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 JumpStart Ventures, which invests in and partners with innovative, early-stage companies in Northeast Ohio, recently closed two new investments. These investments, which are coupled with intensive entrepreneurial development assistance, bring the total number of investments made by JumpStart Ventures to 13 investments in the past 12 months.
A $250,000 investment commitment went to CoverMyMeds LLC, the newest JumpStart Ventures portfolio company. The Twinsburg, Ohio healthcare technology and services company has developed web and phone-based tools that expedite and automate the submission of Prior Authorization (PA) requests to patients’ health insurance plans. PA and other Coverage Determination forms are required after coverage of a patient’s prescription has been rejected by their health plan. Before CoverMyMeds, submitting a PA was a manual process, and universally frustrating and expensive for physician offices and pharmacies. Because of this, PAs often were not submitted, leading some patients to go without needed medication. CoverMyMeds’ tools cut the process to less than five minutes, a reduction of at least 70 percent. The company will use the fund and entrepreneurial development assistance from JumpStart Ventures to further develop its launched product and begin the process of integrating its system into the doctor, pharmacy, and insurer work streams.
“CoverMyMeds offers pharmacies and physicians a simple, easy-to-use solution to a complex problem,” said CoverMyMeds Co-Founder Sam Rajan, R.Ph. “Because of this, the value proposition to our clients is the ability to capture lost revenue at a very reasonable cost.” Rajan and Co-Founder Alan Scantland were previously on the senior management team at MemberHealth, a pharmacy benefits management company in Solon, where they led a management team that grew the company from $55 million to $1.3 billion. MemberHealth was acquired by Universal American Financial Corporation for $630 million.
JumpStart Ventures also invested an additional $100,000 in existing portfolio company, ECHOGEN Power Systems of Akron. ECHOGEN has developed a proprietary waste heat to power engine for use in power generation, industrial, and commercial market sectors. “ECHOGEN’s Waste Heat Recovery System Beta Test Program with an Ohio utility is on track and we expect continued positive results to support our commercialization initiatives,” said Michael Persichilli, VP of Business Development and Strategic Relationships. “The level of interest among energy-intensive industries, utilities, and strategic partners has been exciting.” This investment, which brings JumpStart Ventures’ total amount invested to $500,000, will be used to complete development of a second pilot engine that will improve upon cost position and performance compared to the first engine.
The 13 investments made by JumpStart Ventures include nine investments in new companies and four additional investments in existing portfolio companies and is a fiscal year record for the organization. Since inception, JumpStart Ventures has made 64 investments in 48 companies. For more information on Jumpstart Ventures, please view the interview with Ray Leach from Jumpstart in this week's publication under "Angels Just Wanna Have Fund" or visit (www.jumpstartinc.org/ventures)
Jumpstart Venture is a member of NASVF - Richard Miler, Editor
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NASVF Annual Conference Updates
NOTE: In this section we bring you updates to sessions and speakers for the NASVF Annual Conference. For more information click here.
Members Highlight
 NYSTAR’s mission is to assist in the advancement of New York State’s innovation economy. NYSTAR works on programs to leverage public and private partnerships for the development and commercialization of new technologies and products. NYSTAR also supports efforts to ensure a skilled workforce and generate excitement about science and technology throughout New York State.
NYSTAR’s combination of new and existing programs advances its mission in wide-ranging ways.
The newest program is the BioNY website www.BioNY.org, created in 2010 to be a one-stop shop for information on New York’s growing life science industry. This site is designed to provide information on what biotech companies, research centers, and individual researchers are doing across the state. The site also includes a list of life science related patents received by university researchers, a list of related events taking place across the state and a place to post relevant articles and reports. Funding opportunities will also be posted. The site will make it easier for companies to find collaborators to grow their businesses and to help researchers find the right companies to partner with to commercialize the new products and technologies they are developing. BioNY can also be a valuable tool in attracting new companies and researchers to the State.
Read more....www.nystar.state.ny.us
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Open Positions
Angel and Venture Capital
 JumpStart Inc's CEO Ray Leach and Tech Coast Angel Dave Berkus discuss angel funds and in Ray's case, he enjoys great support from the state of Ohio where they've recognized the importance of angel investors in creating jobs. Dave and I groan with jealousy as Ray describes the $3.5M Ohio has granted to 2 native angel groups.
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Law firms not specializing in bankruptcies have been scrambling for business. To bring clients in the door, some have started taking on the role of helping companies find outside cash.
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Angel investors have good reasons for passing on your startup
company. But they should make more, not fewer investments over the long
run, in order to maximize their returns. That’s what I took away from
Sim Simeonov’s guest analysis in PE Hub last week. But it turns
out there’s much more to the story.
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 One reason to think that the surge in startup activity in New York City over the past few years isn't just a bubble is that the rise in startup and VC activity has been accompanied by the creation of a robust support network for entrepreneurs.
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An article in the June 27 New York Times Sunday Business
section ("The Idea Incubator Goes to Campus") highlighted a proposal I wrote for the Obama administration's
2011 federal budget designed to accelerate the movement of innovative
research from university campuses to the marketplace. The National
Science Foundation (NSF) budget proposal calls for $12 million a year to
establish several university proof-of-concept programs -- "Innovation Ecosystems"--in the hope that ultimately
academic institutions everywhere can better assist their faculty and
students to become successful entrepreneurs.
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 In a recent interview, venture-capital pioneer Arthur Rock discussed his early days in the venture-capital industry and why he’s now investing in corporate governance and education issues. He also waded into a contentious debate about venture-capital carried interest.
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The latest analysis of Rocky Mountain area startup activity tallies up
around $306.12M in venture capital investments in the region during Q2
of 2010. The analysis--based on the proprietary venture
capital database maintained by Techrockies--was down from the
$472.9M in deals tallied in Q1. Techrockies tracks both announced and
unannounced venture capital, angel, and private equity deals in
Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Idaho, New Mexico, and Montana. The biggest
deal in the quarter was for Fusion-io, a developer of flash
memory-based disk drives, which raised $45.0M in April. The most active
venture capital groups in the region were The Foundry Group, with
investments in three deals; First Round Capital, with two deals;
and New Enterprise Associates, with two deals. Of those venture
firms, only Foundry--which is located in Boulder--is located in the
immediate area.
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SAN FRANCISCO – July 1, 2010 – The Cleantech Group™, providers of leading global market research, events and advisory services for the cleantech industry, along with Deloitte, which provides audit, tax, consulting and financial advisory services to cleantech companies, today released preliminary 2Q 2010 results for clean technology venture investments in North America, Europe, China and India, totaling $2.02 billion across 140 companies.
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Public Venture Capital
Where high school graduates go to college has little to do with brain drain. Furthermore, most regions and states have no business worrying about brain drain in the first place. Are jobs going unfilled because too many people are leaving?
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 The period covered in ‘Singapore. The socio-economic development of a city-state’ is one of great change and tells the story of one of the most successful turnarounds from an underdeveloped to a highly developed nation. It gives us a historical overview of the rapid growth and development of the Singapore economy, detailing the institutions and policies, which have made this growth possible. The content is based on far-reaching library research and an in-depth...
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Federal Agency and Laboratory News
Greetings from D.C. The House Science and Technology Committee, Subcommittee on Research and Science Education, held a hearing on June 10 to address a series of issues concerning university technology transfer. While the primary focus was on moving technology from academic lab to market, the federal labs were not completely absent from the discussion or the recommendations of several panel members.
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 HOUSTON, July 7
/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Space Life Sciences Directorate (SLSD)
at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston
has selected three winning solutions to address astronaut health and
performance issues.
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Calendar of Events
View the NASVF Calendar Online
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