CONNECT eNEWSLETTER - December 18, 2009
Funding NEWS
Taylor Peterson, Director, Innovation Programs
Steve Hoey, Senior Program Manager
CONNECT Innovation Report is top story in UT Business section
CONNECT’s 3Q 2009 Innovation Report is released and new data shows that San Diego early stage companies are now attracting a surprising 70% of VC Funding and federal grant funding has once again jumped dramatically. The Report was published in this week’s edition of the San Diego Business Journal and covered today by the San Diego Union-Tribune. Read More >>
Five investment-ready Springboard companies pitch investors at CONNECT Deal Network
Last week CONNECT hosted our sixth Deal Network event at a private residence in La Jolla Farms. Deal Network is a confidential database of individual high net worth investors who receive periodic notice of scrubbed high-quality technology, life sciences, cleantech and action and sport deals that are investment-ready. The presenters, all Springboard graduates, included Malama Composites, a green rigid polyurethane foam that enables manufacturers to produce lighter, stronger, less expensive and environmentally friendly products; U P Laboratories, a topical, safe, non-immunogenic and nontoxic mimetic to BoTox®; Freedom Meditech, Inc., a medical device company focused on ophthalmic devices for diabetes screening and glucose monitoring; Medipacs, a developer of wearable advanced infusion pump technology to provide mobile drug and fluid delivery systems; and Extrabux, Inc., a Web site that integrates comparison shopping with coupons and cash back to get consumers the lowest prices on the Web. The event was attended by more than 25 high net worth potential investors.
Application Deadline for the 2010 Life Science VRT extended – your chance to pitch to VCs, angels and high net worth individuals in San Diego, San Jose and Boston
CONNECT has extended the deadline for qualified applicants seeking funding for the 2010 Life Science Venture Roundtable to January 4, 2010. Selected companies in the areas of instrumentation, diagnostics, bio-markers, microbiology, molecular biology, therapeutics, pharmaceuticals, and other life science specialties will have the opportunity to present to an exclusive audience of investors, including venture capitalists, angels and VIP high net worth individuals. Finalists also receive presentation coaching, business advice and gain valuable connections from seasoned business executives. Click here for details and to apply >>
CONNECT Scrubbed DEALS
By Ruprecht von Buttlar, Director, Business Creation and Development
Sport Innovation: OnePitch
OnePitch, a CONNECT Springboard company, partners with Lazer Ventures Inc. to offer first ever “virtual” hitting experience,
OnePitch Inc. and Lazer Ventures Inc. are franchising a hitting system based off of OnePitchs’ technology. This hitting system is to be the first “virtual” experience that allows the hitter to see where the hit ball would travel on a virtual field. This system will also capture other aspects such as spray analysis and bat speed. This allows the person to see a more accurate view of their swing.
Read More >>
Medipacs, Inc. graduates from CONNECTs Springboard Program and is accepted into CommNexus incubator EvoNexus.
Medipacs, Inc. (“Medipacs” or the “Company”) is a privately held company based in San Diego, California, focused on developing and commercializing wearable, programmable, disposable drug infusion pumps. The Company’s first product, the Medipacs NCA Mini-Infuser™, will be the first in-patient infusion pump able to meet the therapy requirements of the 18M patients annually who now receive post-surgical or trauma pain management drugs by manual injection given by a registered nurse. This patient population alone is a $1.8B market opportunity for Medipacs.
Medipacs is one of the first companies that have been accepted into the San Diego incubator EvoNexus.
Cleantech award recipient ecoATM is on winning roll.
VRT company ecoATM won the clean technology category at CONNECT’s MIP awards last week and is featured in this issue of Inc. magazine. Read More >>
Member NEWS
By Moya Gollaher, Executive Vice President, CONNECT
Celgene acquires Gloucester Pharmaceuticals
Celgenes’ deal to acquire Gloucester is set to close in the first quarter of 2010. Gloucester is a cancer drug developer and was recently granted FDA approval to treat a form of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Celgene is known as a drug maker with a specialization in cancer and immune inflammatory disease. For more information Click Here >>
Roth Capital announces expansion of its healthcare practice
Today Roth Capital Partners announced the addition of five new team members from their New York office. For more information about these individuals and Roth Capital Partners Click Here >>
Salk Institute receives $4.4 million for data center
“The Salk Institute for Biological Sciences said it received a $4.4 million government grant to build a new data center that will increase the La Jolla institute’s computing power.
The grant from the National Institutes of Health is one of two such construction grants in California and 14 nationwide. It comes as part of the government’s economic stimulus program.
Salk President William R. Brody said the new data center would help the institute in computational neurobiology and epigenetics, fields of research that require significant computing power.” Kupper, Thomas. (2009, December 3) The San Diego Union-Tribune
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office accelerates patent applications for “green technology”
The programs’ intention is to cut the process time of an application down to 12 months from the current 40 months so that these ideas may come to life and gather funding, create jobs and enter into the market. For more information Click Here >>
Security Magazine names, Founding Chair of the Privacy, Security & Information Management Practice of Foley & Lardner LLP, Andrew B. Serwin one of the Top 25 People in Security Read More >>
Scripps Research Institute and zoo researchers add stem cells to list of possible methods to defeat extinction
Collaboration between scientists at the San Diego Zoo’s Institute for Conservation and Scripps Research Institute is occurring to help save populations of animals that are near extinction, animals such as the white rhino in which less than a dozen remain. Conservationists work tirelessly to prevent habitat degradation and now they are adding another way to fight extinction, stem cell research. They are working with a world-renowned stem cell researcher, Jeanne Loring, in hopes of being able to use cell reprogramming in animals. Read More >>
SDSU EMC recruiting employers for Spring internships
Increase Your Company’s Productivity and Help Increase the Pool of Innovation Talent in San Diego with an SDSU MBA Intern
Applications to request a SDSU MBA intern for Spring 2010 are due January 8th, 2010. For more information and to complete an application, visit our Internships page. You may also contact Hadar Koter at (619) 594-2162 or via email at hkoter@projects.sdsu.edu.
San Diego Office Interiors honored for cuts in greenhouse gases
“Five San Diego County businesses and a school were honored by state officials yesterday for their efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Read More in SDUT >>
Policy NEWS
By Camille Sobrian, COO, CONNECT
Jessie Womble, Business Development & Public Policy Manager
CONNECT helps found the small business coalition on patent legislation Read More >>
$2 Million for FAST in SBA Budget
The program has not been authorized yet, but that did not stop Congress from including $2 million in the FY10 Consolidated Appropriations Act for the Federal and State Technology Partnership Program (FAST). The funding, tucked in one sentence of the conference report for the Small Business Administration appropriations, will provide grants to state-based SBIR/STTR outreach and assistance programs on a competitive basis. Enabling legislation for FAST is contained in SBIR’s Reauthorization, which has been stalled in contentious conference negotiations for several months.
As CONNECT continues to monitor the SBIR Reauthorization Bill we will track any developments pertaining to this program and keep our readership informed of any new developments.
SBA’s appropriation also includes funding for 80 additional full-time staff at the Administration, $113 million for the Small Business Development Centers, and $10 million for a proposed Entrepreneurial Development Initiative (EDI). Within 45 days of enactment of the budget, the Administrator is to submit a spending plan for EDI to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees for their approval prior to making any awards.
Read More >>
A call to extend the Troubled Asset Relief Program until 2010
This week Timothy Geithner, U.S. Department of the Treasury Secretary, announced a plan to extend TARP, the Troubled Asset Relief Program, until October of 2010. There would be changes with the extension, but the hope is that with this help, funding will stabilize and small business credit scores will stabilize. Read More >>
Innovation SPOTLIGHT
Meet the most innovative companies in San Diego
Click here to see the eight CONNECT MIP Winners and also see how San Diego innovations are having global impact in the short 3D feature INNOVATION REQUIRED! which premiered at CONNECT’s 22nd Most Innovative New Product Awards last Friday.
See also MIP coverage in:
San Diego Business Journal >>
North County Times >>
The San Diego Union-Tribune >>
Xconomy.com >>
NY Times article uncovers what attracts baby boomers to technology
A group of individuals 50 to 60 met in four separate cities to talk technology. The groups met for dinner and an after dinner discussion, sponsored by AARP and Microsoft, to discuss their usage of technology, as they are predicted to be the highest intent to purchase consumer in 2010. The conclusions were mixed, for example there were complaints that items came to cluttered yet those with a smart phone enjoyed the luxury of all the so called “clutter,” (i.e. games, web, application downloads, etc). Read More >>
U.S. Department of Energy supports businesses working on clean technology
Businesses are seeking out the Department of Energy in order to get their ideas off the ground. The catch it must have to do with clean technology, for example: electric cars and wind turbines. Fisker Automotive Inc., is a company that has turned to the government for help and ended up receiving a very generous amount of money. Read More in WSJ >>
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