Ben Franklin Approved $2.8M for 15 Early Stage Companies

FY16---Ben-Franklin-Invests-Infographic-Q2

Companies approved for funding:

 

Brad’s Raw Chips – Bucks County

Brad’s Raw Chips LLC (dba Brad’s Raw Foods) is a manufacturer of quality, raw snack foods. “Brad’s” products are dehydrated below 115 degrees (not baked or fried) retaining healthy, active enzymes and nutrients which aid digestion.

All kale and broccoli products are certified vegan, non GMO/gluten free and USDA organic.

Brad’s Raw Chips, LLC is led by Arthur J. Pergament, Managing Partner & CEO. The company’s CFO is Kemper Messner.
bradsrawchips.com

CRO Analytics – Bucks County

CRO Analytics is revolutionizing clinical trial performance improvement. Its PerformerTM platform provides the life science industry with new insights needed to shorten trial deadlines and reduce costs. Performer offers efficient access to valid and reliable benchmarking, key driver analysis, and predictive analytics. This unique system gives pharmaceutical companies and their service providers the power to adapt their tactics mid-trial, improve functional area performance, and enable data-driven alliance management.

The company is led by Peter Malamis, Co-Founder and CEO, a 30 year veteran of the biopharma industry; Michael Howley, Co-Founder and Chief Science Officer, an Associate Clinical Professor at the LeBow College of Business, Drexel University; and Bruce Wakeman, Chief Commercial Officer, who brings 20 years of diverse clinical research functional expertise and executive leadership.
croanalytics.com

Domenic Greco Ventures (Narbis) – Chester County

We provide consumers, educators, and health professionals with neurofeedback technology that provides brain training to enhance focus, attention, and learning improving the brain’s overall performance. The product delivers clinical level performance in combination with unsurpassed ease-of-use and flexibility. Think fitbit for the brain.

Narbis is the only low-cost (under $300) focus training technology available for use at home.

Narbis is lead by founder Devon Greco and commercialization expert Mike Head.
narbis.com

Fischer Block – Montgomery County

Fischer Block, Inc. is bringing disruptive technology to the electrical power industry, utilizing IoT and data analytics to improve grid reliability and security. With patent pending technology, advanced high speed sensors can be quickly and easily installed onto the grid, in a fraction of the time of traditional alternatives. These sensors identify weaknesses on the grid, enabling utility engineers to take proactive measures to avoid power outages and cyber-attacks. Fully integrated with existing utility data streams, this new data source provides actionable intelligence on critical grid signals, including phase angle deviation, frequency shifting, harmonic content and more, all previously unavailable in typical SCADA systems.

Fischer Block is led by Co-founder Gregory Wolfe, CEO; Co-founder Margaret Paietta, CMO; and a team of highly skilled and passionate engineers dedicated to improving energy reliability and security across the world. Fischer Block is helping to put the Electrical Power industry ahead of the technology curve.
fischerblock.com

Habitat – Philadelphia County

Habitat is a mobile app that lets students order food, via pickup or delivery, from food trucks and restaurants around campus. By focusing our service area on college campuses we are able to do deliveries faster and cheaper than our competition. Through targeting student consumers, we are able to uniquely offer our own customizable “Meal Plans”.

Habitat is led by Andrew Nakkache, Founder & CEO, and Michael Paszkiewicz, Co-founder & COO.
tryhabitat.com

I’m Sorry to Hear – Bucks County

I’m Sorry To Hear is the premier online destination that connects families and funeral professionals in a dedicated online marketplace. The website offers a new and familiar way for families in North America to find and compare funeral homes and other funeral products and services by streamlining the collection of information, allowing families to make informed and expedited decisions about their own or their loved one’s final resting place.

I’m Sorry to Hear is led by Founder and CEO, Rachel Zeldin with the support of Duane Hutchins, CTO, and Shravan Narayan, Senior Software Engineer.
imsorrytohear.com

Invisalert – Bucks County

InvisAlert Solutions has developed a patent-pending technology that delivers patient monitoring compliance and risk management for inpatient healthcare. InvisAlert’s initial product, ObservSMART®, targets inpatient behavioral health – a market whose clinical requirements include around-the-clock patient observations at 15-minute intervals.

InvisAlert is led by Pete Nagy, CEO.
invisalertsolutions.com

Lia Diagnostics – Philadelphia County

Lia Diagnostics is developing a new pregnancy test for women who value privacy and sustainability. Through the use of innovative materials and unique manufacturing techniques, Lia has created a flushable, biodegradable test that costs less to produce.

LIA Diagnostics is led by Bethany Edwards, Co-Founder and CEO, Anna Couturier, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer, and Sarah Rottenberg, Co-Founder and COO.
liadiagnostics.com

Miria Systems – Montgomery County

Miria Systems provides business process automation software solutions and services to streamline document centric business process functions. Miria is a $3.2M growth stage company with 50% recurring revenue and a Fortune 1000 customer base, delivering Software as a Service solutions for the management of Accounts Payable, Travel and Expense, Human Resources, and Financial Document Management.

Miria focuses on accounting, financial and human resource departments in the retail, banking, insurance, hospitality, and transportation markets. Through ActiveOps, Miria’s highly configurable cloud based software platform, Miria is able to deploy robust business applications for the intelligent capture and management of forms and documents with unprecedented speed – enabling unmatched time to value, accelerated ROI, and rapid scalability to support the growing and changing business needs of our customers.

Miria Systems is led by Martin W. Michael, President and CEO; Ronald Siena, President, VP, Channel Sales; Robert Vogel, Vice President of Technical Services; George Thomas, Vice President of Direct Sales; and Daphne Bogert, CTO.
miriasystems.com

Photosonix – Montgomery County

PhotoSonix Medical, Inc. is developing CLENS™ (Coincident Light Energy and Non-focused ultraSound), a novel energy-based therapy which synergistically combines light and ultrasound to treat chronic bacterial infections known as biofilms. We are initially targeting moderate to severe acne, a $1.5 Billion market of over 5 million patients who are currently seeking physician treatments. We have strong in vitro (lab) and in vivo (live tissue) results, and 3 issued patents.

Photosonix was co-founded by Drs. Mark Schafer and Tessie McNeely, and Adam Dakin. Mark is an internationally recognized ultrasound industry expert. He holds 21 patents and has served in senior management roles for many early stage companies developing innovative ultrasonic devices. Tessie McNeely is an expert on infectious disease and biofilms, having served in senior scientific roles at Merck for 17 years, where she was Principal Scientist for R&D of bacterial vaccines including a vaccine for acne. Adam Dakin has served as CEO for numerous early stage, venture-backed medical device companies. He has secured over $50 million in venture and strategic partner funding and led several M&A transactions.
photosonixmed.com

Prescription Advisory Systems & Technology (P.A.S.T.) – Montgomery County

Prescription Advisory provides prescribers of controlled substances insight into their patients’ history with these powerful medicines, and highlights warning signs of tolerance, addiction or diversion.

We protect patients, protect prescribers, and protect healthcare institutions.

Prescription Advisory is led by Rick Bunker, CEO, David Stengle, CMO, and Vince Mendola, CFO.
pastrx.com

S4 Worldwide – Bucks County

S4worldwide, LLC is awesome because we offer innovative and progressive solutions to community security surveillance i.e. trailers, drones, ECBs and also all-inclusive Law Enforcement Body Warn Cameras to protect officers and provide accurate real time and historical surveillance.

S4worldwide, LLC is led by Founder & CEO, Paul Soult; CFO, Wallace Pattyson; VP of Sales, John Wenke; Chief Council, William Platt; & Chief Engineer, James Giunta.
s4worldwide.com

The One Health Company – Philadelphia County

The One Health Company is a Health IT company that makes animal testing more humane and predictive for the 21st Century. We do this by connecting already sick pets to pre-clinical trials, providing ill animals access to cutting edge therapies. This yields better efficacy data so Biopharma move forward towards cures. Our premise is that pets mimic humans more than laboratory animals. We treat all the animals in our studies as patients and attempt to heal. The pets stay at home with their owners and receive care at the world’s best veterinary clinics. At the same time, we improve the Biopharma pipeline by helping drug developers pick the therapies that work and eliminate the ones that don’t, early. The NIH has published that this helps lower the cost of drug development. A benefit for us all.

The One Health Team is led by world experts: Christina Lopes, CEO; Franca Angeli MD PhD, CMO; Ravi Tolwani DVM PhD MEM, CSO; Benjamin Lewis MBA VMD Candidate, COO; Lee Shuman, CVT and a legendary CTO.
theonehealthcompany.com