Kinglet hires Planit for marketing push [Startup Roundup]

WHO’S GETTING FUNDED

Graybug, a pharmaceutical startup based at FastForward East, closed a $1.74 million Series A financing round. The company makes treatments for eye disease. The money will be used to advance development of the company’s pre-clinical stage microparticle candidate for wet-age-related macular degeneration (AMD). The financing round was led by Hatteras Venture Partners and the Maryland Investor Fund.
Columbia-based Lotame Solutions raised $10.7 million, according to an SEC filing. The data management company’s CEO tells Baltimore Business Journal that the financing was a Series D round, raised from existing investors. The money will be used to hire 26 devs.

WHO’S MAKING MOVES

emocha Mobile Health won a bid to use its app in Harris County, Texas. The FastForward East-based company’s video-based app, miDOT, allows tuberculosis patients to record themselves taking required medication so healthcare workers don’t have to travel to observe them. Harris County, which stretches 1,800 square miles in the Houston area, has one of the nation’s highest TB rates. emocha has a similar partnership with Baltimore city.
Trained chef Matthew Eierman developed HDScores to give people access to restaurant health data. The app has been growing, but he hasn’t been able to use it in his hometown. A vote of the City Council indicates that might change. Councilman Brandon Scott’s proposal to require restaurants to post health department scores passed on Monday. Eierman, who attended a work session on the bill, said the company is “excited to be able to work in our hometown,” if the legislation is finalized. A second Council vote and mayoral signature are still required before it becomes law. Eierman added the legislation has been in the works since 2012.
Protenus hired Selina Riojas as Engagement Manager, cofounder Nick Culbertson emails. He adds that members of the health IT firm linked up with Riojas at Technical.ly’s NET/WORK Baltimore last month.
Kinglet signed Baltimore-based digital agency Planit to bolster PR, branding and web presence. Planit will help the Federal Hill-based real estate company that helps startups lease small-scale office space with public relations, branding strategy, digital analysis, web design and paid search. The move to increase visibility comes as Kinglet gears up for expansion to D.C., and other mid-Atlantic cities this year. It was also announced a day after cofounder Alex Kopicki penned an article for Forbes about “the benefits of working from home.”
More big client news for Groove: ecommerce platform Bigcommerce is partnering with the digital marketing agency. As part of the deal, Groove will help Bigcommerce build ecommerce platforms for enterprise clients. Groove launched an enterprise division specifically aimed at clients with seven-figure budgets earlier this year.
WHO’S GETTING BUZZ
Pegged Software and Emergent Biosolutions got shoutouts from Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake in her State of the City address. The mayor pointed to the firms as examples of “existing companies are staying and growing in Baltimore.”
The financial types are reading the tea leaves after Millennial Media posted its fourth-quarter earnings report after markets closed on Monday. The publicly-traded adtech company reported “big losses” of $11.6 million. In the same quarter of 2013, the losses were $3.6 million. But, it’s all about expectations and projections at the Stock Exchange, The Street reports that the Canton-based company’s shares grew in after-hours trading on Monday because the losses weren’t as big as most people feared. CEO Michael Barrett was also upbeat, saying the company ended 2014 on a “high note” after closing the acquisition of Nexage.