Philly Enterprise Highlights 10/1: CaBaletta Bio, Dell Boomi, PetPlan
Philly EnterpriseTech
- Radnor’s CaBaletta, Philly’s latest Biotech star, files for $100 million IPO. CaBaletta is a clinical-stage developer of treatments for autoimmune diseases.
- From Philly JoeD: Dogfight over: Petplan sold to a new private equity owner; dueling owners exit dueling owners settle and exit
- Boomi kicks off Fall Show with new branding
- Boomi Partners with Accenture to Introduce Conversational AI Solutions
- Does the latest Boomi news position it as Dell’s next rising star?
- Health care startup TrekIT gets new CEO, funding #McCorkle moves on .
Colorcon Launches $50 Million Venture Capital Fund
Colorcon Launches $50 Million Venture Capital Fund
Pharmaceutical leader partners with Touchdown Ventures to fund promising startups
NEWS PROVIDED BYColorcon Ventures Inc
Sep 18, 2019, 03:25 ET
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HARLEYSVILLE, Pennsylvania, Sept. 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Colorcon, a world leader in the development, supply and technical support of specialty products for the pharmaceutical industry, today announced the establishment of Colorcon Ventures to invest in promising companies in the pharmaceutical industry. Colorcon’s business focus is on advanced coating systems, modified release technologies and functional excipients for use in pharmaceutical immediate and modified release dosage forms.
Colorcon Ventures is a $50 million venture fund focused on startups that are strategically relevant to the core Colorcon business. The fund will target investments in transformational solutions across manufacturing, supply chain, and delivery of pharmaceutical products and services. The fund is not investing in companies developing active ingredients or molecules.
The fund will be stage-agnostic, with an emphasis on early and mid-stage companies that demonstrate product market fit and revenue growth. Colorcon Ventures will invest in startups where Colorcon can add value in the form of subject matter expertise or commercial relationships, and leverage Colorcon’s global reach, relationships within the pharmaceutical industry, and agile R&D approach.
“We are excited to launch this venture fund to support the growth of startup companies in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries,” said Martti Hedman, CEO of Colorcon. “Colorcon has a rich history of innovation and we believe this fund will allow us to continue to serve our customers by partnering with startups.”
Touchdown Ventures, a firm specializing in corporate venture capital, will help manage the Colorcon Ventures fund. Touchdown will work closely with senior executives of Colorcon in all aspects of operating the fund.
“The promise of corporate venture capital is to bring more than just money to the table. A successful corporate investor can generate meaningful value by facilitating commercial relationships with its portfolio companies. We believe that Colorcon Ventures, through close association to the senior executive and business units of Colorcon, is well poised to accomplish this goal,” said David Horowitz, CEO of Touchdown.
For more information about Colorcon Ventures, please visit www.colorconventures.com
About Colorcon
Colorcon is a world leader in the development, supply and technical support of specialty ingredients; formulated film coating systems, modified release technologies, and functional excipients for the pharmaceutical industry. Our best-in-class products and technologies are complemented by our extensive application data and value-added services to support all phases of solid oral dose design, development and manufacture.
With focus on market issues and technology development has earned Colorcon an international reputation as a pharmaceutical supplier of choice. That reputation is based on superior product quality, unparalleled technical support, extensive regulatory assistance and reliable supply from multiple locations.
Colorcon has 11 manufacturing facilities, 21 technical service laboratories globally and more than 1200 employees exclusively dedicated to its customer base. For more information, visit www.colorcon.com
About Touchdown Ventures
Touchdown Ventures partners with corporations to manage their venture capital programs. Touchdown works closely with each corporation to achieve the financial and strategic benefits from venture capital investments. The firm maintains offices in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. More information on Touchdown can be found at www.touchdownvc.com
Corporate Communications Contact:
Deborah J. Taylor
Senior Associate
Phone: +44-1322-627234
deborah@colorconventures.com
Media Contact:
Richard Hayhurst
Richard Hayhurst Associates, Ltd.
Phone: +44-7711-821527
Richard@richardhayhurstassociates.com
SOURCE Colorcon Ventures Inc
Copyright © 2019 PR Newswire Association LLC. All Rights Reserved. A Cision company.
Oncora Medical receives investment from, establishes strategic partnership with Varian to fight cancer
Philly startup Oncora Medical received an investment of an undisclosed amount from Varian. and has joined in a strategic partnership between the two, it was announced Friday. The partnership’s goal is to accelerate the development of software tools to enable precision medicine in radiation oncology.
Varian Medical Systems (NYSE: VAR), based in Palo Alto, combines radiation technology with intelligent software tools to attack, reduce and cure cancer. Varian had revenue of $826 million and net income of $29.4 million in its latest quarter ending in June. It has a market cap of nearly $11 billion.
Oncora Medical, Inc. has developed a predictive analytics platform for oncology, capable of analyzing diverse healthcare data and applying advanced machine learning techniques to produce valuable clinical insights.
An important benchmark in Oncora’s development was its joint study, begun in 2017, with University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston to help radiation oncologists develop personalized treatment plans with the goal of improving outcomes.
CEO David Lindsay (Penn) and CTO Chris Berlind, PhD co-founded Oncora Medical in 2014. Gary Kurtzman, MD of Safeguard Scientifics is Board Chairman.
Its raised $2.6 million prior to Varian’s investment, according to SEC filings. iSeed Ventures, DreamIT Ventures and Dorm Room are among the investors.
Why New Enterprise Associates said it left Baltimore
New Enterprise Associates (commonly referred to as NEA) was once the largest venture capital firm in the world, and is still right near the top with $20 billion in assets under management. NEA launched its newest (and eventually largest) fund this spring, with a target of $3.6 billion. Curalate is a Philly company in its portfolio; larger examples are Uber, and Workday. NEA is equally as powerful on the life sciences side.
NEA profiles today as a large Silicon Valley VC with a strong east coast presence. But if you haven’t been around for awhile, you may not realize it was Baltimore born & bred, a product of an innovative investment management ecosystem including T Rowe Price and Alex Brown.
But in early June 2009, Louis Citron, the general counsel of New Enterprise Associates on St. Paul Street, sent an email to Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon announcing NEA was leaving Baltimore. This was not like the Irsays leaving town in the middle of the night for a new stadium in Indy.
In the email, Citron told the mayor the firm is moving to the suburbs because their employees no longer feel safe in the city. “We had people held up at gunpoint,” Citron said. “A number of us have had our cars broken into, and it’s very expensive to get them repaired.” In the e-mail, he noted the “recent local beatings by roving teenagers during the day in this neighborhood, the raucous club in the basement of the Belvedere and other gang violence throughout the city.” NEA worried about the safety of clients visiting the office.
NEA might have eventually left anyway, though its east coast headquarters is now in DC. But its hard to lose economic gems like that and remain viable as a business center.
Veeva R&D Summit draws life sciences leaders to Philly
California-based Veeva Systems was showing some of its Philadelphia ties this week, hosting a major conference in the city. The 2019 Veeva R&D Summit took place Sept. 8-10, 2019 in Philadelphia, and was expected to draw 1,700 life sciences professionals and industry experts. Former Novartis CEO Joe Jimenez and Lilly’s Drug Development leader were featured keynote speakers.
While Silicon Valley is Veeva’s base for managing one of the most sophisticated cloud operations around, it needs to stay close to its major customers on the east coast, as it does through its Radnor office. The R&D summit focused on Veeva’ clinical data side, as Veeva Vault now makes up a majority of its revenues.
Veeva has achieved an important financial milestone in the 2nd calendar quarter of 2019, reporting revenue of $267 million (up 27.3 year over year), assuring a billion dollar run rate for its 2020 fiscal year ending this coming January. Veeva is forecasting total revenues between $1,062 and $1,065 million and non-GAAP operating income between $401 and $404 million for FY 2020.
Veeva says that the number of Vault CTMS customers has doubled in less than a year to 50 (see my earlier article, Veeva Vault has traction in CTMS). Veeeva, among others, is trying to redefine the CTMS category, which is a critical bottleneck in the industry’s need to get products to market in a safe and timely manner.
Veeva also announced today that it will host a 2020 Medical Device & Diagnostics Summit June 1-2, 2020 in Minneapolis, reflecting an increased focus on that segment.
Veeva (NYSE: VEEV) has continued a remarkable stretch of market and financial performance. It currently has a Price/Sales (not P/E) ratio of 21, and its shares have risen almost 80% during 2019.
“The life sciences industry is transforming to precision medicine and software is transforming along with it to the cloud,” CEO Peter Gassner, who was an executive at Salesforce.com Inc. and Peoplesoft Inc. before co-founding Veeva in 2007, recently told Bloomberg. “The stars are aligning.”
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Edison Leads $10 Million Investment In Hoboken-based Health Recovery Systems
September 5, 2019 Esther Surden Emerging technologies, Health Tech, investors, NJ Tech Companies, tech entrepreneurship,
In a move that illustrates Princeton-based Edison Partners’ continued commitment to the state of New Jersey and to New Jersey startups, the venture capital firm announced that it would be the lead stakeholder in a $10 million investment in Health Recovery Solutions (HRS), based in Hoboken.
HRS was established in 2012 by Jarrett Bauer, Rohan Udeshi and Daniel Priece, and has since grown into a market leader in remote patient monitoring. According to a release, the funds will be used to “accelerate the company’s go-to-market capabilities and augment its best-in-class technology platform within the $12 billion telemedicine market.” HRS is Edison’s 49th investment in New Jersey.
In an explanation of what the company does, an Edison statement pointed out that “chronic disease continues to drive up healthcare costs and is the leading cause of hospital readmissions. Remote patient monitoring (RPM) is becoming a fundamental tool for decreasing readmissions, improving outcomes and reducing the overall cost of care. … HRS provides an RPM platform that allows health systems and home care agencies to reduce hospital readmission rates by up to 80% while improving patient and caregiver satisfaction.”
This year, HRS landed on the Inc. list of the 5,000 fastest growing private companies, and it came in at number 10 on our list of the fastest growing private tech companies in New Jersey, with a reported 2018 revenue of $6.3 million. Bauer, the CEO, presented the startup’s origin story at a New Jersey Tech Council meeting in 2017.
Explaining Edison’s choice of HRS, Gregg Michaelson, the partner at Edison Partners who led the investment, told NJTechWeekly.com, “We have mapped the telehealth market and believe that the HRS product and business model will make it the clear market leader in the remote patient monitoring space. The founders are passionate and persistent about improving the health of millions of Americans. We believe those qualities, along with their proven strategic and tactical chops, will create another huge outcome for a New Jersey company.”
He continued, “We believe this company is unique in many ways—best product in the competitive set, very profitable unit economics, exceptional revenue growth and a founding team that desires more than just funding from a financial partner.”
In a release, Michaelson stated, “As the U.S. healthcare industry shifts to a value-based care model, providers are more incentivized than ever to decrease readmissions and improve patient outcomes.” Michaelson will join the HRS board of directors.
“We’re delivering a comprehensive solution to costly chronic disease management,” Bauer stated. “Our partnership with Edison Partners will allow us to further accelerate toward our ultimate goal of positively impacting millions of patients who are unnecessarily readmitted to the hospital every year. We’re thrilled to partner with the Edison team as they bring healthcare and technology expertise, along with operational capabilities, to help us drive toward a premium outcome.”
The HRS software platform connects post-acute patients with clinicians and family caregivers, allowing for daily performance tracking, video visits, dietary guidance and a host of other engagement and communication tools. Clinicians utilize the platform to track vital statistics, manage patient recovery and to intervene directly or through a family caregiver when necessary. The software is customizable, with more than 40 treatment plans for conditions such as diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), congestive heart failure and chronic kidney disease.
The company has more than 140 customers across the healthcare provider network, including recognized names such as Banner Health (Phoenix), Penn Medicine at Home (Philadelphia), WellCare Health Plans (Tampa), Northwell Health (Lake Success, N.Y.) and MedStar Health (Columbia, Md.).
This post previously appeared in NJTechWeekly, and is reposted here with the permission of its author, Esther Surden, NJTechWeekly Editor & Publisher
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Philly EnterpriseTech PeopleNews 9/8: New SunGard AS Team; Another SAP exec to Google Cloud
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The Chevrolet Corvair in action (1960)
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