For the whole of 2013 the Greater Boston, MA area – and really Massachusetts as a whole – has been one of the top destinations for VC money. Just yesterday, 21 October 2013, three rounds were announced. More on these rounds below, but Superpedestrian closed a $2.1M Series A Round, Panorama Education closed $4M Seed Round co-led by Mark Zuckerberg’s Startup:Education and Jeff Clavier’s SoftTech VC, and Sqrrl closed a $5.2M Series A Round.¹ Three rounds alone are not overwhelmingly significant, however they serve as an excellent microcosm of the Greater Boston VC climate this year. Further, the diversity of these three companies speaks to the health of the entrepreneur community of the city. For 2013, CrunchBase lists a total of 137 funding rounds within 20 miles of Boston, the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) lists a total of 259 venture investments in the state of Massachusetts, with an aggregate value of more than $2.19B.²

When you dig into the data, some of the results are staggering. So far in 2013, the only states with more total VC investments than MA are both CA and NY, with 1,190 and 277 respectively; only CA outpaced MA in in terms of $ value of VC investments with a total of more than $10B in investments.³ Further, Xconomy Boston lists a total of 120 Venture Capital firms, 10 Corporate Venture Groups, 27 Angel Investment Groups, and a total of 15 Venture Incubators & Seed Funds – including TechStars and LearnLaunchX who we just wrote about.⁴ So it is clear that Boston is no Silicon Valley – no one is – but it is keeping pace with Silicon Alley. A look at the three rounds that closed Monday yields even more about the Boston technology and startup industries.

Sqrrl $5.2M Series A Round

If you were only to read our coverage of LearnLaunchX, it might give the impression that Boston is primarily an Ed-Tech hub. While, yes, it is an Ed-Tech hub, the investments and innovation within Greater Boston is hardly exclusive to this niche. The Sqrrl and Superpedestrian rounds are an example of this fact.

Sqrrl focuses on Big Data and builds products for Apache Accumulo. Sqrrl will use the A Round to further develop and commercialize Sqrrl Enterprise, the industry’s most secure, scalable, and flexible NoSQL database for real-time Big Data applications. Sqrrl Enterprise is powered by Apache Accumulo.⁵

Superpedestrian – $2.1M Series A Round

Superpedestrian’s A Round was led by Spark Capital with participation from Tumblr Founder and CEO David Karp. They are developing lightweight electric vehicles with integrated online platforms, finding new ways to connect people with their environment. Their first bike utilizes MIT’s Copenhagen Wheel.⁶ According to Chris Reidy, author of the Boston.com write-up on the deal, “the Copenhagen Wheel allows you to capture the energy dissipated while cycling and braking and save it for when you need a bit of a boost. The wheel is controlled through a rider’s smartphone.”⁷ Below is a short video explaining the Copenhagen Wheel:

 Panorama Education – $4M Seed Round

Now here is a Boston startup that does focus on Ed-Tech. Panorama Education helps K-12 schools improve through data analysis and feedback surveys of teachers, parents and students.⁸ Panorama’s platform is already used in more than 4,000 schools – including: Connecticut State Department of Education, the Los Angeles Unified School District, and Aspire Public Schools – and serves more than one million students. While the first two rounds covered above speak to the diversity of the Boston Tech sector, the case of Panorama displays the strength of Boston Tech’s bread and butter, Ed-Tech. While a $4M Seed Round is hardly unheard of, a round lead by the likes of Mark Zuckerberg, SoftTech VC, and Google Ventures is extremely rare.⁹ Although, as a whole, the Boston’s startup technology sector expands well beyond Ed-Tech, it is clearly the backbone of said sector.

As California and New York are oft considered the technology hubs of the US – rightly so – Boston has emerged as a major player, and is in-fact outpacing New York in many ways. Though it is clear that Boston relies heavily on the Ed-Tech and healthcare niches, the Superpedestrian and Sqrrl rounds display the cities growing technology diversity. It is a given that Massachusetts will not catch up to California anytime soon, but it is quite clear that Boston is thriving.