Venture Update Vol. X, #6, June 2006
Done Deals
Durham – Intersouth Partners (www.intersouth.com) has raised its seventh venture capital fund, totaling $275 million. The new fund, Intersouth VII, brings Intersouth’s total capital under management to $775 million, making it the largest early stage venture fund in the Southeast. Financing primarily came from Intersouth’s existing limited partners, which comprise a group of institutional investors including corporations, endowments and pension funds. Contact Suzanne Cantando (919.493.6640 x108).
Durham – Adherex Technologies Inc. (www.adherex.com), a biopharmaceutical company with a portfolio of oncology products under development, has received firm commitments for a private placement offering of units for approximately $6.5 million in gross proceeds, each unit consisting of one common share and 0.30 of a common share purchase warrant. Contact Melissa Matson (919.484.8484).
RTP – Qualyst (www.qualyst.com), a drug discovery and development company, has closed its Series B Preferred Stock Offering, two years after raising its first. The two rounds raised a combined total of $5.5 million. Burton Advisors, a London-based firm, acted as the exclusive advisor and "financial arranger" for the investment deal. Contact Scott Neuville (919.313.6501).
Morrisville – Unit Dose Solutions Inc. (www.unitdoseinc.com), a pharmacy services outsourcing company, has closed on its Series A Preferred Stock, raising $1.25 million in new equity capital from a group of individual investors. This funding round was oversubscribed due to the strong interest in the company. Leading the round and joining the company’s Board of Directors were Mike Fitzgerald and Jim Liebel. Contact Dennis M. DiVenuta (919.468.8209).
Durham – Broadwick Corp. (www.broadwick.com), a provider of web-based emarketing communications software, has secured initial investment funding of $500,000 from NC IDEA. Broadwick will use part of the funds from the round to hire 4-5 additional employees in the next three months, who will help speed up the product development timeline. Contact Ryan Allis (919.968.3996).
RTP – Quill Medical, Inc. (www.quillmedical.com), a privately held provider of specialized, minimally invasive aesthetic surgery and wound closure technology, has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by Angiotech Pharmaceuticals, Inc. for $40 million in cash, plus certain future contingent payments based on product revenues. The transaction is expected to close by the third quarter of 2006. Contact Jodi Regts (604.221.7930).
Durham – Parata Systems (www.paratasystems.com) has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire substantially all of the assets of McKesson Corporation’s (NYSE:MCK) Automated Prescription Systems (APS) business unit for an undisclosed amount. The two companies will enter into a long-term strategic alliance under which McKesson will become a sales lead resource for Parata in the United States and exclusive third-party distributor in Canada and Mexico. The transaction is expected to close in mid-to-late June. Contact Nanette Kirsch (919.433.4363).
Durham – MercuryMD Inc., (www.mercurymd.com), a vendor of mobile computing software, has signed an agreement to be acquired by Thomson Scientific & Healthcare, a provider of integrated information solutions. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The transaction was approved by the MercuryMD board at the end of May. Contact David Levin (919.806.1700).
Raleigh – WindChannel Communications Inc. (www.windchannel.com) has sold its fixed wireless business and all monitoring contracts associated with enterprise-deployed Wi-Fi networks to airBand Communications Inc. The Dallas-based firm is the country's largest fixed wireless company for business customers with approximately 2,000 clients. Contact Randy Choplin (919.524.6380).
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On The Up
Broadwick Corporation
Durham, NC
According to JupiterResearch, the email marketing industry will grow from $2.7 billion in 2004 to reach $6.1 billion by the end of 2008.
Capitalizing on this market opportunity, Durham-based Broadwick Corporation (www.broadwick.com) has fast become a leading provider of web-based software that improves the efficiency of marketing communication for businesses and organizations.
Since its inception in 2003, Broadwick has become the third largest player in the SMB segment of the email marketing software industry, with more than 4,500 clients including International Paper, Super 8 Motel, AT&T, Lexus, Coldwell Banker and Re/Max.
Broadwick's flagship product, IntelliContact is a permission-based email marketing service that is cornering the email list management market by allowing businesses to easily create, send, and track permission-based email newsletters and surveys.
The result is a more efficient and less expensive solution that provides a greater value add and return on investment.
IntelliContact allows businesses of all sizes to send out personalized HTML or text emails, create unlimited lists, and view complete reporting metrics for each campaign. It is designed to improve communication between businesses and their customers, prospects, members, affiliates, clients, employees, and subscribers.
It enables businesses to stay in front of their target market at a fraction of the cost and a multiple of the efficacy of traditional marketing methods.
Through permission based email marketing with IntelliContact, businesses are able to educate their customers, build rapport and trust with their subscribers, and most importantly, increase sales.
IntelliContact is presently in its 3.0 release with a 4.0 release expected during 2006.
”Our mission is to become the leading worldwide provider of e-marketing communications software,” said Broadwick CEO Ryan Allis. “The future looks promising, given that within only two years we have become the third largest provider of email marketing software in the small business market. Currently we are anticipating the launch of our new enterprise email marketing product, IntelliCampaign.”
Broadwick recently secured initial investment funding of $500,000 from NC IDEA, which the company will use to make investments in marketing and product development. Broadwick was also a presenting company at CED’s Venture 2006 conference. Contact Ryan Allis (919.968.3996).
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New Developments
Winston-Salem – Researchers from Wake Forest University School of Medicine (www.wfubmc.edu/school/) have reported white blood cells from a strain of cancer-resistant mice cured advanced cancers in ordinary laboratory mice. The transplanted white blood cells killed existing cancers and protected normal mice from what should have been lethal doses of highly aggressive new cancers. Contact Robert Conn (336.716.4587).
Chapel Hill – UNC-Chapel Hill (www.unc.edu) has received a $22.6 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support a pivotal clinical trial of a promising new oral drug for treating trypanosomiasis, African sleeping sickness. The Gates foundation grant will enable an international research consortium led by UNC faculty to complete a Phase III clinical trial of the drug DB289, the final step required before seeking approval of the drug from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Contact Stephanie Crayton (919.966.2860).
Morrisville – Active Data Services Inc. (www.activedataservices.com), a privately owned data and document management firm, has formed a strategic agreement with Misys Healthcare Systems (www.misyshealthcare.com) to provide electronic health care data services including integrated medical document conversion and strategic capture services. This partnership will integrate existing health care data for use with Misys’ industry leading software solutions to improve efficiency and ease of use for health care organizations. Contact Peter Ransome (919.654.2000).
Raleigh-Durham – Both Raleigh and Durham placed among the top 10 metros in Forbes magazine's annual rankings of the "Best Places For Business and Careers." The Raleigh-Cary Metropolitan Statistical Area finished second and the Durham MSA landed eighth. The annual rankings take into account three main factors - the cost of doing business, job growth and educational attainment. Contact Kurt Badenhausen (212.366.8900).
Cary – Bandwidth.com (www.bandwidth.com), a provider of complete business communications solutions, has announced the launch of its Enterprise Services Division. The new division was created to meet the needs of enterprise companies looking to update their current infrastructure with large-scale and customized telecom solutions including voice, data and network services. Contact Todd Barrish (212.704.7387).
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In the Pipeline
RTP – Geomagic (www.geomagic.com), a software and services firm, has received a U.S. patent for its process of automatically generating 3D digital models from scanned point-cloud data. The wrap process is used throughout the Geomagic product line. The process is used widely in dental, hearing and other custom manufacturing applications where simplicity, automation and throughput are critical to successfully transitioning from manual to digital processes. Contact Chuck Hester (919.960.9794).
RTP – Quintiles Transnational Corp. (www.quintiles.com) has launched an expanded strategic partnering group under the NovaQuest™ brand and an alliance with TPG-Axon Capital, a global investment firm with more than $5.8 billion in equity capital. NovaQuest helps life-science companies realize greater value from their product portfolios through innovative strategic partnering solutions. TPG-Axon will be NovaQuest's first-line partner for significant co-development and co-promotion investments. Contact Pat Grebe (919.998.2091).
Raleigh – rPath (www.rpath.com), a provider of rBuilder and rPath Linux, the first platform for creating and maintaining software appliances, has received a $100,000 Small Business Innovation Research grant from the Department of Energy. rPath will use the grant to enable its rBuilder platform to create Xen virtual machine images for deployment in grid environments. Contact Kristi Lee (919.844.3733).
RTP – Talecris Biotherapeutics (www.talecris.com) has announced the launch of Talents, the Talecris New Trials Support program, an initiative supporting investigator-initiated trials conceived by researchers and clinicians with an interest in intravenous immunoglobulin (IGIV) therapies. Each year, Talecris will pledge $1 million to fund basic science and clinical research projects in various fields, including immunology, hematology, and neurology. Contact Lacy McMahon (919.316.6316).
RTP – Tranzyme Pharma (www.tranzyme.com) has completed a Phase I clinical trial of its first drug candidate, TZP-101, an entity originating from the company’s proprietary small molecule macrocyclic chemistry technology. TZP-101 will be used as a mechanism-based therapy for post-operative ileus and other gastrointestinal motility disorders. Contact Mark Peterson (819. 820.6245).
Raleigh – Voyager Pharmaceutical Corp. (www.voyagerpharma.com) has stated that results of a clinical study indicate that a commonly used prostate cancer treatment may have implications for Alzheimer's disease. The treatment, leuprolide acetate, may slow the effects of Alzheimer's in women when used in combination with acetylcholinesterase enzyme inhibitors. Contact Brian Reynolds (919.846.4880).
RTP – Chimerix, Inc. (www.chimerix-inc.com) has acquired Dr. Leroy Townsend’s library of chemical lead compounds from the University of Michigan, including an option to all associated intellectual property. The library consists of lead candidates specifically designed toward key antiviral and oncology targets, which Chimerix will incorporate into its technology platform. Contact Athanasios Maroglou (919.806.1074).
Cary – NephroGenex, Inc. (www.nephrogenex.com) has signed two licensing agreements that provide the company with a kidney-specific molecular profiling technology and inhibitors of a novel kinase therapeutic target for renal disease. NephroGenex has acquired exclusive commercial rights to the glomerular transcriptome profiling technology developed at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. Contact J. Wesley Fox (919.678.9512).
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Mark Your Calendar!
CED’s Engage: Finance
June 6, 2006
Kenan-Flagler School of Business
Chapel Hill, NC
Entrepreneurial Excellence Awards
June 21, 2006
American Tobacco Campus – Bay 7
Durham, NC
For more information, call 919-549-7500.
Venture Update is published by the
Council for Entrepreneurial Development (CED)
an entrepreneurial support organization located in the Research Triangle Park, N.C.
Robert Albright, editor
P.O. Box 13353, RTP, NC 27709
Phone: 919-549-7500
FAX: 919-549-7405
email: news@cednc.org