Venture Capital News

Boston University’s Institute for Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization Creates a New Type of Incubator

The Institute for Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization (ITEC) at Boston University School of Management and the Boston University Office of Technology Development (OTD) announced the establishment of the Entrepreneurial Research Laboratory (ERL).

Collaboration between ITEC and OTD has created a new living laboratory for entrepreneurial sciences, which connects new entrepreneurs with students, professors, mentors, businesses, investors, and policy-makers. The ERL provides incubator space in the BU Discovery Innovation Center, mentoring and networking opportunities to outstanding Boston University students or recent alumni in exchange for the entrepreneur’s active participation in ITEC educational activities, including acting as a live case study and providing guest lectures.

The first ERL participant Brandon Johnson, President of Boston Microfluidics, Inc. and a 2004 graduate of Boston University's Biomedical Engineering undergraduate program, is developing a device that reduces the time it takes to test for STDs from days to minutes.

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Texas Emerging Technology Fund Awards $600,000 to Resonant Sensors

The North Texas Regional Center for Innovation and Commercialization (NTXRCIC) for the Texas Emerging Technology Fund (ETF), announced Thursday that $600,000 was awarded by the ETF to Resonant Sensors Incorporated (RSI) of  Arlington, Texas.

 RSI was awarded $600,000 for further development and commercialization of its new class of sensors for use in the production of biomedical compounds and drugs.   These revolutionary sensors, based on technology invented at the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA), will be initially applied in cost-effective, high-accuracy drug discovery systems for research laboratories and the pharmaceutical industry.

RSI's technology is backed by a strong and growing intellectual property portfolio.  Their core technology was originally developed in the Department of Electrical Engineering at UTA.  RSI now exclusively licenses several key patents from UTA, and the university is also an equity partner in the company.  RSI currently utilizes laboratory facilities at UTA (via the Arlington Technology Incubator), is a client in TECH Fort Worth's Acceleration Program and maintains an office in TECH Fort Worth's facility.

Resonant Sensors joins Photodigm, Global Contour, OptiSense Networks, Hanson Robotics, University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth, University of Texas at Tyler and The Nanotechnology Research Initiative Projects as ETF-funded activities in the North Texas region.

The $200 million Texas Emerging Technology Fund was signed into law in June 2005 by Texas Governor Rick Perry to assist small, early-stage technology companies in expediting the commercialization of new, high-potential technology developments out of the lab and into the hands of consumers.  Another element of the ETF also enables Texas universities to establish research superiority by recruiting established, world-class faculty with experience in moving technologies into commercial applications.

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BioPartnering Europe (BPE) Calls for Applications to Present

Technology Vision Group LLC (TVG) calls for applications to present at the 15th Annual BioPartnering Europe conference (BPE), to be held in London, England on October 7-9, 2007. BPE offers innovative ways for emerging biotechnology companies to showcase their businesses to top decision makers from leading pharmaceutical, biotechnology, service, and financial organizations.

Applications to present can be submitted online at: http://www.techvision.com/bpe/registration/presenter/apply.php.

This year, BioPartnering Europe has increased their onsite meeting space capacity by 50% in order to accommodate the number of one-to-one meetings expected. Last year over 1200 international delegates attended BPE, where they participated in well over 4000 one-to-one meetings that were facilitated through biopartnering.com, Technology Vision Group’s state-of-the-art partnering software.

Full details about BioPartnering Europe can be found online at: http://www.techvision.com.

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Blade.org Establishes Venture Capital Advisory Board

Representatives of Blade.org, the industry consortium driving innovation in blade-based solutions, announced its new Venture Capital Advisory Board to provide strategic guidance to Blade.org members on the future of blade technologies and strategies. Founding members of the VC Advisory Board will consist of leaders and influencers from key industry VC firms including Accel, Intel Capital, Mayfield, U.S. Venture Partners (USVP) and Walden International.

Blade computers integrate servers, storage, networking and applications into one system. The blade server market is rapidly expanding as more customers look for the flexibility and ease of management blade computing offers, giving them a competitive advantage in the marketplace. With the blade server market predicted to grow from $3B to $11B by 2010, the global venture capital community has invested over $1B in the last two years to fund companies developing emerging technologies and solutions in this rapidly growing market.

The Blade.org VC Advisory Board includes:

• Carl Everett, Venture Partner, Accel
• Bryan Wolf, Managing Director, Intel Capital
• Kevin Fong, Managing Director, Mayfield Fund
• David Liddle, General Partner, U.S. Venture Partners
• Lip-Bu Tan, Chairman AND CEO, Walden International
• Andy Kau, Managing Director, Walden International

To date, more than 50 global venture capital firms, including Walden International, USVP, Accel, Austin Ventures, Mayfield and others have portfolios with many of Blade.org’s member organizations, building support for the blade server architecture and development based on open hardware standards. Blade.org members are actively collaborating to build blade-related technologies, such as special purpose blade servers, interconnect technologies, management tools and vertical industry solutions.

The board held its first meeting at the quarterly all-members meeting in San Mateo and will continue to share its recommendations with Blade.org members and the governing board on an ongoing basis.

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Yorkville Advisors Opens Israel Office

Representatives of Yorkville Advisors LLC, the investment manager to Cornell Capital Partners -- a private investment firm that specializes in structured finance and direct investments -- announced the launch of an Israeli operation as part of its continued global expansion. The move comes on the heels of the firm opening an office in Milan, Italy in March.

Based in Tel Aviv, Cornell Israel Limited will be staffed initially by a team of five executives under a joint venture with Amos Bentzur and Co, a leading Israeli law firm headed by Amos Bentzur. According to the agreement, Amos Bentzur and Co. will act as the exclusive agent for sourcing deals for Cornell Capital Partners in Israel.

Cornell will focus on Israeli companies listed on the Tel Aviv Exchange, but continue to finance those that are listed on other leading global exchanges.

Cornell added that while its primary focus is to target companies in Israel, the Tel Aviv office would be used as a gateway to access other key regions in the Middle East and Central Asia.