Philly weekly roundup: Spark Therapeutics restructuring; Carbon Reform’s $5.5M; Azzur Group bankruptcy

Welcome to the roundup of the latest from Philly's tech and entrepreneurship scene. Want this in your inbox? Subscribe for free.

This week in Philly, VC advice for female founders, investors looking to fund local immigrant startups and more.

Read on for Technical.ly’s weekly roundup of top news in the region.

📰 News Incubator: What else to know

• Meet 20 startups in the Philly region that are on the track to success in Technical.ly’s annual RealLIST Startups. [Technical.ly]

• This year, Pennsylvania hopped on the trend of statewide and regional activations at South by Southwest. Amplify Philly collaborated with statewide orgs to put together the first Keystone House. [Technical.ly]

• Spark Therapeutics is being restructured following the end of its trial for a hemophilia A gene therapy treatment, though the company says it’ll continue to work on other products related to the disease. The gene therapy company’s owner, Roche, determined the company as a financial loss. When Roche acquired Spark in 2019, it was the largest VC-backed exit in Philadelphia. [The Inquirer/Technical.ly]

•  Carbon Reform raised $5.5 million to support commercialization of its Carbon Capsule device, which removes indoor carbon buildup. The company raised a $3 million seed round in 2022.  [EIN Presswire/Technical.ly]

•  Life sciences services firm Azzur Group filed for bankruptcy. The Hatboro-based company secured a $56 million deal to sell its consulting division to DC-based Eliquent Life Sciences [Philly Biz Journal]

•  Drexel researchers created a software tool to navigate the Social Vulnerability Index, allowing access to the data set when the Trump Administration took it down earlier this year. [The Inquirer]

•  The US Commerce Secretary announced a “rigorous review” of the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program. Pennsylvania was allocated $1.16 billion in BEAD funds to expand broadband equity and access across the commonwealth.  [Route Fifty/Technical.ly]

• The city’s Office of Community Empowerment and Opportunity is partnering with nonprofit Clarifi to launch a new hotline for public benefits assistance program BenePhilly. [Philanthropy Network]

•  Philly’s Office of Innovation and Technology gave away 50 free laptops in partnership with PC’s for People and Resolve Philly at the New Kensington Community Development Corporation last week. [OIT]

🗓️ On the Calendar

• Join Resilient Coders at CIC Philadelphia on March 11 for a panel about income resilient tech careers. [Sign up]

• Builds Bio+ is hosting a Philadelphia Life Science Outlook on March 11 at the Science Center. [Buy tickets ]

• Code for Philly hack night will be back at Indy Hall on March 11. [Register here]

• Partner event: Learn about a non-traditional path into entrepreneurship at Temple Fox Business School’s next Innovation Leader Speaker Series. On March 11, Doug Fastuca, managing director at Malvern Investment Partners, will explain how “Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition” works — and if it’s the right path for you. [Reserve a spot] [Submit a question]

• Philadelphia Data Viz Meetup will gather at Cesium on March 12. [More details]

• Philly JavaScript Club will meet on March 13 to discuss Non-Functional Requirements. [Register here]

.• Life sciences leader Lawrence Rich is hosting a monthly meetup for people in the life sciences community at Technical.ly’s office at the Curtis Center. The first meetup is on March 13. [More details]