Venture Update Vol III, #4, April, 1999
Research Triangle Park—OpenSite Technologies (www.opensite.com), developer of online auction software, closed on $24 million in third round venture funding in March 1999. Investors included CNET Inc., GE Equity, Intersouth Partners, Noro-Moseley Partners, SG Capital Partners, Southeast Interactive Technology Funds and the Wakefield Group. Contact: Kip Frey (919.760.7242).
Durham—Koz.com (www.koz.com), a developer of software that allows newspapers to design Web sites for local community groups, closed on $6 million in fourth round venture funding in March 1999. Investors included BancBoston Ventures, The Bergen Record Corp., SG Capital Partners and Southeast Interactive Technology Fund. Contact: Harry Bailes (919.767.1061).
Durham—Vascular Genetics, a developer of gene therapy drugs, raised $11 million in financing in first round financing in March 1999. Funding came from individuals represented by Century Capital Associates. Contact: Alan Cato (919.361.2286).
Chapel Hill—BOPS, Inc. (www.bops.com), a developer of semiconductors, closed on an undisclosed amount of financing in March 1999 from Pequot Capital Management. Contact: Steve Walsh (919.403.6757).
Chapel Hill—InteCardia, (www.intecardia.com) a cardiology disease and practice management company, raised $8.2 million in venture financing in March 1999. The company plans to use the funds to purchase Medpartners. Investors included Intersouth Partners and the Sprout Group. Contact: Tim Trost (919-403-3632).
Research Triangle Park—Foveon Corp. (www.foveon.com), developer of a method for sampling and analyzing Internet traffic and transforming it into useful data, closed on $2.8 million in first round financing in February 1999. Investors included Intersouth Partners, TriState Investment Group III and individual investors. Contact: Mike Munsch (919.828.8787).
Durham—Red Hat Software (www.redhat.com), a developer of software for the Linux operating system, received equity investment from Compac Computer Corp., Oracle Corp., IBM and Novell in March 1999. The company previously received equity investment from Intel and Netscape. Contact: Matt Szulik (919.547.0012).
Research Triangle Park—Industrial Microwave Systems, a designer and builder of industrial heating and drying systems using a patented microwave technology, received a $400,000 grant from the Department of Energy's National Industrial Competitiveness Through Environment and Economics Program. The grant was one of six awarded by the program to companies across the nation for 1999. Contact: Jay Borkowski (919.990.9595).
Durham—One Room Systems, a developer and producer of online education and training systems, was acquired by Vertical Mark IT in a deal valued at about $3.8 million. Vertical Mark IT plans to use the systems for its data storage systems. Contact: (919.405.2474).
New Developments
Research Triangle Park—Industrial
Microwave Systems, a designer and builder of
industrial heating and drying systems using a
patented microwave technology, was issued a patent by
the U.S. Patent Office for its application "Method
and Apparatus for Electromagnetic Exposure of Planer
or Other materials, " in March 1999. All claims made
in the application were allowed. Contact: Jay
Borkowski (919.990.9595).
Morrisville—Ganymede Software (www.ganymedesoftware.com), a developer of software to measure enterprise performance, released Pegasus 1.2 in March 1999. The software proactively alerts service providers to end-to-end performance problems and then isolates the cause. Contact: Steve Joyce (919.469.0997).
Durham—Red Hat Software (www.redhat.com), a developer of software for the Linux operating system, will have copies of its software installed on one million units of Computer Associates International's Unicenter TNG computing software. Contact: Matt Szulik (919.547.0012).
Chapel Hill—ReadyCom (www.readycom.com), a developer of telecommunications devices, released Responder, a hand-held wireless device that allows users to retrieve voice mail messages and reply to the numbers from which the messages were sent. Contact: John Voorhees (919.918.4500).
Research Triangle Park—Council for
Entrepreneurial Development (www.cednc.org),
presents
The first is a dinner on April 27th at the Carolina Inn featuring Dr. Ron Coop, a noted sports psychologist who has worked with several PGA professionals to improve their mental approach to the game of golf. On April 28th, investors will compete in the Venture '99 Investor Golf Invitational at Hope Valley Country Club. In addition to more fun, there will be more business. Venture '99 will showcase Thirty-three companies: 10 in the new Early Stage session which will take place from 3:30 to 5:15 on April 28th, right before the conference kickoff reception, and 20 companies in the main session on April 29th. All 33 companies will exhibit from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 pm on the 29th.
Companies selected to present are in the early
stage room are: 3TEX, Inc.
Bloodhound Software, Inc.
Bonita Software
DataFlux
db Tag, Inc.
Empower Corporation
Epiteleo, Inc.
Global Recruiting Solutions
IMS Inc. (Industrial Microwave Systems, Inc.)
iRenaissance
Mantha Software, Inc.
Mediappraise Corporation
Shadow Solutions
For a complete list of presenters or details call CED at 919.549.7500, ext. 102 or at www.cednc.org/venture/99.
On The
Up
Technauts, Inc.
"Founding a start-up organization has given me
excellent insight into my own customers' needs," says
Ravi Periasamy, co-founder and vice president of
engineering of Technauts, Inc. The company was
founded in 1997 with roughly $500,000 supplied by its
founders and senior management. "I can honestly say
that I understand the small business
entrepreneur."
The company's eServer line consists of both hardware and software that is easily customizable to meet the exact needs of end users. "The eServer will revolutionize the way we all work," says Wayne Clark, Chief Technology Officer. "Extending this technology to small businesses will change the economy of the new millennium."
Technauts completed it first round of venture capital last July. Led by The Aurora Funds of Durham, N.C., the round yielded $2 million and included Gray Ventures and Timark LP, an early stage venture fund from Saratoga, Cal. Investments from Bass Associates, Cordova Capital, Tom Newby and Tom McMurray completed the round.
This first round of capital is being used to bring the eServer to market, and increase Technauts' profile. "The response we've been getting from our end-users and VARs is tremendous,"says Kishore Jotwani, Technauts' global marketing director. "We have a great product and word-of-mouth has given our marketing team a great head start."
Featured Fund
Eno River Capital
Paul Jones, partner with Durham's Eno River Capital, knows what to look for in start-up and emerging companies. That's because he's been an angel and institutional investor, board member/officer and co-founder of a number of venture-backed companies over the last 15 years.
Today, he helps guide Eno River's $21 million North Carolina Bioscience Investment Fund. The fund is sponsored by the North Carolina Biotechnology Center and focuses on early stage life science companies in North Carolina. "We expect to have a final closing of the Fund later this spring and anticipate the final capitalization to be between $25 and $30 million," says Paul Jones, a principal with the fund. Since its first closing last year, the fund made three investments: R.T.P.'s Sanguinex and Cogent Neuroscience, and Greenville, N.C.'s Encelle.
Eno River was the lead investor in Sanguinex' seed round, providing $300,000 of a total $550,000. Sanguinex is developing a new generation of equipment for research and clinical cell analysis markets. The fund participated at the $500,000 level in the start-up round for Cogent, a drug target discovery company focusing on the brain. Eno River invested the same amount in the second round financing for Encelle, which is developing a bioartificial pancreas as a therapy for diabetes. Both financings were led by Intersouth Partners and totalled in the $4-5 million range.
For his money, the Triangle is a great place to invest for many reasons. Among them: The increasing number of new and repeat entrepreneurs and potential entrepreneurs, university-supported tech transfer, the migration of technology workers from large companies to entrepreneurial ones. "These changes make it easier for Triangle entrepreneurs to attract not only financing but also management talent," Jones notes.
Mark Your
Calendar!
Venture
'99
April 28-29, 1999
Friday Center on the Campus of University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill
STREAK Quarterly Luncheon
May 5, 1999
Noon-1:30pm
Sheraton Imperial, RTP, NC
For information call CED (919.549.7500) or visit the
CED Web site (www.cednc.org).
CED is a private non-profit supported, in part, by corporate contributions, including funding from Intersouth Partners, KPMG Peat Marwick and Manpower.
Research Triangle Venture Update is published by
the Council for Entrepreneurial Development (CED), a
non- profit organization located in Research Triangle
Park, N.C.
Editor Carolyn Foy, CED
P.O. Box 13353
RTP, NC 27709
Phone: 919.549.7500
Fax: 919.549.7405
Email: mcfoy@cednc.org