Philly Tech News VentureWatch: 10/28/2011: DuckDuckGo, Quewey, Quiq and more

Tom Paine


The amount of funding for Gabriel Weinberg's search engine DuckDuckGo was $3 million, according to an SEC filing. The main investor was prominent New York-based VC Union Square Ventures, joined by several individual investors. DuckDuckGo has only a miniscule sliver of the overall search market, but its different model-not algorithm driven, no user tracking-has gained some traction. Union Square Ventures' Brad Burnham wrote in a blog post: "We invested in DuckDuckGo because we became convinced that it was not only possible to change the basis of competition in search, it was time to do it". Weinberg, who said he held off on taking funding as long as possible, will use the funds to finally hire some other employees and expand infrastructure.

Unirisx, the Conshohocken-based provider of a SaaS platform for the Insurance industry, recently raised another $1 million in debt-based financing, in addition to $1.4 million in debt-based financing it raised earlier this year, according to an SEC filing. Investors raised $7 million in equity in 2009 to acquire the company. Past investors have included Jaguar Capital Partners, Permit Capital LLC and MIM Capital. The highly respected former Harleysville Group CIO Akhil Tripathi is CEO, and Zurich Financial Services is a major client. Unirisx started as a spinoff from Unisys' British subsidiary.

Quewey, a Philadelphia-based business oriented Q&A site, has apparently raised $250,000, according to a filing hot off the press. They haven't launched in Beta yet, but you can see their blog here.

Blue Bell-based Quiq, Inc., which provides a system enabling perscriptions to be dispensed directly to patients in a physician's office, has raised over $2 million, according to SEC filings shown by FormDs.com.

OpenDesks' (Conshohocken) recently released iPhone app for locating temporary work spaces in 133 cities around the country got a nice mention in the New York Times (at the bottom of the article) .

The New Jersey Technology Council has named mVisum a finalist for its Early-Stage Company of the Year Award, the Cherry Hill Courier-Post reports. mVisum, which is based in the Rutgers-Camden Technology Campus, allows medical professionals to securely receive, review, and respond to patient data recorded at the point of care.



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Daily Links 10/28/2011: Publicis to merge Digitas Health, Razorfish Health into larger group

Publicis merges digital agencies into larger group (InPharm)
Philly-based digital agencies Digitas Health and Razorfish Health are to be merged into the larger Publicis Healthcare Communications Group (PHCG).
Publicis Press Release. This comes shortly after the announcement of David Kramer's retirement.

SunGard Announces Third Quarter 2011 Results (Business Wire)

SAP hiring 'a few hundred' here, more in 2012 (Philly.com: Philly Deals)

Sprint Said Near Deal With Clearwire for New Multiyear Agreement (Bloomberg)

Comcast commits to bring more broadband to Innovation District (Mass High Tech)
Does Comcast have similar plans for parts of Philly?

Google TV Software Update Ready, but New Hardware Will Have to Wait (All Things Digital)

Cablevision Shares Plunge
Nears 52-Week Low After Disappointing Quarter
(Multichannel News)

Lockheed Reports Flat Space Revenue (Space News)



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