Venture
Update Vol VI, #1, December/January,
2002
Durham—Arsenal Digital Solutions (www.arsenaldigital.com), a storage service provider (SSP), secured $23 million in its latest round of financing. With this new round of Series C financing, Arsenal has raised a total of $42 million in equity since its inception. Southeast Interactive Technology Funds led the round, and Covestco, Task USA, and MCNC also participated. Arsenal will use the funding to support both existing and new partners, capital expenditures required to grow the business and to increase its workforce by 15 percent. Contact: Steven Horan (919.941.4600)
Raleigh—HAHT Commerce (www.haht.com), a provider of demand chain management, received a new round of funding, led by Granite Ventures, totaling more than $17 million. The funding includes a new round of equity investments from investors Adobe Ventures, Aurora Funds, BankAmerica Capital Investors, CIBC Capital Partners, Menlo Ventures, Sippl McDonald Ventures and Southeast Interactive Technology Funds. Contact: Tom Thomas (919.786.5100)
Charlotte—Elogex Inc. (www.elogex.com), a provider of collaborative logistics solutions, secured over $10 million in additional funding from its lead investor, Fenway Partners. Elogex has gained significant traction in industries such as food and consumer packaged goods, closing deals with a large food manufacturer and one of the top five U.S. grocery retailers in the last two months. Contact: Travis Parsons (704.227.1900)
Durham—ChemCodes (www.chemcodes.com), a developer of chemical synthesis technology for the discovery and development of new medicinal compounds and materials, secured $7.5 million in Series B funding. The company, which was built on technology licensed from GlaxoSmithKline, has appointed Robert Bell as interim chief executive officer. Intersouth Partners led the round, which also received financing from Noro-Moseley Partners of Atlanta. Contact: Robert Bell (919.806.3553)
Alachua, Florida—Applied Genetic Technologies Corporation (AGTC) (www.biotech.ufl.org), a gene therapy company, recently completed phase one venture funding of $6 million from PrimBio Tech, SAS, of Paris, France. One of the company's founders is Dr. R Jude Samulski, director of the Gene Therapy Center at UNC-Chapel Hill. AGTC will use the investment to complete pre-clinical toxicology studies and phase I human clinical trials for its gene therapy treatment for emphysema. Contact: Sue Washer (swasher@biotech.ufl.org)
RTP - A. M. Pappas & Associates (www.ampappas.com) recently named Kenneth B. Lee, Jr. as President effective January 1, 2002. Lee most recently served as Managing Director of Ernst & Young's Health Sciences Corporate Finance Group. Earlier this year he announced his retirement from Ernst & Young. He was formerly Transaction Advisor of Ernst & Young's Center for Strategic Transactions and Co-Chairman of the firm's International Life Sciences Practice. Lee has served since 1998 as a member of A. M. Pappas & Associates' Board of Advisors. Contact: Ford Worthy (fworthy@ampappas.com)
RTP - Paradigm Genetics Inc. (www.paragen.com) (Nasdaq:PDGM), will acquire the the agricultural genomics business of Celera Genomics (NYSE:CRA) in a deal worth $2.1 million. Paradigm will become the exclusive marketing partner to provide Celera services to the plant-based agriculture industry. Upon closing of Paradigm's acquisition of the Celera's AgGen genomics and genotyping business, which is subject to customary conditions, Paradigm's new business unit will be named ParaGen. As part of the transaction, Celera will receive 422,459 shares of Paradigm common stock and will share future service revenue with Paradigm. Financial details of the marketing partnership were not disclosed. Contact: John Ryals (919.425.3000)
RTP - Kyma Technologies (www.kymatech.com) and Nitronex Corporation (www.nitronex.com) were selected to present at the Semiconductor Venture Fair in San Francisco on February 20-21, 2002. Seventy-five fast growing companies in the semiconductor industry nationwide were selected from 1,000 applicant companies to present. Kyma is a market-driven technology developer focused on gallium nitride solutions. Nitronex is the only semiconductor company focused exclusively on gallium nitride (GaN). www.semiconductorventurefair.com
Winston-Salem - Virginia Tech and Wake Forest University officials recently announced the two schools will jointly operate a biomedical engineering and science school. The Virginia Tech-Wake Forest University School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences is expected to sponsor collaborative research and offer advanced degrees in biomedical engineering. "This is a natural partnership between Virginia Tech, with no human medical school, and Wake Forest, with no engineering school," said Virginia Tech President Charles W. Steger.
Durham - MercuryMD (www.mercurymd.com) a company that integrates hospital data and delivers patient information to healthcare professionals' handheld devices, recently announced that Moses Cone Health System in Greensboro, North Carolina; Baptist Health in Little Rock, Arkansas; and WakeMed in Raleigh, North Carolina, have completed implementations of its MDataTM Enterprise System. The three new customers represent 12 hospitals with more than 4,200 beds and are among the nation's top performing health systems. MercuryMD raised $4.5 million in October 2001. Contact: Alan Ying (alan.ying@mercurymd.com)
Athenix Corp.
After 20 years of working together in different combinations, Mike Koziel and three biotech colleagues, Nick Duck, Nadine Carozzi, and Markus Andres, united to form a start-up biotech company to focus on gene discovery for plant biotechnology. The founders (who combined have a total of 70 years experience in biotech) moved to the Triangle, and Athenix Corp. was formed in July 2001. Since then, the company has grown to 20 employees in its Centennial Park lab space and is looking to spread out to RTP in the coming month.
Mike Koziel, CEO and president, led the team that introduced the world's first genetically modified corn in 1995. Relying on the Athenix team's experience in taking biotech crops from the laboratory to the market, the company is discovering and developing novel genes, proteins, and transgenic plants for the agricultural and petrochemical industries of the 21st century.
Athenix's primary focus is the discovery of unique genes and proteins and their use to develop transgenic plants to reduce pesticide use in agriculture and to replace petroleum-derived carbon resources with renewable plant resources. In September 2001, Athenix secured $8 million in its first round of venture financing. Intersouth Partners of Durham, NC led the investment with Polaris Venture Partners of Waltham, MA and Boston Millennia Partners of Boston, MA.
The decision to move to the Triangle was weighed by all the Athenix founders. "When we were deciding where to start Athenix, we narrowed it down to the Triangle from Boston, the West Coast, Maryland, and St. Louis," said Koziel. "The RTP was the best choice for us - with a number of AgBiotech and Biotech companies, favorable cost of living, talented workforce, and high quality of life."
Contact: Mike Koziel (919.596.5279)
In the Pipeline
Genomics at UNC-CH
The genetics and genomics initiative launched by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is making strides to understand human genetics through its research with model systems and their genome maps. Under the leadership of Terry Magnuson, an internationally renowned geneticist, and the faculty he is currently recruiting to Carolina, they are working toward medical breakthroughs, including more effective treatments for disease and customized medicines based on an individual patient's specific genes. The first spin-out of the genetics initiative is Quantum Genetics, a company which takes a genetic approach to analyzing disease predisposition. Quantum is hoping to close on its first round of funding in 2002. Carolina is currently building a 100,000 square-foot human biomolecular research building to house the genetics program. Since last year, the genetics department and the genome sciences center has hired 16 new faculty and has developed a program in cancer genetics with the Lineberger Cancer Research Center.
For more information on the UNC-CH genomics initiative, call Terry Magnuson (919.843.6475).
Money
& Markets 2002
January 25, 2002
The Sheraton Imperial
RTP, NC
Final Application Deadline to Present at
Venture 2002
January 31, 2002
www.cednc.org/venture/2002
Venture 2002
April 30 - May 1, 2002
The Friday Center
Chapel Hill, NC
Biotech 2002
May 20, 2002
The Friday Center
Chapel Hill, NC
For more information, visit the CED Web site (www.cednc.org) or call 919.549.7500.
CED is a private non-profit organization supported, in part, by corporate contributions, including funding from Kauffman Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and Kilpatrick Stockton, L.L.P.
Research Triangle Venture Update is published by the Council for Entrepreneurial Development (CED), a non-profit organization located in Research Triangle Park, N.C.