News Archive

The angel investor market in 2016 experienced a decrease in investment dollars and in the deal size. Total investments in 2016 were $21.3 billion, a decrease of 13.5% over 2015, according to the Center for Venture Research at the University of New Hampshire. A total of 64,380 entrepreneurial ventures received angel funding in 2016, a decline of 9.5% over 2015 investments. The number of active investors in 2016 was 297,880 individuals, a decrease of 2.3% from 2015. The change in both total dollars and the number of investments resulted in a deal size for 2016 that was smaller than in 2015. While these data indicate a cautious retreat in terms of dollars invested and deals, angels increased their appetite for seed and start-up investing, and the associated risk, but with a higher perceived value as demonstrated by the increase in valuations and decrease in deal (investment round) size.

The FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health is ramping up medical app and device offerings with a recently announced digital health unit.

The aim of this development is to centralize and coordinate digital health information so that there is consistency in applying policies. According to the associate director of digital health for the FDA, Bakul Patel, the primary responsibilities of those on the project will be to develop software and digital health tech to assist with premarket submissions or devices, utilize experts, and incorporate metrics that will aid review times and submissions.

Some startup concepts are easy to understand.

OrderUp wants to deliver food right to your door. Lyft will make sure you can call a ride to anywhere you need to go.

A vaccine that could provide a major breakthrough in the fight against Type 1 diabetes is to be tested in human trials.

Developed by Belgian biotech Imcyse, in collaboration with the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM) in Paris – and 18 clinical sites across Europe, the company’s Imotopes™ technology can destroy immune cells that kill insulin-producing cells.

With both Maryland and Virginia donating land and financing construction of new federal buildings, a hundred square mile District of Columbia (originally called Territory of Columbia) was surveyed.

As an entrepreneur, I spent over three years in two different startup incubators – Brazil’s Genesis Institute, part of PUC-Rio’s university, and Maryland’s Rockville Innovation Center, run by Montgomery County’s Economic Development Department. As mentor, I have also had the opportunity to coach several incubated companies, from incubators like 1776 and beyond. I could experience firsthand the benefits of business incubation, which can be significant for early-stage entrepreneurs.

Max Becton and Fairleigh Dickinson were two travelling salesmen when they met through an act of kindness in a Texas railroad station in 1897. The friendship that resulted formed the basis of a partnership that built Becton-Dickinson into a global medical technology company based in Bergen County. A story in 201 Magazine recounts the history of how the company got started.

For more than a decade, Indianapolis-based Lumina Foundation has been making grants to organizations that support its mission of increasing the number of adults obtaining postsecondary credentials.

That’s the typical playbook for private foundations—contribute to other not-for-profits that are trying to make a difference. But over the past year, Lumina has aggressively moved in a more novel direction, funneling more of its $1.2 billion endowment into venture capital. Instead of just handing out grants, it’s taking ownership stakes in for-profit businesses, mainly education-tech startups.

University of Maryland (UM) Ventures announced today that the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) has granted worldwide, exclusive licensing rights for a new vaccine technology to Serenta Biotechnology, LLC, a Gaithersburg, MD-based startup. The license is based on technology co-owned by UMB and Northern Arizona University and is the basis for a multivalent vaccine against infections caused by Staphylococcus aureus, a bacterial strain often resistant to antibiotics.

Are you an NIH-funded investigator focused on medical device innovations? NIH recently announced the availability of administrative supplements to parent awards for a number of different activity codes with participation by four ICs (see lists below). Both SBIR/STTR awardees as well as recipients of a number of different research grants are eligible.