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Angel Investing in the News:

After a pause in which investors picked themselves up and dusted off from the roundhouse punch delivered by the financial crisis and stock market collapse in 2008 and early 2009, initial public offerings are appearing again in Wisconsin.

Upwind Medical Partners is launching a $6 million to $8 million early stage fund that will focus on commercializing intellectual property from health care/research institutions like the University of Minnesota, Wisconsin Alumni Research Fund (WARF), Allina Hospitals & Clinics, and John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.

The Top Angels in Tech list.

The old mechanism for funding the commercialization of new technologies is in trouble.

MADISON - If you want to know where entrepreneurs smell opportunities, take a look at this year's list of semi-finalists in the Wisconsin Governor's Business Plan Contest.

MADISON – Fifty-two entries from two-dozen communities have advanced to the semi-final round of the seventh annual Wisconsin Governor’s Business Plan Contest, contest producers announced Thursday.

Listen to podcast here.

A Milwaukee company that's developing drugs to treat schizophrenia and other central nervous system disorders said Thursday it has raised $1.94 million from investors.

I had an epiphany recently. The setting: a multi-billion dollar global giant. The topic of discussion: innovation. My epiphany: A simple two-word phrase that can hamstring innovation.

The rush to find new drugs to fight cancer is spurring big growth for a Madison company.

While much focus in town has been on filling vacant land at Hilldale Mall or the squabble over the downtown Edgewater Hotel, a big development is coming to the far west side that has sort of floated under the radar -- the addition of a second University Research Park, or, as its backers call it, "URP2."

I think it was Thomas Friedman in his book “The Lexus and the Olive Tree“, who wrote something to the effect of measuring a country’s modernity by the weight of its exports; the heavier the exports (steel, wood, oil, minerals), the less modern the country.

The Small Business Administration has run out of money for incentives that made its loans less risky for lenders and cheaper for borrowers.

NEW YORK, New York — OrbiMed Advisors, which has invested in Ohio companies Athersys Inc. and ViewRay, has raised $550 million for its latest health venture capital fund.

Madison — University Research Park began offering space this month in its new Accelerator building.

The success of the Milwaukee 7 recruitment effort in bringing 275 potential wind turbine jobs to the Menomonee Valley pivoted more on the strength of the region in motor technology than on green job credits.

MADISON – Governor Jim Doyle announced today that Minitube of America, Inc. of Verona will receive a $370,000 Technology Development Loan from the Department of Commerce. The loan will help create 136 new full-time positions in addition to the 120 employees already employed at Minitube in Wisconsin.

MADISON – Governor Jim Doyle announced today that Minitube of America, Inc. of Verona will receive a $370,000 Technology Development Loan from the Department of Commerce. The loan will help create 136 new full-time positions in addition to the 120 employees already employed at Minitube in Wisconsin.

Logistics Health in La Crosse will receive a $1.5 million loan from the state to expand its operations and create 290 new jobs, Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle announced Friday.

I love asking Google questions. In preparation for an upcoming panel at the San Diego Venture Group’s monthly breakfast meeting, I decided to ask the mighty search engine “Is the venture capital model dead?” In .24 seconds I had over 19 million results that addressed the question. Astonishing. I continue to be amazed by Google’s depth and speed but more importantly, I’m shocked that there are so many conversations which specifically address the death of the venture capital industry.

In 1980, Congress passed the Bayh-Dole Act, named for the two Senators who sponsored it—Indiana Democrat Birch Bayh and Kanasas Republican Bob Dole—to allow universities to own and license to the private sector intellectual property based on their discoveries made with federal funding.

MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota — Affinity Capital Management, a well-known local venture capital firm that invests heavily in medical device and health care start-ups, is collaborating with Triathlon Medical Ventures of Cincinnati to launch a $10 million seed and early stage fund in Minnesota.

GREEN BAY – Governor Jim Doyle and U.S. Deputy Commerce Secretary Dennis Hightower today announced Wisconsin will invest $28.7 million to expand broadband Internet access, including $22.9 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds. The grant will provide high-speed Internet access to 467 sites in over 380 communities in all the state’s 72 counties.

MADISON, Wisconsin — Another day, another dollar — or rather a few million dollars — for pluripotent stem cell company Cellular Dynamics International Inc.

STURGEON BAY, Wisconsin — Surgical products manufacturer Parcus Medical LLC has raised $1.3 million in equity, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

As three young entrepreneurs took turns pitching what they hoped would be the next big idea, the Hyde Park Angels — some of the city's most successful businessmen and women — were ready with a thumbs up or thumbs down.

One of the most significant trends I’ve been watching over the past decade is the dramatic drop in public companies in Silicon Valley. Naturally, that number was artificially inflated during the dot-com bubble when it reached 417 in 2000. For our purposes, Silicon Valley includes San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, and the southern half of Alameda County.

A looming foreign talent crunch has been pinpointed as a top factor that threatens to rob the Silicon Valley of its title as the world's innovation centre.

PODCAST: Pharmaceutical companies will need to rethink their strategies as the world in which they operate undergoes dramatic changes. Patients, armed with unprecedented access to information, are being transformed from passive participants to superconsumers of healthcare services.

n a year characterized by tightness in small business lending, the Northeast Entrepreneur Fund (NEF) set new records for number and volume of small-business loans in 2009, more than double its 2008 experience.

ST. PAUL, Minnesota — Dr. Doris Taylor, the University of Minnesota cell biologist who grew a rat’s heart in a jar, strove into the State Office Building hearing room Tuesday morning and immediately spotted this reporter.

The U.S. Army has upheld a $3 billion contract with Oshkosh Corp. after an appeal by two losing bidders failed.

Saying the stars are aligned for an entrepreneurial renaissance in Wisconsin, guild.com founder Toni Sikes has joined a state-based venture capital fund.

Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle said Thursday that Promentis Pharmaceuticals Inc., in Milwaukee, will receive a $250,000 Technology Venture Fund loan from the state Department of Commerce to continue development of pharmaceuticals that treat psychiatric, behavioral and neurological disorders.

New numbers out from the USDA's National Ag Statistics Service shows that Wisconsin has 1,222 organic farms--the second highest in the nation, behind California.

ST. PAUL, Minnesota– In a packed State Building Office hearing room Tuesday, witness after witness rose to speak in support of H.F. 2750, a bill that would grant $32 million in tax credits over three years to angel investors who fund risky, high tech start-up companies. Entrepreneurs, investors, university officials, industry groups warned lawmakers that the lack of early stage capital meant innovative start-ups in Minnesota would either die or move to another state.

Feb. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Affiliated Managers Group Inc., the owner of stakes in more than two dozen fund companies, agreed to buy Pantheon Ventures Ltd. for about $775 million, its first acquisition of a private-equity manager

Shares of Generac Holdings Inc. are expected to begin trading Thursday in an offering that was priced at $13 per share, Bloomberg News reported.

Cellectar Inc. has raised $2.7 million for its radiopharmaceutical technology that treats and detects a variety of cancers, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

According to Krisztina Holly, vice provost for innovation at the University of Southern California and former founding executive director of MIT's Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation, “an opportunity to solve our job crisis lies right under our noses.”

Wisconsin long has lagged other states in venture capital funding, but a new "fund of funds" could help change that. It's a great idea.

International patent filings under WIPO's Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) fell by 4.5% in 2009 with sharper than average declines experienced by some industrialized countries and growth in a number of East Asian countries.  Provisional data indicates that 155,900 [1] (annex 1) international patent applications were filed in 2009 as compared to the nearly 164,000 applications filed in 2008.

WHITEWATER — Kaylin Flynn wants to open a Mexican bakery. She’s got the talent and the motivation, but she needs the business know-how.  Flynn of Janesville turned to UW-Whitewater, which quickly is becoming a regional powerhouse in educating students for careers in small business and in helping small businesses flourish.

Madison — When it opens in December, the $205 million Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery will be a showcase of high-tech design and model of collaboration.

In a desire to keep control, they're opting for private rather than public investment—even, as in Yelp's case, with rich bids from Google and Microsoft

Virent Energy Systems, Inc. announced today that it has been awarded $2.4 million from the U.S. Department of Energy as part of a $33.8 million grant to the National Advanced Biofuels Consortium (NABC). The NABC aims to develop technologies to convert cellulosic biomass feedstocks into hydrocarbon fuels that are sustainable, cost-effective, and compatible with existing infrastructure.

Quad/Graphics Inc. will acquire World Color Press Inc., and the merged corporation will become a publicly traded company after an initial public offering (IPO).

After the declines seen through the Great Recession, mergers and acquisition activity in the U.S. is set for at least a moderate rebound in 2010, according to Robert W. Baird & Co.’s 2010 Market Analysis.

Douglas Dynamics Inc., a Milwaukee-based firm that manufactures and sells snowplows and ice removal equipment under the Western Snowplow, Blizzard and Fisher brands, filed documents on Friday for an initial public offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A $225 million project in Milwaukee announced Tuesday would convert municipal and industrial waste into renewable energy.

CUDAHY, Wisconsin — Health care laundry company Superior Health Linens LLC has raised $1.5 million in equity, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission regulatory filing.

Six years ago, Shawn Pucylowski and a couple of college buddies at the University of Wisconsin figured out a now-patented way to install film-based commercial messages inside the ice at hockey rinks.

ARLINGTON, VA -- Venture capital performance improved slightly in the shortest and longest time horizons ending September 30, 2009 but continued to deteriorate in the 5 and 10-year periods ending in the quarter, according to the Cambridge Associates U.S. Venture Capital Index®, the performance benchmark of the National Venture Capital Association.

Phillips - Two entrepreneurs advising a nephew at a bar made a lot more sense about long-term job creation than President Barack Obama and Gov. Jim Doyle did in their respective addresses last week.

MADISON, Wisconsin — Stem cell company Cellular Dynamics International Inc. has received a $31 million investment, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Boston-based Peak Ridge Capital leads the latest investment round for Hudson, Wis.-based Rapid Diagnostek as it works to bring its IntelliProbe Immunosensor to market.

MILWAUKEE, Jan. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- HarQen, a leading platform developer powering asynchronous voice applications, announced today that they have completed their Series A financing. The Milwaukee-based company lists as its investors Phenomenelle Angels Fund, Silicon Pastures, Golden Seeds Angel Fund, Midwest Capital Fund, Wisconsin Investment Partners and several prominent individuals. The $2.7MM Series A investment follows a $750K Seed funding round completed in December 2007.

Rob West has virtually unlimited enthusiasm for his job and the region. "I'm bullish on the Northland, quite frankly," he said.

A group of business and government leaders from Milwaukee and Madison plans to raise a $100 million, Wisconsin-based venture capital fund, one of its members said Tuesday.  Financial services company Credit Suisse First Boston LLC will manage the fund, said investment adviser Dick Schilffarth during a panel discussion at a Water Council Meeting at We Energies in downtown Milwaukee.

Venture capital investing fell to its lowest level across the U.S. in 12 years in 2009 – to approximately $17.7 billion, according to the latest MoneyTree Report by PriceWaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association. 2009’s venture investment level was a 37 percent decrease from 2008.

In a world of iPhones and Kindles, Quad/Graphics Inc. is betting again on the future of paper - buying a Canadian rival in a deal that will more than double its size and create the second-largest commercial printer in North America.

A Milwaukee voice-to-Web audio company has raised $1.1 million of new funding in a round that attracted several new investors.

In line with the national trend, Wisconsin companies raised substantially less venture capital in 2009 than a year earlier.  Seven state companies raised $22.2 million during the year, the lowest total since 2003, according to the MoneyTree Report, released Friday by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association.

Madison — The state Senate passed a bill Thursday to expand angel investment tax credits and improve links between businesses and university research.

The bill passed 32-1, with Democrats who control the Senate saying it would help spark the economy and Republicans saying it didn't go nearly far enough to turn it around.

Madison — The state Senate passed a bill Thursday to expand angel investment tax credits and improve links between businesses and university research.

Pressure on state legislators to spur jobs growth is helping build support for an angel-investor tax benefit.

A Wisconsin-based firm's plan to open a large water park resort in Virginia has received a big boost through a $25 million tax-exempt bond issue.

A Madison company that provides social media marketing said Tuesday that it has raised $2 million in a funding round led by two suburban Chicago venture capital firms.

MADISON – Wisconsin entrepreneurs and researchers do a world-class job of coming up with ideas that will transform health care, energy, manufacturing and other industries. Finding the investors who can move those ideas forward is too often the problem.

Covario Inc., a provider of large-scale search advertising software and services, has acquired Netconcepts LLC of Madison.

ZBB Energy Corp. of Menomonee Falls will receive $14.7 million in federal tax credits through President Barack Obama’s stimulus plan. The funds will help pay for $49.55 million worth of equipment in a new facility to be built in southeastern Wisconsin.

A while back, my Michael Best colleague, Paul Jones, penned a WTN column that took issue with the so-called "price protection” provisions found in most venture capital financing documents ("Heads We Win, Tails You Lose: The VC Price Protection Con" http://wistechnology.com/articles/5239/). His critique notwithstanding (and as Paul admitted in his column), price protection provisions are unlikely to go away any time soon. And so, my purpose in writing this column is neither to attack nor defend the value of such provisions, but rather to explain what they are, the common forms they take, and how they work in practice.

A new analysis of patent data reveals a widening gap in the Wisconsin economy that roughly bisects I-94 between Milwaukee and Madison.

Brookfield — For entrepreneurship to flourish in southeastern Wisconsin, two key ingredients are needed: money and goals, three veterans of Milwaukee-area start-ups said Thursday. 

Two well-known companies based in southeastern Wisconsin are expected to file initial public offerings in early 2010.

MADISON – Suffering from a post-holiday case of cabin fever? Still stewing over how the officials overlooked back-to-back personal fouls on Aaron Rodgers in the Green Bay Packers’ playoff loss? Well, it’s time to relax with a few good books and read away your winter blues.

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minnesota– Vatrix Medical Inc. is seeking $2.2 million in early stage capital, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

President Barack Obama announced that his administration is awarding $2.3 billion in tax credits to the private sector for clean energy manufacturing projects across the country, including eight companies in Wisconsin that will receive $35 million in tax breaks.

MADISON – Since the 1960s, Wisconsin has largely stood by while other states aggressively competed for their fair share of federal grants and aid. That bottom-quartile performance among the 50 states is why Wisconsin has long been known as a “tax donor” state, meaning its taxpayers contribute far more to the feds than they get in return.

When business people think of Wisconsin, they usually conjure up images of manufacturing, agriculture and a strong Midwestern work ethic.