Investors and entrepreneurs in the Bay Area pride themselves on being the first to identify and exploit new technologies with huge commercial potential. And they’ve earned the right to be a little cocky. Since 1960, Silicon Valley companies have been the pacesetters in four consecutive infotech revolutions (semiconductors, personal computers, the Internet, and mobile). It’s … Continue reading “Hey, Silicon Valley: Wake Up and Smell the Robots”
Category: New York
Gopogo Lands $3,000,000 Seed Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=20ca2713-5dc4-4767-8e20-7b23aca0d2fd&Preview=1 Date 4/27/2012 Company Name Gopogo Mailing Address 349 5th Avenue New York, NY 10016 Company Description gopogo is a social commerce utility that chronicles discovery by connecting people, places and things through self-expression. Website http://www.gopogo.com Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction Amount $3,000,000 Transaction Round Seed Proceeds Purposes Proceeds purposes were not … Continue reading “Gopogo Lands $3,000,000 Seed Round”
AHAlife.com Receives $10,100,000 Series B Financing Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=6aaae759-0603-4102-918d-b281f9e32a3a&Preview=1 Date 4/27/2012 Company Name AHAlife.com Mailing Address 45 Bond Street 4th Floor New York, NY 10012 Company Description Some things are just meant to go together. AHAlife is the online discovery destination where you can learn about – and purchase – the best unique products from around the world, collectively curated … Continue reading “AHAlife.com Receives $10,100,000 Series B Financing Round”
Announcing Xconomy’s Napa Summit: Keeping America Growing
As the Presidential campaign heats up, one of the most pressing issues on the minds of candidates and voters alike is the future of American growth and competitiveness. So it is our great pleasure to announce an exclusive Xconomy gathering dedicated to exploring this vital issue with some of the most knowledgeable experts on the … Continue reading “Announcing Xconomy’s Napa Summit: Keeping America Growing”
Xconomist of the Week: Michael Greeley Dissects the VC Data
Michael Greeley is no pessimist. Eeyores don’t get picked to run the New England Venture Capital Association, as Greeley did from 2005 to 2008, and they don’t win gubernatorial appointments to state entrepreneurship boards. But he’s more willing than most VCs to talk about troubling trends in the innovation economy. So we paid attention earlier … Continue reading “Xconomist of the Week: Michael Greeley Dissects the VC Data”
Unroll.me CEO on Learning from Mistakes and Striking When the Market is Hot
Like many entrepreneurs, Josh Rosenwald ate a healthy slice of humble pie after his previous startup went under. So he planned carefully before committing to his latest endeavor. This time he believes he found a scalable idea he can monetize. That does not mean Unroll.me, his New York-based startup, is a sure bet, but he … Continue reading “Unroll.me CEO on Learning from Mistakes and Striking When the Market is Hot”
Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem: Ideas for Indonesia and Beyond
Twenty-plus years ago, I helped launch the $10K Business Plan Competition now known as the MIT $100K Competition. Back then there was very little of formalized entrepreneurship activities at MIT. The $100K gave rise to the Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation after Desh Deshpande had served as a $50K judge and noticed that there weren’t … Continue reading “Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem: Ideas for Indonesia and Beyond”
Epizyme Gets $90M in Epigenetics Partnership with Celgene
Cambridge, MA-based Epizyme said today that it has formed a strategic partnership with an international subsidiary of Summit, NJ-based Celgene (NASDAQ: [[ticker:CELG]]). The two companies will work together to develop targeted cancer therapies based on Epizyme’s work in epigenetics, an emerging field that involves turning genes on and off without altering the underlying DNA. The … Continue reading “Epizyme Gets $90M in Epigenetics Partnership with Celgene”
Illumina Opens Apple-Inspired App Store for DNA Software Developers
San Diego-based Illumina has talked openly about how it is inspired by the way Apple integrates hardware and software, and now it’s taking another cue from the consumer technology colossus. Illumina, the market-leading maker of DNA sequencing instruments, said today it is creating an open platform for genomic software developers to make apps for scientific … Continue reading “Illumina Opens Apple-Inspired App Store for DNA Software Developers”
Fashion, Photos, and Marketing Loom Large Among Startups at ERA Demo Day
Graduates from the Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator’s winter class took the stage today at the New York Institute of Technology to impress investors and other attendees at its demo day event. Ten startups offered up their ideas on how to disrupt fashion, retail, marketing, and other industries that are rooted in the city yet extend far … Continue reading “Fashion, Photos, and Marketing Loom Large Among Startups at ERA Demo Day”
N-Gene Digs Up Funds to Boost “Heat Shock” Drug in Diabetes and MD
Drug development is never easy for cash-strapped biotechs, but for those wanting to make new drugs to treat diabetes—where the FDA demands clinical trials that are long and expensive—it can be nearly impossible. New York-based N-Gene Research Laboratories is one of those companies. The scrappy, 15-year-old outfit “has always worked in financial hypoxia,” says CEO … Continue reading “N-Gene Digs Up Funds to Boost “Heat Shock” Drug in Diabetes and MD”
Planet Daily Networks Secures $5,000,000 Series A Funding Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=a6d8099b-fd49-4756-9237-ddbb820e20b6&Preview=1 Date 4/25/2012 Company Name Planet Daily Networks Mailing Address 560 Broadway New York, NY 10012 Company Description Planet Daily is reportedly aiming at bringing TV-style news to the web, luring in people who normally watch. Website Undisclosed Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction Amount $5,000,000 Transaction Round Series A Proceeds Purposes Proceeds … Continue reading “Planet Daily Networks Secures $5,000,000 Series A Funding Round”
The Napa Summit: Keeping America Growing
How do we keep America competitive and growing? To explore this vital question, Xconomy is tapping its national network of Xconomists, venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, and other leading members of the innovation community for an intimate, invitation-only summit in the heart of California’s wine country. This extraordinary day-and-a-half-long, off-the-record retreat will feature candid chats, entrepreneur and … Continue reading “The Napa Summit: Keeping America Growing”
IMS Health Buys DecisionView For Programs to Speed Clinical Trials
[Update: 6:35 am PT, 4/25] IMS Health, the giant healthcare market information company based in Danbury, CT, said today it is acquiring San Francisco-based DecisionView for an undisclosed amount. DecisionView, a privately-held software company founded in 2004, has made strides the past few years with its real-time analytic programs that are supposed to help drug … Continue reading “IMS Health Buys DecisionView For Programs to Speed Clinical Trials”
The JOBS Act—The “IPO On-Ramp” Makes IPOs Easier
Enacted with great fanfare in early April, the JOBS Act is intended to improve access to the public capital markets for startup companies. The cornerstone of the act is the creation of an “IPO on ramp” which provides “emerging growth companies” up to five years following their IPO to come into full compliance with various … Continue reading “The JOBS Act—The “IPO On-Ramp” Makes IPOs Easier”
Sparkology Puts Elite Spin on Dating and Competes to Enter Y Combinator
As more dating websites chase the same customers, it gets harder to see the differences among these companies. Most promise lots of dates, but that does not always translate into successful matches. New York’s Sparkology believes its strategy of only accepting men educated at renowned universities sets it apart from its rivals—and might win the … Continue reading “Sparkology Puts Elite Spin on Dating and Competes to Enter Y Combinator”
Oligomerix Lands $2,000,000 Series A Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=7a4b1a72-41ba-4af7-a7c1-9b493f4c658f&Preview=1 Date 4/24/2012 Company Name Oligomerix Mailing Address 3960 Broadway New York, NY 10032 Company Description OLIGOMERIX Inc., is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing novel drug discovery targets and therapeutics for Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders. Founded in 2006, OLIGOMERIX has filed patents on tau protein oligomers (soluble aggregates) for … Continue reading “Oligomerix Lands $2,000,000 Series A Round”
Liazon Receives $18,200,000 New Funding Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=4220adc0-9e14-4374-857b-ca4d0da7811f&Preview=1 Date 4/24/2012 Company Name Liazon Mailing Address 737 Main Street Buffalo, NY 14203 Company Description The company provides employee benefits services. Website http://www.liazon.com Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction Amount $18,200,000 Transaction Round Undisclosed Proceeds Purposes Liazon will utilize this new capital to expand our marketpresence to serve more companies and give … Continue reading “Liazon Receives $18,200,000 New Funding Round”
Riverside Chats: Eric Schadt
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center’s office of technology development hosts an evening with Eric Schadt,director of the Institute for Genomics and Multiscale Biology and chair of the department of genetics and genomics sciences at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Schadt will pass along insights from his years of experience blending mathematics, biology and supercomputers to pursue a … Continue reading “Riverside Chats: Eric Schadt”
E-Commerce Startup Material Wrld Opens up Fashionistas’ Closets
For Jie Zheng and Rie Yano, the options for selling used clothing were just not cutting it. Consignment stores were picky, thrift shops paid virtually nothing for their wares, and eBay was complicated. Both were working as marketers for big fashion brands, buying a lot of clothes for office days and work events, and trying … Continue reading “E-Commerce Startup Material Wrld Opens up Fashionistas’ Closets”
What Are the Hottest Targets in Biotech Today?
Hardly anybody wants new drugs that act like a sledgehammer, bashing diseased and healthy cells like old-school cancer chemotherapy. Many drugs today are supposed to be smart enough to work like laser-guided missiles that hit the diseased cells and mostly spare the healthy ones. But if your goal is to create one of these amazing … Continue reading “What Are the Hottest Targets in Biotech Today?”
Moat Garners $12,000,000 Series B Funding
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=cd194484-1731-425d-a3f9-7146ae66d532&Preview=1 Date 4/23/2012 Company Name Moat Mailing Address 228 Park Ave South New York, NY 10003 Company Description Moat has a proxy for attention. It can generate a heat map of where people hover their mouse over an ad, and where they click as well. A date Moat offers these heatmap analytics … Continue reading “Moat Garners $12,000,000 Series B Funding”
Lore Garners New Financing Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=ef1b18f1-eb1b-4e2a-b60a-8a70ac9e4b75&Preview=1 Date 4/23/2012 Company Name Lore Mailing Address 40 Wall Street 32nd Floor New York, NY 10005 Company Description We’ve re-imagined what a class should look like online. We give instructors and students amazingly designed tools to manage their courses – calendaring, file management – and we make it unbelievably easy to … Continue reading “Lore Garners New Financing Round”
CoffeeTable Aims to Reinvent Catalog Shopping for the iPad Era
When e-commerce startup CoffeeTable was brand new, the company occupied a table at San Francisco’s Dogpatch Labs, right across from another startup called Burbn. The week Burbn launched its iPhone app, CoffeeTable’s lead engineer “started to see that it was going to take off, and decided to switch over and join them,” says Ben Choi, … Continue reading “CoffeeTable Aims to Reinvent Catalog Shopping for the iPad Era”
NY Tech Day Brings Together Startups and Potential Investors
New York is teeming with events to showcase startups, but Thursday’s NY Tech Day presented a lineup of up-and-comers who, in some cases, drew more attention than big-name exhibitors such as tumblr. In its debut event, NY Tech Day brought out some 160 tech companies to the 69th Regiment Armory in New York’s Flatiron District. … Continue reading “NY Tech Day Brings Together Startups and Potential Investors”
Wander Obtains $1,200,000 New Funding
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=5fd6388f-2fcf-4da9-ae87-b92e551bb6d7&Preview=1 Date 4/20/2012 Company Name Wander Mailing Address Undisclosed Brooklyn, NY 11211 Company Description Wander, which co-founder Jeremy Fisher describes as a “a way to the see the world through other people eyes” is still under wraps but Fisher reveals that the final product will be “adjacent” to both the curation and … Continue reading “Wander Obtains $1,200,000 New Funding”
Internet Week New York
The fifth year of this week-long festival will celebrate NYC’s Internet community. Speakers include John Battelle, executive chairman of Federated Media, Mike Goslin,general manager of Rebel Entertainment,and Peter Bell, SVP of engineering at General Assembly. Register here.
General Assembly Digital Buffet
General Assembly presents a full week of workshops on topics ranging from social media to data and APIs. Each workshop will provide a full-day subject overview, highlighting trends and tactics. Register for individual workshops or the entire week here.
Small Business Expo
This full-day event will provide entrepreneurs with a host of practical information on marketing, technology, and business operations. Workshops include “How to build your business and succeed online,” “Crowdfunding 101,” and “Your exit strategy.” Register here.
Financial Modeling for Startups
This session will teach the basics of financial modeling using a practical example. Attendees will learn how to craft a business story, identify its levers, and create simple funding projections. The class will be taught by Mo Lam, founder and CEO of TwoChop, a content gamification platform. Register here.
Assembled Capital: A Founder’s Guide to Fundraising
This full-day conference will cover fundraising strategies for early-stage startups, common misconceptions and best practices in fundraising, the future of crowdfunding, and stories from entrepreneurs on successes and failures. Speakers include Brian Cohen of New York Angels, David Tisch of TechStars NYC, and Phin Barnes of First Round Capital. Register here.
How to Build a Billion-Dollar Startup
The quickest way to create a billion dollar company is to take basic human social needs and figure out how to mediate them online. Look at the first wave of the Web/mobile/cloud startups that have done just that: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Match.com, Pandora, Zynga, WordPress, LinkedIn. It’s your turn. Hard-Wired This week I’m in New … Continue reading “How to Build a Billion-Dollar Startup”
Xconomist of the Week: Ramsinghani On Microinvesting in a Company Town
There is a lot of talk these days in post-industrial American cities like Detroit about transforming the “brawn economy” into the brain economy. Detroit Xconomist Mahendra Ramsinghani, who runs Invest Detroit’s First Step Fund, is on the front lines of that battle to economically recalibrate. “As a community, generation after generation got up and went … Continue reading “Xconomist of the Week: Ramsinghani On Microinvesting in a Company Town”
Pipeline Fellowship Grooms Female Angel Investors and Entrepreneurs
On March 30, Brittany Haas stepped before a firing line of 10 investors who were considering funding her New York-based startup, Happily Ever Borrowed, a website that rents veils, jewelry and other accessories to brides. Haas was part of a pitch event that couldn’t have been more different from a TechStars demo day—or any other … Continue reading “Pipeline Fellowship Grooms Female Angel Investors and Entrepreneurs”
Schoology Aims to Make the Honor Roll in Education Technology
Much like a promising class of new graduates, the fast-growing startups in education technology are landing big offers to get ahead. Money is flowing into these companies as they develop technology that puts new twists on the traditional classroom. Up and comer Schoology in New York raised $6 million on Monday in a funding round … Continue reading “Schoology Aims to Make the Honor Roll in Education Technology”
Small is Beautiful in Q1 Venture Deals as VCs Write Lots of Checks
Venture investors wrote lots of checks during the first three months of 2012, but the amounts were small, according to the venture capital activity report being released today by CB Insights, the New York data services firm. The firm counted 785 venture deals during the quarter that ended March 31, marking the second-highest deal count … Continue reading “Small is Beautiful in Q1 Venture Deals as VCs Write Lots of Checks”
AdSafe Media Receives $10,000,000 New Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=182d1fd0-8118-40a5-840d-b8c7288a5560&Preview=1 Date 4/18/2012 Company Name AdSafe Media Mailing Address 37 E. 18th St. Seventh Floor New York, NY 10003 Company Description AdSafe is the industry leader in online brand protection and risk management. Our Rating System provides an independent, third-party content rating and certification platform to help standardize and better control the … Continue reading “AdSafe Media Receives $10,000,000 New Round”
2tor Garners $10,000,000 New Funding
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=ebeae564-9f0a-430f-8112-da421611830b&Preview=1 Date 4/18/2012 Company Name 2tor Mailing Address 60 Chelsea Piers New York, NY 10011 Company Description Founded by a unique team of education veterans with unparalleled experience, 2tor Inc. is a private company that partners with preeminent institutions of higher education to deliver rigorous, selective degree programs online.2tor develops state-of-the-art technology … Continue reading “2tor Garners $10,000,000 New Funding”
Five Questions: Acorda CEO Ron Cohen on the Future of Neurology R&D
Hawthorne, NY-based Acorda Therapeutics (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ACOR]]) held its first R&D day for Wall Street analysts in six years today, and when CEO Ron Cohen was asked ‘why now?’ his answer was simple. The company had been focused all those years on getting its multiple sclerosis drug dalfampridine (Ampyra) approved, Cohen says. “Until all of that was done, … Continue reading “Five Questions: Acorda CEO Ron Cohen on the Future of Neurology R&D”
Optimism and Innovation
There are many opinions on the essential elements for innovation. One component is particularly crucial, and one of my favorite quotes on the matter is by Intel co-founder Robert Noyce, who said “Optimism is an essential ingredient for innovation. How else can the individual welcome change over security, adventure, over staying in safe places?” Having … Continue reading “Optimism and Innovation”
Driving for a Better Way to Engage Consumers in their Own Health
Attention to health is life’s greatest hindrance—Plato Let’s just say you own a car. You have undoubtedly purchased insurance for the car and if you are diligent and worried about value and performance, you also are diligent about maintenance. You get the oil changed according to schedule, you fill it with the right kind of … Continue reading “Driving for a Better Way to Engage Consumers in their Own Health”
Dendreon CEO John Johnson: ‘This is My Last Stop’
Dendreon was run its entire 20-year history by people trained in science and medicine, and the big achievement was FDA approval of the first treatment to stimulate the immune system to fight cancer cells like a virus. But it stumbled in the early days of marketing its prostate cancer drug, so Dendreon did what many … Continue reading “Dendreon CEO John Johnson: ‘This is My Last Stop’”
By Invitation Only: A Story of Entrepreneur Passion and Leadership
“Alexis had certainly never waxed on about her shopping habits in front of a room full of middle-aged men clad in blue shirts and khakis. She knew a big part of a VC partner’s job is to assess people’s judgment; they don’t tend to be fond of frivolity. Yet our business would live or die … Continue reading “By Invitation Only: A Story of Entrepreneur Passion and Leadership”
Abbott’s Humira, the 3rd-in-Class Drug That Toppled Lipitor as No. 1
Sometimes the biggest success stories in business never make it to the magazine covers. There’s no single Eureka moment, no surprise turning point, no redemption, no swashbuckling CEO delivering the goods. There’s just a team pursuing genius like Edison once said: through 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration. Dull as it may sound, there … Continue reading “Abbott’s Humira, the 3rd-in-Class Drug That Toppled Lipitor as No. 1”
Birchbox Breaks into New Markets to Compete in Subscription Commerce
It takes a touch of finesse to win over consumers in a market crowded with e-tailers eager to ship products to one’s front door. Now New York’s Birchbox is finding out whether it has that touch. The e-retail company, which ships curated wares, made its first splash offering assorted cosmetics and beauty products for women … Continue reading “Birchbox Breaks into New Markets to Compete in Subscription Commerce”
Eos Energy Storage Secures $1,800,000 New Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=ba97d571-f33c-4949-916f-ab7d89b21823&Preview=1 Date 4/16/2012 Company Name Eos Energy Storage Mailing Address 3 East 80th Street New York, NY 10075 Company Description Eos develops novel, low-cost energy storage solutions for the electric utility and transportation industries. Eos’ mission is to produce cost effective energy storage solutions that are not only less expensive than other … Continue reading “Eos Energy Storage Secures $1,800,000 New Round”
ChartBeat Garners $9,500,000 Series B Funding
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=e7471a99-d82f-4201-9baa-f5e031763945&Preview=1 Date 4/16/2012 Company Name ChartBeat Mailing Address 416 W. 13th St. New York, NY 10014 Company Description Chartbeat provides real-time data analytics and performance alerts for your website. Website http://www.chartbeat.com Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction Amount $9,500,000 Transaction Round Series B Proceeds Purposes Proceeds purposes were not disclosed, however concurrently with … Continue reading “ChartBeat Garners $9,500,000 Series B Funding”
Schoology Secures $6,000,000 Series B Funding Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=95fd5cc8-0b4b-4db6-92f1-f7d3bde08bbf&Preview=1 Date 4/16/2012 Company Name Schoology Mailing Address 115 W 30th St New York, NY 10001 Company Description Schoology is a free web-based learning management system (LMS) built on a social network. Schoology leverages the familiarity of popular social media tools to improve communication and collaboration. Website http://www.schoology.com Transaction Type Venture Equity … Continue reading “Schoology Secures $6,000,000 Series B Funding Round”
Kullect Reinvents Blogging for the Smartphone Era
Blogs are coming up on their 15th birthday—the term “weblog” was coined in December 1997, according to Wired (though it wasn’t shortened to “blog” until 1999). What’s interesting is how little the form has changed in that time. A typical blog is still just a collection of text-based essays or articles and comments written on … Continue reading “Kullect Reinvents Blogging for the Smartphone Era”
Altruik Receives $600,000 New Funding
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=2921f8ed-9cee-4028-be26-4b0c31060529&Preview=1 Date 4/13/2012 Company Name Altruik Mailing Address 341 West 38th Street 8th Floor New York, NY 10018 Company Description Altruik is a Search Engine Optimization technology innovator. The company’s patent-pending technology ensures that search engine crawlers and bots are able to see and index the hidden data contained in database-driven websites. … Continue reading “Altruik Receives $600,000 New Funding”