is not ruling out the possibility of creating its own drug development pipeline in the future. That would mark a departure from the company’s current core business model, which is to make lines of stem cells and sell them to researchers. Cellular Dynamics has greater access to capital and other corporate resources since being acquired by Japan-based Fujifilm earlier this year.
—The Milwaukee 7 economic development group announced it received $200,000 from JPMorgan Chase for a program designed to help small- and medium-size businesses export their products and services. During the next year, at least 20 companies will each receive up to $5,000 in matching funds as part of the program. It’s one piece of the Global Cities Initiative, a joint project of the bank and the Brookings Institution, a Washington, DC-based think tank. According to its website, the initiative is intended to help U.S. cities become more economically engaged in global markets.
—Wisconsin startup accelerator Gener8tor unveiled the latest class in its gBETA program, a free, six-week accelerator for early-stage businesses associated with colleges and universities in the Badger State. The class, gBETA’s second, kicked things off Oct. 17 and will finish up on Dec. 8 with a pitch event in Madison. It includes startups from industries like biotech, fitness, and the Internet of Things.
—Madison Magazine published a Q&A with Allen Dines, an entrepreneur who has worked with the UW-Madison on fostering startup growth at the school for more than a decade. Dines is also an investor with WISC Partners, a Madison-based fund created last year that its leaders have said will take a more hands-on approach than most other venture groups. Asked what he’d change about Madison, Dines told the magazine, “We need to be less provincial and self-important…If we create viable informed networks with Milwaukee, Chicago and other Wisconsin and Midwest communities we can multiply the resources and opportunities available to us here.”
