Regional News
Don't miss our other news sources!
- Twenty Seed Companies Selected for April 17th Angel Retreat & Start-Up Speed Dating
- SCYNEXIS Raises $13.5 Million
- Kryosphere Lands $1 Million Angel Investment
- MARBIONC Launches “Go Blue” Initiative
- Modality CEO Receives Apple Innovation Award
- Adherex Begins Phase III Trial
Twenty Seed Companies Selected for April 17th Angel Retreat & Start-Up Speed Dating
Companies from across the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic were
invited to participate in the April 17th Angel Investor
Retreat and the Start-Up Speed Dating sessions of Venture
2008, which takes place April 16-18 at Washington Duke Inn & Golf
Club in Durham, N.C. They join sixteen Early Stage presenters
that day and nineteen Late Stage presenters on the 18th
for a total of forty-five presenting companies at the conference.
For more information visit www.cednc.org/venture.
The Angel Investor Retreat starts at 9 a.m. on April 17 and includes the following presenters and technologies:
- Arbovax, Inc. (Raleigh, NC, www.arbovax.com) - A vaccine technology platform that modifies arthropod-borne viruses.
- Countervail Corporation (Charlotte, NC, www.countervailcorp.com) - Commercialization of antidotes for nerve gas and pesticide.
- Galaxy Diagnostics, Inc. (Chapel Hill NC, www.galaxydx.com) - Infectious disease diagnostics.
- Maestro Music, Inc. (Atlanta, GA, www.getmaestro.com) - Social and interactive music portal.
- Nomad Innovations, LLC (Louisville, KY, www.nomadinnovations.com) - Broadcast-quality connectivity solutions utilizing wireless broadband networks.
- TerraBuilt Corporation International (Middleburg, VA, www.terrabuilt.com) - Patented new sustainable building technology.
- NanoVector, Inc. (Raleigh, NC) - Commercializing a patent pending nanoparticle drug delivery system.
- Floorazzo Tile (Siler City, NC, www.floorazzo.com) - A tile manufacturing company.
Later that afternoon, 12 different young companies will engage with investors in a “speed date” format. They will rotate among groups of investors to give their best elevator pitch and will receive brief, but immediate feedback. “Last year’s start-up speed dating was easily the best event I have participated in as a very early-stage entrepreneur,” explained Vince Coyner, entrepreneur and 2007 CED Venture speed dating participant. “During that one hour, I received more insightful, direct and effective feedback than I had received from a wide range of conversations with VCs and participation in other events. We walked in thinking we ready. By the end of that one hour session, we actually were.”
Companies selected for the the speed dating round, with descriptions provided by CED, are:
- 3F, LLC (Raleigh, NC, www.3fonline.com) A high performance fiber for industrial, structural and ballistic protection.
- AtomFan.com (Durham, NC) Delivers user-selected sports video highlights to fantasy sport fans.
- Blue Angel Optics (Durham, NC, www.blueangeloptics.com) Multi-spectral imaging systems are a revolutionary sensor platform with numerous applications.
- Brainflips, Inc. (Durham, N., www.raulearning.com) The world’s best online flashcard software.
- Caralight, Inc. (Cary, NC, www.caralight.com) Developing a photochemical system that uses ultraviolet (UV) light to destroy dioxin-furan compounds present in the air emissions of certain industrial facilities.
- Contactology (Durham, NC, www.contactology.com) E-mail marketing, surveys and contact management application.
- DevScale (Holly Springs, NC, www.devscale.com) Technology that enables on-demand, scalable and virtual development test environments.
- iCustom.net (Apex, NC, www.icustom.net) An online mass-customization platform
- MBright (Research Triangle Park, NC, www.southeasttechinventures.com/spinoffcompanies/index.php) Applies patented liquid crystal on silicon technology (LCOS) for personal projection.
- Pathfinder Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Durham, NC) Invents and licenses novel, clinical-stage drug candidates for viral infections and related cancers.
- PRKL8.com, Inc. (Cary, NC, www.PRKL8.com) An internet based personalization and content delivery service.
- Science Learning Resources, Inc. (Carrboro, N.C., www.science-learning.com) Innovative multimedia science education products for elementary through college level students.
- Sirga Advanced Biopharma Inc. (Research Triangle Park, NC) Developing a novel mechanism to block ribnucleaic acid (RNA) function at the cellular level.
SCYNEXIS Raises $13.5 Million
Durham-based drug discovery company SCYNEXIS, Inc., (www.scynexis.com)
secured $13.5 million in Series C-2 financing. The funding
was led by Merial Limited and sanofi-aventis. SR One, GlaxoSmithKline's
independent corporate healthcare venture capital fund, also
participated. SCYNEXIS is a spin-off created by a team of
researchers from the Triangle’s Aventis CropScience and
is the primary research partner for animal health company
Merial.
SCYNEXIS, Inc. is a CED member.
Kryosphere Lands $1 Million Angel Investment
Kryosphere Inc. (www.kryosphere.com),
a biostorage company in Durham, raised $1 million in angel
investments and debt financing. The company, founded last
year, plans to open its first location in Research Triangle
Park in May. The facility will provide biorepository, logistical
and management services and will house up to 5 million biological
research samples at ultra-low temperatures.
Kryosphere Inc. is a CED member.
MARBIONC Launches “Go Blue” Initiative
Wilmington-based MARBIONC (Marine Biotechnology in North
Carolina, www.uncwil.edu/cmsr/marbionc.html), a
business incubator that discovers, develops and markets
new products and technologies derived from the sea, has
launched the “Go Blue” initiative to broaden the focus
of environmental awareness from land-based projects to include
ocean-based ones as well. “Aquapreneurial” projects at MARBIONC
include cultivating black sea bass and southern flounder
in on-shore tanks, creating a renewable food source that
eliminates the destructive in-ocean farming practices that
put harmful waste back into the environment.
MARBIONC is a CED member.
Modality CEO Receives Apple Innovation Award
S. Mark Williams,
Ph.D., founder and chief executive officer of Modality,
Inc. is one of 10 individuals to receive the 2008 Apple
Award for Innovation in Science. Williams is an adjunct
faculty member in the Department of Neurobiology at Duke
University who created a way to deliver learning content
to handheld mobile devices. The award was created to foster
collaboration between Apple and the scientific community
and recognizes his use of Apple tools and products in his
medical teaching, including the creation of brain anatomy
study guides for the iPod.
Modality is a CED member.
Adherex Begins Phase III Trial
Research Triangle Park-based Adherex Technologies Inc.,
www.adherex.com, a biopharmaceutical company specializing
in discovery and development of cancer therapeutics, has
begun a Phase III trial for sodium thiosulfate (STS), a
drug to prevent hearing loss in children receiving chemotherapy.
Adherex is running the trial in collaboration with the Children's
Oncology Group (COG)., the world's largest and most recognized
pediatric cancer research collaborative with more than 5,000
members located at more than 200 leading children's hospitals,
university hospitals and cancer centers in North America.