We are pleased to share SJF's latest bulletin, which announces a new investment in Novinium to fund its acquisition of UtilX.  The bulletin also provides portfolio updates, shares upcoming events, and profiles one of SJF's impact investor partners.

 

Sincerely,

The SJF Team

SJF Highlights
NEW ANNOUNCEMENTS

SJF Invests in Novinium
 

SJF Ventures has led a $20 million Series D financing in Novinium, owner of patented processes for rejuvenating aged underground power cables.  The company's technology extends the useful life of these cables by an additional 20 to 40 years, reusing them in situ.  The financing proceeds were used for the acquisition of UtilX from Willbros Group, Inc. (NYSE: WG).  UtilX offers the proprietary, patented CableCUREŽ injection service and other reliability and testing services.  Read more.


 

PORTFOLIO NEWS
Aseptia

Aseptia Honored for Outstanding Food Technology

 

Aseptia has won the prestigious 2015 Food Technology Industrial Achievement Award by the Institute of Food Technologists.  This award honors a company or organization for an outstanding development that represents a significant advance in the application of food science and technology-to-food production.  Read more.

Vital Farms logo

Vital Farms Featured in The Washington Post

 

The Washington Post featured an article on Vital Farms, the nation's largest producer of pasture-raised eggs and poultry.  The article cites Vital Farms' efforts to establish a new standard for egg production, which has resulted in a more nutritious product for consumers, more sustainable economics for farmers and better living conditions for animals.  Through partnerships with Whole Foods, Kroger, Safeway and others, Vital Farms has grown rapidly each year since inception.  Read more.

Validic Partners with Leading Health IT Suppliers
 

Validic recently announced it has integrated with two leading electronic health record companies: Cerner, a global leader in health information technologies serving over 18,000 facilities, and MEDITECH, a large EHR provider with one of the most extensive hospital client bases in the world. The new partnerships will expand Validic's alignment and reach within the clinical markets, enabling health care companies to improve care treatment plans, better engage and manage their populations, and improve connectivity across the entire continuum of care.  Read more.

Study Confirms TTM's Effectiveness with Students

 

In a comprehensive third-party study commissioned by the Texas Education Agency, Think Through Math has been found to significantly improve performance outcomes for students.  Most notably, the evaluation shows that Think Through Math users realized an average improvement of nearly 17 percentage points, with third grade improvement highest at 26 percentage points.  Read more.

NEXTracker Continues Geographic Expansion
 

NEXTracker has signed a 100 megawatt agreement to serve the California agriculture market with its solar tracking systems.  Read more.  The company also sold its first project in Mexico: a 16 megawatt project.
 

Versify Wins Large Power Contract

 

Versify was awarded a multi-year contract with GDF Suez Energy North America to support the compliance requirements of over 10,000 megawatts of merchant power operations.  The new contract further strengthens Versify's position as a leading provider of financial, operation and compliance software solutions for the power industry.  Read more. 

grosolar logo

GroSolar Receives Project of Distinction Award
 

GroSolar won the SEIA and SEPA 2015 Project of Distinction Award for its Stafford Hill Solar Farm in Rutland, Vermont.   The microgrid project is the first in the country fully independent of fossil fuels and includes two megawatts of solar panels and four megawatts of battery storage.  Read more.  

Optoro Profiled
 

Optoro has been profiled in a story by the local Fox news affiliate, Fox 5 DC & MyFoxDC, highlighting the company's ability to help clients address the $260 billion U.S. market for customer returns and excess inventory.   Watch the video.
EdMap Logo

ED MAP Partners with Capella University
 

ED MAP's OPENVUEŽ platform will empower the university to find, manage, and deliver innovative and engaging course content to learners.   ED MAP is a content strategy and logistics company supporting over 100 institutions and one million students.  Read more.  
UPCOMING EVENTS

On May 27 from 5:30 to 8:00 p.m., SJF will be holding its first EdLinks event, a quarterly networking event in New York for investors, entrepreneurs and other stakeholders interested in education technology.  This program's first panel will be comprised of investors discussing industry trends.  Confirmed speakers include John Katzman, founder, Princeton Reveiw; Matt Greenfield, ReThink Education; and Matt Hanson, GSV Capital. The event will be moderated by Arrun Kapoor from SJF Ventures and is hosted by SNR Denton.


 

Christine Primmer will be attending the Bloomberg Future of Energy Summit from April 13 to 15 in New York.


 

Dave Kirkpatrick will be attending the Solar Summit on April 15 and 16 in Phoenix, Arizona.

On April 21 and 22, Alan Kelley, Cody Nystrom, and Dave Kirkpatrick will be participating in the Impact Capitalism Summit in Chicago.


 

Cody Nystrom will be moderating a panel at Virginia Venture Summit on April 30 in Richmond.


 

Stephanie Nieman will be judging the VCIC International Finals at UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School April 10-11 and attending the Investor's Circle Beyond the Pitch event in Denver on May 6.


FEATURED SJF VENTURES INVESTOR
Athena Capital Advisors


Athena Capital Advisors LLC provides investment management and research services to a select group of private clients and institutions.  Athena provides access to investment strategies and techniques used by the largest and most sophisticated institutional investors.  For interested clients, Athena  incorporates a wide range of client specific values into the traditional portfolio construction and management processes. 

 

Athena views Values-Based Investing (including impact investing, ESG/SRI screening, and shareholder activism) as the natural intersection between philanthropy and investing.  As a pioneer in the field of impact investing throughout a diversified portfolio, Athena's capabilities and current impact and other values-based investments span all major asset classes and strategies.  Our team regularly attends and speaks at ESG and impact investment conferences.  In 2014, Athena Capital received The Award for Excellence in Impact Investing - North America from Wealth and Finance International.

 

To learn more about Athena Capital, please visit: www.athenacapital.com