source: BBJ)

Tive announced a strategic partnership with Transvoyant to add continuous analysis of real-time and predicted supply chain behavior. Read more about this here. (Source: SupplyChainDive)

Legalizing Psychedelics, it sure looks like it. The Center for Psychadelic & Consciousness Research at John Hopkins University is looking at psilocybin, MDMA (aka ecstasy), and others to treat various conditions, including PTSD, depression, anxiety, and addiction. "Magic Mushrooms" have been decriminalized for personal possession in several US cities, incl. Somerville, Cambridge, and Northampton, MA. What an Acid trip (Source: NYT)

DIY Dentistry is on the rise. One in four UK households chose at least one form of DIY dentistry. Say Ahhhhhhhh (Source: Dentistry)

Billions of dollars are spent in the US on.......drumroll........ damage and control of Feral Hogs. It's amazing how difficult it is to solve this problem. How to Poison a Hog. (Source: The Atlantic)

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