Venture Capital

Mitt Romney has long called himself a venture capitalist, experience he says helps him understand the economy better than other candidates for president. But he spent much more of his career in leveraged buyouts than in the investments in start-up companies known as venture capital. Romney's one true venture deal was Staples Inc., the office supply superstore, two years after he started Bain Capital. He wasn't the first to discover Staples; another Boston venture firm introduced him to Staples founder Tom Stemberg.

Actress Jessica Alba came to Cambridge on Tuesday to talk diapers. The 31-year-old "Fantastic Four" actress recently added technology entrepreneur to her resume when she cofounded the Honest Co., an e-commerce site focused on selling biodegradable diapers. She was in Harvard Square for General Catalyst Partners' annual gathering of companies in the venture capital firm's portfolio. In March, General Catalyst led a $27 million round of funding for Alba's company. Alba, who is president of the Honest Co., was the keynote speaker at the event, which drew hundreds of...

Bain Capital is about to move into five floors in the middle of one of Boston's most prominent addresses, the John Hancock Tower. That said, the venture capital company prefers to maintain a low profile, an aim all the more challenging as its employees increasingly engage in the very high-profile world of politics. And now, with cofounder Mitt Romney once again campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination, this time as the front-runner, the scrutiny is intensifying.

Funding for startups fell 19 percent in the first three months of the year, as cautious venture capitalists funneled less money into fewer deals. According to a study out Friday, startup investments fell to $5.8 billion in the January-March quarter from $7.1 billion in the same period in 2011. The companies receiving deals were mainly in the Internet, energy and medical device sectors in the later stages of development. There were 758 deals completed during the quarter, 15 percent fewer than the 889 a year earlier.

Actress Jessica Alba came to Cambridge on Tuesday to talk diapers. The 31-year-old "Fantastic Four" actress recently added technology entrepreneur to her resume when she cofounded the Honest Co., an e-commerce site focused on selling biodegradable diapers. She was in Harvard Square for General Catalyst Partners' annual gathering of companies in the venture capital firm's portfolio. In March, General Catalyst led a $27 million round of funding for Alba's company. Alba, who is president of the Honest Co., was the keynote speaker at the event, which drew hundreds of...

NEW YORK - New York passed Massachusetts in US venture-capital deals for the first time since at least 1999, ranking second in the latest quarter behind California, as investors seek growth in consumer Internet start-ups. New York companies took in $831 million in 86 venture capital deals, compared with $710 million for 83 investments in Massachusetts, according to a report released yesterday by CB Insights, a venture capital database. A total of 790 US firms received $7.9 billion in the fourth straight quarter of venture investment growth.

Investments by venture capital firms rose sharply in Massachusetts and the nation last year, returning to the levels achieved before the economic crisis of 2008, according to a report released yesterday by CB Insights, a New York venture capital database. After a third quarter that the report categorized as "blah," Massachusetts recovered in the last three months of 2011, with a 35 percent increase in venture funding and a 12 percent increase in the number of deals over the previous quarter.

Michael Arrington, founder of popular tech blog TechCrunch, is starting a venture capital firm with an initial $20 million to invest in the same kinds of startups that TechCrunch often covers. The fund's investors include tech company AOL Inc., which bought TechCrunch last year for an undisclosed amount, and a number of prominent venture capital firms such as Greylock partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Sequoia Capital. Arrington will be heading up the fund with Patrick Gallagher, who is a partner at VantagePoint Capital Partners.

CustomMade Ventures Corp. is a Cambridge Internet start-up that had a problem: 97 percent of visitors to its website weren't ordering anything. Another Internet company - one that knows a thing or two about attracting users - found a solution. Google Inc., whose Cambridge office is nearby in Kendall Square, helped redesign CustomMade.com so that wherever someone clicks, they know exactly how to get handmade goods from the site, which is designed to connect customers with crafters.

SAN FRANCISCO - In long days packed with back-to-back meetings last week, Tillman Gerngross pressed drug company leaders from around the world to farm out some specialized research and development to his New Hampshire start-up, Adimab LLC. Gerngross even bought advertisements promoting his biotech firm on this city's fabled cable cars to catch executives' attention as the cars rumbled down Powell Street past the Westin St. Francis hotel, where...

Cambridge venture capital firm Flagship Ventures said Tuesday that it is partnering with Merck Research Laboratories and its newly formed Merck Research Ventures in a collaboration designed to foster early-stage innovation in life sciences. Merck & Co. is a large drug company based in New Jersey. As part of the collaboration, Merck Research Ventures Fund became an investor in Flagship Ventures Fund IV L.P., a $270 million venture capital fund that closed in January, Flagship Ventures said in a press release.

French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi SA is using its newly expanded presence in the Boston area to pioneer a research model that relies more on partnerships with outside innovators and less on its in-house efforts, the company's chief executive said Tuesday. Christopher A. Viehbacher, who negotiated Sanofi's high-profile buyout of Cambridge-based Genzyme Corp. last year, said the area's focus on innovation makes it a perfect location to collaborate on drug development with academic researchers and biotech start-ups.

CustomMade Ventures Corp. is a Cambridge Internet start-up that had a problem: 97 percent of visitors to its website weren't ordering anything. Another Internet company - one that knows a thing or two about attracting users - found a solution. Google Inc., whose Cambridge office is nearby in Kendall Square, helped redesign CustomMade.com so that wherever someone clicks, they know exactly how to get handmade goods from the site, which is designed to connect customers with crafters.

In the race to build a local sector of innovative Internet companies, Boston and New York City are both growing fast - but a new survey says New York, with twice the number of digital companies and a much larger base of venture funding, is bound to pull even further ahead in the years to come. There are 116 such companies employing nearly 11,000 workers with offices in Boston, according to the survey from executive search firm Cook Associates, which tracks the growth of companies devoted entirely to Internet-related activities.

Bain Capital and its venture capital arm agreed to invest $238 million in SquareTrade, a San Francisco company that sells product warranties to consumers. The investments come from a Bain buyout fund and a separate venture fund, an unusual combination for the firm founded by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. This is the first deal Bain Capital has disclosed this political season. SquareTrade sells warranties on consumer products such as laptops and other electronics that either augment or replace the ones provided by manufacturers.

SAN FRANCISCO - This month, a hacker toured a dozen conference rooms around the globe via equipment that most every company has: videoconferencing equipment. With a mouse, he steered a camera around each room, zooming in with such precision that he could discern paint flecks on the wall. The hacker could have eavesdropped on attorney-client conversations or read trade secrets. The hacker was HD Moore, a chief security officer at Rapid 7, a Boston company that looks for security holes in computer systems.

Bain Capital and its venture capital arm agreed to invest $238 million in SquareTrade, a San Francisco company that sells product warranties to consumers. The investments come from a Bain buyout fund and a separate venture fund, an unusual combination for the firm founded by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. This is the first deal Bain Capital has disclosed this political season. SquareTrade sells warranties on consumer products such as laptops and other electronics that either augment or replace the ones provided by manufacturers.