NEWS AND TRENDS

Funding from Excell Partners has aided 11 startups

Andrea Deckert

Since its inception last year, Excell Partners, Inc. has distributed a total of $775,000 in funding to 11 area tech firms.

Excell was designed to assist area scientists and inventors with the goal of advancing new technology and bringing it to the marketplace.

The company this week tapped a financial industry veteran, currently chairman of the County of Monroe Industrial Development Agency, as its chief operating officer.  Theresa Mazzullo succeeds Mark Scheuerman, who resigned to pursue other interests.

Thomas Mooney, the former CEO of the Rochester Business Alliance Inc., is Excell's chairman and CEO.  Mazzullo's connections to Monroe County, plus her solid financial background, make her ideal for the job, he said.

Mazzullo will be responsible for the strategic planning, policy and administration of Excell and the commercialization and economic development activities at the company's partner locations, including Cornell University, University of Rochester Medical Center, Infotonics Technology Center Inc. and the Cornell Agriculture & Food Technology Park in Geneva.  The firm's affiliations have grown to include technology developed at Alfred University and Rochester Institute of Technology.

The non-profit Excell was created last year.  It received $3 million from UR-money originally from the state-and moved into office space at the Infotonics Center in Canandaigua.  Mooney and Mazzullo are the company's sole employees, but they also use consultants.

The organization makes awards-mainly low-interest loans, grants and guarantees-three times a year:  in April, August and December.  The funding can be used for a variety of purposes, from business development to management recruitment.  The companies most eligible for funding are those that have the greatest chance of benefiting the local economy and advancing new technology, Mooney said.

The tech startups-and the organization they are affiliated with-that have received money are listed below. The information was compiled from a report presented to Excell's board:

•   Physiologic Communications LLC (URMC):  The company aims
    to supply technology as a part of a pacing/defibrillation system or a
    separate system for neurologic/brain stimulation.  The firm's implantable
    wireless modules reach internal organs, such as the heart and brain,
    without the use of permanent wires.  
•   Novomer LLC (Cornell University):  The company's technology is a
    proprietary polycarbonate system for use in auto, semiconductor and
    medical device industries and part of an annual $3.9 billion U.S. catalyst
    market.
•   Sensivida Medical Systems LLC (Infotonics Center):  The company
    provides medical professionals and patients products that reduce the
    invasiveness, complexity and cost of medical tests through miniaturization
    and automation.  Its initial target is the $3 billion allergy testing market.
    Future target markets include stress/sex hormone monitoring and drug
    delivery.
•   Terramend LLC (Cornell Agriculture & Food Technology Park):  The
    company holds patents on, and is commercializing the use of,
    compost or other organic substances in the environmental remediation
    of oil or heavy metal contamination. Its products are expected to
    assist in preventing contamination of surface or groundwater supplies.
•   Cerebral Assessment Systems LLC (URMC):  Its Alzheimer's testing
    provides better, faster and cheaper methods for pharmaceutical
    customers to identify successful compounds for Alzheimer's drugs.
•   Tetragenetics Inc. (Cornell):  The company offers a technology
    for the production of genetically engineered proteins, harnessing
    the biology of tetrahymena thermophila, which are ciliate protozoa,
    common in aquatic habitats.
•   Redundant Materials Inc. (Alfred University):  The firm demonstrates
    the energy and economic benefits of direct electromagnetic radiation
    processing as applied to ceramic materials.
•   SpectralSight Inc. (Infotonics Center):  The company aims to
    design and manufacture hyperspectral imaging devices to a variety
    of markets, including agriculture and the military.  Hyperspectral
    imaging involves creating a number of images from the regions
    of the eye's spectrum with fine resolution.
•   LAGeT Musculoskeletal LLC (URMC):  The company has
    developed a technology process-light-activated gene therapy-for
    articular and meniscal cartilage repair, ligament and tendon healing
    and enhanced spinal fusion.
•   Koning Corp. (URMC):  The company is developing
    CT-based medical imaging technology with applications in
    breast imaging, angiography and lung cancer screening.
•  Lighthouse Biosciences LLC (URMC):  The company is developing
    medical diagnostic instruments with the goal of delivering highly
    accurate results in minutes to hours as opposed to days.  The
    company also plans to develop prototypes for the veterinary and
    agriculture safety markets.

Gerald Shanahan, CEO of LAGeT, said working with Excell was a quick and easy process and one that could serve as a model for other similar organizations.

The company received a $57,000 low-interest loan from Excell.  The funding helps its organizational costs and business plan development, Shanahan said.  It took less than two weeks from applying for the funding to having it approved by Excell's board and receiving the money.

"The reaction time was extraordinary," Shanahan said. "Excell eliminates a lot of the red tape, which helps companies just starting out or in the early development phase who are looking to push the process along."

Mazzullo said her background as a former co-owner of a small business will give her an advantage in identifying and developing startups.

"I've experienced first-hand what it takes to build an infrastructure and a culture to support growth and I distinctly remember what it feels like to worry about cash flow," Mazzullo said.  "As a pre-seed investor, Excell can play an important role in helping to build an entrepreneurial infrastructure in Monroe County and the surrounding counties."

The Greece resident is the former president and principal of Rochester-based EPIC Advisors Inc.

Mazzullo and Mooney served as co-chairmen of Monroe County's Executive Taskforce on Economic Development.

 (adeckert@rbj.net / 585-546-8303)

01/20/06 (C) Rochester Business Journal //end