EPIC Ventures was formed in 1994 in partnership with Zions Bank. Since inception, the EPIC Team has invested in over 80 early-stage companies and delivered significant returns to investors. EPIC focuses exclusively on working with driven entrepreneurs to build successful and lasting companies. EPIC now manages four funds, equaling $240 million of capital under management.
www.epicvc.com
Epic Ventures Launches New Fund, Epic Venture Fund IV
The first half of 2008 has been an exciting time at EPIC Ventures. During the first quarter, EPIC experienced the first close on its fourth fund, EPIC Venture Fund IV. Following this first close, EPIC went to work closing a strong pipeline of deals enabling Fund IV to hit the ground running in 2008. The first of these opportunities, Alliance Health Networks, provides its business customers with real time reliable lead generation technology in a concentrated and targeted social network environment. In following up to the Alliance Health investment, EPIC then invested in another Web 2.0 opportunity in SpinSpotter. SpinSpotter offers a patent- pending web-based technology designed to determine the relative bias and accuracy of electronic news stories. SpinSpotter provides this technology as an add-on to any existing browser platform allowing the user to promptly identify media biases embedded in news coverage. In the future, SpinSpotter is preparing to market this technology to corporate communication and public relation firms, reaching beyond the strong consumer base already engaged by the company. Finally, to round out the initial Fund IV investments, EPIC closed a Series C Round financing with ZettaCore, Inc. This Silicon Valley start-up operates in the groundbreaking molecular memory space. For years molecular memory has been touted as the next frontier in the race to bring more power and efficiency to smaller devices. With ZettaCore, EPIC has partnered with an emerging leader in molecular memory in addition to a team of successful entrepreneurs poised to create another profitable venture with a number of compelling exit opportunities. In connection with the ZettaCore investment, EPIC joins a team of leading venture firms including Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, demonstrating EPIC’s ability to partner on the top deals in venture capital.
Q&A with Stead Burwell, CEO of Alliance Health
Alliance Health is one of the first additions to the Epic Venture Fund IV investment portfolio.
Q:
What does Alliance Health Do?
A:
Alliance Health is changing the way individuals engage with health online through consumer-driven experiences and personalized connections to relevant information. Alliance Health builds communities that empower individuals with rich features and permission-driven advertising services. An early pioneer in helping consumers find solutions online for their specific health conditions, Alliance Health matches health marketers to highly engaged consumers and caregivers.
Q:
How does Alliance Health help consumers make better health care choices?
A:
Through Alliance Health’s social networking platform for diseases and conditions, we offer a compelling and comprehensive online place for patients and caregivers to create a profile, connect with others via an inbox, discussion boards and comment areas, and to explore interactive and condition-tailored commercial services. These services rendered in one place through our proprietary community platform are unique on the Internet and offer consumers compelling value free of third party banners ads and text links. Our richness of user experience and privacy capabilities foster greater discussion than more basic community sites or health portal sites with some social features. Our purpose-driven interactive services create greater marketing value for health marketers looking to reach those targeted consumers. Our first site, DiabeticConnect.com, launched June 3rd and has already ready seen fast adoption of online consumers.
Q:
What is your background and how did you become Alliance Health’s CEO?
A:
I specialize in getting early ideas and companies off the ground and running. With a background as a founder, venture capitalist, operating executive, and angel investor, I have worked with several startups in different sectors to advance them from concept to operating stage. Previously, I was the catalyst behind Pinger, a consumer mobile startup company backed by Kleiner Perkins. I was also interim CEO for Venafi, a security software company based in Utah backed by Foundation Capital and UV Partners. Geoff Swindle, Alliance Health’s founder, asked me to join the company as CEO in 2006. I worked with Geoff to transition the company from a Utah LLC doing medical lead gen to a Delaware corporation providing compelling online services to consumers and marketers in the health sector.
Q:
What advice do you have for entrepreneurs who are starting their own company?
A:
The early founding team is critical to viability and sustainability of the effort. Without a great product and technology development team, real compelling value can’t be achieved.
Q:
Why did you choose to partner with Epic Ventures?
A:
Having worked locally at another venture capital firm, I came to respect the model and approach of Nick Efstratis and the team at EPIC. Todd, Kent, and Nick support local innovation with great guidance and support while understanding the challenges and volatility of typical startup. EPIC’s past results with local Utah companies and their relationships outside Utah were also persuasive to us.
James L. Sorenson Joins EPIC’s Advisory Board
James Lee Sorenson. Vice-Chairman, Sorenson Development, Inc., is a nationally recognized business leader and entrepreneur who helped develop several new industry categories in the today’s business world, including digital compression software, mass-market videophones, video relay service for deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals, electronic medical pain pumps and environmental testing. We are thrilled to have him join the EPIC team.
In more recent years as CEO of Sorenson Media, Jim’s team developed the world’s leading digital compression software, which was used on more than a half-billion personal computers worldwide. As CEO of Sorenson Medical, Jim’s team developed a new generation of medical infusion pumps that are portable and electronically controlled. In the real estate industry, Jim is CEO of The Sorenson Group of Real Estate Companies, which owns more than 70,000 acres and develops market-leading commercial and residential projects. Jim also co-founded the private equity company Sorenson Capital to invest in small-to mid-size western U.S. companies.
Involved in many philanthropic endeavors, Jim actively donates time, money and energy to micro-credit institutions helping individuals in poverty-stricken areas become self-sufficient. He serves on many community service boards, including UVF, Art Works for Kids, Gallaudet University, and Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development.
Epic Venture Fund Annual Partners’ Meeting at Deer Valley, February 5 – 9, 2008
EPIC Ventures held another successful annual partners’ meeting where investors, advisors, and portfolio CEOs networked and enjoyed great skiing at Deer Valley.
New Financings
EPIC invested in Alliance Health during the Series B round. Founded in 2002, Alliance Health is building the leading performance-driven healthcare marketing platform. Its network, brands, and technologies are designed to deliver two critical objectives: greater value to the healthcare consumer and greater efficiency to the healthcare marketer.
EPIC invested in SpinSpotter during the Series A round. SpinSpotter brings transparency to news media, empowering both consumers and companies to see bias and inaccuracies in news stories across the full range of news sources.
EPIC invested in Zettacore during the Series C round. ZettaCore is developing ultra-dense, low-power, lower-cost memory chips that have the potential to revolutionize the microelectronics industry.
Porfolio Company Highlights
LeftHand Networks Named To List of Top 200 Private Companies; Expands Board
LeftHand Networks®, the leading provider of highly available iSCSI SANs that optimize virtualized environments, announced it has been named as a Top 200 Private Technology Company for 2008, according to a report by Nollenberger Capital Partners, an investment banking and advisory services firm. LeftHand Networks was recognized as a Top 200 leading private company based on selection criteria that included innovative and defensible intellectual property, a significant addressable market opportunity, demonstrable revenue traction and a strong leadership team.
Aspen Avionics Selected as a Winner for the Red Herring North America 100 2008
Aspen Avionics, a manufacturer of drop-in multi-function device displays for light aircrafts, was chosen as a winner for the Red Herring 100 Award, a selection of the 100 most innovative private technology companies based in North America. The Red Herring editorial board diligently surveyed the entrepreneurial scene throughout the North American region and identified the top 200 out of more than 800 closely evaluated companies that are leading the next wave of innovation. From these 100 winners were announced at the Red Herring annual North America 100 conference in San Jose, California. They were selected on the basis of technology innovation, quality of management, breadth of partners and customers, and depth of financial backing.
Tricipher on the FutureNow List
Bank Technology News, a leading financial services monthly magazine, named TriCipher to its prestigious annual FutureNow List. TriCipher was the only authentication company to be named to the annual security innovation ranking. The company won on the strength of its new ID Tool ToGo, which "prevents man in the middle, man in the browser attacks, cheaper and more secure than OTPs," according to the magazine. Bank Technology News’ FutureNow List recognizes "10 companies that set themselves apart with security innovations they brought to market in the past year and the contribution these products will make to improving security within financial services organizations." TriCipher, Inc. provides a unified authentication infrastructure to protect web and enterprise portals, the people that use them and the business process that flows through them against fraud and identity theft.
EPIC Team Highlights
Nick Efstratis welcomed a new baby boy into his family, Milo Duncan Efstratis, 8lb, 21 inches. Both mother and baby are doing well, and EPIC is happy for the Efstratis family with its new addition.
Stephanie Spong was elected president of the New Mexico Venture Capital Association in May. She will serve for one year. The New Mexico Venture Capital Association (NMVCA) was formed in 2004 as a trade association for the venture capital and private equity firms that do business in the state of New Mexico. The association provides networking, educational and advocacy services for its member organization. Membership is open to venture capital and private equity firms that invest in New Mexico.
Kent Madsen married Elizabeth (DeeDee) Lowe on June 14 in Salt Lake City. Following a reception held at the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City they honeymooned in Bali, Indonesia. EPIC congratulates them on their marriage.
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Where We’ve Been
January 17-19
– UVF Conference (Kent and Nick)
February 5
– Tech Tuesday (Rachel)
February 5
– OGA Conference (Michael)
February 7
– Investor Choice Conference (Todd and Rachel)
February 12
– AVG Conference (Michael)
February 13
– Santa Fe Gathering of Angels (Stephanie)
February 22
– Judge BYU Business Plans (Michael)
February 28
– Pacific Crest Conference (Nick)
March 5
– Angels Oregon Conference (Michael)
March 6-8
– Northwest Venture Championship in Boise (Michael)
March 7-11
– SXSW Conference (Rachel)
March 13-14
– Women’s Equity Conference (Stephanie)
March 20
– SF Leadership Speech (Stephanie)
March 28
– Credit Suisse Emerging Manager Conference (Nick)
April 1
– April SLLSA Meeting (Todd)
April 4
– BYU Business Plan Judging (Todd)
April 11
– UNM business plan competition at UNM campus (Stephanie)
April 22
– ASU Golf Tournament Phoenix (Stephanie)
May 2
– Mozy HardRock Get Together (Rachel)
May 6
– Tech Tuesday (Rachel)
May 9
– Young VC Gathering (Rachel)
May 13
– Social Media Developers Garage (Rachel)
May 14-15
– TVC Symposium (Stephanie, Katie and Rachel)
June 3
– SLLSA – June Meeting (Rachel)
June 3
– Wayne Brown Selection Committee (Rachel)
June 10
– NM Bio Event (Katie)
June 12
– Hyde Park Angel Meeting (Katie)
June 16-17
– Sorenson Champions Challenge (Nick)
June 19
– Springboard Panel (Stephanie and Katie)
June 22-25
– DFJ Global Network LP Summit in New York (Todd)
June 25
– New Mexico Angel Dinner (Stephanie and Katie)
News/Press Articles
Chip Maker to Announce It Will Spin Off Memory Unit
Freescale Semiconductor, the chip manufacturer taken private in 2006, is expected to announce Monday that it will join with several venture capital firms to spin off a unit that focuses on a newer kind of computer memory. The new entity, EverSpin Technologies, comes as Freescale seeks to pare its product line. Freescale will give its portfolio of a memory technology called MRAM to EverSpin and hold a stake in the new company, the companies involved said. A group of outside firms, including New Venture Partners, Sigma Partners, Lux Capital, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Epic Ventures, will invest a total of about $20 million, they said.
More…
N.M. 1st in Venture Capital Growth
Thanks to aggressive government and community efforts- and the advantage of starting with nearly nothing- New Mexico’s venture capital industry ranks No. 1 for growth over the past decade.
A new nationwide survey by the National Venture Capital Association found investment activity here grew by 375 percent between 1997 and 2007, putting the state well ahead of traditional venture capital hot spots like Austin and the Silicon Valley for growth.
More…
Q Therapeutics Collaborates with Johns Hopkins to Study Use of Neural Cells in Treatment of ALS
Q Therapeutics, Inc. announced today that it and Nicholas Maragakis, MD of Johns Hopkins University had received notification of an $800,000 grant to be awarded from the Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund (MSCRF) to enable study of Q’s human neural cell product Q-Cells® in preclinical models of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig’s Disease). Nicholas Maragakis, MD, is an Associate Professor of Neurology at Johns Hopkins and is the Principal Investigator. James Campanelli, Ph.D., Senior Director of Research and Development at Q is Co-Investigator on the grant.
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Digital Deal Makers: Tom Frank, CEO of Akimbo
The player: Tom Frank, CEO of Akimbo The play: Akimbo changed business strategies last week to become an Internet television technology and solutions provider. That’s a change from the last five years, during which Akimbo operated as a set-top box company delivering niche content over broadband to the TV. Now it provides solutions for content providers offering Web video, ranging from a video player to reports on usage to various monetization options, such as ad support, pay-per-download, subscription, gift cards and other transactional services for Web video.
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Bungee Labs Evolves to Compete With Salesforce & Others
Bungee Labs announced today at Web 2.0 Expo that it is expanding its hosting options, and also looking into open source as a way to connect with the developer community. Bungee Labs’ main product is Bungee Connect, an end-to-end, cloud-based development platform for web applications. We covered the launch of the public beta of Connect in February this year (we also covered the launch of the company at last year’s Web 2.0 Expo). Essentially, the news today is the continued evolution of the company as it competes against established SaaS companies like Salesforce and Microsoft.
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