Startups

Graphene Frontiers raises $1.6M Series B [Startup Roundup]

Plus: OneTwoSee builds a white label app for Bloomberg Sports, MissionOG lands former Mastercard CEO Gene Lockhart for chairman of the board and the latest in hiring news from companies like Azavea and KMeL Robotics.

WHO’S GETTING FUNDED?

Graphene Frontiers, the University City Science Center-based graphene manufacturer, raised a $1.6 million Series B, according to a release. “A group affiliated” with New York-based Trimaran Capital Partners led the round, with participation from a firm called R2M Investments, according to the release. We couldn’t find any information about R2M Investments online but working on getting more details. WEMBA 36 Angels, a Wharton angel group, was a returning investor. CEO Mike Patterson is a Wharton MBA.

How did local venture firm MissionOG get former Mastercard chief Gene Lockhart to come on as chairman? The MissionOG partners impressed Lockhart in an earlier life, as the founders of now-exited, prepaid debit card startup Ecount. Read more about it on the Philadelphia Inquirer. Plus: MissionOG is raising a $50 million fund, the Inquirer reported.

Safeguard Scientifics led a $11.6 million Series B for the King of Prussia-based life sciences company Trice Medical, according to a release.

Edison Ventures has changed its name to Edison Partners, according to a release. Read more about why here.

Early-stage therapeutics companies can apply by Aug. 21 for a $50,000 grant from PA Bio, Pharma Directions and New Perspectives. Read more here.

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WHO’S MAKING MOVES?

OneTwoSee, the Center City startup that builds companion viewing apps for sports, built a white-label version of its app for Bloomberg Sports, according to the Sports Business Journal (paywall). The app is in partnership with LG and you can get it on LG’s SmartWorld app store. The venture-backed company says it will be at 20 employees by the end of the year.

Casey Thomas, the news apps developer who used to work at AxisPhilly, now works at Callowhill mapping firm Azavea.

Ross Kessler has left his job as NextFab’s director of electronic product development to join KMeL Robotics, the Grays Ferry-based robotics startups that spun out of Penn.

Alyssa Dingwall, market developer at Center City visual analytics firm Curalate, is leaving Philadelphia, according to her Facebook. We’ll have her exit interview shortly.

Gabriel Farrell has left his job as a developer at South Philly web dev firm P’unk Avenue to join the City of Philadelphia as its civic technology engineer, a post previously held by Dave Walk (who now works at health IT startup Grand Round Table).

We reported last week on PeopleLinx cofounder Patrick Baynes leaving the company to find his next startup. The Philadelphia Business Journal has more.

Hire an Esquire, the legal staffing startup with offices in Philadelphia and New York City, has partnered with law firm Orrick to provide legal services to members of coworking space WeWork, according to Hire an Esquire founder Julia Shapiro. Hire an Esquire’s New York offices are in WeWork.

Monetate, the Conshohocken ecommerce optimization startup, named Kevin Young its new VP of Marketing. Young was the cofounder and CMO of Motyx, Philly-based a grocery deals website. Blair Lyon formerly held the position at Monetate but is now the CMO of Amber-based LeadiD.

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WHO’S GETTING BUZZ?

American Certified, the ecommerce company that helps you buy American-made goods, was featured in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Something curious: the startup seems to have paired up with a conservative blogger named Michael Swartz, who writes blog posts about topics that don’t have much to do about American manufacturing, like Obamacare and Social Security. We have an email out to American Certified to learn more about this content marketing strategy.

Get inside Firefly cofounder Dan Shipper’s head in this story from the First Round Review, which gives you a breakdown of how the recent Penn grad sold his company to Pegasystems earlier this summer.

Wash Cycle Laundry, the sustainable laundry service, has two recent writeups: one on GM’s Drive the District blog and one on the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia’s blog.

Learn more about some of the health IT startups in the University City Science Center’s Digital Health Accelerator in this NewsWorks story.

Lifevest Health, the Center City corporate wellness startup, won a challenge hosted by The Greater Philadelphia Business Coalition on Health, which used a tracker to monitor the activity of seven Philly companies. Lifevest Health was the only startup participating, beating out giants like Comcast, Wawa, SEPTA, Marshall Dennehey, Stradley Ronon and the YMCA

Scholly, the scholarship-finding app, was featured on BET.

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STARTUP ROUNDUP SNAPSHOT

Callowhill-based digital agency Brolik is getting in the T-shirt game with this Duke & Winston collabo.

duke winston brolik

(Photo courtesy of Duke & Winston)

Buy the T-shirt here for $32.

Companies: KMel Robotics / Scholly / Azavea / Edison Partners / Graphene Frontiers / Hire An Esquire / MissionOG / Monetate / OneTwoSee / Pennsylvania Bio / Safeguard Scientifics / Wash Cycle Laundry

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