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PowerByHand Raises $27 Million and Changes Name to Motricity
Durham-based PowerByHand has changed its name to Motricity and closed $27 million in venture funding led by Silicon Valley-based Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV). Existing investors also participated in this round, including New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Intel Capital, Massey Burch Capital, Noro-Moseley Partners and Wakefield Group. Motricity will use the money for marketing, acquisitions and further expansion overseas.

Since 2001, Motricity has followed an aggressive growth strategy through a number of acquisitions and mergers. Following this recent round of funding, Motricity's Board of Directors includes:

  • Ryan Wuerch, chairman & CEO, Motricity
  • Jud Bowman, president & COO, Motricity
  • Will Griffith, general partner, Technology Crossover Ventures
  • Suzanne King, partner, New Enterprise Associates
  • Steve Nelson, General Partner, Wakefield Group
  • Townes Duncan, president, Solidus Company
  • Rick White, CEO, TechNet, former U.S. Congressman

Motricity is a CED member.

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SJF Ventures Closes Initial $10 Million for Second Fund
SJF Ventures (www.sjfund.com), which has offices in Durham and Philadelphia, announced the initial closing on SJF Ventures II, L.P., its second venture fund with more than $10 million in capital commitments. Founding investors in the fund include MBNA America, Deutsche Bank, Wachovia, Merrill Lynch Community Development Company LLC, Key Community Development Corporation, the National Community Capital Association, the Community Development Venture Capital Alliance, and individual investors.

Company officials said they expect this second fund to end up with more than twice the capital of SJF Ventures I, which has $17 million under management. SJF focuses on financing and assisting rapidly growing companies with revenues of $1 to $10 million. SJF targets cleantech, business services, and consumer products companies whose rapid growth results in significant entry-level job creation.

SJF Ventures is a CED member.

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Centice Raises $3 Million Series A
Durham-based Centice Corporation (www.centice.com), a developer of the computational “smart” sensor, has closed $3 million in Series A funding from The Aurora Funds and Novak Biddle Venture Partners. The company will use the funds to increase staff and, through partnerships, bring a series of computational sensor-based products to market.

Centice has also hired a new CEO, Steve Kaye, and launched its first product - a research-grade Raman spectrometer - that is now available for evaluation by potential partners. Before joining Centice, Kaye served as president of privately-held GTCO CalComp, which he led to become the world's leading provider of large format position-sensing systems, including high performance digitizers and digital whiteboards. During his tenure, GTCO experienced a record 10 straight years of increased earnings and three highly successful acquisitions. Founded in September 2003, Centice (formerly called Optopo) has strong ties to Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering. The company's computational sensors, which boost the performance of a wide range of products that rely on optical sensors, were developed at the University's Fitzpatrick Center for Photonics and Communication Systems with approximately $20 million in funding from research grants. Now at the product evaluation stage, Centice sensors are customized for the specific needs of relevant products offered by manufacturers of analytical and biomedical instruments, process spectrometers, imaging equipment and position-tracking devices.

Centice is a CED member.

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TransTech Pharma Achieves Milestone in Five-Year Deal with Novo Nordisk
High Point-based TransTech Pharma, Inc. (www.ttpharma.com) has achieved a milestone in its five-year strategic research collaboration with Novo Nordisk (www.novonordisk.com). The collaboration, initiated in July 2001, is based on TransTech Pharma's proprietary TTP Translational Technology for small molecule drug discovery in combination with Novo Nordisk's biological targets.

TransTech, a privately held drug discovery company employing approximately 75 people, is actively developing its own programs with two now in human clinical trials: one a novel oral anticoagulant in Phase II and the other a novel treatment for Alzheimer's disease in Phase I. With headquarters in Denmark, Novo Nordisk employs approximately 20,000 people in 69 countries and markets its products in 179 countries. Novo Nordisk is a world leader in diabetes care.

TransTech Pharma is a CED member.

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Research Triangle Software Releases Decryption Software
Cary-based Research Triangle Software (www.rtsz.com), a developer of secure and branded e-commerce solutions, has released its CryptoStick One-Click Decoder. The next productallows for the decoding and viewing of files originally encrypted by the company's CryptoStick USB device.

Available as a free download, the CryptoStick One-Click Decoder enables confidential files to be accessed without the physical presence of a CryptoStick for decryption. The CryptoStick can encrypt and the CryptoStick One-Click Decoder can decrypt files such as Miccrosoft Word documents and PowerPoint presentations. Research Triangle Software was the winner of CED's first annual People Choice Award at the InfoTech 2003 conference last year.

Research Triangle Software is a CED member.

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Durham's McKinney & Silver Lands $15 Million Ad Contract
Durham-based ad agency McKinney & Silver (www.mckinney-silver.com) has landed a $15 million advertising account with Polaris Industries Inc. (NYSE: PII), a maker of snowmobiles, motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles. McKinney, which was founded in 1969, will provide integrated marketing communications solutions to Polaris, including strategic leadership, creative development and media buying and planning responsibilities for all Polaris brands.

With annual 2003 sales of $1.6 billion, Polaris designs, engineers, manufactures and markets snowmobiles, all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), Victory motorcycles and the Polaris RANGER for recreational and utility use. Polaris is included in the S&P Small-Cap 600 stock price index.

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NCEITA Announces Awards Finalists
The North Carolina Electronics and Information Technologies Association (NCEITA) has announced finalists for its 10th annual NCEITA 21 Awards Celebration, set for Nov. 18 at the Embassy Suites in Cary. Grant Thornton, an accounting, tax and business advisory organization, is conducting the statewide selection process in cooperation with past and present NCEITA chairpersons. The finalists nominated for the 21 Awards include:

  • Communications Company of the Year: Corning Incorporated, JPS Communications, Inc., Overture Networks, and U.S. Networks, Inc.
  • Consumer Technology Company of the Year: Art.com, Motricity (formerly PowerByHand Inc.), and Time Warner Cable
  • Corporate Citizenship of the Year: IBM, Inspire Pharmaceuticals and Progress Energy
  • Corporate Education: Cisco Systems, Duke Energy, EMC Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, Progress Energy, and SAS
  • Early Stage Company of the Year: Affinergy, Inlet Technologies, KBI BioPharma, and StrikeIron, Inc.
  • Electronics Company of the Year: Cree, Inc., EMC Corporation, RF Micro Devices, and Static Control Components
  • Healthcare/Pharmaceutical Company of the Year: Icagen, Targacept, and TransTech Pharma
  • IT Support Services Award: Inflow, Kennedy Covington, Kilpatrick Stockton, Linda Markus Daniels, and Peak 10
  • Large Company of the Year: Constella Group, EMC Corporation, Peopleclick, and Static Control Components
  • Media Award: Carolina Newswire, Time Warner Cable / News 14 Carolina, Triangle Business Journal, and Triangle Tech Journal
  • Mid Size Company of the Year: Arsenal Digital Solutions, LVL7 Systems, Inc., QlikTech, Inc., and WebSourced, Inc.
  • NCEITA Volunteer: Billy Glynn - Collective IQ, Randy Fraser - Time Warner Cable
  • Private Company of the Year: A4 Health Systems, Constella Group, SAS, and Static Control Components
  • Public Company of the Year: Cisco Systems, Cree, Inc., EMC Corporation, GlaxoSmithKline
  • Public Leadership in Technology: Mr. Olin Broadway, Ms. Janet Smith, Representative Bill Daughtridge, Representative Bill Wainwright, Senator John Kerr, Senator Richard Stevens, and Senator Tony Rand
  • Software Company of the Year: LVL7 Systems, Inc., SAS, SchoolDude.com, Ultimus
  • Top Customer Service Company of the Year: Red Hat, SAS, Time Warner Cable
  • Top Government / Non-Profit Technology of the Year: DonorsChoose, e-NC Authority, and MCNC
  • Top Growth Company of the Year: A4 Health Systems, Art.com, and Constella Group
  • Top VC Invested Company of the Year: Cellective Therapuetics, Icagen, SciQuest, and TransTech Pharma

For more information on the NCEITA 21 event, visit www.nceita.org or http://www.e-brochures-usa.com/2004NCEITA21/.

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Events Update

November 15 — Biotechnology Forum: The Drug-Device Intersection: Combination Devices and North Carolina's Life Science Future
November 18 — CED Information Session for Prospective Members
November 19 — CFO Roundtable - Mergers & Acquistions
December 4 — Innovator's Workshop
January 27 — Engage: Finance