Category: New York

How to Make Money in Biotech With No Hope of Going Public, Slim Odds of Getting Acquired

Most biotech entrepreneurs I’ve met have a dream that ends one of two ways. They will either take their company public, or sell their startup to a giant drugmaker. Those are the paths to making money, making venture investors happy, and getting the resources needed to take a new drug all the way to the … Continue reading “How to Make Money in Biotech With No Hope of Going Public, Slim Odds of Getting Acquired”

Intelligize Obtains $1,500,000 New Funding Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=7ea8f4e7-c25e-4ccd-9eba-32494b4db33e&Preview=1 Date 5/23/2011 Company Name Intelligize Mailing Address 304 Park Ave South 11th Floor New York, NY 10010 Company Description In today’s economic climate, the concept that “time is money” is an overriding consideration and lawyers facing amplified price competition and pressures on profit margins are increasingly looking to game-changing technologies to … Continue reading “Intelligize Obtains $1,500,000 New Funding Round”

VYou Obtains $3,000,000 Series A Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=5c121ea9-ff97-457b-8fd2-ea1766e933b8&Preview=1 Date 5/23/2011 Company Name VYou Mailing Address 594 Broadway New York, NY 10012 Company Description VYou allows people to broadcast video structured as conversations, offering the most personal form of social interaction on the web. VYou lets you get advice from experts, interact with your favorite celebrity or organization, and communicate … Continue reading “VYou Obtains $3,000,000 Series A Round”

Rent the Runway Garners $15,000,000 New Funding Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=69168a24-68a0-4325-a756-845c8ac6aed4&Preview=1 Date 5/23/2011 Company Name Rent the Runway Mailing Address 304 Hudson Street New York, NY 10013 Company Description What if your closet was big enough to hold all the latest runway trends? What if, just for a night, you could experiment a little – say, try a one-shoulder dress in a … Continue reading “Rent the Runway Garners $15,000,000 New Funding Round”

Get Your Hack On: Detroit Geeks Make Finals of National Hacker Contest in New York

A few weeks ago, I asked tech entrepreneur Dug Song, co-founder of Arbor Networks, what Michigan needs in order to build its own Silicon Valley. He did not hesitate. “Hackers,” Song replied. No, not the kind that breaks into the Pentagon or Federal Reserve and initiates Doomsday. Rather, tech geeks who fiddle with stuff in … Continue reading “Get Your Hack On: Detroit Geeks Make Finals of National Hacker Contest in New York”

Acorda Stock Soars on European Surprise

The European Medicine Agency (EMA) recommended conditional marketing authorization of Acorda Therapeutics’ (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ACOR]]) prolonged-release multiple sclerosis drug, fampridine (Fampyra), for the improvement of walking in adult patients, according to a press release. Surprised investors pushed Acorda’s stock up 13% in morning trading to $30.22. The reversal of opinion was unexpected because even though the drug was … Continue reading “Acorda Stock Soars on European Surprise”

Garageband on the iPad Makes Amateur Musicians into Artists

Can you be a composer without being a musician? Thanks to the latest generation of music authoring software, the answer is yes. Take me, for example. I played the trombone in high school, and I can still read music (bass clef anyway), but I would be very hard pressed to strum a guitar chord, keep … Continue reading “Garageband on the iPad Makes Amateur Musicians into Artists”

Pfizer and BMS Score Approval for Orthopedic Drug

The European Commission has approved apixaban (Eliquis), developed by Pfizer and Bristol-Myers Squibb, for the prevention of venous thromboembolic events (VTE) in adult patients who have undergone elective hip or knee replacement surgery, according to a press release. The two New York companies have an alliance to develop the drug, which is a new oral direct … Continue reading “Pfizer and BMS Score Approval for Orthopedic Drug”

Multiple Pathways to the Exit: Canaan’s Bloch on Advanced BioHealing Buyout

The $750 million sale of Advanced BioHealing to the Irish drug giant Shire Pharmaceuticals, announced on Tuesday, has been hailed as a rare win for regenerative medicine, with an extraordinary 15x return for Canaan Partners, the venture firm that helped to found the company just five years ago. But as I noted in a 2009 … Continue reading “Multiple Pathways to the Exit: Canaan’s Bloch on Advanced BioHealing Buyout”

Miller Tabak Fund Manager Says Investors Are Ignoring the Upsides in Healthcare

In October, New York-based investment firm Miller Tabak launched the Health Care Transformation Fund (MTHFX), which invests in managed care, biotech, pharmaceuticals, and medtech companies. Its top holdings include New York area pharma giants Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: [[ticker:BMY]]) and Merck (NYSE: [[ticker:MRK]]), as well as Boston-based biotech Momenta Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:MNTA]]). The fund’s manager, Les Funtleyder, … Continue reading “Miller Tabak Fund Manager Says Investors Are Ignoring the Upsides in Healthcare”

Peer39 Raises $5.2 Million

New York-based Peer39 has raised $5.2 million of a possible $7.2 million round, according to an SEC filing. Investors included Evergreen Venture Partners and Canaan Partners. Peer39 uses semantic technology to help ad buyers find and target their audiences. The company has raised more than $27 million, according to Venture Wire.

Peer39 Secures $5,172,931 New Financing

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=8ec08f1f-0a34-425c-af97-1b527502f59b&Preview=1 Date 5/20/2011 Company Name Peer39 Mailing Address 2 West 45th Street New York, NY 10036 Company Description Peer39 is an innovative online marketplace that actively matches offers in various verticals. Our proprietary technology and commerce tools increase conversion rates dramatically, thus enabling companies and individuals to focus on what they do … Continue reading “Peer39 Secures $5,172,931 New Financing”

Plizy Secures $1,200,000 Series A Funding Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=cdabe99f-5128-4b72-8036-2c8693c0f169&Preview=1 Date 5/20/2011 Company Name Plizy Mailing Address 60 Broad Street New York, NY 10004 Company Description Plizy learns who you are and recommends videos based on what you like. Our unique, patent pending recommendation engine builds an “entertainment graph” using your existing graphs (including Facebook and Twitter). We already know what … Continue reading “Plizy Secures $1,200,000 Series A Funding Round”

Pacira Raises Wall Street Expectations of a New Blockbuster Painkiller

The last time Xconomy checked in with Pacira Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:PCRX]]), in early 2009, the company was laying off a third of its workforce in the wake of a disappointing clinical trial of Exparel, a treatment for post-surgical pain. Pacira was capital-constrained because the market for life-sciences IPOs was all but dead. And the future … Continue reading “Pacira Raises Wall Street Expectations of a New Blockbuster Painkiller”

TechStars Boston Alum Sensobi Joins Forces With GroupMe To Better Organize Mobile Social Network

Mobile app developer Sensobi reaped the benefits of the tight-knit New York tech startup community earlier this month, you could say. CEO and founder Ajay Kulkarni calls it “a fortuitous introduction that turned into something bigger.” That would be Sensobi’s acquisition by GroupMe. Sensobi, which I profiled last January, offers a $10 BlackBerry app that … Continue reading “TechStars Boston Alum Sensobi Joins Forces With GroupMe To Better Organize Mobile Social Network”

JIBE Receives $6,000,000 Series A Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=a3f80975-b416-4e60-ac27-4d8c79919e05&Preview=1 Date 5/19/2011 Company Name JIBE Mailing Address 902 Broadway Seventh Floor New York, NY 10010 Company Description JIBE connects you to people you already know at companies you want to work for and increases your chances of landing a great job. Website http://www.jibe.com Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction Amount $6,000,000 Transaction … Continue reading “JIBE Receives $6,000,000 Series A Round”

Datran Media Garners $9,477,054 New Financing Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=bd639d34-8f33-484b-8487-95c3c6ece0a0&Preview=1 Date 5/19/2011 Company Name Datran Media Mailing Address 345 Hudson Street 5th Floor New York, NY 10014 Company Description Datran Media is a leading digital marketing technology company that helps advertisers, agencies and publishers identify, engage and retain ideal audiences across all digital media channels, including social, mobile, the web and … Continue reading “Datran Media Garners $9,477,054 New Financing Round”

TuneSat Obtains $6,000,000 Series A Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=8d545710-a690-4ae8-8480-002096a12038&Preview=1 Date 5/19/2011 Company Name TuneSat Mailing Address 1650 Broadway New York, NY 10019 Company Description Do you know where your music is being broadcast? TuneSat does… We are listening. Whether you’re a composer, publisher, artist, or record label, tracking the use of and protecting your copyrighted music has been nearly impossible … Continue reading “TuneSat Obtains $6,000,000 Series A Round”

Medtronic’s Hawkins and BSX’s Elliott Exit Stage Right As Medical Device Industry Shifts

It’s pretty tough to be a CEO at a major medical device company these days. Just ask Bill Hawkins, who was reportedly pushed out at Medtronic and Ray Elliott, who abruptly left Boston Scientific. I’m not sure if the two men ever knew each other but their departures have a weird type of symmetry. Both … Continue reading “Medtronic’s Hawkins and BSX’s Elliott Exit Stage Right As Medical Device Industry Shifts”

Energy Infotech Forum

This conference will explore how New York’s unique capabilities in information technology, internet applications, media, and finance position it to lead the melding of IT and cleantech. Participants include leading technologists, developers, entrepreneurs, and investors, such as Raphael Carty of Callida Energy, Seth Frader-Thompson of Energy Hub, and Michael Herzig of Locus Energy. Register here.

Careers in Bioinformatics

This event will focus on opportunities in bioinformatics and its applications to healthcare, energy, and agriculture. It will include information on local graduate programs, as well as lunch and a reception. Featured speakers include experts from Celmatix, Polytechnic Institute, and Merck. Register here.

Internet Week New York

This week-long festival highlights New York’s thriving Internet industry. There will be about 150 events, ranging from parties and meet-ups, to executive breakfasts and conferences, hosted throughout Manhattan. Register here ($15 if you tweet about your purchase, $25 if you do not.)

MarketSharing Bets Small Businesses in New York and Beyond Will Clamor for Daily Deals

John Amato was working as president at New York ad agency Show Media when Groupon and other daily-deals sites started to take off a couple of years ago. Amato’s small agency rang up about $1 million a month in expenses, he says, which included buying iPods and other incentives for top-performing employees, and placing frequent … Continue reading “MarketSharing Bets Small Businesses in New York and Beyond Will Clamor for Daily Deals”

Cognitive Match Garners $6,000,000 New Financing

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=0242c85f-5485-4134-aa78-783dd9dfbca8&Preview=1 Date 5/18/2011 Company Name Cognitive Match Mailing Address 475 Park Ave. S. Fourth Floor New York, NY 10016 Company Description Cognitive Match was founded to connect targeting across display ads and onsite content. Website http://www.cognitivematch.com Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction Amount $6,000,000 Transaction Round Undisclosed Proceeds Purposes Proceeds purposes were not … Continue reading “Cognitive Match Garners $6,000,000 New Financing”

Shire Buys Advanced BioHealing for $750 Million

Irish drug giant Shire (NASDAQ: [[ticker:SHPGY]]) is making a big push into regenerative medicine by shelling out $750 million in cash for Advanced BioHealing, according to a press release. Advanced BioHealing–which is based in Westport, CT, and has manufacturing and lab space in La Jolla, CA—makes Duragraft, a bio-engineered skin substitute used to treat diabetic foot … Continue reading “Shire Buys Advanced BioHealing for $750 Million”

Merck, Genentech Team Up on Hepatitis C Drugs, Raising Ante in Vertex Rivalry

Merck isn’t messing around with its new hepatitis C drug. It has now enlisted a powerhouse partner in its bid to fight for market share against Cambridge, MA-based Vertex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:VRTX]]). The Whitehouse Station, NJ-based pharma giant (NYSE: [[ticker:MRK]]) said today that it has formed a non-exclusive alliance with Roche’s Genentech unit to help … Continue reading “Merck, Genentech Team Up on Hepatitis C Drugs, Raising Ante in Vertex Rivalry”

Resolve Nabs $2M For Lupus Drug, First Step on the Road to Returns With No IPO, No M&A

Seattle-based Resolve Therapeutics raised its first $2 million to execute on a plan that challenges about 30 years of conventional wisdom of how you make money in biotech. And it took some creative thinking from a couple of New York-based venture firms to pull it together. The plan, crafted by Resolve CEO Jim Posada, is … Continue reading “Resolve Nabs $2M For Lupus Drug, First Step on the Road to Returns With No IPO, No M&A”

NYC Rolls Out New Digital Media Plan

New York City will soon roll out partnerships with Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, and Tumblr, according to the city’s chief digital officer, Rachel Sterne. Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s office unveiled a report called “Road Map for the Digital City,” which outlines a number of initiatives designed to make NYC a more technologically savvy place. Among the plans: … Continue reading “NYC Rolls Out New Digital Media Plan”

Pfizer Lung Cancer Drug to Get Priority Review

New York-based Pfizer (NYSE: [[ticker:PFE]]) announced that it has simultaneously applied for approval of its lung cancer drug, crizotinib, in the U.S. and Japan, and that the FDA granted it priority review. Crizotinib is the first in a new class of drugs called anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) inhibitors, and it is being developed for a subset … Continue reading “Pfizer Lung Cancer Drug to Get Priority Review”

Foundation Medicine Teams With Celgene in Quest to Develop Targeted Cancer Treatments

Boston-based Foundation Medicine has only been around for about two years, but it’s already making friends in big places. Today the company—which is developing advanced cancer diagnostics—announced a collaboration with Celgene (NASDAQ: [[ticker:CELG]]), based in Summit, NJ. Celgene plans to use Foundation Medicine’s genomics testing technology in trials of cancer drugs, in the hopes of … Continue reading “Foundation Medicine Teams With Celgene in Quest to Develop Targeted Cancer Treatments”

Founder Labs Brings Its Silicon Valley Flair for Fostering Startups to Manhattan

Picking the right team can make all the difference when launching a new venture. Starting on May 21, a group of some 16 designers, engineers, and marketing professionals will gather to form teams aimed at creating startups. Founder Labs, a five week “pre-incubator” program targeting concepts for the mobile sector, is ready for its Manhattan … Continue reading “Founder Labs Brings Its Silicon Valley Flair for Fostering Startups to Manhattan”

PacBio Chief Scientist Heads to NYC to Run New $100M Genomics Center at Mt. Sinai

Eric Schadt, one of the world’s top researchers looking at how changes in the genome lead to disease, is leaving his full-time job as chief scientist of Pacific Biosciences to spearhead a new genomics research center armed with more than $100 million of financial backing at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York. This … Continue reading “PacBio Chief Scientist Heads to NYC to Run New $100M Genomics Center at Mt. Sinai”

Will Biotech Ever Again Captivate the Public Imagination, Like Facebook or LinkedIn?

Everywhere you look this spring, there are signs of bubbly enthusiasm for technology. Microsoft just paid $8.5 billion for a company that isn’t profitable. Facebook has racked up more than 600 million members around the world. LinkedIn is teed up to go public this week at a valuation of more than $3 billion. It may … Continue reading “Will Biotech Ever Again Captivate the Public Imagination, Like Facebook or LinkedIn?”

Merck Wins Approval for HCV Drug

The FDA approved Merck’s (NYSE: [[ticker:MRK]]) treatment for chronic Hepatitis C virus (HCV), boceprevir (Victrelis), according to a press release. Boceprevir is the first of a new class of therapies known as HCV protease inhibitors, and it was approved to be used in combination with peginterferon alfa and ribavirin—two drugs that are considered the standard of care. … Continue reading “Merck Wins Approval for HCV Drug”

Oral Insulin Is Still Very Much Alive at Some New York and Boston Area Biotechs

Earlier this week, I wrote about MonoSolRx, a New Jersey company that hopes to start human trials later this year of an insulin product that’s packaged in an edible film. The film can be stuck to the side of the cheek, where it dissolves and distributes a dosage of insulin—the drug that most patients with … Continue reading “Oral Insulin Is Still Very Much Alive at Some New York and Boston Area Biotechs”

The iPad Finally Has a Worthy Rival: Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1

Apple may be the world’s largest electronics company as measured by market capitalization, but Samsung is the largest by sales. So it makes sense that the Seoul, Korea-based giant—not Microsoft, not HP, not Motorola, not Dell—would the first to compete seriously in the market that Apple invented last year with the introduction of the iPad. … Continue reading “The iPad Finally Has a Worthy Rival: Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1”

Group Commerce Raises $10 Million for Daily-Deals Platform

New York-based Group Commerce, which was founded by veterans of Google and DoubleClick, has raised a second round of funding only two months after emerging from stealth mode, according to All Things Digital. The company developed a technology that allows merchants and publishers to offer limited-time deals on the Internet. The funding round of $10 … Continue reading “Group Commerce Raises $10 Million for Daily-Deals Platform”

Shire Finds Big Value in Rare Diseases, and a Strong Growth Path for its Boston Unit

On May 11, Shire (NASDAQ: [[ticker:SHPGY]]) CEO Angus Russell told a panel of journalists at the Reuters Health Summit in New York that the British drug giant is interested in pursuing gene therapy and stem cells. Those are two areas of science that have yet to prove they can produce effective, innovative new therapies. Still, over … Continue reading “Shire Finds Big Value in Rare Diseases, and a Strong Growth Path for its Boston Unit”

CityPockets Garners $550,092 New Funding Round

Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=f689c2ab-0b27-4734-8cd4-bf055eb1d9fd&Preview=1 Date 5/12/2011 Company Name CityPockets Mailing Address 154 Grand St. Fifth Floor New York, NY 10013 Company Description At CityPockets, we believe that daily deals can help you save a lot of money and expose you to new activities, restaurants, and services. That’s why we’ve created the simplest and most effective … Continue reading “CityPockets Garners $550,092 New Funding Round”

Drugs that Melt in Your Mouth: MonoSolRx Has Its Sights Set on Oral Insulin

[Corrected 5/12/11, 9:00 am. See below.] The sample packets of the anti-nausea drug that are strewn across the desk of Mark Schobel, CEO of MonoSol Rx, don’t look anything like your standard pharmaceutical product. Each dose of the drug, called ondansetron (Zuplenz)—which is prescribed to cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy and other harsh treatments—is a small, … Continue reading “Drugs that Melt in Your Mouth: MonoSolRx Has Its Sights Set on Oral Insulin”

Raising Capital At-The-Market: a Prescription for a Solid Long-Term Financing Strategy

Companies in emerging industries such as the life sciences are constantly looking for funding, but uncertainty in the capital markets has made this a time-sensitive, challenging and expensive process to execute. The capital markets, particularly over the last few years, and especially for research and development-intensive biopharmaceutical companies, have been unpredictable, making timing of financings … Continue reading “Raising Capital At-The-Market: a Prescription for a Solid Long-Term Financing Strategy”

Churnless Consults Big Corporations and Incubates Startups Focused on Helping Consumers Change Behavior

Mix one part consultancy with another part incubator and then toss that with an entrepreneur’s passion project. Sprinkle on some academia, too. And there you have New York-based Churnless. The firm’s founders, Matt Wallaert and Avi Karnani, come from Thrive, a company focused helping consumers make better financial decisions. They sold it to Lendingtree.com in … Continue reading “Churnless Consults Big Corporations and Incubates Startups Focused on Helping Consumers Change Behavior”

LocalResponse Turns Check-Ins Into Instant Marketing Opportunities

If you managed a major brand-name product, how much would you pay to be able to advertise directly to consumers right as they were arriving at a place where your brand is sold? Nihal Mehta, CEO and co-founder of New York-based LocalResponse, is betting that most consumer-products makers would say “a lot” when asked that … Continue reading “LocalResponse Turns Check-Ins Into Instant Marketing Opportunities”

New York City Investment Fund Supports Biotech, Cleantech, and Now “Fintech” Startups

On May 2, six startups that are developing new technology tools for the financial services industry started a 12-week program of mentorship, networking, and seed funding from New York City Investment Fund, a 15-year-old fund founded by Henry Kravis, founding partner of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. The companies and their products will be in … Continue reading “New York City Investment Fund Supports Biotech, Cleantech, and Now “Fintech” Startups”