3 Philadelphia Startups Land Six-Figure Investments in PACT’s ‘Lion’s Den’

Three Philadelphia-area startups secured hundreds of thousands of dollars in growth capital from The Lion’s Den, a “Shark Tank”-like production hosted by local investors.

Dozens of local startup founders, from early-stage companies to fast-growing technology and life sciences firms, pitched their ventures during the Philadelphia Alliance for Capital and Technologies’ 2021 Capital Conference on Thursday with three finalists selected to pitch to The Lion’s Den.

Natural hair care company Naturaz, direct-to-consumer arch support company Fulton, and nicotine tech startup Hale Therapeutics made the cut this year, snagging a combined $775,000 from the “lions.”

Back for its seventh year, this year’s Lion’s Den included Michael Wells, managing director at Princeton Biopharma Capital Partners; Robert Keith, president of Nouveau Capital; Mikal C. Harden, founder of Juno Capital; Max Kanevsky, CEO of Pinnacle 21 and founder of OpenCDISC; and Dr. Robert Corrato, founder of Versalus Health. Marc R. Lederman, general partner at NewSpring Capital, moderated the event on Thursday evening.

First to present was Hale Therapeutics, a Philadelphia firm developing a nicotine vaporizer designed to wean smokers and vapers off of nicotine. The product is made to mimic, not interrupt, nicotine users’ regular habits and behavior while reducing their intake.

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