Partnering with Entrepreneurs to Achieve Extraordinary Success
News Coverage
1/26/12
Ceres Portfolio Company Vormetric Announces Record Financial Results for 2011
Vormetric, Inc.
Vormetric, Inc., the leader in enterprise systems encryption
and key management, today announced its third consecutive year of profitability,
record revenues and accelerated customer adoption for the 2011 calendar year. The
company grew revenues by 40 percent and nearly doubled its new customer acquisition
rate year over year. Vormetric continued to expand its share of the large
enterprise market with 15 of the Fortune 25 now using its technology.
Read more...
12/8/11
Forbes Names SynCardia One of "America's Most Promising Companies"
Syncardia Systems, Inc.
SynCardia Systems, Inc., the privately-held manufacturer
of the world's only FDA, Health Canada and CE (Europe) approved Total Artificial Heart,
has been selected by Forbes as one of "America's Most Promising Companies." The list
features 100 privately held up-and-comers with compelling business models, strong
management teams, notable customers, strategic partners and precious investment capital.
Ranked No. 77, SynCardia was the only Arizona company to make the cut.
Read more...
10/18/11
SynCardia Named Arizona Bioscience Company of the Year
Syncardia Systems, Inc.
SynCardia Systems, Inc., manufacturer of the world's only FDA,
Health Canada and CE approved Total Artificial Heart, was named Arizona Bioscience
Company of the Year by the Arizona BioIndustry Association (AZBio). "The Arizona
Bioscience Company of the Year Award recognizes the for-profit bioscience company
whose Arizona-based operations did the most to transform the world during the last
12 months" said AZBio CEO Joan Koerber-Walker. "SynCardia makes it possible for
patients awaiting donor hearts to not only survive the wait but also to do so
with flexibility and mobility, a feat of biomedical engineering that is
world-changing for these patients."
Read more...
7/4/11
Can You Replace a Heart?
ABC 7 Eyewitness News New York
Taking a human heart out and replacing it with an artificial
heart is rare. Only 800 adults have had a total artificial heart, and it's
even rarer for children. But Texas Children's Hospital has performed its
first total artificial heart surgery on a Houston teenager. Three weeks
later, he is doing well and getting used to his mechanical heart...."There's
the potential to go home. Just 3-4 years ago if you had this device you had
to stay in the hospital and actually there are people who stayed in the
hospital for a year or year and a half," says Jordan's surgeon, Dr. David Morales.
Read more...
4/19/11
Globalstar Finalizes Equity Investment in TrafficCast
Globe Newswire
Globalstar, Inc., a leading provider of mobile satellite voice
and data services to businesses, government, and individuals today announced
that it has completed an equity investment in TrafficCast International, Inc.,
a leading provider of travel time forecasting and traffic information based
on advanced digital traffic data. TrafficCast provides business and government
customers with accurate real-time and on demand mobile traffic information and
travel-time forecasts by analyzing GPS-based tracking and other data from
expressways and major arterials as well as information from secondary and
tertiary roadways, weather conditions, roadway incidents and events, construction, and historical traffic patterns.
Read more...
4/5/11
INRange Systems, Inc. Wins Inaugural ACA Silvertip Award For Market Creation and Innovation
Angel Capital Association
The Angel Capital Association (ACA), the trade association of leading
angel investment groups in North America, announced that INRange Systems, Inc. of Altoona,
PA is the inaugural winner of the Silvertip HP Startup Central Award honoring
entrepreneurship and market creation through innovation...."INRange Systems identified a
big problem—in-home medication management, for a huge number of people,
those who are recovering from mental or physical illness. Their solution is creating a new
market, the administration of medications once the patient has left the pharmacy. Their accomplishment
exemplifies the spirit and intent of this award," ACA executive director Marianne Hudson said.
Read more (pdf)...
2/18/11
Syncardia named as a Top 50 Innovative Company by Fast Company
Fast Company
SynCardia makes the Total Artificial Heart, the only
complete heart-replacement device approved by the FDA. Last year, it
began a clinical study for its Freedom portable driver, a 13.5-pound
external power source that, for the first time, lets survivors of advanced
heart disease return home with the implanted mechanism. They're no longer
tethered to a 418-pound power supply at the hospital. One patient, an
Oklahoma pastor, has returned to the pulpit.
Read more...
2/15/11
Charles Okeke Receives New Donor Heart & Kidney
after 864 Days of Life with SynCardia's Total Artificial Heart
Syncardia Systems, Inc.
On Jan. 15, after 864 days of life with the SynCardia
temporary Total Artificial Heart, Charles Okeke received a dual heart and
kidney transplant at Mayo Clinic Hospital in Phoenix. Okeke made headlines
in May 2010 when he became the first Total Artificial Heart patient in U.S.
history to leave the hospital without a human heart. Okeke was able to
return home as part of an FDA-approved Investigational Device Exemption
(IDE) clinical study of the 13.5 lb Freedom portable driver.
Read more...
Update: Mr. Okeke has made a rap video to express his gratitude
for the support from his friends, family, nurses, doctors and staff during his treatment.
Watch it at YouTube.
2/3/11
1st Hospital in UK Begins Certification to Implant
SynCardia's Total Artificial Heart
Syncardia Systems, Inc.
On Feb. 7, the surgical team from Papworth Hospital in
Cambridge, United Kingdom, led by Dr. Steven Tsui, Consultant Surgeon &
Director of Transplantation, will complete the first of four phases of
certification to implant the SynCardia temporary Total Artificial Heart.
Papworth is the 66th hospital in the world and the first hospital in the
UK to begin certification for the Total Artificial Heart.
Read more...
12/15/10
This Pastor Really Has A Heart (An Artificial One!)
K-Love Radio Network
Think about your heart. It just keeps ticking. But when
something goes wrong, it's serious. An Oklahoma pastor is now home from
the hospital after receiving a Total Artificial Heart. Because of a medical
condition from birth, Troy Golden began to have issues with his heart. For
nearly 10 years, he was in and out of the hospital as doctors tried to patch
together his heart.
Listen to the full story...
11/3/10
Coverity Finds Google's Android Operating System Is Surprisingly Bug-Free
Forbes
Coverity announced the findings of its annual open source
bug hunt, this year focusing on HTC's "Droid Incredible" version of the
Android mobile operating system. The company found 359 bugs, a quarter of
which they classified as "high risk." Coverity, which makes its money selling
these code scans, found a higher rate of defects in Android-specific code
than it did elsewhere in the Linux codebase. However, the number of defects
counted per thousands lines of code, is about half the number expected.
Read more...
8/12/10
Wounded Warriors
The Pentagon Channel
Doctors say a new machine for dispensing medicine,
INRange Systems' EMMA, being tested at four military medical facilities is
helping Wounded Warriors manage multiple medications.
Watch the segment...
7/13/10
A Change of Heart: Syncardia's Portable Power Source Lets Cardiac Patients Await Permanent Donor at Home
Scientific American
They say home is where the heart is, but until recently
patients who had suffered biventricular failure could survive only with
the help of an artificial heart tethered to large, immobile driver system
to maintain blood circulation while they awaited a heart transplant.
This could be changing; artificial heart-maker SynCardia Systems, Inc.,
in Tucson, Ariz., last month announced that three patients surgically
implanted with the company's technology have been able to walk out of
their respective hospitals and wait for donated replacement hearts in
the comfort of their own homes.
Read more...
6/17/10
SynCardia Named Among Top 50 Companies to Watch by Medical Device and Diagnostic Industry Magazine
Syncardia Systems, Inc.
Medical Device and Diagnostic Industry (MD+DI) magazine
has selected SynCardia Systems, Inc., manufacturer of the SynCardia
temporary Total Artificial Heart, as one of 50 Companies to Watch for 2010.
MD+DI's Reason to Watch: "The SynCardia Total Artificial Heart is the only
device of its kind with regulatory approval in the United States, Canada,
and Europe. The device, meant for people dying from end-stage biventricular
failure, works similar to a heart transplant in that it replaces both the
right and left heart ventricles. Plus, there's no waiting list like there
is for donor hearts (the company has certified centers set up throughout
the world)."
Read more...
6/1/10
Trafficast Sensors use Bluetooth to compute travel times on Ike
ABC7 News
The Illinois Department of Transportation is using the
Bluetooth technology from your cell phone to get travel times and data on traffic jams.
One of the fallouts from the resurfacing of the Eisenhower Expressway,
aside from sitting in traffic, is the loss of travel time information.
When crews grind down the pavement, they also grind out the wire sensors
that generate the travel time and congestion data. So, IDOT has hired Trafficast
to install temporary sensors that will compute that data using your cell phone.
Read more...
5/21/10
43-year-old Man Goes Home With SynCardia's "Total Artificial Heart"
CBS Evening News
For nearly two years, 43-year-old Charles Okeke has tried
to live a normal life in the hospital tethered to a 400-lb. machine. But
Okeke's life is about to be transformed. The FDA has just approved [SynCardia's]
backpack-sized device that runs on batteries and weighs just 13 lbs. It's
the first portable technology to support the entire artificial heart.
Read more...
5/21/10
Bluetooth technology to help track travel times
The Chicago Tribune
Whoever thought that talking on a cell phone while driving
would be considered a public service? To generate travel-time information
on the torn-up Eisenhower Expressway, the state has hired Wisconsin-based BlueTOAD to monitor
signals sent from motorists using Bluetooth-enabled personal electronic
devices such as hands-free headsets for cell phones, wireless headphones
and computer peripherals.
Read more...
5/19/09
'An Explosion' in Women-Owned Companies?
Bloomberg Businessweek
Seven years ago, Nicole Loftus was entrenched in an $19
billion-a-year industry she felt was following an outmoded model. As a
distributor of branded products, she served as an intermediary between
companies that wanted products imprinted with their logos and the
manufacturers that made them. Remarkably, neither side ever interacted.
Loftus struck out on her own—against the advice of her family and
then-husband—and began building what is now a multimillion-dollar company,
Zorch International. The Chicago company offered an innovation to the
branded-products industry's supply chain and changed how many corporations
procure such products.
Read more...
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 (pdf)...
9/3/08
Using Phone to Escape Traffic
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...
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...
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...
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...
