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Message from the CEO

What did you do this summer?
Sharon Vosmek
Sharon Vosmek
CEO Astia

Summer is a great time to check in and catch up with the Astia Cohort.

 

Releases & Launches

Marbles the Brain Store opened in San Francisco, Santa Monica, Newport Beach, Canoga Park (Los Angeles), Annapolis, Maryland and more!

 

Radish now allows both smart mobile device users and contact center agents (or PC users) to simultaneously see, hear and send voice and photos/videos via any network thanks to their recently released ChoiceView 2.0 software. See the full announcement here>>

 

Fundings

Pathbrite closed a $2.5m Series A funding round in June to continue product development and user acquisition.

 

MiniMonos closed EUR 1 million in April to complete its UK expansion.

 

HarQen closed $4.3m in their third round of fundraising, and is preparing to lauch a rich multi-media meeting product called Symposia

 

Avaxia Biologics, Inc. Closes $4.1 Million Series A Financing to Advance Oral Antibodies for Inflammatory Bowel Disease 

  

PROFUSA has recently secured grants and seed investment. PROFUSA is revolutionizing continuous monitoring of body chemistries through highly miniaturized, long-lasting, accurate, tissue-integrating biosensors.

 

Awards

Improve Digital was selected as a Top 100 European company by Red Herring, a designation awarded to the top private companies in Europe and CEO & Co-Founder, Janneke Niessen, named 2012 online media woman of the year, Netherlands.

 

Ajaita Shaw of Frontier Markets was the recipient of a 2012 Echoing Green Fellowship, a selective program that provides seed funding to social entrepreneurs. 

  

Melissa Rich, CEO & Founder of InterSchola was named one of BusinessWeek's Most Promising Social Entrepreneurs for 2012.

 

Autitouch nominated for Microsoft BizSpark Startup 2012 award and is in the top 15 out of 7000 European startups.  

 

In The News

LearnVest Founder & CEO, Alexa von Tobel interviewed for Mashable's The Female Founders Series presented by American Express OPEN.  

 

Hilary Decesare co-founder & CEO of Everloop.com, the leading safe social media site for kids, leaves her family to live and volunteer in a neighborhood in-need as part of ABC's Secret Millionaire.

  

Lisa Halpern, Founder & CEO of Kiboo.com, was interviewed in WORKS by Nichole Williams. (See if you can find the shout out to Astia!)

 

Huffington Post covers BizSpark Summit: Start-Up Autitouch Offers Revolution In Autism Detection With Touchscreen App  

 

New Astia Companies

We invited 13 extremely competitive companies to participate in the week-long Astia Global Entrepreneur Program June 25-29 in New York City. The program serves as the on-ramp to the Astia community and the foundation for peer-to-peer learning. We look forward to sharing the progress of these companies with you in the near future.

 

If you have news to share... send it our way. We like to let the community know what you are up to.

 

Cheers,

Sharon Vosmek
Chief Executive Officer

Astia Summer Celebration | How Angels Are Changing the Face of Innovation 
 

From the types of investments they are making, to the platforms and methods they use, angels are shaking up the investment scene in substantive ways.  Join the Astia community for this exciting event that includes opening remarks by Dr. Alicia Robb, Sr. Research Fellow, Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, followed by a panel of innovative angels discussing where they see the opportunities ahead.  

Hosted by Silicon Valley Bank for the Astia community

 

REGISTER TODAY!
Registration is free to Astia Community members.
General Admission is $15  

Catherine Berman to Speak at SOCAP 2012: Making Meaning Matter
 

Catherine Berman, Astia's Senior Vice President of Entrepreneur Programming, will be speaking on the panel "Gender Lens: Unnecessary investment constraint - or increased possibilities."


SOCAP12 will be held at Fort Mason Center in San Francisco, CA from October 1-4. Join the world's pioneering impact investors, social entrepreneurs, philanthropists, civic leaders, and innovators to create the intersections where you - with friends and valuable strangers - mobilize resources and capital for good. 

Also in Astia News...
 
we own it logo The third annual We Own It Summit took place in New York City, June 28-29. Over 250 entrepreneurs, investors, industry leaders, policy makers and academics gathered for a third year to drive collaboration, energize the global discussion, and create a roadmap for increasing women's participation in high-growth entrepreneurship. 
 
The goals set forth in the first year of the Summit are intended for 2010-2020 | The Decade of the Women Entrepreneur:

  • Increase number of women investors.
  • Increase number of women high growth entrepreneurs.
  • Increase likelihood of success of business (growth stage).
  • Get more women on public and private boards.

This coming year's goals include targeted activities to increase women's participation on boards, as investors and as high-growth entrepreneurs, as well as goals for thought-leadership around the work-life of the high-growth female entrepreneur and finally next year's Summit. The We Own It Summit will return to London in 2013. More details to follow: www.weownitsummit.org

Thank you Citrin Cooperman, Cooley and SNR Denton! 

Citrin Logo A sincere thank you to the Astia sponsors who hosted components of our recent Global Entrepreneur Program, which took place in New York City. Citrin Cooperman and Cooley co-hosted the week-long program at their respective New York offices; ideal locations for the Astia community to come together.

 

SnrDenton Additionally, SNR Denton opened up their Silicon Valley and New York offices on June 6 to host Astia's in-person screening sessions. A seamless, professional platform for our companies to perform. Thank you!

SVB Financial Group Now Serving London 
 

Silicon Valley Bank Logo

Congratulations to Astia Sponsor Silicon Valley Bank, who announced on June 11 the opening of their full service commercial banking branch in London to serve local and international businesses in the innovation sector. For full details of their services in support of the sector, please click here

SAP Grants $25,000 to Astia
 

Astia is delighted to announce that SAP has awarded Astia a $25,000 grant to support our work in Silicon Valley! To support this relationship, we welcome Christine Johnson, Sr. Director Communications & Strategic Relationships to Astia's Silicon Valley Advisory Board and we very much look forward to working closely with SAP going forwards.

Pipeline Fellowship launches in the Bay Area & LA   

The Pipeline Fellowship trains women philanthropists to become angel investors through education, mentoring, and practice. Fellows commit to invest in a woman-led for-profit social venture in exchange for equity and a board seat at the end of the training. They have opened a call for applications for Bay Area and LA local programs (September 2012 - March 2013). To apply: http://pipelinefellowship.com/apply

 

Investor Criteria
The Pipeline Fellowship's three main criteria are:
a) Meeting one of the accredited investor definitions
b) Interest in group learning model
c) Passion for philanthropy and/or social change 

In This Issue
Astia Summer Celebration September 19
Catherine Berman to Speak at SOCAP '12
We Own It Summit 2012
Special Thanks to Astia Entrepreneur Program Hosts
Silicon Valley Bank now in London
SAP Grants $25,000 to Astia
Pipeline Fellowship Bay Area Launch
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