There’s an anti-Amazon movement brewing in Boston. Local startup The Grommet, formerly known as Daily Grommet, is leading a new wave of companies that are chipping away at the Internet giant’s approach to retail. Instead of competing on price, Grommet and its majority owner Rakuten are trying to connect consumers with merchants through stories about their products. We’re also seeing innovative approaches from Web companies like CustomMade in woodworking and jewelry, and Wayfair in home decor.
In other innovation news:
-- Atlas Venture, based in Cambridge, has formed partnerships with drug giants Amgen and Novartis to build new biotech startups. It’s part of a trend of Boston-area VC firms partnering with Big Pharma to help fill up drug pipelines.
-- Our deal of the week is a $12 million funding round for Cloudant. The Boston startup provides a distributed database-as-a-service for Web and mobile software developers.
-- In movers and shakers, former Genzyme CEO Henri Termeer has been gone for two years but is keeping busy on a bunch of boards, including MIT, Mass. General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and biotech companies including Verastem and Moderna Therapeutics.
-- And finally, the face of PayPal Boston is changing. Walt Doyle, the former CEO of Where, bought by PayPal in 2011, is moving on to enjoy his summer vacation, as we all should.
