PACT Announces Phorum 2017 Call for Demo Pit Participants

PACT Announces Phorum 2017 Call for Demo Pit Participants

Philadelphia, February 27, 2017 – PACT, the Philadelphia Alliance for Capital and Technologies, today announced it is now accepting applications for the Phorum 2017 Demo Pit. The Demo Pit was created to allow startups to connect with C-level enterprise decision makers attending the Phorum conference and provide them with a platform to showcase their technology. The deadline to submit an application is March 24, 2017.

Phorum 2017: Digitizing the Enterprise – The Future is Now, to be held Thursday, April 27, 2017 at the SugarHouse Event Center, will feature lightning talks and panel discussions by industry analysts, technology visionaries and business executives. Phorum 2017 is looking for startup companies whose technology is addressing at least one of the following four topic areas: Connected (Mobile, Web, IoT); Aware (big data and analytics); Smart (machine learning/AI); and Trusted (privacy and security).

“The Phorum Demo Pit continues to be one of the most popular components of the conference each year,” said Allen Born, Director at Fairmount Partners and the Advisory Board Chairman of Phorum 2017. “The Demo Pit enables startup companies to showcase their technologies, pitch their value proposition and network with hundreds of decision-makers.”

Early stage companies, with a product in early commercialization, are encouraged to apply for the Demo Pit. Each company selected will receive a booth to demo their product throughout the entire conference. An esteemed panel of investor judges will pick three companies as Demo Pit Finalists, which will each receive five minutes to present on the main stage. Ultimately, one will be named Best in Show Winner.

RedOwl was selected as the Best in Show winner in 2016. Other past winners include Tesorio, SocialLadder, PeopleLinx and UXFlip.

For more information about Phorum 2017 or to reserve your ticket, please visit www.phorumphilly.com.

About Phorum
Phorum is an annual technology strategy conference that gathers the Nation’s leading minds and most innovative solutions around a single, trending topic. Hosted in Philadelphia, this intensive, one-day event includes insights from the Nation’s most authoritative experts; up-close interaction with relevant technological solutions and learnings from business leaders with first-hand experience capitalizing on what is new. For more on Phorum or to purchase tickets for Phorum 2017, visit www.phorumphilly.com.

About Philadelphia Alliance for Capital and Technologies (PACT)
PACT’s vision is to be the go-to resource for fast growing companies, and a driver of entrepreneurship and innovation in the Philadelphia region. PACT provides its members with valuable content and connections to capital, coaching, and customers that will accelerate their growth and success, and to collaborate with other organizations to drive innovation and entrepreneurship in the region. www.philadelphiapact.com



Saturday Highlights: Foxconn’s broken pledges in Pennsylvania?; Tom Siebel’s IoT startup now worth $1.4 billion




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How Foxconn’s broken pledges in Pennsylvania cast doubt on Trump’s jobs plan (Washington Post)


Amazon’s $150 Million Typo Is a Lightning Rod for a Big Cloud Problem (MIT Technology Review)

Tom Siebel’s IoT startup says it's now worth $1.4 billion (Silicon Valley
Business Journal)

VCs, startups: Stop networking so much (BRADLEY TUSK, TUSK VENTURES / VentureBeat)






Hamilton Lane rings Nasdaq opening bell following IPO

Tom Paine



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Bala Cynwyd-based Hamilton Lane rang the opening bell at the Nasdaq this morning.

Hamilton Lane made its initial public offering of 11,875,000 shares at a public offering price of $16.00 per share, adding to the list of major publicly traded Philly-area companies. The shares began trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market on March 1, 2017 under the ticker symbol “HLNE”.

The offering raised $200 million, and HLNE ended its first trading day up 12.6%. It closed Friday at $18.72.

Founded in 1991, Hamilton Lane is an alternative asset manager with $332 billion under management or supervision. Its investment approach benefits from its global private markets platform, and the Hamilton Lane Fund Investment Database, which includes more than 2,600 active funds representing over 1,000 managers and spanning more than 30 years.

Its a tech company as well. In late 2016, Hamilton Lane announced an investment in and strategic partnership with Bison (Boston Illiquid Securities Offering Network, Inc.), a company focused on creating innovative analytical systems for the private markets industry.


This timeline on Hamilton Lane's website gives a good sense of its history.

Leslie A. Brun was the founder, and Mario Giannini is the current CEO.

In 2015, Hamilton Lane bought back a significant stake in the company owned by Cascade Investment, LLC, the personal investment arm of Bill and Melinda Gates.




3/3: NBCUniversal bought $500mm in Snapchat IPO; hhgregg exiting Philly market, closing all eight stores




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NBC invested $500 million in Snapchat IPO as part of its ambitious investment in digital media (CNBC)

NBCUniversal explains why it just invested $500 million in Snap (Recode)

For NBCUniversal, Snap Is Fountain of Youth (NY Times: Dealbook)

Icontrol, Alarm.com Respond to Antitrust Suit: Honeywell Defines Smart-Home Market All Wrong
(CEPro)

Amazon Closes Its 'Cable Store'(TVPredictions)
Featured Comcast products and services.

Will AT&T, Comcast, Verizon Seek Fees From YouTube TV, Hulu? (IBD)





Bala Cynwyd-based Hamilton Lane rang the opening bell at the Nasdaq this morning.

Hamilton Lane made its initial public offering of 11,875,000 shares at a public offering price of $16.00 per share, adding to the list of major publicly traded Philly-area companies. The shares began trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market on March 1, 2017 under the ticker symbol “HLNE”.

See Philly Tech News' writeup on the IPO.


Retailer hhgregg Is Closing a Lot of Stores and Cutting a Lot of Jobs (Fortune)
Appears to be  Is exiting Philly market, closing all eight stores.

Accolade Inc. to add 250 jobs in Plymouth Meeting (Philly.com)

How Uber Used Secret Greyball Tool to Deceive Authorities Worldwide (NY Times)





3/2: Rebuilding Camden 'brick by brick'; Vanguard to reimburse clients after February website outage

Developer: Bringing Camden back will happen 'brick by brick' (Courier-Post)

In liquid biopsy race, Freenome lands $65 million, led by Andreessen Horowitz (TechCrunch)
Old story - started in Philly, split for San Fran.

NBCU Commits to $1 Billion in Ad Deals That Move Beyond Nielsen Guarantees (Ad Age)

Charter doesn't need Verizon to buy it, Liberty CEO Maffei says (FierceCable)



Sling TV makes competitive response to YouTube, acquires Comcast RSNs rights (FierceCable)
But no Philly RSN.





Vanguard to reimburse clients after February website outage (MarketWatch)

AWS Storage Service Outage: Assessing the Fallout (Constellation Research)

AWS apologizes for February 28 outage, takes steps to prevent similar events (VentureBeat)

BRIEF-C3 IoT closes new financing at a $1.4 billion valuation (Reuters)



McKesson and Change complete tech merger (Modern Healthcare)



3/1: Domestic revenue for QVC was down 6.8 percent in quarter; Massive AWS outage hurt 54 out of the top 100 internet retailers — but not Amazon




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Veeva Systems Growth Continues, But Income Guidance Hits Stock (Investor's Business Daily)

Why Trump’s Emotional Plea for Fast Drug Approvals Will Split the Pharma Industry Apart (Fortune)

QVC Parent Profits Down 16% In Q4 (Pymnts)
Domestic revenue for QVC was down 6.8 percent.


The massive AWS outage hurt 54 out of the top 100 internet retailers — but not Amazon (Business Insider)






This Is the New Fios TV From Verizon
(Light Reading)

Arris CEO: Ruckus Buy a ‘Pretty Big Deal’ For Us (Multichannel News)

Philly's Angel Venture Fair attracts record interest in its 19th year (Philly.com)

SAP's platform strategy doubles down on cloud, IoT, AI, and user experience (ZDNet)










How's Michael Rubin's Fanatics doing?

Tom Paine



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Terry Lefton writes in SportsBusinessJournal on "How Rubin is rocking sports licensing".

Michael Rubin is Chairman of Conshohocken-based Kynetic LLC and of Jacksonville-based Fanatics. (Actually, Fanatics now calls Jacksonville its east coast headquarters and it new San Mateo office its west coast headquarters.)

"In a short period of time, Fanatics has rocked the traditionally sleepy licensing industry through its aggressive acquisition and distribution strategy, to the point where competitors sarcastically refer to the company as simply 'the F word,'" Lefton opens.

Lefton interviewed Rubin in Houston before the Super Bowl.

Rubin: Revenue was $1.4 billion in 2016 and Rubin hopes it will grow 30 to 40% in 2017.

Been profitable since 2011 but "still in investment mode".

From 2010 through last year, "we grew Fanatics’ sports licensed business 5x."

"Do I believe that eventually there will be an IPO? Yes". But not planning for one now. Rubin says he still owns 70% of Fanatics.

Investing heavily in technology. Supply chain ("creating a faster supply chain is critical — that’s a big investment"), personalization of online experience. Building fulfillment centers.

Rubin discusses what he didn't like about the way he built GSI Commerce, and how he changed the business model for Fanatics.

Fanatics' last reported valuation was $3.1 billion based on a 2013 financing, with backers like Alibaba and Andreessen Horowitz.



2/28: Amazon outage breaks large parts of the internet; YouTube to launch pay OTT service




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Roku Got Close to $400 Million Revenue in 2016 (Variety)
Roku is reported to be raising at least $200 million at a $1.5 billion valuation.

Comcast coy about revised DOCSIS 3.1 rollout strategy following Tuscaloosa announcement (FierceCable)



YouTube, the world’s biggest video site, wants to sell you TV for $35 a month (Recode)


Comcast Takes Full Control of Japan Theme Park in Global Push (Bloomberg)

Hersheys to reduce global workforce by 15 percent (Reuters)






Amazon outage breaks large parts of the internet (Engadget)

Amazon’s web servers are back online after more than four hours of disruption (The Verge)



Why It’s So Hard to Build the Next Silicon Valley (Bloomberg)

Salesforce Revenue Forecast Falls Short as Cloud Rivals Gain (Bloomberg)




Philadelphia to offer free rent to lure suburban companies: Report
(Philadelphia Business Journal)
Sounds like it might be targeted toward WeWork. Need more info as to how this came about.


Workday's CEO says turmoil with Oracle's acquisition of NetSuite helped bolster a historic quarter (CNBC)
DuPont is a Workday customer, and Workday confirmed yesterday that it is assisting Dow Chemical in anticipation of the merger being completed.


Workday Falls: FYQ4 Beats, Street Annoyed ‘Billings’ View Taken Away
(Barron's Tech Trader Daily)


Changes in Oracle's Report Card
( Bill Kutik/HR Executive Online)


Why eBay’s Former CEO Is Joining This $1.4 Billion Cloud Company (Fortune)
John Donahoe was CEO of eBay when it acquired GSI Commerce in 2011. He left Michael Rubin with what turned out to be its most valuable business - Fanatics. How's Michael Rubin's Fanatics doing? OK.



Ericsson CEO Ekholm Says 5G Is Starting to Happen (Bloomberg Video)



Will SoFi expand into biz lending with its Zenbanx acquisition?

Tom Paine



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From Axios' Pro Rata (Dan Primack), on SoFi's recent deal to buy Claymont, DE-based Zenbanx, from a conversation with SoFi CEO Mike Cagney:

""Will SoFi expand into biz lending? "That's a very active dialog we have here, particularly with the Zenbanx acquisition that's synergistic to the business side. I think we'll decide that soon... One thing we are going to do first is launch a practice loan for doctors and dentists where they can borrow money to start their own businesses.""

https://www.axios.com/pro-rata-2286512637.html


The 2017 PACT Enterprise Awards finalists have been named

Tom Paine



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The 2017 PACT Enterprise Awards finalists have been named. The PACT Enterprise Awards will be held on May 18 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

While some of these firms are well established and known in the Philly Tech community, others are like spotting the best prospects in minor league baseball baseball heading towards the majors. PACT's committee has a good record in picking high achievers.

Last year's winning technology startup, energy data firm NavPort, was acquired in December by Canada's RS Energy Group, with backing from Warburg Pincus.

Philly Tech News profiled QuantaVerse (Technology Startup nominee) in December. The Wayne-based Fintech venture won the "Peoples' Choice" award at PACT's IMPACT 2016 Capital Conference in the fall, and has also been nominated for benzinga's Global Fintech awards.

Regulatory DataCorp, King of Prussia (Technology Emerging), was acquired last summer by Vista Equity from Bain Capital Ventures. It is in a field roughly similar to QuantaVerse, though at a more mature stage, as it provides software and data which helps financial institutions and others identify regulatory risk.

GSI Health, Philadelphia (Healthcare Innovator), is in the emerging field of Population Health Management systems.

AlphaPoint, Berwyn (Technology Startup), develops blockchain-powered enterprise solutions.



Below are all the 2017 Enterprise Awards Finalists:

Investment Deal
Accolade
Safeguard Scientifics/NewSpring
Tabula Rasa
Sponsors: Broadpath and Grant Thornton

Technology Company
EPAM Systems
ERT
Evolve IP
Sponsor: Comcast Business

Technology CEO
Billtrust, Flint Lane
IMS Technology Services, Jill Renninger
Quench, Tony Ibarguen
Sponsor: Cozen O'Connor

Technology Emerging
CorpU
Regulatory DataCorp (RDC)
Workplace Dynamics
Sponsors: Fox Rothschild and EisnerAmper

Technology Startup
Alpha Point
QuantaVerse
Roar for Good
Sponsors: Ben Franklin Technology Partners and Pepper Hamilton

Healthcare Innovator
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
GSI Health
Inovio Pharmaceuticals
Sponsor: Independence Blue Cross

Healthcare CEO
Excellis Health Solutions, Greg Cathcart
Phlexglobal, Rick Riegel
The One Health Company, Christina Lopes
Sponsors: EY and Morgan Lewis Bockius

Healthcare Emerging
CloudMine
Genisphere
VenatoRx Pharmaceuticals
Sponsor: RSM

Healthcare Startup
BioDetego
BlackFynn
PolyCore Therapeutics
Sponsor: University City Science Center