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Drizly, Zapata, and Motif: Meet Boston’s biggest tech losers in 2024 – The Boston Globe

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Drizly, Zapata, and Motif: Meet Boston’s biggest tech losers in 2024 – The Boston Globe


As the Boston tech scene closes the book on 2024, let’s take a moment to mourn the local startups, apps, and products that we lost last year.

The year started with rounds of layoffs at local tech employers including Wayfair, iRobot, and Toast. But the biggest blow hit when Uber decided it didn’t need to maintain Drizly, the Boston-based alcohol delivery startup it acquired in 2021 for $1.1 billion.

At the beginning of the pandemic, the boom in online orders put Drizly on course perhaps to join Wayfair and DraftKings as Boston’s next Internet consumer brand success story. But Uber had other plans and shifted customers to its Uber Eats app.

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Drizly wasn’t the only tech company that bit the dust. Ginkgo Bioworks spinoff Motif FoodWorks, developing plant-based meat substitutes, closed in September. Quantum software firm Zapata AI shut down in October, only six months after merging with a blank check company to go public. And government data startup Civin, founded by Boston’s former chief data officer, Andrew Therriault, four years ago, shut down in December.

Thrasio, which raised billions of dollars to buy hundreds of small Amazon sellers, filed for bankruptcy in February but stayed out of the 2024 dustbin by completing a restructuring and emerging with new leadership and less debt in June.

There were some startup highlights last year, including Liquid AI debuting its groundbreaking software in October, the creation of an “AI hub” backed by $100 million of state money in December, and the continued growth of local battery developers Ascend Elements and Form Energy. And local venture capital investors said they are looking forward to a better year in 2025.

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Bostonians also lost a few apps last year. Foursquare pivoted away from running city-oriented apps cataloging local restaurants, leading to the demise of its Boston specific app. And grocery delivery service Getir, which opened some of its mini-warehouse locations around Boston over the past few years, pulled out of the market in April.

A more serious loss hit low income families in Massachusetts and around the country in June. The Federal Communications Commission’s Affordable Connectivity Program ended after Republicans in Congress refused to support new funding. That left about 368,000 in Massachusetts without the free Internet service subsidy.

At DraftKings, a venture into cryptocurrency related collectibles ran out of steam. Back in 2021, at the height of the crypto bubble, the online betting company opened a store called Reignmakers to sell digital game pieces related to fantasy sports bets. But the effort to sell the pieces, known as non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, was hit with a class action lawsuit alleging the store violated securities laws and DraftKings shuttered it in July.

But hope springs eternal for new lines of business at DraftKings’ Back Bay headquarters. In November, chief executive Jason Robins said the company was looking at adding betting on election results.

Hopefully, the effort will avoid 2025′s tech dust bin.

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Aaron Pressman can be reached at aaron.pressman@globe.com. Follow him @ampressman.





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Boston, MA

Boston rebels against Trump immigration policies with an ‘ICE Tea Party’ – The Boston Globe

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Boston rebels against Trump immigration policies with an ‘ICE Tea Party’ – The Boston Globe


This time, the people marched in resistance to the harsh treatment of immigrants by the Trump administration.

“We descend from Immigrants and Revolutionaries,” read a battle cry beamed onto the side of the brick meeting house Tuesday.

“The society that stops seeing the people at the grocery line or the people that ride the bus with us, as human beings with beating hearts, then it’s not far off before our society devolves into no society at all,” Gilberto Calderin, director of advocacy at the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition said to the crowd of hundreds.

The protest was organized by activist groups Boston Indivisible and Mass 50501, and began at the Irish Famine Memorial Plaza, just steps from the meeting house.

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The lively crowd held up signs, waved American flags, and chanted during the march along Milk Street and Congress Street to the harbor.

Janet England of Brighton held a sign that read, “Democracy Needs Courage.”

The protesters, she said are “true patriots because we want freedom and democracy.”

“Although protest is a long game, we can’t give up. If you think about women’s suffrage, gay rights, the civil rights movement, it took years, but we just can’t give up,” she said.

Gloria Krusemeyer, from Alrington, used a walker to join the march.

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“I’m irritated that I haven’t done more, and I’m just lucky that I can walk fast enough to be doing this,” she said.

Rick Mueller, from Cambridge, was dressed as Uncle Sam and held a large sign that read, “Liberty and Justice For All.”

“We’re fighting for America, so I’m gonna be America,” he said of his costume.

He handed small American flags out to protesters who waved them enthusiastically.

Ice dumping duties was limited to volunteers and select people.

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Among them was Sarah, a mother who brought her 4-year-old daughter, Fiona.

Sarah declined to share her last name for her daughter’s safety.

After throwing ice into the harbor, Fiona shyly said that she wanted to come to the protest to “help families stay together.”

Through tears, Sarah said her decision to bring along Fiona came from wanting to teach her daughter to care about people from all walks of life.

“Kindness and compassion are things we learn in kindergarten and she will be in kindergarten so it’s really important for her to be kind and compassionate,” Sarah said, kissing her daughter’s check.

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Likewise, Sara Sievers, from Cambridge, brought her parents, sister, her nephews and niece to dump ice.

“I think this is one of the most brutal regimes we’ve had in this country, and I want my niece and nephew to remember that it’s important to protest, and that we in Boston are part of a proud tradition of dumping things into the harbor with which we disagree,” Sievers said.

The family wore costumes of historical figures including Abigail Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and King Charles.

As the protest came to a close, Martha Laposata, spokesperson for Boston Indivisible said she wanted protestors to walk away knowing their voices matter.

“We cannot stand down,” Laposata said. “When people rise up against an authoritarian government, if they stay consistent and they keep growing, ultimately an authoritarian government will stand down.”

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Camille Bugayong can be reached at camille.bugayong@globe.com.





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MIT professor shot and killed in his Brookline home

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MIT professor shot and killed in his Brookline home


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Nuno F.G. Loureiro, 47, was pronounced dead on Tuesday after being shot on Monday night.

Nuno F.G. Loureiro, 47, was fatally shot at his home in Brookline on Monday, police said. MIT

An MIT professor was shot and killed in Brookline on Monday night.

Brookline police responded a report of a man shot in his home on Gibbs Street, according to the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office.

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Nuno F.G. Loureiro, 47, was transported to a local hospital and was pronounced dead on Tuesday morning, the DA says.

Loureiro was the director of MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center and a professor of nuclear science and engineering and physics. Originally from Portugal, the Portuguese Minister of Foreign Affairs announced his death in a regulatory hearing before the Committee on Foreign Affairs and Portuguese Communities on Tuesday, according to CNN.

“Sadly, I can confirm that Professor Nuno Loureiro, who died early this morning, was a current MIT faculty member in the departments of Nuclear Science & Engineering and Physics, as well as the Director of MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center. Our deepest sympathies are with his family, students, colleagues, and all those who are grieving,” an MIT spokesperson wrote in a statement.

In January, Loureiro was honored as one of nearly 400 scientists and engineers with the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from former president Joe Biden.

The investigation into the homicide remains ongoing. No further information was released.

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Brookline police investigate shooting that wounded man

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Brookline police investigate shooting that wounded man


A man was hospitalized after being shot Monday night in Brookline, Massachusetts.

The shooting happened on Gibbs Street. There was a large police presence at the scene.

The victim was brought to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. His condition was not known.

Police said the victim was shot three times and grazed by another round.

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Authorities did not say if any arrests had been made.

No further information was immediately available.



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