Innovation Works gathering offers startup companies chance to seek venture capital investments
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Emily Cappo of 4moms promotes the company's mamaRoo rocking device to Philip Yeske, president and CEO of Fluorous Technologies, at the IBEW Hall on the South Side. 4moms was among 15 companies seeking investors during the daylong event. -
Pete Porco of Aethon promotes the company's MedEx, an advanced tracking and surveillance system, to Patti Lee, an assistant director of Career Service of CMU.
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It took about four hours for 15 companies to ask for $23.2 million.
They might just get it, too.
After all, last year a group of companies with similar provenances (assistance from Innovation Works) raised $193 million in funding. That money, which is known as follow-on funding, came from venture capital firms, angel investors, corporations, the federal government, commercial lenders and state and economic development agencies.
And while their businesses ranged from software to manufacturing -- from fitting a shoe to retrofitting an industrial oven -- the common link was Innovation Works, a Ben Franklin Technology Partner funded by the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development. It is a hybrid of early stage investor and company incubator, providing money and expertise to companies that often consist of nothing but a couple of people and an idea.
Innovation Works last week tried its own innovation.
In the past it has held annual meetings and separate gatherings at which companies would ask investors for money. On Wednesday, the nonprofit held a daylong event at which businesses presented their best arguments on why they are good places for venture capital investments as part of Innovation Works annual meeting. Insiders were referring to it as Innovationpalooza.
On the low end of the scale, South Side-based Wawadoo, which is a website that provides event information and sells tickets to events, asked for $120,000 to support its quest to gain 1 million users.
At the other end of the spectrum, ALung, another South Side company that has created a system to assist breathing the same way dialysis assists kidney function, is looking for $15 million, or more than two-thirds of the total money sought during the day.
In the 11 years that Innovation Works has been providing seed money and early capital investments to local startups, those ventures have gone on to draw about $1 billion in additional investments. Companies that have worked with Innovation Works in the last five years now employ 4,684 people.
First Published May 15, 2011 12:00 am
