News Coverage
4/1/09
TomTom Signs Deal with TrafficCast for Data for Wireless Navigation Device
The Wall Street Journal
Navigation systems provider TomTom NV has signed a deal with TrafficCast
International Inc. to provide real-time information about traffic, weather patterns and the
cheapest nearby gasoline to TomTom's first wireless navigation device.
Read more...
1/12/09
Tapping young talent offers flexibility, cost savings
The Chicago Tribune
Prinke and Weir of Leapfrog Online credit Ceres Portfolio Company Brill
Street & Co., a Chicago-based recruiting firm that specializes in interns and entry-level placements,
for successfully matching them with a promising new hire. The firm is well-positioned for the labor market
because many companies are reluctant to make a full-time hire in this
economy, experts said.
Read more...
10/30/08
Warning! Traffic Jam Straight Ahead
The New York Times
It's a driving inevitability: You're zipping along when
suddenly all traffic comes to a screeching halt. There you sit, staring at
the bloom of brake lights, wondering how long you'll be stationary. Wouldn't
it be nice if you knew what was happening so you could take an alternate
route or at least stop fretting? Live traffic information sent directly
to navigation devices may provide the answer.
Read more...
10/6/08
Women: A Crain's Special Edition
Crain's Chicago Business
Women are climbing into positions of leadership in
Chicago business. On the way up, they're changing how the game is played.
Crain's this week aims to tell the story of how women are transforming the
business landscape, bringing new products and ideas to the marketplace and
driving growth.
Read more...
9/7/08
Brill Street's search even takes it to Facebook and MySpace
Chicago Sun-Times
Brill Street uses social networking as just one of its
communities to fill a networking void that causes college students to
complain they can't find good jobs; company executives to fume they can't
get good entry-level people, and college officials to regret that it's so
difficult to find resources for kids when they graduate.
The idea is not to become another "job board" but to instead attract highly
qualified students and groom them for success, and provide companies and
colleges with a combination of high-tech and high-touch ways of finding
the best people for the job.
Read more...
9/3/08
TrafficCast taps Motorola exec as CEO
Chicago Tribune
Can a cell phone help you out of a traffic jam?
A Madison, Wis.-based start-up hopes so, and it has enlisted a
former Motorola Inc. executive to help lead its foray into the wireless
industry. As digital mapping technology increasingly moves from car
dashboards to mobile phones, [Ceres Portfolio Company] TrafficCast wants to further improve
navigation with real-time traffic information. To that end, the start-up
has hired Neal Campbell, a self-described "wireless guy" who helped
Motorola develop navigation software for mobile phones, to be its chief
executive.
Read more...
6/08
Congratulations to CS-Keys
IUPUI Chancellor's News
Congratulations to CS-Keys for being named Innovation of
the Year at the 2008 Techpoint Mira Awards gala! The company, founded by
two IU medical researchers, Professors Linda Malkas and Bob Hickey, has
translated the discovery of a new biomarker into a patented antibody that
may one day be a powerful ally in helping pathologists detect cancer much
earlier and by means of a simple blood test-an excellent example of the
promise and importance of translational research and a case in point for
why the CTSI will be such an important asset for Indiana in swiftly moving
other such discoveries to the marketplace.
Read more...
4/25/08
TrafficCast Given Top Marks at Dow Jones Wireless Innovations Conference
Dow Jones
Ten companies were given top marks by attendees and
expert panelists at Dow Jones' Wireless Innovations conference this week.
The conference, held in Redwood City, Calif., featured two days of panel
presentations and keynotes by venture capital professionals and company
executives, and breakout sessions in which 80 start-up companies selected
by VentureWire editors presented their business plans.
Read more...
1/29/08
CS-Keys prepares for new VC funds
Indianapolis Star
CS-Keys, an Indianapolis startup developing a new method
for the early detection of cancer, is expected to announce today that it
has received $6.25 million in funding. CS-Keys -- for Cancer Specific
Keys -- has developed a method using biomarkers designed to help
pathologists detect the presence of breast cancer in biopsies taken
from patients. The company hopes to use its technology to help in the
diagnosis of other cancers, including prostate, cervical, ovarian and
colorectal.
Read more...
1/23/08
TrafficCast raises $3.5 million
Business Journal of Milwaukee
TrafficCast International Inc., a provider of predictive
traffic software in Madison, said it has raised about $3.5 million in a
recent round of funding. The company had previously announced raising
$2 million in capital but the board of directors extended the round to
accommodate additional investor interest and to fund growth in an
expanding market for mobile and interactive travel information.
Read more...
12/24/07
Brill Street appeals to tech-savvy college students
so everyone gets more out of the experience
Chicago Sun-Times
If West Loop-based startup Brill Street + Company
executes on its business plan, college interns across the country might
never be asked to fetch coffee or aimlessly push paperwork again.
For decades, the deal between interns and their employers
has been pretty clear. Students toil away on random projects for peanuts in
exchange for workplace exposure and credit toward their degrees. Two years
ago, David Frej and wife Nancy Lerner founded Brill Street to more
systematically place interns and part-time college students with employers
genuinely in need of their services.
Read more...
2/15/07
This Time It's Mine: Why high-powered women are leaving
Corporate America to become entrepreneurs
BusinessWeek
BusinessWeek SmallBiz tracked down 18 of these high-powered women
[including Ceres managing director Donna Williamson] to
discover why they traded the relative security of a big company for a
startup, and to find out what their experiences can teach other entrepreneurs.
Working with executive recruiters, women's business groups, venture
capitalists, angel investors, and other successful entrepreneurs,
we identified women who had left senior positions at large companies,
where they typically had profit-and-loss responsibility for
multimillion-dollar units, to start their own companies.
Read more...
12/14/06
Women's fund backs firms:
State-backed VC Ceres makes its first two investments
Chicago Sun-Times
A few months after its formation,
the only women-owned venture capital fund in the
state has made its first investments -- one in a
Chicago-based company and the other a Colorado
business that will be setting up operations in Illinois.
Read more...
11/06
The Feminine Touch: Women are joining forces to invest in life science ventures, and getting results
The Scientist
Ceres Venture Fund, a women-led partnership in Evanston, Ill.,
is among the latest entrants, and one of the few that heavily favors healthcare
and life sciences. Donna Williamson, one of the three women who cofounded the
company, is a former corporate officer of global healthcare giant Baxter
International and a founding officer of health-services provider Caremark
International. "This is an area that has seen huge growth in professional
graduates, in women in medical school, in women in PhD programs," Williamson
notes. "We feel there's a huge opportunity to be able to support the initiatives
that these women are going to want to take in terms of entrepreneurship and
growing businesses."
Read more...
8/1/06
Q&A: Ceres Venture Fund Managing Director
Laura Pearl on Women-Led Businesses
Illinois Venture Capital Association News
Laura Pearl is a managing director and co-founder of the
Ceres Venture Fund in Chicago. She sat down with the Illinois Venture
Capital Association to discuss the need for funding women-led companies
as well as the current funding climate in general.
Read more...