Venture
Update Vol VI, #2, February, 2002
RTP - MediaSpan Group (www.mediaspangroup.com), a provider of pre-press software and Internet business development programs for newspapers and radio stations, raised $8.5 million in Series A financing. Major participants in the round include RTP's Southeast Interactive Technology Funds, along with California-based Rustic Canyon Group and London-based Covestco-Seteura, LLC. MediaSpan will use the funding for acquisitions and capital expenditures to expand current business operations. MediaSpan began last spring as Community Software Acquisition Corp., which acquired the assets of KOZ.com and NextAudio. MediaSpan currently has business relationships with more than 3,000 newspaper and 500 radio station customers across the country. Contact: Sam Whitt (swhitt@mediaspangroup.com)
Morrisville - ChannelAdvisor Corporation (www.channeladvisor.com), a provider of enterprise marketplace management solutions, closed on $5.7 million in funding led by Boston- based Genesis Venture Partners, L.P. (GVP). Other investment firms that participated in the round include Southern Capitol Ventures, Tri-state Investment Group and The Atlantis Group in North Carolina and eBay, Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY). Scot Wingo, ChannelAdvisor's chief executive, said the money would go towards expanding the sales force of the company. ChannelAdvisor's clients include IBM, Ingram Micro, Acer, Crucial Technologies and Iomega in the computer and peripherals category. Customers in the consumer electronic industry include Creative Labs, Econozone, Handspring, Harman Audio and Kodak. West Marine, Rollerblade and Sportif USA are a few sporting goods companies selling through ChannelAdvisor. Contact: Scot Wingo (scot@channeladvisor.com)
Chapel Hill - DarPharma (www.darpharma.com), a company focused on drug discovery and early drug development, secured $2.4 million in Series A funding from angel investors with an additional commitment of $750,000 pending from a private foundation. Contact: Jeffrey Segal (919.403.4348)
Charlotte - Waveguide Solutions, Inc. (www.waveguidesolutions.com), a provider of printed monolithic optical circuits, completed an initial close on its latest round of Series B venture financing. Southeast Interactive Technology Funds of RTP and Academy Venture Funds of Raleigh and Charlotte led the round. Funding will be used for product development on the company's technology, which enables printing of passive and active optical circuits onto semiconductor devices. The company raised $1.2 million in its first round of funding in January 2001. Contact: Pedram Leilabady (704.599.1720)
Cary - Level 8 Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: LVEL) (www.level8.com), a global provider of high performance eBusiness integration software, raised $3.6 million from several investors comprised of both existing and new participants. The company plans to use the funds to support working capital needs. Contact: Tony Pizi (919.380.5000)
Kyma Technologies, Inc.
Kyma Technologies (www.kymatech.com),
a company formed out of N.C. State in 1998, is
developing nitride substrates (a.k.a. wafers) to be
used as core materials in a wide range of
semiconductor devices. In the future, devices based
on gallium nitride will mean brighter lights, longer
device life, reduced power consumption, and higher
quality products for the consumer.
"The potential application of gallium nitride substrates is enormous," says Ed Pupa, CEO, Kyma. "Gallium nitride, unlike other substrates, is an ideal material for 3G wireless base station applications because it can run at higher frequencies and power to generate more bandwidth. In the field of optoelectronics, gallium nitride has the ideal properties to allow the manufacture of blue lasers. Current DVD players utilize red lasers, which are able to store two movies on a double-sided DVD, about 6 Gb. A blue laser reads and writes a smaller spot size, so the same media can hold 6 movies, which could be the entire Star Wars Trilogy, or about 24 Gb."
The company's substrates will also be used in short wavelength semiconductor lasers for high-density optical storage, high brightness UV LEDs for solid state lighting, advanced high frequency communication components for wireless applications, and high-power semiconductor devices for wireless infrastructure and radar applications.
The company is strengthened by prominent board members, William Pratt, current Chairman, CTO and founder of RF Micro Devices, and James Poitras, former president and CEO of Integrated Silicon Systems.
Funding history includes $2.6 million in Series A from Precision Ventures of Dallas; RM Management, an angel investor in Kansas City; and management and board members in July 2001. The company has also received $2.1 million in STTR/SBIR contracts to date. Kyma will begin its Series B financing effort in the first half of 2002.
The company was recently selected to present at the Semiconductor Venture Fair to be held on February 20-21, 2002 in San Francisco, CA. Kyma was one of 75 companies selected from 1,000 applicants to present.
"Besides the overall high quality of life in the Triangle, what has made this area the most attractive to us is the universities, and the quality of the graduates," says Pupa. "N.C. State has several spin-offs in the semiconductor arena, and Duke and UNC have great biotech companies in the pipeline."
Contact: Ed Pupa (919.789.8880)
Frontier Capital, LLC
With investments in Chapel Hill's TriVirix and other
Triangle investments on the horizon, Frontier Capital
of Charlotte provides venture and growth capital to
technology and non-technology high-growth businesses.
Frontier has a regional focus on the Southeastern and
Mid-Atlantic States with a focus on Charlotte, the
Triangle, Atlanta, and Northern Virginia.
Founded in 1999, the firm typically invests between $500,000 and $3 million in companies with typically 10-50 employees and $3-15 million revenues.
Michael Ramich recently came on board with Frontier as a principal and has responsibility over the Research Triangle.
"We think that the Triangle is really a vibrant place," said Ramich. "The corporate infrastructure and universities with the R&D and labor source, teamed with the capital availability from larger funds and smaller angel funds, makes it a great place to start companies and not to mention, to live."
Other portfolio companies include Brightpod of Raleigh, MindBlazer of Charlotte, and Peak 10 of Charlotte.
Contact: Michael Ramich (704.414.2880)
Raleigh - HAHT Commerce (www.haht.com), a provider of chain management applications, acquired channel management vendor iMediation and content exchange vendor ArcadiaOne. Under the terms of the agreement, HAHT will issue approximately 8.9 million shares for all iMediation's outstanding stock, inclusive of the stock from arcadiaOne, which was recently purchased by iMediation in November. The acquired companies' customers include dominant consumer products leaders Hasbro, L'Oréal, Philips, and Virgin. Contact: Tom Thomas (919.786.5100)
RTP - PharmaLinkFHI (www.pharmalinkfhi.com), a contract research organization (CRO), was invited to make a presentation of its vanguard Internet-based clinical trial management processes and global research capabilities at the 2002 Global Healthcare Services Conference in New York City, February 4-7. The conference is an annual event sponsored by UBS Warburg. PharmaLink is a privately held company, at present, but is seeking capital to expand its operations worldwide. Contact: Albert Siemens (919.484.1921)
Pittsboro - Biolex Inc. (www.biolex.com), a biotechnology company with a plant-based protein development and manufacturing technology, appointed John Irick to the newly created position of Senior Vice President of Corporate and Business Development. Prior to Biolex, Irick was a co-founder of Durham-based Merix Bioscience Inc., where he served as executive vice president and director. Biolex Inc. works on discovering, developing and commercializing proteins derived from proprietary plant-based technology for the development of human and animal therapeutics, and other biotechnology applications. Contact: John Irick (jirick@biolex.com)
Venture 2002
CED is pleased to announce that Steve Jurvetson,
managing director, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, will
speak at Venture 2002. Jurvetson was the founding VC
investor in Kana Software (NASDAQ: KANA), Hotmail
(MSFT), Interwoven (IWOV) and Lightwave Microsystems.
He was recently honored as "The Valley's Sharpest VC"
on the cover of Business 2.0 and chosen by the
SF Chronicle and SF Examiner as one of
"the ten people expected to have the greatest impact
on the Bay Area in the early part of the 21st
Century." He was profiled in the New York Times
Magazine and on the cover of Worth
Magazine. Jurvetson was chosen by Upside Magazine
as one of the 100 "most influential people in the
digital world", and by Forbes as one of "Tech's Best
Venture Investors". Jurvetson also writes a regular
column for Red Herring Magazine.
Money & Markets 2002
With 513 entrepreneurs and financiers in attendance,
the first annual Money & Markets conference, held
in RTP January 25, 2002, was a great success. Erskine
Bowles, the Charlotte investment banker who was chief
of staff in the Clinton White House and now is a U.S.
Senate candidate, spoke about NC economic
development. A lunchtime panel featured Mitch Mumma,
Intersouth Partners, Richard Tadler, TA Associates,
Richard Vieira, Broadview, and Pete Savage, Hatteras
Networks.
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.