The Founder Institute, a incubator program started by Adeo Ressi of The Funded, announced it is coming to Denver this spring with a four-month program beginning in April. Like many startup incubators, the Founder Institute offers a variety or programming including structured training classes and access to experienced mentors to support new entrepreneurs. A unique feature of the program is that all of the program stakeholders – including the participating founders and the mentors – share in the equity upside of all the newly formed companies. The Denver program is currently accepting applications with a February 15 deadline for early admission (response by February 22) and a general deadline of February 28. The Founder Institute will also be offering new programs in Singapore, Paris and Los Angeles this spring.
The Colorado Institute for Drug, Device and Diagnostic Development (CID4) announced its official launch yesterday. The goal of CID4, a not-for-profit entity formed in 2009, is to bridge the gap between basic research, which is usually grant funded, and product commercialization in the life science industry. CID4 was formed through a collaboration of much of Colorado’s bioscience community including CU, CSU, the Colorado Bioscience Association, and the Fitzsimons Redevelopment Authority. The institute is currently soliciting proposals from Colorado based life science companies in need of funding and active management. The institute hopes to support three to four companies each year. First round proposals are due February 15.
The week begins with a DaVinci event discussion the Future of Television and Telephony. Tuesday brings a Red Door Interactive panel discussing the use of social media to accelerate the customer lifecycle in the morning in Denver, while Tuesday evening offers a New Tech Meetup in Boulder. Wednesday and Thursday provide a workshop on SBIR/STTR grant writing for the life science crowd. Wednesday also bring a Silicon Flatirons’ Crash Course on IP presented by Jason Haislmaier of HRO at CU Boulder.
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CBSA held its second annual day at the Capitol, which featured brief remarks from several state legislators affirming their support for the industry along with a presentation from Patrick Kelly of BIO and a panel discussion on state legislative priorities.
Kelly rehashed some points from last year’s presentation on the key state attributes to create a strong bioscience industry and then focused on the possibilities for healthcare reform. Kelly first focused on some key factors that were included in the reform bill likely to be passed up until the election of Senator Brown from Massachusetts. Among the points that were generally favorable to the bioscience industry were the establishment of an approval path for follow-on biologics following a 12 year exclusivity period, Medicare Part D donut hole coverage, and a tax credit for small companies that brought a human therapeutic to market. Other key measures included an excise tax of drug manufacturers, a “sunshine provision” for information transparency, and comparative effectiveness provisions. To the final point, Kelly noted concern that this type of regulation could turn into cost-effectiveness analysis.
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AmideBio, LLC announced that it has closed a round of seed funding. The source and the amount of funding were not disclosed by the company. The proceeds of the round will be used to complete initial product optimization using its recombinant hydrid manufacturing technology. AmideBio has an exclusive license, announced two week ago, with CU to commercialize a method to manufacture recombinant proteins and peptides developed by Associate Professor Michael Stowell, who also serves as the Chief Scientific Officer for AmideBio. The new manufacturing technique has the potential both to reduce costs and to make it feasible to manufacture drugs that were difficult to produce with conventional methods. AmideBio is based in Boulder, Colorado.
The week begins with an Entrepreneurs Unplugged at CU Boulder featuring the leadership team from Rally Software. Tuesday brings a workshop on Term Sheets from the RVC and a Colorado Cleantech Initiative. Wednesday sees CBSA’s Colorado Bioscience Day at the Capitol in the morning and the first meeting of the Denver/Boulder Chapter of Girls in Tech in the evening.
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NewsGator announced that it has acquired Tomoye, which provides a community and social platform for organization’s using SharePoint. Along with its product offering, Tomoye brings a strong presence in the government sector including the social community for the US Army with over 150,000 users. NewsGator, whose previous customer base was concentrated in the private sector, also offers resources to enhance social networking and access to information within the enterprise. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. NewsGator is based in Denver, Colorado and Tomoye is headquarted in Quebec, Canada.
New Tech Meetup held its Denver edition last night and featured two new company presentations along with Matt Emmi (new gadgets) and Su Hawk (potential changes to CO software tax law), who revisited their presentations from the Boulder meeting.
ProVault allows individuals going through a divorce to prepare their sworn financial disclosure online, a process that traditionally required detailed paper questionnaires that were then transferred into a desktop application by a paralegal billing about $100 per hour. ProVault seeks to offer a TurboTax-like system that guides users through the process of preparing the document in an understandable way. Currently, ProVault is sold to lawyers who then direct their customers to the site. The company charges a small subscription fee for law offices plus a $65 charge per item that can be passed through to clients. The company, which just launched its product in early December, plans to create a product for consumers and a white label option for law offices.
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GlobeImmune, Inc. today announced a $17.5M Series E Preferred Stock financing round. The round was led by Generali Financial Holding and BSI SA, both new investors, and participated in by several existing investors. Both the new investors are focused in the healthcare market. According to GlobeImmune CEO Timothy C. Rodell M.D. , “This financing strengthens the Company’s balance sheet as we continue to move our clinical programs forward.” In May of this year, GlobeImmune received a $40M investment as an upfront payment from Celgene as part of a strategic global oncology alliance. GlobeImmune, based in Louisville, Colorado, is developing Tarmogens, heat killed recombinant yeast, as potential therapeutics that work by stimulating an immune response. The company is focused treatments for infectious diseases, including Hepatitis C where its clinical programs are most advanced, and cancer.
The week kicks off with two events tonight: a Mobile Monday Colorado Meetup and a DaVinci Institute Event featuring Filtrbox founder Ari Newman. Tuesday brings the Denver Edition of New Tech Meetup. Friday and Saturday offer PodCamp Boulder and next Monday brings the leaders of Rally Software out for an edition of Entrepreneurs Unplugged.
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