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BEN FRANKLIN PORTFOLIO COMPANIES PITCH AT INVENT PENN STATE VENTURE AND IP CONFERENCE!

STATE COLLEGE, PA – At last week’s Invent Penn State Venture and IP Conference, more than a dozen clients in the Ben Franklin Technology Partners’ portfolio had the opportunity to showcase their company’s growth and market potential to a distinguished list of potential investors.

The Invent Penn State Venture & IP Conference, which was co-sponsored in part by Ben Franklin, is one of the largest tech startup conferences in the region and typically draws hundreds of attendees along with start-up ventures and investment firms from across the country. The conference highlights innovations from high growth and emerging markets including IT, Energy, Advanced Manufacturing, Biotechnology, Healthcare, B2B and B2C, among others.

Several companies in Ben Franklin’s State College portfolio such as Actuated Medical, BioMagnetic Solutions, Constance, Kijenzi, Magnitude Instruments, Persea Naturals, and Phospholutions were joined by other central and south central, PA-based companies that have received funding and business support services from Ben Franklin.  These included A E Resources, AssureTech, Benefix, FullStac, InnoH20 Solutions, Pledge It; Reflexion, ReturnLogic, Steller Innovations, and Erie-based, SimpleSense. In addition, three Ben Franklin alum entrepreneurs, Dr. Maureen Mulvihill with Actuated Medical, Hunter Swisher with Phospholutions, and Dr. Fred Marroni with Indigo Biosciences were seminar panelists on “The Entrepreneurs’ Perspective on Raising Money.”

Stephen Brawley, President/CEO of Ben Franklin, commented, “We were pleased to co-sponsor this important conference which attracts innovators as well as investors to our area.  Central PA is home to dozens of high-tech companies – many of which, such as those mentioned above, likely received their initial institutional investment from Ben Franklin.  While our capital is intended to seed very early tech entrepreneurs and startups, it’s vitally important for these folks to have access to the follow-on funding opportunities afforded them because of this conference and the vision of President Barron and Penn State University.”