Actifio might be the Boston tech scene’s greatest paradox. The Waltham data-management startup has just raised $50 million in new venture funding , and is valued at half a billion, but its CEO, Ash Ashutosh, calls it a “sleeper company” that’s just “a drop in the ocean.”
That’s because the enterprise IT industry is seeing a lot of hype in areas like data protection and analytics---in part since the consumer Web has cooled off. It’s also because Actifio would rather get farther along before storage giants like EMC really start paying attention.
In other innovation news:
-- Cambridge-based Cerulean Pharma is about to find out if its experimental drug for lung cancer helps patients live longer. The MIT and Caltech spinout is looking at results of a mid-stage clinical trial of 157 patients.
-- Our startup of the week is Dragon Innovation , a Boston-area firm that helps connect hardware companies like Pebble and Formlabs with manufacturers.
-- The mobile payment wars have begun. Locally, we have LevelUp, Paydiant, and PayPal all trying to get you to use your phone to pay for things.
-- And finally, the Fung Wah bus may be no more, but Wanderu is a local startup trying to make booking your next bus trip easier. The Web company is trying to do for ground transportation what Kayak did for air travel. Good luck with that.
