Ben Franklin Talent Connect Partners with Swarthmore Future Entrepreneurs Program

May 15, 2012

Pennsylvania (www.sep.benfranklin.org, www.swarthmore.edu) – Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania and Swarthmore College have partnered to provide Swarthmore College students with entrepreneurial internship opportunities at emerging technology growth enterprises in the Greater Philadelphia region.

Ben Franklin Talent Connect provides interns with real-world entrepreneurial experience at growing Ben Franklin portfolio companies.  Our companies benefit from dynamic young talent.

Swarthmore College students eager to learn more about entrepreneurship have a new opportunity to explore this challenging and exciting career path. In response to growing interest, and with the financial assistance of an anonymous alumnus donor, the College’s Career Services Office launched the Swarthmore Future Entrepreneurs program. The program provides funding to students who complete internships with start-up companies. Through these internships, students will receive hands-on experience within a start-up, and work closely with experienced entrepreneurs to learn how businesses are created and managed.

“This partnership between our Ben Franklin Talent Connect and Swarthmore’s Future Entrepreneurs internship programs is a win-win for Swarthmore students and our portfolio companies,” said RoseAnn B. Rosenthal, President & CEO of Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania.

As Nancy Burkett, Swarthmore’s Director of Career Services notes, “We believe Swarthmore provides the ideal learning environment to foster the creativity and innovation that are hallmarks of successful entrepreneurs. Our goal is to provide students with the experiences, education and resources necessary to explore sustainable business and social enterprises so they can envision the impact they will make in the world.”

Seven Swarthmore students will participate in the Swarthmore Future Entrepreneurs program in this inaugural year. Each will hold a summer internship with a Ben Franklin portfolio company.  The students will serve the companies in a variety of capacities, including work in the investment, marketing, engineering, and social media/communication realms. The goal is to expand the program in the years to come.

About Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania

Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania is a national, award winning organization for Stimulating Entrepreneurial Potential, through entrepreneurship, technology and innovation.  For thirty years, Ben Franklin has provided the Capital, Knowledge and Networks that help innovative enterprises compete in the global marketplace, generating wealth and supporting regional economic growth.  Ben Franklin has invested more than $155 million to grow more than 1,750 regional enterprises, across all areas of technology.  It has launched university/industry partnerships that accelerate scientific discoveries to commercialization. Ben Franklin is part of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Ben Franklin Technology Partnership.

For additional information, please visit www.sep.benfranklin.org, Facebook, LinkedIn & Twitter.

BFTP/SEP Contact:

Jaron J. Rhodes
(215) 972-6700, ext. 3214
jaron@sep.benfranklin.org

About Swarthmore College

Swarthmore College is a highly selective college of liberal arts and engineering. Since its founding in 1864, Swarthmore has given students the knowledge, insight, skills, and experience to become leaders for the common good. A student/faculty ratio of 8:1 ensures that students have meaningful engagement with their professors, preparing them to translate the skills and understanding gained at Swarthmore into the mark they want to make on the world. The College’s Honors program features small groups of students working closely with faculty and peers; an emphasis on independent learning; and a final examination by outside scholars. Swarthmore’s 425-acre arboretum campus is located 11 miles southwest of Philadelphia.

Contact the Swarthmore College Communications Office at news@swarthmore.edu (610) 328-8533, or learn more about the College at www.swarthmore.edu.

Mike Armstrong, May 14, 2012

Six young tech companies received a total of $675,000 in investment from Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania.

Zonoff Inc. of Malvern received the largest amount — $200,000 — as it develops a “home-automation system” that would automatically perform household tasks, such as turning off lights at night or adjusting the thermostat at various times of the day. (My request to automate: Taking out the garbage.)

To the state-funded Ben Franklin organization, which has been investing in companies like this since the early ’80s, Zonoff is a known commodity. It was founded by Mike Harris, who began AnySource Media — also funded by Ben Franklin — which was acquired by DivX Inc. for $15 million in 2009. And Zonoff itself is a spin-off of BuLogics, which received $150,000 from the economic-development agency in November 2009.

GroupAppz Inc. and PeopleLinx L.L.C. each received $150,000. Started in 2010, GroupAppz in Fort Washington developed an app called GameOnz to help coaches, young players, and their parents coordinate practices and games. CEO Stephen Layne is a serial entrepreneur who ran LaxPower.com, a West Chester online lacrosse site that was acquired by the Active Network Inc. in 2007.

PeopleLinx, of Philadelphia, has developed tools to help businesses use social-media technologies more effectively. Its CEO is Nathan Egan, who was an early employee at LinkedIn Corp. in Mountain View, Calif.

Also receiving funding were:

Cross X Platform L.L.C. in Audubon, Montgomery County, a cloud-based software company focused on the professional services sector. It received $100,000.

SnipSnap App L.L.C., which has an app that scans, saves, and redeems printed coupons using a mobile phone. The start-up, which received $50,000, is currently housed at the Project Liberty Digital Incubator in The Inquirer Building at 400 N. Broad St.

Syandus Inc., of Exton, which uses three-dimensional simulations and game technology to help doctors learn to diagnose and manage diseases. It received $25,000. The Ben Franklin program also invested $150,000 in it in 2009.

Read More: http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/mike_armstrong/20120514_SEER_Interactive_is_Phila__rsquo_s_only_Inner_City_100_firm.html#ixzz1urf8zNDT

Peter Key, May 11, 2012

In what could be a sign that fundraising for tech companies is getting a little easier, three of them in the area recently raised $6.6 million in private securities sales.

Virtual Piggy Inc., the Philadelphia-based operator of a website that enables parents to set up accounts from which their children can anonymously make online purchases, raised a little more than $6 million, according to its CEO and co-founder Jo Webber.

CloudMine LLC raised $480,000 in a sale of debt and options, warrants or rights, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing reported by FormDs.com. The Philadelphia company has developed a technology platform that mobile application developers can use for the back end of their apps.

Timesight Systems Inc. raised $115,000 in a private-equity sale, according to a filing it made with the SEC. The Mount Laurel, N.J., company has technology that allows high-definition surveillance systems to be supported on one-tenth of the server and storage space they usually require.

The fundings came after what would have been a slow first quarter for venture-capital funding in the area except for one massive deal — a $71.4 million funding of Exton-based iPipeline, which provides software to the insurance industry.

Without that deal, venture capitalists would only have invested $70.1 million in companies in eastern Pennsylvania, South Jersey and Delaware in the first quarter, according to the MoneyTree Report, which is put out by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Assocation using data from Thomson Reuters. That total would have been the lowest since the first quarter of 2009 when companies in the region raised only $43.8 million, according to the MoneyTree.

Virtual Piggy, which will use the money to try to gain widespread acceptance of its offering, didn’t have a difficult time raising money, Webber said in an email.

The company “has delivered on timelines laid down previously,” she said. “The consumer marketing campaign is a natural next step in the go to market plan.”

Timesight’s funding was connected to a nearly $3.2 million investment the company got in early last year, according to its CEO, Charles Foley. As a result of that investment, New Venture Partners of Murray Hill, N.J., and Contour Venture Partners of New York, which made it, had the right to invest more in Timesight and they did, Foley said.

Venture capitalists are a little more willing to invest in tech companies than they have been recently, but mostly in high-growth areas, such as cloud computing, storage management and information security, he said.

“We’re very fortunate that we’re in a strong area — storage and security — and we have solid, strong investors who want to invest more and grow the company further,” Foley said.

Another indicator that venture money may be getting easier to raise was attendance at the Angel Venture Fair, which was held last month at the Union League of Philadelphia.

The event drew about 400 people, its best attendance ever, according to Marc Kramer, its executive director. One-hundred-seven companies, also the most ever, from 10 states applied to present at it, Kramer said.

“I think with the stock market going up, and the economy … rebounding, there is a higher level of interest at all levels, from people wanting to start their own companies to people wanting to invest in them,” he said.

Read More: http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/print-edition/2012/05/11/virtual-piggy-cloud-mine-timesight.html?page=all

• Nanotechnology commercialization efforts go statewide [NTI]
• Pennsylvania’s Nanotech Players Pursuing Giga-Scale Impact
• Nanobiotix and Thomas Jefferson University Start Research Collaboration
• PA Nanotechnology 2012: Nanotech’s Role in Advancing PA’s Economy Set for June 5th at Harrisburg University
• Air Products Completes Acquisition of DuPont’s Stake in DuPont Air Products NanoMaterials
• PCAST Report Recommends Increased Funding For Nanotech Research
• A Tiny Approach to Green: New Nanotechnology Applications
• Nanotech creating Rust Belt jobs
• New Nanotechnology Center Opens in Little Rock
• FDA proposes rules for nanotechnology in food

Nanotechnology commercialization efforts go statewide …

Philadelphia Business Journal by Peter Key

Friday, March 30, 2012

The Nanotechnology Institute is taking its show on the road.

The group will use part of the $1.16 million in state funding it was recently awarded to take its nanotechnology ommercialization efforts statewide in conjunction with a similar organization in Pittsburgh.

“A lot of the work that we did in the past six months working with Harrisburg was to encourage them to support the programs that focus on commercialization,” said Anthony P. Green, vice president of technology commercialization for Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania, which co-founded the NTI in 2000 with Drexel University and the University of Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania’s Nanotech Players Pursuing Giga-Scale Impact

keystoneedge – Rebecca VanderMeulen | Thursday, April 12, 2012

Researchers across Pennsylvania are discovering new ways to apply nanotechnology.

Nanobiotix and Thomas Jefferson University Start Research …

MarketWatch

Nanomedicine and Medical Education leaders are joining their forces in the United States to accelerate the development of NanoXray

PARIS & PHILADELPHIA, May 02, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Nanobiotix, a company developing novel cancer nanotherapeutics and Thomas Jefferson University, one of Philadelphia’s premier medical and health sciences universities, today announced that they have entered into a research collaboration to accelerate the development of Nanobiotix’ lead compound NBTXR3 in the US.

PA Nanotechnology 2012: Nanotech’s Role in Advancing PA’s Economy …

Your-Story.org

Harrisburg, PA, April 19, 2012 – April 20, 2012 | Author: straightlinepr | Posted in Nanotechnology

The PA Nanotechnology conference explores viable nano-based strategies, programs, and resources to assist economic development via education and job creation and retention.

Air Products Completes Acquisition of DuPont’s Stake in DuPont Air Products NanoMaterials

Posted on: Apr 5th, 2012

(Nanowerk News) Air Products has announced it had completed the acquisition of DuPont’s interest in DuPont Air Products NanoMaterials LLC (DA NanoMaterials), the two companies’ 50-50 joint venture serving the global semiconductor and wafer polishing industries. …nanotechnology business news article

PCAST Report Recommends Increased Funding For Nanotech Research

The National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) has a catalytic and substantial impact on the growth of the U.S. nanotechnology industry and should be continued with increased funding from the office of management and budget, according to a new report from the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. The report provides several other recommendations for improving the NNI and updates progress on some of the key recommendations PCAST made in 2010. Read more…

Source: SSTI Weekly Digest for the Week of May 2, 2012

A Tiny Approach to Green: New Nanotechnology Applications

April 23rd, 2012 | Author: Tracey Schelmetic

While it doesn’t garner as many column inches as other industries – probably because it still seems like sci-fi to most people – the nanotechnology industry continues to expand out of the lab and into practical applications. Nanotechnology, the creation and use of devices that are between one and 100 nanometers wide (a nanometer is a billionth of a meter), is today worth an estimated $24 billion according to some research, and that figure is expected to rise steadily.

May 7, 2012

Nanotech creating Rust Belt jobs

New York State is not waiting for the federal government to create an economic turnaround; it’s creating one in a nanotech lab at Albany’s new College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering, CBS News reports.

New Nanotechnology Center Opens in Little Rock

Nanotechnology News (press release)

Little Rock, AR | Posted on May 7th, 2012

UALR – The University of Arkansas at Little Rock – has opened its new home for the Center for Integrative Nanotechnology Sciences. The five-story, $15 million building is a working symbol of Arkansas’ major stake in atomic-sized technology that will …

FDA proposes rules for nanotechnology in food

Apr 21, 2012 – WASHINGTON (AP) – Regulators are proposing that food companies that want to use tiny engineered particles in their packaging may have to provide extra testing data to show the products are safe.

“This round of investments reflects the growing number of entrepreneurs choosing to create their web, app, social media and mobile technology companies here, in our region,”

said RoseAnn B. Rosenthal, President & CEO of Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania.

PHILADELPHIA, PA (www.sep.benfranklin.org) – Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania (BFTP/SEP) recently
approved $675,000 in funding for six
early-stage companies.

Companies approved
for funding:

Cross X Platform, LLC – Audubon – Montgomery County
Approved Investment: $100,000

Cross X Platform (CXP) accelerates the capacity of professional services firms to scale and deliver the sustainable results that business leaders expect.  CXP’s top-tier clients leverage the company’s shared services platform – including cloud-based collaborative sales and recruiting engines, efficient back-office support, leadership and capital – to increase speed and operational agility to better serve clients and expand the business. And with CXP managing most non-core business functions, clients are in a superior position to improve delivery outcomes and time-to-market advantages across mid-to-large organizations and Fortune 500 companies.

CXP is led by Terry Williams, co-founder and CEO.  Williams is also Managing Partner of NextStage Capital, a Mid-Atlantic region venture capital firm focused on financing start-up technology companies.

Christopher Betzler is the co-founder and CFO; and Christopher Mengel is the VP of Marketing.

GroupAppz Inc. – Fort Washington – Montgomery County
Approved Investment: $150,000

As individuals around the world are increasingly turning to social networks as their primary means of accessing information, communicating and collaborating; so are businesses – making it necessary for them to leverage these networks for applications and online computing services.

GroupAppz was founded to address this need, developing mobile and web based apps which improve group-oriented activity.  By exploiting the power and widespread adoption of popular social networks and ubiquitous mobile technologies, the company’s platform allows groups and their members to create, manage and share their processes and activities online, build membership, engage with their members, deliver news and information, and conduct commercial transactions, enabling them to be more productive and successful.

The company is led by Stephen Layne, CEO and co-founder.  Layne has started five companies, all which have been successfully sold or merged with multinational firms including, Sprint, IBM, Xerox, and The Active Network.

Joseph Cellucci is the CTO and co-founder; and Elizabeth Murray is a co-founder and head of Operations.

PeopleLinx, LLC – Philadelphia
Approved Investment: $150,000

PeopleLinx improves the way businesses respond to the unique challenges and opportunities thrust upon them by social media technologies – such as LinkedIn®, Facebook®, blogs and Twitter®.

While social media presents tremendous opportunities, most organizations lack the strategies, best practices, training, and tools needed to minimize risk while maximizing return on their social media sales and marketing efforts – which is where PeopleLinx steps in, with software that shapes and directs employees’ use of social media tools.

PeopleLinx Advisor™ develops the strategic foundation from which the social media information contained in an organization’s employee database can best be defined, accessed and utilized with optimum efficiency.  PeopleLinx Navigator™ provides in-depth training and guidance needed to ensure that personnel set up, maintain and continuously optimize their social presence and usage of social media tools. PeopleLinx Connector™ gives organizations the ability to harness their employees’ collective social network relationships, and leverage that data to drive the goals of both the individual and the organization.

The company is led by Nathan Egan, Chairman & CEO.  Prior to PeopleLinx, Nathan was an early employee at LinkedIn, where he helped create and execute the sales process for their corporate solutions.

Other company leaders include Rick Genzer, COO; Patrick Baynes, Senior VP of Social Business Solutions; and Rick Eastland, CFO.

SnipSnap App, LLC – Philadelphia
Approved Investment: $50,000

What if snipping a coupon was as simple as snapping your smartphone camera?  That’s the idea behind SnipSnap, the first app to scan, save, and redeem printed coupons on your mobile phone.

The technology allows users to more efficiently and effectively organize their coupons, maximize their savings, and be reminded to use their coupons before expiration dates.  They are also enabled to share their coupons via social networks.

SnipSnap is successfully taking advantage of much of Philadelphia’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.  In 2011, the company was shaped by Dreamit Ventures, a nationally renowned entrepreneurial accelerator, which is funded and supported by Ben Franklin.  This year, SnipSnap is part of the inaugural class of companies at the Project Liberty Digital Incubator, housed by the Philadelphia Media Network, funded by the Knight Foundation, and operated by Ben Franklin.  This April, SnipSnap won Philly Tech Week’s Switch Philly competition.

The company is led by Ted Mann, CEO; Kostas Nasis, CTO; and Kyle Martin, VP of Product.

Syandus, Inc. – Exton – Chester County
Approved Investment: $25,000
(Ben Franklin previously invested $150,000)

In an effort to produce more knowledgeable and experienced doctors, Syandus, Inc. has developed unique medical education programs that use learning simulations to help doctors better learn to diagnose and manage diseases.

ALIVE Med^TM Digital Delivery Platform uses simulation models, 3-D animation, and game technology to enable interactive education for healthcare professionals, allowing them to better learn and adopt new therapies.

The intelligent simulations enable doctors and other healthcare practitioners to explore complex disease states, and learn how specific drugs and therapies work in the human body.  Rather than watching a video, or a slide presentation, doctors can actually interact with 3D virtual patients, and dive into an organ system to observe the impact of disease.

The company is led by president and CEO Douglas Seifert, Ph.D.

Zonoff, Inc. – Malvern – Chester County
Approved Investment: $200,000

Home automation systems are relatively difficult to install and use, unless one wants to do only one thing, such as lighting.  To remedy this problem, Zonoff has developed the Diplomat Home Control Platform – a suite of hardware and software products that integrate into individual automation networks (no matter the brand or function), and make it easy to add new automation products at any time.

Zonoff is also developing software to transform the Connected Home to the Intuitive Home – allowing a Zonoff home automation system to learn and become self-adaptive to the residents’ behaviors. For example, if during weekday evenings residents turn off indoor lights at 11 p.m., then lower the thermostat to 65 degrees followed by activating outdoor lighting and a security camera, only to reverse the process weekday mornings; Zonoff software will learn these actions and automatically invoke them without human interaction.

Automation subsystems that Zonoff can program include window shades, lights, thermostats, home entertainment systems, and more.

Zonoff is a company spin-off of BuLogics, another Ben Franklin portfolio client, focused on establishing wireless control and automation.

The company is led by Mike Harris, Founder and CEO.  Harris previously co-founded AnySource Media.  AnySource, a Ben Franklin alumni company, was a pioneer of Internet-TV technology that was successfully acquired by DivX in 2009.

Zonoff is also lead by Michael Balog, Ph.D., CTO; Bob Cooper, CMO (acting); and Natalie Cooper, Director of Finance.

About Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania

Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania is a national, award winning organization for Stimulating Entrepreneurial Potential, through entrepreneurship, technology and innovation.  For thirty years, Ben Franklin has provided the Capital, Knowledge and Networks that help innovative enterprises compete in the global marketplace, generating wealth and supporting regional economic growth.  Ben Franklin has invested more than $155 million to grow more than 1,750 regional enterprises, across all areas of technology.  It has launched university/industry partnerships that accelerate scientific discoveries to commercialization. Ben Franklin is part of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Ben Franklin Technology Partnership.

For additional information, please visit www.sep.benfranklin.org, Facebook, LinkedIn & Twitter.

BFTP/SEP Contact:

Jaron J. Rhodes
Manager, Marketing and Communications
(215) 972-6700, ext. 3214
jaron@sep.benfranklin.org

Mike Armstrong, May 8, 2012

Computer technology has trumped all the mental pictures I have of what a “control room” should look like.

On Monday, I visited the Navy Yard’s new Network Operations Center (NOC) to see what’s expected to be a showcase for how “smart grid” technologies will perform at the growing urban office and industrial park.

But instead of a wall-size map of the Navy Yard or a long control board with switches and blinking lights, the room on the first floor of Building 101 looked like the classroom it was, albeit with some funky strings of LED lighting.

First impressions can be deceiving, because not only are Penn State, Drexel and University of Pennsylvania students going to be learning about green-power technologies in that room, but Viridity Energy Inc. also will use it as a fully functioning backup to its Center City operations.

One day, those involved with creating the $160,000 network operations center said, it would be possible to monitor what they call the “energy ecosystem” of the Navy Yard, which runs its own unregulated power grid.

That day was not Monday. But William J. Agate Jr., vice president of Navy Yard management and development, called the opening of the NOC an important step in a multiyear process of smartening up the grid the Navy built to demonstrate on a small, real-world scale what might be possible in large, regional power grids.

The new center uses software developed by Viridity Energy, a small company that has developed tools to help large commercial power users optimize their energy consumption.

Viridity founder and CEO Audrey Zibelman, once the No. 2 executive at power-grid operator PJM Interconnection, sees much opportunity in not only reducing energy demand, but also turning passive power consumers into active ones — using technology to buy power when prices are low and sell it back to the grid when prices are high.

Sounds simple, but clearly it’s not, since the distribution model of the power industry is the equivalent of the one-way street.

Zibelman, whose company has raised $24 million in venture capital and now employs 65 people, said she wants to see Philadelphia become a leader in energy efficiency. Key to that happening, she said, is attracting students who will be the “future operators of the power grid.”

Since what is now being called the Energy Efficient Buildings (EEB) Hub obtained $130 million in federal funding in August 2010, it has been hard to see how this very collaborative effort among government, higher education, and private industry would become the economic engine that has been promised.

I can see the potential in a company such as Viridity, which has come far in little more than four years and is involved in programs such as storing the energy created by SEPTA train brakes and sending the power back to the grid.

And growth is clearly evident at the 1,000-acre Navy Yard, where employment has grown from 2,000 people when the site was turned over to the City of Philadelphia to more than 8,500 now at 115 companies.

Its new NOC would seem to be just another small step in a very slow process, akin to a Wall Street trading desk in a business school. College students should benefit from the integration of economics, business and engineering. But the benefits to the regional economy still seem to be years away.

Read More: http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/mike_armstrong/20120508_Philly_Inc__At_the_Navy_Yard_rsquo_s_Network_Operations_Center.html

John George, May 4, 2012

Iroko Pharmaceuticals beefed up its management team with the addition of two new hires from Big Pharma.

Dr. Clarence L. Young has joined the Philadelphia drug developer as chief medical officer. He was previously at Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp., where he was the vice president for targeted therapies and integrated hospital care. Young also held research positions at GlaxoSmithKline and Protez Pharmaceuticals, a Malvern biotech startup bought by Novartis in 2008 for $100 million.

Also joining the management team at Iroko is Moji James, who will serve as general counsel and vice president. She was most recently global product counsel at Pfizer. Prior to that she was a senior attorney at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, which was purchased by Pfizer in 2009 for $68 billion.

“Clarence and Moji join the Iroko family at an important and exciting time,” said John Vavricka, Iroko’s CEO, who noted the company has two marketed products and four novel pain medications in late-stage development. “Their significant experience will be critical in helping shape the future of Iroko Pharmaceuticals.”

Iroko was founded in 2007 by Philadelphia-based Phoenix IP Ventures, which hired Vavricka as founding CEO of the company. Iroko’s focus is on the development of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), specifically those used in pain management.

The company is specializing in using its proprietary nanoformulation technology to create improved versions of existing NSAIDs. The technology allows less drug to be absorbed by the body without sacrificing efficacy.

“What attracted me to Iroko is their conviction that innovation using new technology can improve existing medications to address unmet medical needs,”

Dr. Clarence L. Young said.

“Iroko is making significant contributions in the area of pain management and their dedication is evident in their clinical development programs.”

Iroko has two products in the market — Indocin, an osteoarthritis treatment, and Aldomet, a high-blood pressure medicine — both of which the company acquired from Merck.

Back in September, the company announced plans to expand its presence at the Philadelphia Navy Yard Corporate Center with a 56,000-square-foot headquarters at the South Philadelphia site.

Iroko said the expansion would allow it to increase its work force to more than 200 employees. It now employs 54 people.

Construction of the new headquarters is expected to be completed by the end of this year.

Read More: http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/print-edition/2012/05/04/iroko-dips-into-big-pharma-for-recruits.html?page=all

Congrats to Greenphire, Infrascan, Neat Company and all the winners at Thursday night’s Enterprise Awards!!

http://philadelphiapact.com/

Peter Key, April 25, 2012

SnipSnap App LLC was the winner of Mobile Monday MidAtlantic’s Demo Night, according to Technically Philly.

The company’s mobile app allows users to scan coupons into their iPhone and display them on the device so they can be redeemed at participating merchants.

The victory gets the company a slot to present tomorrow night at Switch Philly, which will be held from 6-7:15 p.m. at the University of the Arts’ Gershman Hall.

It will be joined by the team that won first place at Startup Weekend Philadelphia for Yagglo, a browser optimized for the iPad, and three companies previously selected: Novotorium resident Ihabi, which has a website with matching technology to help people find apartments; PalmLing, whose service enables travelers to use their cell phones to speak with translators; and airtime, which says it transforms customers’ email signatures into centrally controlled, unified marketing messages.

Cloudmine, Interact, OneTwoSee and Communilator also presented.

SnipSnap was a member of the first class of companies in the Project Liberty Digital Incubator.

Read More: http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/blog/peter-key/2012/04/coupon-app-author-wins-mobile-monday.html

• Montco manufacturer to add 100 jobs
• Phila. Water Dept. system derives building heat from wastewater [NovaThermal Energy LLC]
• Mark Group Launches Row Home Upgrade Package [Philadelphia]
• Gamesa selling four U.S. wind farms
• Report: Schuylkill’s dams could be a source of hydro-power
• Geostellar Plans Solar Power Map of Every Rooftop in the U.S.
• Clean Technology Venture Deals Rise While Dollars Fall in 1Q 2012
• Leading Green Job Search Engine Reports Dramatic Increase in Green Job Postings in 1st Quarter 2012
• Good “Green” Job Opportunities in Fast-Growing “Green” Energy Industry
• Funding Opportunity Announcements [DOE]

Montco manufacturer to add 100 jobs

Philadelphia Business Journal

Date: Thursday, April 19, 2012, 5:58am EDT

Environmental Solutions Worldwide, which makes emission-testing products, is adding 97 jobs in Montgomeryville, Pa., phillyBurbs reports.

Phila. Water Dept. system derives building heat from wastewater

Philadelphia Business Journal

by Peter Key – Thursday, April 12, 2012

NovaThermal has received $200,000 from two programs funded by the U.S. Department of Energy: It got $150,000 from the city of Philadelphia’s Greenworks Pilot Energy Technology program, which was a partnership between the city, the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp. and Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania; it also got $50,000 through Ben Franklin’s Alternative and Clean Energy Technology Development and Commercialization Institute.
Related:

Tapping into a constant resource: sewage’s heat

Philadelphia Inquirer

Hot Poop! Sewage Heat to Warm Building

Forbes

Mark Group Launches Row Home Upgrade Package

PR Newswire

PHILADELPHIA, April 18, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — Mark Group, a leading global provider of home energy efficiency analysis and improvements, is pleased to add an urban-focused Row Home Upgrade Package to its portfolio of energy efficiency home improvement offerings. The new offering bundles the energy efficiency home improvements that typically provide the greatest impact for customers on comfort and savings in their row homes. … Mark Group directly employs and trains its workforce from its North American headquarters at The Navy Yard Clean Energy Campus in Philadelphia.

Gamesa selling four U.S. wind farms

Philadelphia Business Journal

Date: Monday, March 12, 2012, 6:45am EDT

Gamesa, which has its U.S. headquarters in Middletown, Lower Bucks County, is selling four U.S. wind farms for $900 million, phillyBurbs reports.

Report: Schuylkill’s dams could be a source of…

The Mercury

Posted: 04/22/12 12:01 am

A report issued last week by the Department of Energy examines the possibility of generating hydroelectric energy from existing dams and concluded that as much as 679 megawatts of electricity could be generated in Pennsylvania this way.

Of that 679 megawatts, an on-line map based on the report shows the potential for about 31.5 megawatts of energy along the Schuylkill River and its tributaries.

(By way of comparison, Exelon Nuclear’s Limerick Generating Station produces 2,345 megawatts of electricity).

Geostellar Plans Solar Power Map of Every Rooftop in the US

CleanTechnica

April 21, 2012 By Tina Casey
Distributed solar power goes wild! Geostellar has teamed its rooftop solar power analytic toolkit with the satellite imaging company GeoEye to help realize its grand plan to assess the solar energy generating potential of every rooftop in the U.S. With this tool in hand, practically anyone with a roof can get a quick preview of whether or not a solar installation is a sound investment for their property.
…
So far, Geostellar has applied its model to areas where publicly sourced aerial imagery is available, including Washington D.C., Boston, Indianapolis, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and New Jersey. The partnership with GeoEye will enable it to create a nationwide catalog of both residential and commercial properties.

Source: Clean Technica (http://s.tt/19H5L)

Clean Technology Venture Deals Rise While Dollars Fall in 1Q 2012

Green Building Elements

April 6, 2012 By Glenn Meyers
According to information from Cleantech Group, the number of venture deals for clean technology rose in the first quarter of 2012 even though the dollar total of the funding deals declined modestly. The firm reports that early-stage deals appear to be on the rise again, and the mergers and acquisition market remains strong.
Source: http://greenbuildingelements.com

Leading Green Job Search Engine Reports Dramatic Increase in Green …

The Green Job Bank reports that the first quarter of 2012 saw a dramatic increase in the number of green job postings compared to the same period in 2011.

Baltimore, MD (PRWEB) April 10, 2012

The Green Job Bank announced today that it saw a dramatic increase in the number of US-based green job postings in the first quarter of 2012. The green job search engine indexed 36,500 green job postings during the quarter, more than double the 16,300 green jobs it indexed in the first quarter of 2011.

The top US States are California, in undeniable first place with 1,900 active jobs, Texas in second position with 745 jobs, and New York in third place with 648. Massachusetts, Florida, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Virginia, DC and Illinois complete the list of the top 10. 380 job postings are virtual or do not include a state.

Good “Green” Job Opportunities in Fast-Growing “Green” Energy Industry

CleanTechnica – Apr 20, 2012

Job creation– good quality job creation more specifically– has been a bugaboo for a US economy still struggling to turn the corner on one of the deepest, financially-driven recessions in US history. While many business leaders, economists and US government representatives, including President Obama, view the fast-growing US renewable energy and clean technology sectors as economic engines that can go a long way toward assuring healthy job creation for decades to come, others have staunchly opposed public sector support for their development. The stalemate has resulted in a stop-and-go federal clean energy policy that in turn has produced recurring cycles of boom-and-bust.

Source: Clean Technica (http://s.tt/19CmB)

Funding Opportunity Announcements

Energy Department Announces Funding for Small Business Innovation Research in Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

Full Application Submission Deadline: 7/3/2012 11:59 PM ET]

April 9, 2012

The Energy Department today announced up to $9 million available this year to fund approximately 50 small businesses to advance innovative energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies. This initiative will help small businesses with promising ideas that could improve manufacturing processes, boost the efficiency of buildings, reduce reliance on oil, and generate electricity from renewable sources to bring new clean energy solutions to market faster. This effort is part of the Obama Administration’s strategy to drive innovative clean energy technologies into the market and help spur economic growth, diversify the nation’s energy portfolio, and create skilled jobs for American workers.

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