Each week, we’ll round up startup news from the UNC journalism students behind North Carolina Business News Wire. To read all of the students’ work covering public and private companies around the state, sign up for the daily newsletter.
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Raleigh-based PublicInput, EducationNC receive grant
By Jack Molloy
PublicInput.com and Education NC received a $155,000 grant from CUNY Graduate School of Journalism’s News Integrity Initiative on Wednesday.
The shared grant will fund “Reach NC Voices,” an Education NC project aiming to survey citizens to understand their feelings toward issues in their communities. PublicInput.com is leading the technology buildout of the project.
Jay Dawkins, CEO of PublicInput.com, said the grant will allow the civic technology company to empower local journalists with its online engagement tools.
“We are trying to connect community-oriented news organizations with their constituents in a way that they can ask questions and dive deeper on an engagement level,” Dawkins said.
Raleigh-based PublicInput.com aims to help local municipalities engage the public through digital platforms, while also equipping decision-makers with accurate information regarding the public’s opinion.
The civic engagement service is currently being used in 16 communities across the nation, including large cities such as Austin, Miami, Cincinnati and San Diego.
Engagement from local news organizations is currently lacking in the U.S.
Though community-related content yields the highest rate of follow-up action from Americans, news organizations are the least effective channel for spurring such action, according to a 2016 Pew Research study.
“Reach NC Voices” will allow local news organizations to leverage PublicInput.com to increase their influence in the communities they serve.
Journalists are not the only beneficiaries of such emerging technologies. Civic tech is bridging the gap between the private and public sectors in the Triangle.
Chris Mathews, chief data scientist for Wake County government, spoke on the importance of such services, stating, “Government has too long tried to do things by interpreting what the community needs without actually interacting with them.”
“Civic tech allows us to more closely interact with the community to develop what the community wants and what the community needs,” Mathews said.
There is no shortage of opportunity for tech-minded engineers in the Triangle.
Raleigh experienced a 46.9 percent increase in tech industry jobs between 2006-2016, one of the highest rates in the country, according to Forbes.
Bill Scanlon, Wake County government innovation partner, sees civic tech as an opportunity for entrepreneurs to work with the government to solve problems, and he is excited about the cross-sector collaboration that has already occurred.
“We are working in the triangle to connect the government idea process to the civic tech and entrepreneurial community,” Scanlon said, “so that people have the chance to see inside of our needs and work things out.”
“Collaboration is really the key to ongoing growth,” said Scanlon.
Raleigh-based NovaQuest raises $60 million for VC fund
By Meghan Siegmund
Raleigh-based investment firm NovaQuest Capital has raised $60 million to invest in other companies, according to a Monday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The company, which specializes in funding biopharmaceutical and health care companies, has $340 million left to raise to meet its goal of $400 million.
According to the filing, the fund received money from an investor who had earlier invested with NovaQuest.
NovaQuest was formed in 2000 to invest in life sciences and health care companies. Today, NovaQuest Capital Management manages over $1.4 billion in investments through two ways — biopharma investments and private equity deals.
In the biopharma sector, the company invests mainly in product-based investments in late-stage clinical commercial biopharma companies. It has invested in companies such as Pharmaxis, Hospira and ProStrakan.
In its private equity investments, NovaQuest looks for investments in companies with revenue between $20 million and $100 million, with positive cash flow.
The SEC filing was signed by John L. Bradley, a founding partner of NovaQuest.
Bradley, who has nearly 20 years of experience in the health care industry and 30 years of overall experience in finance, served as senior vice president of the NovaQuest business unit of Quintiles, prior to its split from Quintiles, in 2010.
As senior vice president of Quintiles’ Corporate Development Group, he directed a number of strategic transactions in acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures, strategic sourcing and debt issuances.
Companies relying on a Reg D exemption do not have to register their offering of securities with the SEC, but they must file what’s known as a Form D electronically with the SEC after they first sell their securities.
Morrisville-based Locus Biosciences raises $7 million
By Addison Lalier
A Morrisville-based biotechnology company has raised $7 million in an equity offering, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Locus Biosciences Inc. is an emerging biotech company focused on the discovery and development of antimicrobial applications through the use of CRISPR/Cas technology. This platform helps create therapeutics for critical disease areas, such as resistant bacterial infections.
The biotech company intends to raise a total of $14 million, with $7 million remaining to be sold, through two investors.
Locus Biosciences is led by CEO and co-founder Paul Garofolo. Other co-founders include Dr. Rodolphe Barrangou, Dr. Charles Gersbach, Dr. Dave Ousterout and Dr. Chase Beisel.
“As the only company in the world using CRISPR-Cas3 enzymes to kill targeted pathogens, we believe Locus could have the world’s most powerful mechanism of action to drive programmed cell death in bacterial targets,” said Garofolo in a statement. “Not only could this technology revolutionize the way we treat multi-drug resistant infections in patients, but it could also catalyze a novel and powerful approach to changing the human microbiome.”
Companies relying on a Reg D exemption do not have to register their offering of securities with the SEC, but they must file what’s known as a Form D electronically with the SEC after they first sell their securities.
The filing can be found here.
Chapel Hill marketing tech company raises just over half of $1 million goal
By Lindsey Welch
iValu8 Inc., a cloud-based marketing platform, has raised $559,750, but it hopes to raise a total of $1 million, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Founded in 2013, iValu8 offers its services directly to businesses and operates across various social platforms such as, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.
The company offers social and mobile marketing solutions to its clients, which include Joe Van Gogh Coffee and Doyle’s Vineyard, to help them reach consumers.
The offering comes in the form of debt, and it is intended to last more than a year.
iValu8 has been led by Chief Executive Officer Joe Carsanaro since 2015. Carsanaro has previous experience in digital marketing solutions from founding Bloodhound Technologies as well as working with Motorola as a general manager for messaging and services, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Companies relying on a Reg D exemption do not have to register their offering of securities with the SEC, but they must file what’s know as a Form D electronically with the SEC after they first sell their securities.
