Upstate Deals and Doings – July 18, 2018
Deals, news and events for the investment community across Upstate New York.
Published online and emailed to members every other week.
Upstate Capital’s Quarterly Report
Healthcare and Technology lead types of investments in Q2 2018, while Hudson Valley leads state in deals for the second quarter in a row.
DEAL HIGHLIGHTS
- Alliance Precision Plastics, a Rochester-based provider of plastic manufacturing services intended to offer custom injection molding, mold design, mold building and contract assembly services for companies operating worldwide, raised $100,000.
- EagleHawk, a Buffalo-based owner and operator of a drone services and data collection company intended to offer data obtained using drones, raised $301,000.
- Plowz & Mowz, Manlius-based provider of an on demand lawn mowing and snow plowing platform designed to lessen the burden of home chores, raised $5 million of venture funding.
- Ursa Space Systems, an Ithaca-based provider of geospatial data and analytics services created to gather data from radar satellites, raised $5.45 million.
- Ioxus, an Oneonta-based manufacturer of premium performance ultracapacitor technology and energy storage products designed for use in transportation, industrial and energy applications, raised $26.72 million funding from Cayuga Venture Fund and Correlation Ventures.
- VoltDelta, a Pittsford-based provider of cloud-based contact center services, was acquired by ZephyrTel.
*Have a deal you’d like to share? Submit your deal here.
INDUSTRY NEWS
The $1,000,000 winner of Luminate’s first cohort is Double Helix Optics. The Boulder, Colorado-based company received top honors at Luminate NY’s inaugural “Light Tomorrow with Today” Demo Day competition. The company will receive $1 million in follow-on funding from New York State through the Finger Lakes Forward Upstate Revitalization Initiative and, as required by the award, Double Helix will commit to establishing operations in Rochester for at least the next 18 months.
Cayuga Ventures announced the launch of Cayuga Venture Fund VI, with a target size of $100M. The Tompkins County-based Cayuga Venture Fund will rely on the region’s highly educated population and higher education institutions so that the new fund – Cayuga Venture Fund VI – will capitalize on the firm’s position as the area’s largest and most active venture capital investor.
Excell Partners exited from American Fuel Cell when the company got acquired by Plug Power earlier this year.
UPSTATE CAPITAL EVENTS
- July 26-27 – Saratoga Forum – Upstate Capital’s annual marquee event for investors, transaction professionals and executives – featuring Howard Morgan, Frank McEvoy, Hugh Johnson, and many other great speakers. Valuable content coupled with great relationship building in beautiful and historic Saratoga. Only 8 passes left for our private suite on Friday!
- August 1 – Ithaca – Investor Connections for Clean Energy Startups – Join us for an evening of networking for angel, seed, and venture capital investors to connect with energy and sustainability startups and established companies in the Southern Tier startup ecosystem in Upstate New York.
- September 26 – Syracuse – The Future of Food – Highlighting the next generation of food and ag tech. Event includes an investor panel discussion, startup pitches and a tour of a 1200-head dairy farm in Central NY, sponsored by Bond, Schoenick and King. Register today. Members can contact Bailey for a discount code.
COMMUNITY EVENTS
- July 26 -Hudson Valley – Hudson Valley Cybersecurity Workshop – Cybersecurity compliance is no longer flying under the radar for manufacturing. There are new requirements raising the stakes for manufacturers that have to be acknowledged and addressed in order to stay competitive.
- August 2 – Troy – IgniteU Startup Showcase – The 2018 IgniteU Summer Accelerator is coming to a close and they would like to welcome you to their end of the summer Startup Showcase. The teams have been working hard all summer long for this event and are excited to show everyone what they have achieved!
- August 8 – Syracuse – Drones over Downtown – Join the drone community at the second annual GENIUS NY Drones Over Downtown on August 8. Enjoy live demos, presentations, local drone and tech vendors and fun things like 3D drone simulations, a net for first time flyers, and free giveaways. Drones Over Downtown is a community event that educates and promotes drone technology and the growing unmanned aerial systems (UAS) ecosystem in Central New York and the Mohawk Valley.
August 9 – Syracuse – StartFast Demo Day – featuring keynote Jim Boeheim, Syracuse Hall of Fame basketball coach and noted investor discuss trends in early-stage tech and the revitalization of CNY’s economy. See pitches from five international companies seeking investment.