2007 Headlines
Johnson School Student-Managed Venture Capital Fund Adds to Its Portfolio
BR Ventures and Excell Partners Invest in Systanix, Inc.
March 19, 2007 The Johnson School at Cornell University's student-managed venture capital firm, BR Ventures, today announced that it has invested an undisclosed amount in convertible debt in Systanix, Inc., a company with patent-pending technology for continuous flow micro-reactors for chemical synthesis. BR Ventures co-invested with Excell Partners, a seed stage venture capital firm focused on economic development for New York State, which also invested an undisclosed amount in convertible debt. Excell Partners grants awards to companies emerging from the universities and technology centers in Upstate New York. In 2006, seven companies received funding totaling $745,000.
Systanix, Inc. holds the exclusive license to patent-pending technology that has the proven potential to reduce the cost of synthesizing pharmaceutical agents and specialty chemicals by 35% or more. The company has developed a revolutionary approach to chemical synthesis by combining advanced microreactor design and unique catalyst technology that offers dramatic increases in efficiency over traditional batch reactor methodologies. Systanix's approach to chemical synthesis is applicable to the needs of the pharmaceutical, fine chemical, and veterinary medicine sectors.
Because of the robust entrepreneurship program and support that the Johnson School offers, BR Ventures is positioned to be the venture capital group with the first look at technologies coming from Cornell. Systanix has taken advantage of many aspects of the Entrepreneurship at Johnson program that offers student-run pre-seed funding, incubation and legal services. It won the BR Ventures Business Idea Competition in 2005, an annual competition to uncover the best new business ideas coming out of Cornell and beyond. As the winner, Systanix received free support from BR Legal, a program that provides affordable, professional-quality legal services from students at Cornell Law School and attorneys experienced in the relevant fields of law that a start-up company may encounter. The winner of this year's competition will be announced on April 20, 2007 during the 2007 university-wide Entrepreneurship@Cornell celebration.
Another resource available to commercialize Cornell research and expertise is Cornell's Center for Technology Enterprise & Commercialization (CCTEC). CCTEC is committed to facilitating the transfer of technologies invented at Cornell to regionally-based companies and small businesses. As Systanix developed, CCTEC played a critical role in coordinating the contributions of BR Ventures, Excell Partners and others to commercialize the inventions that are the foundation of Systanix's technologies.
Systanix also participated in Cornell's Pre Seed Workshop in 2005. This systematic workshop is designed to help Cornell researchers evaluate the commercialization potential of an invention and provide essential information from the venture capital and business community to launch a start-up company. This spring's workshop will be held on March 30 and April 13.
"Beyond the funding, we're looking forward to continuing our relationship with Systanix," commented Cliff Lardin, student manager for BR Ventures and lead on this agreement. "The Johnson School has a long history with Systanix and has been able to help them develop their business model and strategy from the idea stage. It's fulfilling to support them financially and help them take the technology out of the lab."
"Working with BR Ventures has enabled Systanix to evolve from an idea that won the Business Idea Competition to a funded start-up company," commented Steve Broadwater, chief technology officer and co-founder. "We're excited about using our initial round of funding from BR Ventures and Excell Partners to help Systanix move forward by strengthening the technology base and expanding our management team."
About BR Ventures
BR Ventures is the venture capital arm of the Johnson School's Entrepreneurship Triad, providing venture capital and business expertise to promising startups by providing seed funding, typically ranging between $40,000 and $100,000. BR Venture's dynamic team of second year MBA student fund managers provides an integrated, cross-functional skill set that helps startups' realize their commercial potential and creative vision. BR Venture's unique structure, which grants principal responsibilities to each manager, gives the team control over every aspect of the fund. Fund managers execute each step of the venture capital process including searching for and selecting investment opportunities; performing due diligence; negotiating term sheets; making investment decisions; and guiding transactions through closing. BR Incubator, a student-run incubator service and BR Legal, a legal counsel service form the remainder of the triad.
BR Venture's previous investments include Experience Enterprises, LLC, an experience-based retailer; SightSpeed, an internet-based video conferencing company started by a Johnson School MBA and Cornell professor; Gene Network Sciences, a systems biology company; NovaSterilis, a biomedical sterilization company; Pacific Biosciences, a DNA sequencing company; and Medical Care Corporation, an Alzheimer's detection company.
About Excell Partners, Inc.
Excell is a unique regional economic development partnership established in cooperation with the University of Rochester and the State of New York to manage a venture capital fund which provides pre-seed and seed stage financing to high-tech start-up companies in the Upstate New York region. Excell is focused on identifying, tracking, and supporting the emerging technologies being developed in Upstate's regional universities and research centers. Excell provides up to $250,000 in capital at the seed stage to advance lab-to-market commercialization efforts. The types of investments Excell has made in the past include, but are not limited to, companies leveraging technologies in Microsystems, Engineering, Medical Imaging, Pharmaceuticals, Biotech, Food Science and others.
