This year will go down in history as the year the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on the world’s economies. While it had adverse impacts on Maine’s economy, too, it didn’t prevent Maine’s startups from delivering us plenty of good news. In what’s become an annual tradition, I dove into Maine Startups Insider’s analytics to find out which were the most-read stories of 2020.
This year, fraught as it was, I published 56 articles on MSI’s website. Here are the 15 that attracted the most attention (measured by total pageviews). This is not a perfect comparison because stories published earlier in the year have had more time to collect pageviews, but it does an okay job of highlighting the biggest stories.
15. Top Gun accelerator names 44 companies for 2020 cohort
The Maine Center for Entrepreneurs in January selected 44 companies to participate in its 2020 Top Gun startup-training program. Top Gun, which launched in 2009 as a single class of a dozen entrepreneurs in Portland, convened cohorts this year in Portland, Bangor, Lewiston/Auburn, Brunswick, and Waterville. Despite the pandemic, MCE adapted and successfully completed the program, capping it off with a hybrid in-person/virtual final showcase event in September. Lewiston-based Literacy Tech, which has developed an app to help teachers manage their students’ reading programs, won the final pitch competition and its $25,000 grand prize.
14. Novo Biosciences raises $4M as it pursues clinical trials
Novo Biosciences, the Ellsworth-based biotech startup developing a drug that could provide humans with regenerative properties, raised $4 million in the first half of the year as it pursues clinical trials in humans. After successful trials in zebrafish and pigs, the company’s next goal is to show that this molecule—it’s not really a “drug” until it’s approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration—can help humans regenerate heart muscle tissue damaged as a result of heart disease or other diseases that cause damage to heart tissue.
13. Maine Angels raises $2.4M fund to invest in startups
The Maine Angels announced in July it had raised $2.4 million from 46 local angel investors and seven Maine banks to create a pooled investment fund to invest in early-stage, high-growth companies. The Dirigo Angel Fund I will seek to invest in 12 to 15 companies over the next two or three years with a target of at least 50% of those companies based in Maine and at least 25% owned, founded, or led by women.
12. MedRhythms raises money from Bose, wins national angel investment award
MedRhythms experienced several milestones this year. In May, the digital therapeutics and medical-device startup in Portland, won a national award from the Angel Capital Association that recognizes “the most ingenious and innovative idea” recently financed by ACA members. That month it also announced it had received an investment of undisclosed size from Bose Ventures, the venture capital arm of Bose Corp.
11. Running Tide attracts big VC names with plan to bury gigatons of CO2 on ocean floor
Emerging from stealth mode this year was a company innovating in the shellfish aquaculture space. Running Tide began as an oyster hatchery that was innovating on how shellfish farms are managed and, specifically, improving raft technology. Springing from that, the company began working on a plan to use its floating rafts, normally used for shellfish aquaculture, to fight climate change. The Portland-based company raised a reported $11.2 million on the back of a plan to sequester gigatons of CO2 on the ocean floor over the next several years by growing kelp and then sinking it to the bottom of the sea. The plan attracted big-name investors, including Chris Sacca’s Lowercarbon Capital, Boston-based Founder Collective, and San Francisco-based Yes VC.
10. Susan MacKay steps down as Cerahelix CEO
Susan MacKay in February stepped down as CEO of Cerahelix, the Orono-based company she founded in 2011 to create high-tech ceramic nanofiltration devices with applications in several industries. MacKay assumed a new job as a senior program manager at the UMaine’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center. In October, the company, which was one of MSI’s 2019 Startups to Watch, announced that it has appointed William “Bill” Paulus as its new CEO. Paulus joined the company in January as chief operating officer.
9. David Roux invests $100M to launch high-tech grad school and research institute in Portland
Certainly one of the biggest stories of 2020 was the creation in Portland of the Roux Institute at Northeastern University. The news was announced in January after David and Barbara Roux announced they were gifting $100 million to Northeastern to create a high-tech graduate education and research institute in Portland.
8. San Francisco-based Grove Collaborative expands Portland office
Grove Collaborative, the San Francisco-based e-commerce startup that opened its first East Coast office in Portland in 2018, expanded its local footprint this year with the addition of a new accounting team. The company, which sells natural home, health, and beauty products, originally opened its Portland office to house its “community happiness” (i.e., concierge-style sales and customer service reps) team outside the Bay Area.
7. Changes at Certify: Bob Neveu steps down as CEO, company rebrands as Emburse
Bob Neveu, co-founder of Certify, the expense-management software company that he grew it into one of Portland’s most successful tech companies, stepped down this year as the company’s CEO. The corporate restructuring, including a name change to Emburse, followed a string of acquisitions before Certify itself was acquired in the summer of 2017 by K1 Investments for $100 million. The company, which employed 130 people in its Portland office earlier this year, is now part of a much larger organization. Taking over for Neveu in leading the Portland office is Nord Samuelson, who joined Certify as president in May 2019. Neveu is now focused on investing in and advising startups.
6. Hacking COVID-19: Maine startup plans hack-a-thon to “flatten the curve”
MyHealthMath, another of MSI’s 2019 Startups to Watch, mobilized Maine’s tech community in the early days of the pandemic to come up with innovative ways to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in Maine. The Portland startup, which is working to innovate within the health insurance industry, organized a virtual hack-a-thon that took place in March. The result was a website—www.pledgetoprotectme.org, though it’s no longer up—that invited visitors to “take the pledge” to stay home and stop the spread of COVID-19.
5. 12 Maine companies make the Inc. 5,000 List
Inc. magazine this year included 12 Maine companies on its Inc. 5,000 list, which ranks the country’s 5,000 fastest growing privately held companies. The fastest growing Maine company on the list was Brickell Men’s Products, a Portland-based company selling premium grooming and skincare products to men. It ranked 133rd on the list based on three-year revenue growth of 2,774%.
4. Software startup aimed at nursing moms raises seed round amidst COVID-19
Pumpspotting, a Kittery-based startup building software to support breastfeeding moms at home and work, raised more than a half million dollars in its first seed round this year as investors saw promise in its ability to meet the new and challenging needs of working moms in a post-COVID-19 workforce. Investors in the round included MooDoo Investments, a venture capital fund with offices in Boston and San Diego, Maine Venture Fund, Boston-based Launchpad, as well as angel investors from Maine Angels.
3. Guideline raises $85M to continue its tech-forward takeover of 401(k) industry
Guideline, the five-year-old tech company offering a software platform to allow small businesses to offer their employees retirement plans, raised $85 million this year as it continues innovating within the 401(k) industry. The company, which is headquartered in California, employs approximately 50 people, including the bulk of its software development team, in its Portland office.
2. VETRO raises $1M as investors bet on growing demand for broadband services
VETRO Inc., another of MSI’s 2019 Startups to Watch, raised more than $1 million despite the economic upheaval caused by COVID-19. The Portland-based company, which has developed cloud-based broadband mapping and fiber management software for the telecommunications industry, was able to attract investor interest because of an anticipated increase in demand for broadband Internet services caused by the pandemic.
And the most read story of 2020 is…
1. Startup launches skincare brand using lobster glycoprotein
The MSI article that attracted the most attention in 2020 was the one I wrote in July about Marin Skincare, the skincare-product company founded by Amber Boutiette and Patrick Breeding, two recent graduates of UMaine’s biomedical engineering graduate program. The company in July released its first product, a “soothing hydration” cream to treat dry skin conditions commonly associated with eczema. Its claim to fame is its use of lobster glycoprotein, which the company sources from lobster processing facilities. Breeding and Boutiette spun Marin Skincare out of an existing company called Lobster Unlimited, which was founded in 2013 to develop new ways to recycle the waste from lobster processing and render it into commercially viable products.
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