Posts Tagged ‘Silicon Valley’
Innovation Town – Boston?
The New York Times on Nov 14th writes an article about Boston, titled “A Science Lover’s Kind of Town”. I found a few lines very interesting
WHEN you run an ice cream parlor down the street from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, you expect your customers to chat about stem cell research or trade theories about neutrinos between licks of burnt caramel
OR
the area’s dozens of universities and research labs have infused Boston with innovation. Faculty members at Harvard and M.I.T. alone have racked up 49 Nobel Prizes in the sciences
OR
The microwave, the safety razor, the instant camera and the video game were all invented in the Boston area
Boston, Cambridge, the Route 128 and increasingly the Route 495 belt are known locally as the Innovation Center of Metro Boston. However, the city seems to have lost out to Silicon Valley as the primary Innovation Center of America.
Why did that happen? and does that reflect what is really going on ? This remains a favorite conversation (atleast in Boston). Here are some recent conversations
Christopher Herot : Boston vs Silicon Valley
VCs flocking to Thin Solar
The New York Times Reports:
<!– — Updated: 11:29 pm –>
Thin Film Solar Companies Raise Hundreds of Millions in Funding
UPDATED 7:24 p.m. to correct solar cost figures.
UPDATED 4:44 p.m. with attribution of SoloPower news to VentureWire.
Companies that make thin film solar cells continue to raise huge amounts of money from venture capitalists.
The latest thin film company to announce a large venture round is SoloPower, which raised close to $200 million, according to VentureWire.
In August, Nanosolar announced a $300 million fundraising round and AVA Solar raised an undisclosed, nine-figure sum, according to VentureBeat. In July, Miasole raised around $200 million, according to VentureWire.
