Lots of fresh dough for Boston startups

Hi all!

If you like tech and independent journalism, you might already have heard of Nicholas Thomson, the CEO at The Atlantic.

I very much enjoy his clips on "the most interesting thing in tech". He is clever and witty. Another fun fact is that he is from Massachusetts. Check him out on LI here.

The State of Manufacturing

The Manufacturing PMI Index contracted to 50.9% in September.

The (somewhat) good news is that Inventories are growing, and some pricing drops a bit more.

Electronic component pricing is generally still very high and several industries reported price increases in September while steel, some plastics and freight have seen pricing drops.

As many of you know, I have complained a lot over the past 2-3 years about shipping costs and therefore am always in search of tools that can ease that burden.

Ocean and LTL shipments are significantly less costly than air shipments, so Benchmarking platforms such as Xeneta can offer companies better price visibility. Proper freight benchmarking can help optimize operational costs and effectively plan inventory levels.

For smaller startups- If you want to hear more about how you can save on transportation costs, contact us at hello@newpageassociates.com.

Electronic component pricing is definitely going up in the next couple of months. Several OEMs / Fabs announced they will raise pricing for several of their components by 10-20%, starting in Q4/2022. Here is the list to date:

Broadcom, Diodes, Inc., Infineon, Nexperia, NXP, OnSemi, Panasonic, Rohm, Samsung, ST Micro, Texas Instruments, Vishay, Amphenol, Molex, Samtec, TycoElectronics, Intel, and TSMC.

The Engine, built by MIT, announced the opening of The Engine at 750 Main, its new headquarters in Cambridge, MA, whose purpose is to foster the Tough Tech ecosystem.

After three months without Boston companies crossing the $1 billion valuation mark, there's a new Unicorn around: Wasabi Technologies Inc. has become Boston's latest unicorn after raising $250 million in new funding. Congrats to our good friends at Wasabi!

Boston startups raised a collective $729 million in September. That's almost $200M down from the $954M raised in August. Notable mentions are NPA Startups to Watch alumni, Perch raising $4M, ClearMotion taking in $39M. AOA Dx Inc. getting a $7M injection, ZwitterCo raising $33M and Realtime Robotics securing $14M of new funds.

Harvard University launched The Grid, an initiative that will invest more in getting innovations from university labs into commercially viable products and services that address global challenges.

FORGE’s new grant will provide up to $25,000 in non-dilutive grants to cleantech startups with leadership from historically marginalized communities. Find out more and apply here.

Flexxbotics announces a partnership with WMH Robotics to bring robotic automation to CNC machine tending.

Helios announced Instant Video Highlights integration for LiveBarn and iOS game video. A game-changing change to watch and download your instant highlights.

Nodar won the AutoSens Most Innovative Application of Computer Vision award and the Automotive News PacePilot 2022 award. Congratulations Leaf and team!

Seurat was honored in the Cleantech/Greentech category at The Fire Awards by BostInno.

In our September survey, we asked your thoughts about 'quiet quitting'.

The results showed that 28% agreed that going above and beyond is what leads to professional growth, while 22% believe that quiet quitting is here and it’s real, proving that the topic is still a divisive one.

A MassChallenge survey conducted with 581 tech founders and executives offered some great insights on the future of hiring, fundraising, and strategy amid concerns of an economic downturn.

The results showed that the respondents are frustrated with the traditional recruitment process for hiring full-time employees.

So we'd like to know:

James Earl Jones, the voice of Darth Vader, gave permission for future Star Wars releases to use AI technology to recreate his voice after stepping back from the role after 45 years. He'sMoreMachineThanManNow

(Source: NBC News)

Wedding gifts evolve with the times. And in this era of unaffordable housing prices, more couples are asking their guests to help finance their mortgages. WeddingsIn2022BeLike (Source: NY Post)

The world’s population is about to hit 8 billion. Take a look at how all those people are spread across the countries. SaveTheDate:15November2022

Sign up HERE