Former Obama adviser, a Delaware native, joins Uber [Startup Roundup]

WHO’S MAKING MOVES

David Plouffe: you may remember his name from your inbox. Think back to the election season prior to the 2012 campaign, when Plouffe was a top political adviser to President Obama. According to The News Journal, Plouffe, a Delaware native, has now joined Uber as its senior vice president of policy and strategy.
 

WHO’S GETTING FUNDED

Delaware-based iBio Inc. is on a short list of privately-held companies using biotech drug production techniques based on plants. The process is said to possibly be faster, higher yielding and cheaper than current methods. According to an article in MedCityNews, all of the privately-held companies are working to produce antibodies, protein drugs and vaccines in fast-growing plants.
In other iBio News, on Aug. 26, TWST.com reported that the plant-based biotech company entered into a $10 million common stock purchase agreeement with Aspire Capital. “We believe this agreement is particularly appropriate for iBio at this time,” said iBio CEO Robert B. Kay. “It helps to assure adequate funding for our fibrosis drug development to a point at which efficacy may be demonstrated and will help to enable expansion of our Brazil product partnerships. At the same time, as we work to achieve our various milestones and increase our stock price, this agreement will allow iBio to sell shares at higher prices over time thereby reducing our cost of capital and minimizing dilution.”
 

WHO’S GETTING BUZZ

Justin Hall, a venture capitalist at Golden Gate Ventures, recently dubbed Singapore the “Delaware of Southeast Asia.” In a post on his personal blog he wrote that the island country is in the process of adopting similar tax regulations as the First State. He notes how Southeast Asia is also experiencing growth in the startup community. “A few weeks ago I wrote about how over one billion dollars of early-stage venture capital was coming online within the next two years,” Hall wrote. “The effects of this cannot be easily dismissed, and one of the (many, many) effects is that Singapore is going to cement its status as the ‘Delaware’ of Southeast Asia.”