Ben Franklin Approved $2.1M for 16 Early Stage Companies

Companies approved for funding:

Advent Therapeutics – Bucks County

Advent Therapeutics focuses on providing therapies for micro-orphan applications. The company is currently working on its first product which will address a serious disorder in newborn infants in the ICU.

Advent Therapeutics is led by President and Chief Business Officer, David Lopez, Esq., CPA.

ApprenNet – Philadelphia County

ApprenNet provides the world’s most robust platform for teaching and learning real-world skills—the kinds of skills you have to practice to master. ApprenNet helps learners, instructors and institutions by bringing scalability and flexibility to learning by doing and simulation-based training. ApprenNet provides a seamless experience across web and mobile, with features like voice-control for instructional videos and support for customizable rubrics and peer review. With the only platform optimized for both soft skills and hands-on technical skills, ApprenNet expands possibilities in subjects and industries from higher education to healthcare to hospitality.

ApprenNet’s leadership consists of the following people: Paul Freedman, CEO; Emily Foote, CCO and Co-Founder; Jason Sanders, CFO; Josh Salcman, CPO; and Nestor Toro, CTO.
apprennet.com

Arcadian Telepsychiatry – Montgomery County

The company provides psychiatrists and therapists via televideo conferencing to those in need in a Business to Business to Consumer format. The company has a large network of psychiatrists and therapists, is serving customers in about 40 states, and has existing relationships with large national insurance companies and companies providing employee assistance program benefits.

Our business model is attractive: using telemedicine in the narrow context of behavioral health. Given patients with depression and other issues may in some cases prefer privacy and not having to travel, this is a convenient and desirable new service model. It widens access to behavioral health care and levels the playing field between rural and urban areas.

We are technology enabled, but a high touch company. No longer does location determine access to care.

Arcadian is led by Robert Plotkin who is a seasoned mental health professional and entrepreneur. His other company, a staffing company for therapists, is Social Work prn and has been in business for 18 years. His focus now is Arcadian Telepsychiatry and he manages day to day operations. Our Chief Clinical Officer is Elly Engel ED.D., LCSW. Dr. Engel is an experienced mental health professional who has worked with Mr. Plotkin’s other business on several ocassions. Dan Dunlop is Arcadian’s Chief Business Strategist and previously worked at MDLive, a telemedicine comapny. Seth Bakes is Arcadian’s interim CFO. Mr. Bakes has been with the company for over a year and has been instrumental in funding strategies for Arcadian.
arcadiantelepsychiatry.com

Ecliptic Industries – Philadelphia County

Ecliptic Industries is an advanced manufacturer of foundry tooling. Ecliptic’s high-tech approach dramatically cuts lead time and cost for their customers that make the metal parts found in 90% of all manufactured goods.

Ecliptic Industries is led by Co-Founders Matt Plasek, CEO, and Jason Bennett, COO.
eclipticindustries.com

enAble Games – Philadelphia County

enAbleGames produces Active Video Games delivered via a web portal to support physical therapy for children and adults with cerebral palsy and other neuromuscular conditions. The games are user friendly, inexpensive, and support a range of ages, physical and cognitive levels. Each game provides local and remote customization and data access by healthcare workers to support therapeutic goals.

enAble Games is led by co-founder and CEO Margaret O’Neil, PhD, PT, MPH and co-founder and CTO Paul Diefenbach, PhD.
enablegames.com

ESS Energy Products – Chester County

ESS Energy Products, Inc. is a privately owned business in Chester County, PA that produces and sells proprietary energy saving niche products in the home performance and new construction markets.

ESS has successfully designed, manufactured and sold its revolutionary energy saving products throughout much of the continental United States. The Energy Guardian® flagship product line has received numerous awards and recognition including be named the “best available product” by Fine Homebuilding magazine.

ESS is led by James Melesky, President and CEO, Dennis Melesky, Vice President of Sales & Marketing and Michael Melesky, Vice President of Operations and Finance.
essnrg.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 lead by Bethany Edwards, CEO, Anna Couturier, CPO, Sarah Rottenberg, COO, and Frances DiMare, Social Impact Director.
liadiagnostics.com

Makaha Medical – Chester County

Makaha Medical, an early stage medical device company focused on intra-vascular diagnostics.

My Milkcrate – Philadelphia County

My MilkCrate is an innovative lifestyle tool that helps people live more sustainably by connecting them to thousands of local sustainable businesses and services in their neighborhoods. Available for free for iOS and Android, My MilkCrate carries out its mission of shifting consumer spending into the local, sustainable economy through strategic data partnerships with well-respected nonprofits.

My MilkCrate is led by co-founder and CEO Morgan Berman and co-founder and CTO Jason Cox.
mymilkcrate.co

Oncora Medical – Philadelphia County

Oncora Medical develops software that is revolutionizing the way doctors treat cancer with radiation. Oncora’s vision is to enable data-driven, personalized radiation therapy by providing radiation oncologists with a web-based software platform that allows them to significantly improve the care of their patients using historical data. Oncora integrates data from a variety of hospital information systems and trains predictive models of patient outcomes. These models are presented to physicians in the form of intuitive visualizations tailored to fit with their existing clinical workflow. By personalizing each patient’s treatment with past data, physicians can make smarter, more confident decisions in less time.

Oncora is led by co-founders David Lindsay (CEO) and Chris Berlind (CTO).
oncoramedical.com

RadDx – Philadelphia County

RadDx, Inc. can save US radiology practices $3B per year with diagnostic decision support tools and automated report generation, offsetting the 30% reduction in reimbursement that hit radiology over the last 10 years. Based on over 30 years of clinical research and practice management at UPenn, NIH and University of Maryland, RadDx products uniquely provide medical insights to help radiologists do their jobs faster and better. RadDx tools are easily integrated into existing clinical workflows at major health systems and community practices alike.

RadDx is led by founder and CEO Nick Bryan, MD PhD. Stephen Popielarski, PhD is VP Sales and Marketing, and Edward Herskovits, MD PhD is CTO.

SETVI – Philadelphia County

SETVI is the premier mobile sales enablement platform. SETVI™ Platform creates a more efficient sales process, which enables organizations to close more deals and increase sales revenue.

SETVI delivers an ROI to three key groups within the traditional sales organization: Sales Leadership, Sales Representatives, and Marketers. Sales Leadership is enabled to define a sales process that finally gives them visibility and control. Sales Representatives spend significantly less time looking for usable materials, building sales presentations, and effectively sharing those materials with customers and prospects. Marketers no longer need to wonder if their materials are being used or if their many pieces of collateral are effective.

The company is led by Joshua David, Co-Founder and CEO; and Stephen Stewart, Co-Founder and COO.
setvi.com

Social Ladder – Philadelphia County

Companies are fiercely competing for consumer mindshare and it’s only the beginning. The struggle to connect with consumers, especially the Millennial generation, is real because many of the traditional methods of advertising have proven ineffective at capturing their attention.

Bottom line, consumers hate banner ads and, technology companies like Apple are making them disappear. As a result, brands and media companies are trying to figure out how to reach consumers in a way that consumers will both respond to and enjoy.

SocialLadder is deployed as a private label mobile community that lets brands and consumers discover each other – in a way that consumers ACTUALLY enjoy.

It’s simple. Consumers discover products by participating in interactive challenges with their friends.

Brands discover and engage with influential consumers by rewarding them for sharing their interests.

In the last 3 months our technology was responsible for generating 300M word of mouth impressions for our clients through a growing network of 50,000+ engaged users.
SocialLadder is co-founded by Raavi Iqbal and Alana Bly. Raavi is a seasoned technologist, entrepreneur and executive with 15+ years of experience creating and marketing innovative technology solutions. His background spans across industries involving both enterprise software solutions and leading edge consumer focused software products.

Alana has a unique background in brand development, business development and sales. Her experiences include entrepreneurial endeavors as well as agency experience with numerous household & luxury brands.

Amer Qureshi ,CTO, is a seasoned entrepreneur and technology executive with over 20 years of experience working with start-up companies. Amer was a founding member of four companies and developed the first mobile video game app for IOS to reward players with real Bitcoin referral rewards
socialladder.rkiapps.com

TowerView Health – Philadelphia County

TowerView Health is an emerging company in the medication management space. We help chronically ill patients manage complex regimens by sending patients pre-filled medication trays that insert into a proprietary connected device that senses missed doses and triggers automated reminders.
towerviewhealth.com

Tuva Labs – Chester County

Tuva offers a data literacy training platform that makes data and statistics accessible and usable for data novices and learners around the world.

Tuva Labs is led by co-founders Harshil Parikh, CEO; and Carmen James, VP of Engineering.
tuvalabs.com

Previous

Next