Photo Credit: Thomas Barwick, Getty Images.
As Q4 wraps up, we bid farewell to the last three months of Cincy innovation with our Queen City Quarterly Report, a roundup of the fundings, deals, mergers and acquisitions to go down in the region in the quarter. (Catch up on other Quarterly Reports you may have missed here.)
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October
- Fifth Third Bancorp announced its participation in the Cincinnati Access Fund, a $3.5 million loan fund that will invest in and support minority- and women-owned small businesses in the QC. The city of Cincinnati and Local Initiatives Support Corporation are also collaborating with Fifth Third on the fund. The Cincinnati Business Courier has the full story.
- Cincinnati ranked No. 6 on a list of 10 rising cities for startups published by Forbes. The article cites major funding deals for startups such as Everything But The House, Assurex Health and Gigabit Squared, adding that there were 133 total deals within the past three years. Improvement in Cincinnati’s amount of VC funding was also a contributing factor to Cincy’s ranking.“There was only $15 million in VC funding for Cincinnati startups in 2010,” the article explained. “This year’s final tally will soar past $100 million.”
- Main Street Ventures granted eight Cincy-based companies a total of $172,000 in its first round of funds, the Cincinnati Business Courier reports. If you’re unsure what MSV is, it describes itself as an entity that’s “primary initiative is to support emerging businesses that show potential to create jobs and other opportunities in the Cincinnati area.”
- Procter & Gamble will invest $30 million more in its digital innovation center in Singapore, the Cincinnati Business Courier reports. Dubbed the E-Center 2.0, the center is a year old and looks to “spur innovation across P&G’s supply chain management, e-analytics and e-business by expanding partnerships with local firms and supporting their development of digital solutions.”
- Evandale-based Enable Injections, a “startup that looks to help patients suffering from chronic conditions better administer their medications using a device they can operate from home,” has today announced it had wrapped up the first closing of a Series B round that will raise up to $50 million.
- More big money: P&G is joining an effort led by New York-based Circulate Capital to raise $90 million. The money will go toward a fund that aims to clean up pollution in the ocean, and P&G isn’t the only big name signing on. Other investors include Dow, Coca-Cola Co., PepsiCo and more.
- Lisnr, a local startup that uses tech to transfer data via ultrasonic tones, has announced a partnership with Phoenix, Ariz.-based Equinox Payments, the Cincinnati Business Courier reports. Together, the two companies will use Lisnr’s tech to power mobile transactions.
November
- Mountain View, Calif.-based Quotient has a new board member: Bob McDonald, former CEO of Procter & Gamble, the Cincinnati Business Courier reports. He’ll help Quotient continue its work leveraging digital platforms for retail companies in an effort to better connect with consumers. This isn’t the first Queen City headline for Quotient; as you’ll remember, Cincy-based Ahalogy was acquired by Quotient for $50 million this summer.
- Greater Cincinnati’s Ultimus Fund Solutions, a mutual fund servicing firm, will be acquired by Chicago-based private equity firm, GTCR, the Cincinnati Business Courier reports. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, although GTCR added it will also acquire New York-based fund servicing company Gemini Cos.
- The Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber and Kroger Co. have banded together to create CincyisIT.com. It’s a website that’s looking to inspire more tech workers to the region, the Cincinnati Business Courier reports. While Kroger did donate funds and talent to help both build and market the site, the report adds that the initiative is holistic in nature and isn’t about attracting workers just for Kroger. “This partnership is about making the region a destination for tech talent,” the chamber’s vice president of talent initiatives, Jordan Vogel, told the Courier. “This is about bringing more tech talent to this region because we need it.”
- Enable Injections, the Evendale-based startup “that looks to help patients suffering from chronic conditions better administer their medications using a device they can operate from home,” has entered into two different development agreements with Apellis Pharmaceuticals and UCB, the Cincinnati Business Courier reports. “We are conducting human clinical trials using the enFuse [Enable Injections’] technology to deliver our novel complement immunotherapies subcutaneously,” said Dr. Cedric Francois, co-founder and CEO of Apellis Pharmaceuticals. “With our broad therapeutic application, we are excited to partner with Enable to bring promising new therapies with a more patient-centric drug delivery system to patients in need.” Enable Injections was also recently in the news for concluding a Series B round of $50 million.
- Northern Kentucky University’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship has a new distinction: one of five finalists for the Outstanding Contribution to Venture Creation, the Cincinnati Business Courier reports. The center was recognized during the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers’ annual conference in Chicago, along with Michigan State University; Wellesley, Mass.-based Babson College; Sweden’s University of Stockholm; and the University of Notre Dame. The five finalists were chosen by the CIE from more than 100 submissions. Go Greater Cincy!
- After closing a $5 million seed round, OROS Apparel launched a new fall line as well as a redesigned website. The new assets mark the evolution of the quickly growing outdoor apparel startup, which launched in 2015 with capital raised through Kickstarter.
December
- Minneapolis-based Ascentis Corp. has purchased West Chester-based tech firm Cincinnati Time Systems, the Cincinnati Business Courier reports. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. CTS was founded in 1986 and works with companies to better manage their workers.
- The Living Room Inc., a Cincinnati-based coworking entity, acquired Platform 53, the company announced in a statement. Covington-based Platform 53 is the area’s oldest coworking space.
- Formica Group, an Evendale-based company that invented laminate in 1913, was purchased for $840 million by Netherlands-based Broadview Holding BV, the Cincinnati Business Courier reports. “There is no expected change to the company’s local employment or leadership team,” a spokesman said of the move.
- Procter & Gamble has purchased Tristan Walker’s Walker & Company Brands, a maker of grooming products and beauty products, Recode reports. Sources close to the situation say that “investors recouped the majority, but not all, of the nearly $40 million they invested in Walker and Company,” bringing company’s price tag between $20 million and $40 million. Walker will stay as the company’s CEO, and Walker & Company Brands will move from Palo Alto, Calif. to Atlanta. The report adds that the move is “not a standout financial outcome by venture capital standards,”there are lots of pluses for both parties. “Walker and Company gets to tap into P&G’s research and development expertise — the company spent $1.9 billion on those efforts in 2017 — as well as its global retail relationships and supply chain efficiencies,” the report states. “In Walker & Company Brands, Procter & Gamble acquires the cachet of an emerging player in health and beauty focused on serving the country’s growing multicultural customer base.”
- Darren Rose will join area startup Spatial.ai (“the world’s first human-driven location dataset”) as its new chief revenue officer, the company announced in a press release. Formerly of companies like Millennial Media, Adelphic and most recently, NinthDecimal, Rose will help the startup “capitalize on the momentum of their new artificial intelligence driven ‘geosocial’ segmentation, which made its debut in March 2018.”
- Enosix, a Cincinnati-based SAP and Salesforce integration provider, has closed a $4.2 million Series B round. The funding, news of which broke in the Cincinnati Business Courier on Monday, will go towards helping the company continue to scale. Mequon, Wis.-based Capital Midwest Fund led the round, with participation from Allos Ventures in Cincinnati, JumpStart Inc. and Mutual Capital Partners. Read more.
- New York City-based Surdna Foundation has granted $400,000 over a two-year span to the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber’s Minority Business Accelerator, the Cincinnati Business Courier reports. It’s the accelerator’s second-largest grant of its kind since its accelerator inception 15 years ago. MBA chairman and RCF Group partner Scott Robertson “said he expects the grant will lead to the creation of 3,500 jobs in the region,” the report states.
- The 2014-born, Cincy-based entity Mortar received a three-year, $60,000 grant from Social Ventures Partners Cincinnati, the Cincinnati Business Courier reports. The grant includes “hundreds of hours of donated consulting from the group’s members,” the report adds. For the uninitiated, Mortar works to “build communities through entrepreneurship.”
