The Pennsylvania Alliance for Capital and Technology (PACT) named the region's top startups, investment deals, CEOs and emerging companies in tech and life sciences during its 31st Enterprise Awards on Tuesday.
Ten awardees were named as part of what PACT calls the "region's most prestigious celebration of achievement, innovation, and success for leaders in life sciences and technology." The honorees are targeting cures for unmet medical needs, deploying technology that streamlines processes and more.
Here are the companies and individuals that took home the PACT hardware in each category:
Technology startup: Mural Health
Two years after founding Mural Health, Sam Whitaker continues to look for ways to disrupt the clinical trial management industry. Whitaker is no stranger to the space, having previously founded King of Prussia-based Greenphire, which was acquired in 2021 by then $78 billion-asset Thoma Bravo. Berwyn-based Mural Health uses innovative technology to help manage participants in large clinical trials by gathering feedback, offering a payment platform and providing a messaging service between participants and trial staff. The company most recently raised an $8 million seed round in September. It is now positioned to vie for a larger piece of the industry as it works toward sustainable growth. To Whitaker, that includes "getting to breakeven, escaping the cycle of fundraising for the sake of survival."
Life sciences and health care startup: iEcure
Just last week, University of Pennsylvania spinout iEcure received a key designation from the Food and Drug Administration for its experimental gene-editing therapeutic ECUR-506. Its fast track designation came on the heels of securing two other FDA designations and will allow the company to begin dosing patients with ECUR-506 this year. The therapeutic is targeted at treating the genetic disorder known as neonatal onset of ornithine transcarbamylase (OTC) deficiency. By this time next year, the company will have an idea of the effectiveness of the drug, company CEO Joe Truitt said, adding that the PACT award brings even more "outside validation about what we do."
Technology investment deal: Qlik
King of Prussia-based Qlik has been on an acquisitive streak over the past year, adding three firms to its growing footprint. Its most recent acquisition took place in January and involved Kyndi. The Silicon Valley company provides answer-as-a-service technology, something which fits with Qlik's increased focus on generative artificial intelligence. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed but the data analytics management company sees a "big opportunity" with generative AI, CFO Dennis Johnson said, noting that this latest acquisition will help Qlik realize that opportunity. "We're really poised to help our customers as they start to embark upon that new world and how [generative] AI is going to transform their businesses," Johnson said.
Life sciences and health care investment deal: Mineralys Therapeutics
Radnor-based Mineralys Therapeutics scored a $120 million private stock placement in February that at the time was the largest by a Philadelphia-area life sciences company in 2024. Mineralys is working on a new way to treat high blood pressure in addition to therapies for chronic kidney disease and other diseases driven by abnormally elevated aldosterone. The company initiated a phase 3 trial for its new drug candidate lorundrostat in December, which will be pivotal in bringing the drug to market.
Technology emerging: DrayNow
Philadelphia-based DrayNow's platform connects intermodal freight customers and carriers to help price, manage and track shipments. Founded in 2017, the company has since gone national and is functional with all U.S. railroads. CEO Mike Albert said the shipping industry is still in "a lull," but once it rebounds he feels DrayNow is in a position to grow "many, many multiples." He wants to keep the company lean but said he could see doubling the existing team of 24 in the next two to three years.
Life sciences and health care emerging: Imvax
Philadelphia biotechnology company Imvax is catching the eye of investors as it moves through clinical trials for its personalized, whole tumor-derived immunotherapies. The company raised $23 million in September and closed on another roughly $35 million financing round this week, with half of the capital coming from new investors. Its lead product candidate, IVG-001, also received fast track designation from the FDA this week to treat newly diagnosed glioblastoma.
Life sciences and health care CEO: Hervé Hoppenot, Incyte
In his decade leading Wilmington-based Incyte, Hervé Hoppenot has grown company revenue close to 600% and tripled the number of clinical candidates in its portfolio, the company reported. He's also expanded operations internationally into Europe, Asia and Canada and just this week announced local growth plans. Incyte bought two former bank buildings in downtown Wilmington where it will relocate 300 jobs from Chadds Ford. The space also gives it room to add more than 500 new positions.
Technology CEO: Suchit Bachalli, Unilog
Now in his seventh year at the helm of Wayne-based business-to-business e-commerce company Unilog, Suchit Bachalli continues to pursue growth. That includes looking to add to Unilog's team in the Philadelphia area, where a portion of its 350 global employees work. "We're really bullish on not just the region in training, employment locally, but we also believe that tech companies — and Unilog as a part of that ecosystem — can have global impact through the work that we're doing," Bachalli said.
Health care innovator: Cabaletta Bio
It's shaping up to be "an action-packed year" for Philadelphia biotechnology firm Cabaletta Bio, Chief Business Officer Dr. Arun Das said. Cabaletta currently has four ongoing phase 2 studies for its experimental cell therapy CABA-201 and expects to receive clinical data later this year. CABA-201 is being targeted as a potential therapy for patients with dermatomyositis, a rare inflammatory disease, and for those with systemic sclerosis. "We founded the company in 2018 to potentially cure patients with autoimmune disease and now to be able to see the initial clinical data that may start to fulfill that promise is awesome," Das said.
