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Innovation Works Makes
100th New Investment in Seed-Stage Technology Companies
Innovation Works, the Pittsburgh
region's most active and largest seed-stage investor in technology
start-ups, invested in its 100th company since the inception of the
organization's seed fund in late 1999. The portfolio companies
also reached an unprecedented single-year milestone of attracting
more than $100 million in follow-on investment from private and
other sources in 2007.
In total, Innovation Works (IW)
has invested more than $35 million since 1999, with portfolio
companies going on to raise more than $425 million in follow-on
financing in the same period. Some of the earliest IW
investments are now paying off in terms of additional venture
capital, company growth, product sales, and local employment.
Innovation Works made more
first-time investments in 2007 than any other single year since its
inception, adding 17 new companies to the state-sponsored
organization's investment portfolio and surpassing the 100-company
mark. "With 17 new companies added to the investment portfolio
in 2007 -- and more than 100 since its inception -- Innovation Works
has proven to be a statewide leader in early-stage technology
investment," said Dennis Yablonsky, Secretary of Pennsylvania's
Department of Community & Economic Development. "The
milestones reached by Innovation Works and their portfolio companies
demonstrate the organization's ability to develop cmpanies that
affect the most innovative industry sectors in the world."
One of those innovative companies
is Aethon, Inc., maker of the robotic "Tug" that automates supply
chain logistics in hospitals. Aethon received one of IW's first
investments in 2000. Since then, the company has doubled
revenues every year, employs over 100 people (75 employed at the
company's headquarters in Robinson Township), has more than 100
client hospitals throughout the country and has raised $20 million
in venture capital. "The entire start-up community has grown
substantially since our first investment from Innovation Works,"
says Aldo Zini, President and CEO of Aethon. "It's fantastic
that 100 start-ups have received investment from Innovation Works
and that those companies have hit a milestone like attracting $100
million in outside money in a single year. It really speaks to
the growing strength of our technology community in every way -- the
research, entrepreneurial growth, availability of capital and the
talent that is here."
In 2007, Innovation Works added
the following companies to the investment portfolio:
- Accipiter Systems, Inc.
- Alertek, LLC
- BIOSAFE, Inc.
- Bossa Nova Concepts, LLC
- CastGrabber, LLC
- Ciespace Corporation
- Cognition Therapeutics, Inc.
- Concurrent Electronic Design
Automation, LLC
- Coventina Healthcare
Enterprises, Inc.
- ImpactGames, LLC
- MobileFusion, Inc.
- Pertuity, Inc.
- RedPack Logistics, Inc.
- ShowClix LLC
- Sim Ops Studios, Inc.
- SMASH
- ThermalTherapeutic Systems,
Inc.
In addition, Innovation Works
re-invested in the following portfolio companies to continue fueling
their growth in 2007:
- ClearCount Medical Solutions,
Inc.
- DesignAdvance Systems, Inc.
- Knopp Neurosciences Inc.
- Proteopure, Inc.
- Cellatope Corporation
(Formerly StageMark, Inc.)
- TowerCare Technologies, LLC
"2007 was a banner year for
Innovation Works; but more importantly, it was a strong year for the
young technology companies here that hit extraordinary milestones of
their own," said Rich Lunak, President & CEO of Innovation Works.
"In previous years, IW invested in seed-stage companies that became
the region's technology powerhouses: FORE Systems, Automated
HealthCare, VoCollect, Precision Therapeutics, and others.
These companies have had a significant impact on the region's
economy and talent pool. Now there are strong signs of growth
in the current portfolion of start-up companies -- one of the best
indicators being that the majority of local companies that received
venture capital in the past two years have been Innovation Works
portfolio companies. This bodes well for their future growth
and solidifies Pittsburgh as an area for additional private
investment."
- Innovation Works
