Venture Capital News
NASA Forms Partnership With Red Planet Capital, Inc.
NASA has joined with Red Planet Capital, Inc., San Mateo, Calif., in a partnership to help the agency gain access to new and innovative technologies through the venture capital community.
Red Planet Capital is a nonprofit organization that will establish a strategic venture capital fund for NASA. The purpose of the fund is to provide NASA earlier and broader exposure to emerging technologies. It is designed to promote the future availability of technologies with both government and commercial applications that can meet NASA's future mission requirements. The effort signifies the administration's commitment to creative approaches for promoting innovation in pursuit of America's space agenda.
Red Planet Capital will use venture capital and a NASA investment of approximately $75 million over five years to attract private sector innovators and investors who typically have not done business with the agency.
The principals selected to provide investment fund management are Peter Banks, Co-Founder and Partner of XR Ventures, Grand Rapids, Mich.; Graham Burnette, General Partner of the EA-Capital Fund family; and Jacques Vallee, co-founder of the EA-Capital Fund family, San Mateo. The principals will identify investment opportunities, perform due diligence and manage equity investments in companies. NASA will provide strategic direction and technical input to the fund.
[ FYI Index ]
SoonR Receives $6 Million in Series A Funding
Representatives of SoonR, a company that delivers the power of the PC and Mac to mobile phones, announced Wednesday that the company has completed a $6 million Series A round of funding. The investment was led by Clearstone Venture Partners, with participation by Intel Capital and private investors.
The company further announced that William Quigley, Managing Director, and David Stern, Venture Partner at Clearstone Venture Partners, were elected to its Board of Directors in connection with the financing.
The company will use the funding to grow its service that allows consumers to access data and applications on their PC or Mac from any mobile handset anywhere in the world, no matter which carrier network. SoonR fully enables phones and Ultra Mobile PCs to leverage the power of content and applications on PCs and Macs.
The way people access information is rapidly evolving -- low-cost storage, high-speed wireless deployment; powerful portable phones and devices are becoming the standard worldwide. SoonR accelerates a future where the retrieval and sharing of an individual's digital assets can be easily managed from any mobile device at any location.
Additional investors participating in the round include William Stewart, SoonR Board member, Chairman of Sand Hill Capital, Founder/Chairman of Asia Pacific Ventures and APV Technology Partners; Thomvest Seed Capital, Inc; Melinda Rogers of Rogers Communications, Inc.; Patrick McVeigh, SoonR Board Member and former CEO of PalmSource as well as other private investors. Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Professional Corporation, advised SoonR regarding this investment.
[ FYI Index ]
Oregon Investment Fund Selects Kryptiq for First Direct Investment
Representatives of The Oregon Investment Fund (OIF) announced it has finalized its direct investment in Portland-based Kryptiq Corporation. Along with commitments from current investors, including Shelter Capital Partners, SmartForest Ventures and Voyager Capital, the commitment from OIF closes the Series C funding for the company.
Kryptiq Corporation streamlines healthcare communications among health plans, patients, providers, and pharmacies with secure messaging, electronic prescribing, disease management and contract management technologies. By integrating these solutions with existing systems and applications, Kryptiq enables the trusted transport of health information where and when it is needed. The company's fast-growing customer base includes 12 of North America's fastest-growing health plans and many of the top 100 integrated health networks, spans 48 states plus Washington, D.C., and includes well-known providers and health plans such as Providence Health System, Capital Region Healthcare, MeritCare Health System, Eastern Maine Healthcare, BlueCross BlueShield of Minnesota and Northwest Permanente.
[ FYI Index ]
Wharton School Presents Wharton Business Plan Competition to Test India's Entrepreneurship Prowess
India's aspiring business leaders have an opportunity to showcase their entrepreneurial skills by participating in a special India version of the renowned Wharton Business Plan Competition (Wharton BPC) from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Since it began accepting submissions in August, the competition has received an overwhelming response of more than 600 individual entries from current students studying at business schools and colleges across India.
Students are vying for prizes worth 180,000 rupees (about US$4,000) as well as the chance to gain valuable feedback from some of the most accomplished entrepreneurs and venture capitalists in the world.
With the submission phase now closed, participating students are focused on moving on to the next rounds culminating in an awards ceremony for the finalists Nov. 1 in Mumbai at the launch event celebrating the debut of India Knowledge@Wharton. Knowledge@Wharton is the online business analysis journal produced by the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
The Wharton BPC is among the leading global university-run business plan competitions. It was launched in 1998 by the Wharton Entrepreneurship Club and is now part of Wharton Entrepreneurial Programs (WEP), which co-manages the event with a specially selected student committee. Over the years, numerous student teams have gone on to become successful businesses including PayMyBills.com, BuySafe, NetConversions, Stata Labs, DealMaven, Verge Solutions and MicroMRI.
During the course of the competition submissions will undergo scrutiny from a host of entrepreneurs, management experts and venture capitalists drawn from executives with the competition's media partner, the Economic Times and its sponsors: Motorola, Norwest Venture Partners and AppLabs Technologies. In addition, Wharton's large alumni base in India will take an active role. Students will be judged on the viability and soundness of their business ideas and management fundamentals. The 600 competing entries will eventually be reduced to 25 semi-finalists and then to five finalists.
Under the stewardship of Wharton Entrepreneurial Programs, finalists will receive mentoring from seasoned entrepreneurs and business managers in order to hone their entries. In addition participants will have access to a wealth of educational tools including videotaped workshops and articles from Knowledge@Wharton and WEP's "Get it Started!" e-newsletter. Finalist presentations will take place before a panel of high level judges including sponsors on Nov. 1 followed by an awards ceremony and press conference announcing the grand prize winning team, all part of the many activities at the day-long India Knowledge@Wharton launch event. The winners will also receive acknowledgement at the student-run Wharton India Economic Forum held in Philadelphia, Nov. 11.
