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 WasteZero raises $1.2 million

By Meghan Siegmund

WasteZero Inc., a waste-reduction company, has raised $1.2 million in equity, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The company still has $800,000 to raise, in order to meet its goal of $2 million.

The money was raised by a single investor, according to the filing.

The company had raised $1.5 million in June, $3.3 million in 2016 for working capital and another $7 million in 2015, according to SEC filings.

Founded in 1991, WasteZero partners with over 800 municipalities, helping them to reduce their volumes of solid waste and increase recycling rates.

It designs, implements and runs pay-as-you-throw programs, which it calls WasteZero Trash Metering programs. Instead of paying a flat fee for waste disposal, consumers are charged based on the amount of trash they throw away.

The company’s WasteZero Trash Metering programs and Pay-As-You-Throw conversion programs reduce solid waste on average 44 percent annually.

Mark Dancy is the president of WasteZero. Prior to becoming president, he was WasteZero’s vice president of sales and marketing as well as the manager of manufacturing. In May 2012, the South Carolina Department of Commerce recognized Dancy as a South Carolina Ambassador for Economic Development.

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 after they first sell their securities.

Biotech company Ribometrix raises $3.5 million

By Charlotte Chilton

Ribometrix Inc., a biotech and pharmaceutical company, raised $3.5 million in equity, according to a filing Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Greenville, North Carolina-based Ribometrix is a platform therapeutics company that targets ribonucleic acid, or RNA, structures to discover new drugs to treat human diseases.

Kevin Weeks, vice president and founder, is additionally a chemistry professor at UNC-Chapel Hill where RNA structure and function as well as RNA therapeutics are key areas of his research.

Ribometrix is discovering small molecule therapeutics for rare/orphan and unmet human diseases targeting RNAs using its proprietary disruptive RNA platform technologies.

The company was founded in 2015 with an exclusive license to a pair of high throughput platforms developed by Weeks. In 2011, The National Institutes of Health awarded Weeks a four-year grant to work on drugs that bind to RNA.

Cambridge, Massachusetts-based messenger RNA drug developer Moderna has pumped $100,000 into the startup.

Ribometrix disclosed that the latest investment would go toward working capital, which could include executive compensation. The funds were raised through 10 investors, with a $10,000 minimum investment.

According to the filing, the company would like to raise an additional $4 million.

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.

Raleigh-based Silbo raises $100,000

By Emily Brice

Silbo Inc, a North Carolina-based company, sold $100,000 in a private stock offering, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

The company filed the Form D on Oct. 11, and it did not disclose what it intended to do with the funds.

Silbo has created a mobile app that allows referees and umpires to browse game opportunities. This allows them to take control of their schedules and build their careers. The app also offers instant online payment and feedback for its users.

Co-founder Brendan Szulik graduated from Duke University in 2011, majoring in linguistics, and is currently earning a M.B.A. from UNC-Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler Business School.

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 file can be found here.

Avadim Technologies raises $8.6 million of $20 million goal

By Sissy Rodriguez

Asheville-based Avadim Technologies Inc. has raised another $1.3 million toward its $20 million offering, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Since March, the company has raised $8.6 million and plans to raise an additional $11.4 million within a year.

According to the filing, $182,322 of the proceed will go toward finders’ fees.

Avadim Technologies is a health care company that specializes in treating skincare conditions, using a microbiome-compliant technology platform. In 2016, it was named one of the fastest growing companies in the country, raising over $9 million since August of last year.

It is rumored that the company will go public in the near future.

The company’s CEO is Steve Woody, who has been with the company since September 2013. Previously, he was the founder and managing member of Avadim LLC, the predecessor to the company. Since 1997, Woody has assisted more than 30 companies with regulatory support and strategic planning necessary for their launch of new or modified medical devices.

Private companies such as Avadim, which rely on a Reg D exemption, are not required to register securities offerings with the SEC, but instead they must file a Form D electronically with the SEC after they sell the securities.

Durham-based firm raises $2.9 million in venture capital fund

By Sissy Rodriguez

Modern Energy International, an asset management firm that invests in sustainable energy, has raised $2.97 million in a venture capital fund, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Founded in 2016, Modern Energy invests in and through businesses that bring distributed energy innovations to market. From energy efficiency in the United States to solar projects in emerging markets, Modern supports leaders in the transition to a distributed energy economy.

The company’s chief executive officer, Benjamin Abram, is a graduate of Duke University and was the founder and president of Wylan Energy, a sustainable enterprise that works to design energy efficient choices for consumers.

He is the son of Adam Abram, the CEO of Chapel Hill-based James River Group Holdings Ltd.

More information about Modern Energy can be found on the company’s website.

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.