Mayor Michael Nutter cuts ribbon on Curalate’s new Center City office

Mayor Michael Nutter celebrated Curalate‘s new Center City office at a ribbon cutting yesterday.

Growing from three employees last summer to 21, the visual analytics firm had outgrown its office space at First Round Capital‘s University City headquarters.

At the ribbon cutting, Curalate CEO Apu Gupta said his company’s growth was a sign that Philadelphia can be a place for tech companies to thrive.

“Great opportunities don’t need to be found in the Valley, or the Alley,” Gupta said. “They can be found right on the banks of the Schuylkill,” referring to his new office that lines the river at 24th and Walnut Streets.

It was the second time that Nutter has celebrated a new startup office in less than a month, cutting the ribbon at Artisan Mobile’s new Old City office in late June. It’s a sign of the times — and Nutter’s priorities — that he’s throwing his time behind startups that are still early-stage, with a few dozen employees, instead of only applauding large, established tech companies that have moved to the city, like Fiberlink and Bentley Systems, and high-profile ones like First Round Capital.

It’s also something of a maturation in the technology community, as they learn how to turn the levers of power in the city.

Check out some shots of the new place, which used to be online ticketing firm Ticketleap‘s office, below. Ticketleap moved into an office on a different floor in the same building at 2401 Walnut at the edges of Center City.