ANGLE Technology Ventures: Partnering with Ben Franklin to Develop High-Tech Startups
For many emerging technology companies, funding from Ben Franklin Technology Partners (BFTP) is the first link in a longer chain of financial support from angel investors and venture capitalists. To facilitate follow-on funding, Ben Franklin networks its portfolio companies with outside investment from trusted partner firms-including ANGLE Technology Ventures, a major commercialization partner for BFTP’s Philadelphia-area office (BFTP/SEP).
ANGLE Technology Ventures is a UK-based international venture creation company that partners with the owners of intellectual property to create technology-based businesses. ANGLE provides seed funding, establishes and runs each company, and offers initial management, strategy, financial controls and infrastructure. ANGLE was the second international corporate member of the Nanotechnology Institute, an alliance of business, academia and government that is facilitating the research, development and commercialization of bio/nano advances.
Long-Term Financial Commitment
In 2005, BFTP/SEP and ANGLE each committed $5 million over five years to support the development and creation of companies whose technologies originate in regional universities and research institutions. ANGLE also co-located its first U.S. base within the BFTP/SEP office space. The most successful company that the two organizations have collaborated on is Parsortix, which focuses on particle sorting for prenatal diagnostics. Parsortix’s initial technology application will be isolation of fetal cells from maternal blood.
“These cells can then be used in the same way as cells taken from amniocentesis to determine genetic and chromosomal abnormalities in the fetus,” says Dave Counts, Ph.D., associate director at ANGLE. Best of all, the procedure completely sidesteps the risks associated with amniocentesis, helping provide the best possible care to both the mother and child at childbirth.
After ANGLE provided the company with significant consultation, Parsortix qualified for investment funds from BFTP/SEP, receiving $150,000 in March 2007. Parsortix is also launching its operations out of space in the BFTP/SEP offices.
Personnel Is the Lynchpin
ANGLE and BFTP/SEP agree on the importance of management. “No company, and especially no startup, can be successful without good management,” Counts says. “A company may be formed on inadequate technology but still succeed if it has good management.”
Beyond partnerships with Parsortix and other early startups, ANGLE and BFTP/SEP have also occasionally invested in the same employees-including Dave Counts, who moved to ANGLE from BFTP/SEP two years ago, after becoming more familiar with ANGLE through work with the Nanotechnology Institute.
“As we worked together, and I became more familiar with what ANGLE wished to do within southeastern PA, it was a logical progression in my career and permitted me the opportunity to return to working to create small companies,” Counts says.
Parsortix’s interim CFO is William Dana-formerly BFTP/SEP’s chief administrative officer. This collaboration has suggested a new BFTP/SEP approach to companies, one that provides interim, short-term management services to help launch new enterprises.
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