Wharton Business Plan Competition Winners Ring the NASDAQ Closing Bell

Lumina Diagnostics, winner of the 2009 Wharton Business Plan Competition, visited the New York City NASDAQ MarketSite accompanied by the Wharton School. In celebration, representatives of Wharton Entrepreneurial Programs and Lumina Diagnostics rang the NASDAQ closing bell. Find out more here.

Vor-x Success

Wharton alumni start-up Vorbeck Materials, a technology company that manufactures and develops applications utilizing Vor-x, a graphene material of great thermal conductivity, recently received $5.1 million in Series 2 financing. Read more here.

Next Up: Brazil

Is Brazil venture capital's next hotbed? BusinessWeek asks in a recent article, for "investments in Brazilian startups are surging, but high taxes and strict labor laws could hamper returns." Among those investments include foreign investors Draper Fisher Jurvetson, a Silicon Valley firm which, along with Brazilian venture capital firm FIR Capital Partners, launched a $170 million fund. MBA alum and co-founder of FIR Capital Partners Marcus Regueira is further quoted about the fund here.

Nurturing NYC VC

As Scott Denne reports for Wall Street Journal blog Venture Capital Dispatch,
"With fewer firms and no particular geographic nexus[in NYC], entrepreneurs rarely have the kinds of chance encounters that can jump-start a start-up." Enter First Growth Venture Network.

First Growth has launched a networking and mentoring program, providing advisors and opportunities, for New York City entrepreneurs. Also participating in the program are several venture firms. Find out more here.

Rapping About Business

RJMetrics is a Business Intelligence Dashboard for database-driven websites used by professionals to monitor key business metrics and trends. RJMetrics is also an aspiring rap duo. The group recently released a Business Intelligence Rap Video which also contains advice for tech startups. Check it out here.

Super Angel Status

Alumni venture capital firm First Round Capital has become the country's most active seed-stage investor, according to BusinessWeek. Among other "super angels" such as Baseline Ventures and Felicis Ventures, First Round is funding startups and entrepreneurs at a time when large VC firms are holding back. Read more here.

"Get It Started!"

This month's stories focus on the Wharton Business Plan Competition, with a feature on winner NIR Diagnostics and a video on the Venture Finals 2009, and an interview with the co-authors, Wharton professor of innovation and entrepreneurship Ian MacMillan and Columbia Business School professor Rita Gunther McGrath, of their new book Discovery-Driven Growth: A Breakthrough Process to Reduce Risk and Seize Opportunity. Check out the newsletter here.

Latin America Sees Private Equity and Venture Capital Expansion

Lauder Institute students recently co-authored a groundbreaking report that presents new data and trends of private equity and venture capital in Latin America. Read more about the findings here.

Wharton Business Plan Competition Winners Announced

Student team NIR Diagnostics, whose patented “InfraVue” device detects wound healing problems faster and more accurately than current approaches, won the $20,000 Michelson Grand Prize of the 2009 Wharton Business Plan Competition at this year’s Venture Finals, the culminating event of the year-long Competition, which attracted nearly three hundred venture capitalists, business leaders, faculty and students. Read more here.

The 2009 Wharton Business Plan Competition Venture Finals

On Wednesday, April 29, eight finalists will compete for $70,000 in prizes at the annual Venture Finals, an event sponsored by MentorTech Ventures which attracts over 200 entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, investment bankers, alumni, faculty and students. A few of the competing plans include the next generation artificial eye, programmable robotic toys, and diabetes monitoring "jewelry". Find out more and register to attend here.

A Look Back at Google Ventures

Last August, Google announced plans to open a venture-capital arm. Wharton Associate Professor of Management, Gary Dushnitsky, discusses the issues Google faces and warns "cautious optimism" as a guest blogger for Robert Salmon, Associate Professor of Management at NYU. Read more here.

TAKKLE Success

TechCrunch reports: Alloy Media + Marketing, a division of the publicly listed Alloy, has agreed to acquire Wharton alumni company, the high school sports social network and portal TAKKLE, and intends to fold it into its youth-focused media and advertising network http://www.teen.com/. TAKKLE is an online community service that enables young athletes to create sports profiles and connect with team coaches and college sports recruiters. While the terms and size of the acquisition were not disclosed, TAKKLE raised $7 million in venture capital funding in 2007, from investors like Sports Illustrated, the New York City Investment Fund, and many more.

Watch and listen to Devin Griffin, Wharton MBA class of 2009, talk about gaining real-world experience as a Wharton Entrepreneurial Intern Fellow, working at Takkle, Summer, 2008 here.

From 0 to $7.5 Million

You probably have heard of jibjab.com, a site known for its video parodies and personalized internet gags. Founded by Gregg Spiridellis, a Wharton educated ex-investment banker, and his brother Evan, an accomplished animator, JibJab has become quite the success story. TechCrunch recently reported that JibJab closed "a $7.5 million Series C funding round with participation from new investors Overbrook Entertainment (a production company co-founded by Will Smith) and Sony Pictures Entertainment, as well as existing investor Polaris Venture Partners." Ten years after JibJab first launched, the site is now ranked by Quantcast to be among the Top 100 most popular sites in the U.S.