Venture
Update Vol V, #6, July / August, 2001
Raleigh— Allwall.com (www.allwall.com), the online retailer of works on paper, acquired Art.com, an online art retailer, from Getty Images, a publicly traded visual content provider in a cash deal for less than $119 million. Allwall.com has also changed its name to Art.com. Contact: Joshua Chodniewicz (919.522.7664, Joshua@art.com)
Durham—BlueBolt Networks (www.bluebolt.com), software developer for the interior design industry, received $5.9 million in additional first round financing from The Atlantis Group, Charlotte Angel Partners, Gray Ventures and truePilot, plus unnamed individual and strategic investors. The company's total Series A investment is now $8.4 million, led by Wakefield Group. Contact: Al Kabus (800.845.2511)
Greensboro—Beacon Technologies, Inc. (www.beacontec.com) a high-end Internet services company, received a $750,000 investment from Centura Capital to fund growth. Contact: Patrick Flanagan (336.931.1295)
Raleigh—Encelle (www.encelle.com), creator of an injectable biopolymer that helps skin ulcers heal, closed a Series C round of $7 million co-led by previous investor Intersouth Partners and new investor Koerner Capital. Previous investors Child Health Investment, Cordova Ventures, the N.C. Enterprise Fund and North Carolina BioScience Fund/Eno River Capital also participated along with new investors Hibernia Capital and Coastal Growth Partners. The investment will fund continued human clinical trials and staff expansion. Contact: James Woodward (919.877.8101)
Charlotte—MortgageRamp (www.mortgageramp.com), an online commercial real estate site, acquired Fasre Field Services, a Salt Lake City-based property-inspection firm, in a cash deal of undisclosed value. The company raised $75 million in two rounds from America Mortgage Capital, Deutsche Bank, Allied Capital, Bank United, Compaq Computer, Fannie Mae, GMAC Commercial Mortgage, Moody's Investors Services, Standard and Poors, and VerticalNet. Contact: Doyle Spears (404.531.4996, doyle_spears@mortgageramp.com)
Research Triangle Park—Quintiles Transnational (www.quintiles.com), a publicly traded provider of pharmaceutical information, technology and services, and Care Capital (www.carecapital.com), a Princeton-based life sciences venture firm, formed an alliance to provide financial, operations and scientific support to life sciences companies, as well as a limited partnership that gives Quintiles' venture unit, PharmaBio Development, the option to co-invest in Care Capital's deals. Contact: Jay Johnson (919.998.2066, jay.johnson@quintiles.com)
Asheville—Revco Technologies (www.spx.com), the life science business unit of SPX (NASDAQ: SPW), agreed to acquire Kendro Laboratory Products (www.kendro.com), a provider of sample-preparation and processing products for life sciences markets, for $320 million in cash. Contact: Tina Betlejewski (231.724.5110, Tina.Betlejewski@spx.com)
RTP—Digital Recorders Inc. (www.digrec.com), a microelectronics company and developer of digital communications systems, has closed on its $7.4 million acquisition of Mobitec Holding AB of Sweden. Mobitec is a leading seller of Electronic Destination Sign Systems in the Nordic markets. Contact: David Turney (919.313.3003, davet@digrec.com)
Winston-Salem—Kucera Pharmaceuticals, a spin-off from the Wake Forest University School of Medicine and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, received less than $1 million in seed financing from Academy Funds in June. The company was launched as a biotechnology company developing phospholipid drug delivery systems. Contact: Russ Read (336.748.9991)
Raleigh—Entrinsik Inc. www.entrinsik.com, a developer of human capital management solutions, has closed on its second round of funding. In July, the company secured $1.5 million in Series B funding from Research Triangle Ventures and Catalysta Partners. The company will use the money to sell its new product, the Human Capital Manager. Contact: Doug Leupen (919.848.4828)
RTP—Ardent Pharmaceuticals (www.ardentpharma.com), developers of therapeutics for pain management, urinary incontinence, depression, cardioprotection and glaucoma, announced that Dr. Richard S. Kent joined the company as president and CEO. Kent served as senior vice president of global medical affairs and chief medical officer for GlaxoSmithKline. The company is backed by more than $32 million from Bau Dah Investment, Bio World Venture Capital, Central Investment Holding Co., China Development Industrial Bank, Elan Pharmaceuticals, and PK Venture Capital. Contact: Phillip Wise (919.806.1806)
Cary—HiddenMind Technology, Inc. (www.hiddenmind.com), a provider of wireless software for mobile business, is merging with AnyDevice Inc., a wireless startup in Atlanta. The combined company will operate under the HiddenMind name. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Both companies have raised $41 million in venture capital. HiddenMind's main backers include BEA Systems and Warburg Pincus. Contact: Kenneth Tyra (919.829.1933, ken.tyra@hiddenmind.com)
Durham—Inspire Pharmaceuticals (www.inspirepharm.com), will receive up to $39 million in up-front and milestone payments from Allergan, Inc. (NYSE: AGN) to fund research for dry eye therapy. The collaboration between Inspire and Allergan, a specialty pharmaceutical and eye-care company based in California, was brokered to develop two novel therapeutic treatments for dry eye. Contact: Mary Bennett (919.941.9777)
Nitronex Corporation
Raleigh-based Nitronex Corporation (www.nitronex.com),
manufactures semiconductors and specializes in the
production of gallium nitride (GaN) electronic
devices to meet the demands of the wireless
infrastructure markets. The use of GaN enables
ultra-high power, high efficiency, wide bandwidth,
and highly linear radio frequency and microwave
signal processing. Simply put, GaN devices will
enable new and better cell phone voice and data
services. In addition, optical GaN devices are in
demand for next generation DVD players.
"Gallium nitride has existed for many years, but commercial components aren't readily available due to significant technical production problems," explains Bob Lynch, Nitronex's president and CEO. "Nitronex is overcoming those on two levels. First, we are able to grow GaN with the lowest defect levels ever. Second, Nitronex is delivering GaN on 4" silicon wafers - the most common and least expensive substrate in the world."
Nitronex closed on a $24.5 million second round of investment in July, led by California-based Texas Pacific Group's TPG Ventures. The company received $9.5 million in first-round funding last November from Alliance Technology Ventures, VantagePoint Venture Partners, Southeast Interactive Technology Funds, Boston University's Community Technology Fund, and private investors.
"RTP is home to many of the world's top experts in gallium nitride technology and accounts for as much as 80 percent of the R&D going into the compound," Lynch says. "This makes the Triangle a natural fit for Nitronex."
Contact: Bob Lynch (919.807.9100, bob_lynch@nitronex.com)
September 18, 2001
Capital Connections Luncheon
Time: 12 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.
Location: Embassy Suites
Cary, N.C.
September 21, 2001
Triangle Venture Breakfast Series
Time: 7:30 a.m. - 9 a.m.
Location: First Flight Venture Center
RTP, N.C.
October 16-17, 2001
Southeastern Bio
Investors Forum
Location: Sheraton Birmingham Hotel
Birmingham, Alabama
October 30-31, 2001
CED's
Research Triangle InfoTech 2001
Location: The Carolina Club & The Friday
Center
Chapel Hill, N.C.
November 2, 2001
Southeast I-Deal Flow Forum
Location: Georgia Center for Advanced
Telecommunications Technology
Atlanta, Georgia
April 29-May 1, 2002
Venture 2002
Location: The Friday Center
Chapel Hill, N.C.
For more information about these events or to register, visit the CED Web site at 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.