BETHESDA, MD - Triad Technology Partners, a woman-owned company selling enterprise technology to the public sector, has raised $440,000 in equity according to a regulatory filing.

NEW YORK (AP)- Small business owners might want to put two important items at the top of their midyear to-do lists: get a financial checkup, and do more networking.

POMPANO BEACH, FL - ServusXchange, a company selling software-as-a-service to the home repair, remodeling, construction and related real estate industries, has closed on an investment in an undisclosed amount from its angel investor group. MyOnlineToolBox is the company's flagship product.

NEW YORK, NY - Venture-backed company exit activity showed mild improvement in the second quarter of 2009 but still fell far short of historical norms, according to the Exit Poll report by Thomson Reuters and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA).

WASHINGTON, DC - Savings of $332 billion in national health expenditure could be achieved over the next decade by making better use of technology and streamlining administrative processes, according to a new report released today by UnitedHealth Group’s Center for Health Reform and Modernization.

CHAPEL HILL, NC - Minneapolis-based Medtronic Inc. has invested an additional $2.5 million in NanoCor Therapeutics Inc., a company developing a gene-based therapy for congestive heart failure. The investment brings the total Medtronic has invested in NanoCor to $6.5 million.

ATLANTA—Realizing the commercial potential of an idea developed in a university laboratory is a process fraught with obstacles. Atlanta’s VentureLab, a program of the Georgia Research Alliance, works with Georgia’s six research universities, provides support throughout what it calls “the continuum of innovation,” to spin companies out of those ideas.

These days, if you’re a leader of any type, you can’t simply order people around and expect them to do what you want. They may follow your directions, if you are watching, but once they’re left on their own they’ll go back to doing what they think is important.

ATLANTA - Despite challenging economic conditions, the GRA Venture Fund has raised $18,750,000 in its first closing. The Fund is a private investment fund that leverages $7.5 million from the State of Georgia through a 3-to-1 match from private investors. The state has also approved a 25 percent tax credit for investors in the fund, and a 10 percent tax credit for investors who put money into the fund's portfolio companies.

NEW YORK (AP) - Scott Painter makes his living betting on startup companies, having played a role in launching 29 of them over the years. But with the bad economy choking initial public offerings and acquisitions, Painter is now backing an idea that makes it easier for insiders like him to sell shares in their companies even before they go public.

ALACHUA, FL - Sharlet Technologies, a life sciences company that has developed a sharkskin inspired surface that inhibits the growth of bacteria, has raised a $1.5 million Series A financing led by Austin-based Limestone Ventures.

I had a recent conversation with an industry analyst who made a stark observation about the state of enterprise systems management. He suggested that the way enterprises construct and maintain software systems today is far more art than science.

BLACKSBURG, VA - Nuvotronics, which has developed a wafer-level process for making 3D micro-structures aimed at microwave components, has raised $200,000 of a targeted $1 million round of equity, according to a regulatory filing. The company's PolyStrata process can produce tiny, high-density coaxial circuits for microwave and millimeter wave applications.

ATLANTA—MailExpress Inc., an Atlanta-based company selling mail processing solutions to corporate customers, has raised a $30 million D round led by Lightspeed Venture partners with participation from return investors CMEA Capital, Logispring, XAnge Capital and Adams Street Partners.

CHARLOTTE, NC—Source Technologies, a company selling secure printers and software and interactive kiosks for retail and financial applications, has raised $20 million in equity funding, according to a regulatory filing. The company’s customers include nine of the top 10 U.S. banks, 69 of the Fortune 100, and many small and mid-sized firms.

MIAMI (AP)- The students sit at long desks, their eyes glued to big screens showing traffic-choked highways. A simulator allows the students to create a traffic accident and try to reduce the delay it causes.

EXCLUSIVE REPORT ALPHARETTA, GA—Mi3, a company that offers IT outsourcing to Bangladesh as a less expensive alternative to India, China, the Philippines, and other countries, is raising a $6 million round of equity. The company is also developing IT products to sell in Bangladesh and envisions helping the country with healthcare and education, says founder and President Saiful Khandaker.

Most companies with sales under $10 million, and some much larger, don’t use budgets to help them meet profit goals. CEOs and operating owners reason the effort to learn how to build, and then use, a workable budget is just too much. They seem to feel it’s more frustrating than just hoping the numbers will all work out, if they only sell enough widgets or services or whatever.

EXCLUSIVE REPORT WOODBINE, MD—When people go shopping for home and lawn and garden products, they tend to research online but buy locally. So says Steven Cissel, CEO and founder of 10-20 Media, which helps shoppers find a local retailer who has what they’re looking for. 10-20 has raised $500,000 via a debt instrument from a central Maryland businessman and will soon launch its iPhone application to help shoppers find local home and garden retailers.

BLACKSBURG, VA - Intrexon Corp., a life sciences company focused on modular DNA control systems for biotherapeutics and other industry sectors, has received an additional $10 million of Series C-2 financing from New River Management V, a life sciences focused investment fund managed by Third Security. This is the final investment for New River Managment-V, which is now fully committed. Third Security intends to continue its investment strategy with a new fund, New River Management VI.

Whether the economic times are flourishing or floundering, many leaders get stuck in the same trap: they don’t take time to stop and reflect on what they’re doing. Because there’s so much for them to do and they have so much responsibility and accountability on their shoulders, they’re constantly on the go, striving to deliver results.

RESTON, VA—Avail Media Holdings, which recently merged Avail Media with TVN Entertainment Corp., has secured $95.17 million of a targeted $100 million raise, according to a regulatory filing. The combination of Avail and TVN created the largest independent producer of video content aggregation, management and services.

TUCKER, GA - Lehigh Technologies, which makes and sells engineered ultra-fine rubber powder, has raised $120,000 in an equity investment from a principal in the company. The venture-backed company's investors include Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Index Ventures, NGP Energy Technology Partners and Florida Gulfshore Capital.

RESTON, VA - Presidum, a Reston-based seller of managed services in the education sector, has raised $2 million in follow-on funding from Edison Venture Fund.

BALTIMORE, MD - ABS Capital Partners, a leading later-stage growth company investor, says it has closed its sixth fund, ABS VI, at $420 million. The firm backed Rosetta Stone, among other successful ventures.

WASHINGTON, DC - (AP) Savvy consumers often go online for independent consumer reviews of products and services, scouring through comments from everyday Joes and Janes to help them find a gem or shun a lemon.

DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke University engineers have taken a first step toward a minimally invasive treatment of brain tumors by combining chemotherapy with heat administered from the end of a catheter.

DURHAM, NC - Nextreme Thermal Solutions has raised $16.3 million toward a $23.3 million funding, according to a regulatory filing.

COLUMBIA, SC - Ometric Corp., a company that embeds analytical technology into industrial processes, has raised $980,000 in equity, according to a regulatory filing.

People today have a short fuse – everyone is stressed. And when people are stressed, they can become difficult to be around. Chances are, you’ve worked with at least one difficult person in your organization.

ANNAPOLIS, MD - Zephyr Technology Corp., a company selling remote physiological monitoring tech, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Motorola Ventures.

WASHINGTON, DC - The National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) said yesterday that the venture capital industry does not pose risks to the stability of the financial system and should not be "swept into regulation intended for other investment vehicles."

RALEIGH, N.C. and BALTIMORE - Baltimore-based AVIcode Inc., a provider of .NET application monitoring solutions, has raised an undisclosed amount of B round funding from Raleigh-based Southern Capitol Ventures.

NAPLES, FL—The Tamiami Angel Fund (TAFI) created following the Southwest Florida Regional Angel Fund Assessment and legislation passed by the Florida legislature in 2007 creating the Florida Capital Formation Act and the Florida Opportunity Fund, has raised at least $200,000 of a fund targeted at $4.3 million.

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC - You wouldn’t know it sitting across from the somewhat self-assured Stephen Wiehe (pronounced whee), president and CEO of sciQuest, a leading e-procurement company, that he had real concerns regarding the sustainability of the company’s culture in an anticipated period of growth. In a wide-ranging discussion, he even revealed the company has considered going public again.

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC - CeNeRx BioPharma Inc., a clinical stage company developing and commercializing innovative treatments for diseases of the central nervous system, has closed a $9 million financing. The financing includes a $5 million credit facility from MidCap Financial and an additional $4 million invested by current shareholders Aisling Capital, L Capital Partners and Pappas Ventures.

Every time you swipe your credit card and wait for the transaction to be approved, sensitive data including your name and account number are ferried from store to bank through computer networks, each step a potential opening for hackers.

Everyday it’s harder and harder for small business owners and advertisers to keep pace with all the social media platforms on the Internet. It started with the personal profile phenomenon, which quickly evolved into video sharing profiles and then the floodgates opened up and now Internet users have over 400 social media platforms to consider.

RICHMOND, VA - Harbert Venture Partners annex fund is raising $7.75 million, according to a regulatory filing.

DURHAM, NC - It's a familiar scene in airports and train stations. Hands full with luggage, briefcase, laptop or coat and there's something you need to remember, like the level and row numbers where you parked your car in the deck. What do you do?

MARIETTA, GA—Racing teams look for every legal advantage they can get to come out ahead in the increasingly high tech world of racing. That should bode well for Sportronix, a Marietta-based startup that is developing software tools that allow customized management and analysis of vehicle performance data.

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC – It’s usually associated with the old joke about how to get to Carnegie Hall. But “practice, practice, practice” can mean the difference between life and death for a new bioscience company in need of investment.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP)- Kiva.org has spent the past 31/2 years raising money on the Internet to finance destitute entrepreneurs in 44 impoverished countries. Now in a sign of the economy's spreading despair, the online ``microlender'' is reaching out to low-income entrepreneurs in the United States.

EXCLUSIVE REPORT RALEIGH, NC—Six-year-old Protochips, a profitable Raleigh-based firm selling advanced holders, stages and specimen supports for electron microscopy, has closed on the first of two tranches of an early stage round originally targeted at $685,000. It expects to wrap up paperwork on the second tranche of the oversubscribed funding soon, says Michael Zapata, executive chair.

WASHINGTON, DC - The number of jobs in America’s emerging clean energy economy grew nearly two and a half times faster than overall jobs between 1998 and 2007, according to a report by The Pew Charitable Trusts. By 2007, more than 68,200 businesses across all 50 states and the District of Columbia accounted for about 770,000 jobs, the report found.

Leading and managing a company is never easy. Challenging goals. Tight budgets. Demanding clients. Difficult employees. The reality is that most companies fail from time to time. Why? According to Fortune magazine, over 70 percent of company failures were caused by poor execution of good strategies.

HOLLYWOOD, FL—Anyone who follows blogs or uses social media sites such as Facebook and MySpace knows everyone from the average housewife to bona fide experts are creating incredible amounts of online content—usually for free or carrying only Google ads. A new web site called RedGage wants to change that so that content producers can get paid for their blog entries, articles, photos, videos and other content.

KANSAS CITY, MO - Contrary to popular belief, the venture capital industry is not a necessary condition in driving high-growth entrepreneurship, according to Right-Sizing the U.S. Venture Capital Industry, a new study by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.

NEW YORK—The global economic downturn has many venture capitalists altering strategies, including reducing investment levels in the short term, according to the 2009 Global Venture Capital Survey by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu and the National Venture Capital Association.

As a business owner, you already know the importance of utilizing traditional PR - print, radio and TV exposure - to keep your name circulating in the marketplace. Now, however, there's a new PR outlet you need to become familiar with. It's called Social Media Marketing, and when combined with your traditional PR efforts, Social Media Marketing can help you penetrate the marketplace with your message quicker and easier than ever before.

DURHAM, NC - Semprius Inc., a semiconductor technology company developing a novel transfer printing technology for the manufacture of advanced semiconductor devices, has closed a $6.4 million Series B round of venture funding. New investors In-Q-Tel and GVC were joined by existing investors ARCH Venture Partners, Applied Ventures, Illinois VENTURES and Intersouth Partners in the round.

DURHAM, NC - Pique Therapeutics Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, confirmed today that it has raised a Series A round of financing from private investors including the Piedmont Angel Network and the Wilmington Investors Network. TechJournal South reported the funding last week (see: http://tiny.pl/3ffc) based on a regulatory filing.

NEW YORK – The ranks of active venture capitalists are shrinking as funds raised during the tech bubble wind down and the current down economy takes its toll. The National Venture Capital Association says only 882 firms raised at least one fund in 2008, down from 1,019 in 2007.

A boss sits down to have a meeting with his employees. They’ve fallen short of a goal, and so the boss asks: “What happened? What approach did you use? How did you attempt to meet your goal?”

DULLES, VA—Grab Networks, formed from the merger of Anystream and Voxant in 2008, sees extraordinary growth opportunities in its solutions for turning digital video content into dollars. The company plans to expand its already impressive market share on the heels of a $12 million funding.

ATLANTA — Humans, from ancient exchanges of food to modern day home mortgages, have bartered or traded to receive something that they couldn't achieve on their own. It's the basis of the economy, and it requires a leap of faith to believe that each party will receive a payoff in return for taking a risk.

NEW YORK (AP) - On the short-messaging service Twitter, space is at a premium: You've got 140 characters to make your point, and you probably don't want to waste half of it on a super-sized link to your latest YouTube obsession.

DURHAM, NC--Pique Therapeutics has raised more than $500,000 of a $600,000 round for its first-in-class vaccine therapies focused initially on deadly non-small cell lung cancer. Pique CEO Christopher Meldrum declined to discuss details but tells TechJournal South the company will issue a news release about the funding in a week or so.

HOMEWOOD, AL - Optimal Reading Services Group says it has raised an undisclosed amount of equity funding from Health Evolution Partners. It is Health Evolutions second investment in the company, which sells image optimization services to hospitals, imaging centers and radiology groups.

FLORENCE, KY - Xanodyne Pharmaceuticals Inc., a drug company focused on products for women's health, say it has raised $38 million in a round led by MPM Capital with participation from return backers AIG Investments, Aisling Capital, Blue Chip Venture Co., Essex Woodlands Health Ventures, HealthCare Ventures and Union Springs.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA - Privaris Inc., a company making biometric ID products, has raised slightly over $1 million in debt funding, according to a regulatory filing.

MEMPHIS, TN - Active Implants, which sells polymer technology for hip and knee orthopaedic products, has raised a $10 million C round.

WASHINGTON, DC - Washington's recession-resistant economy continues to outpace the two other major metropolitan areas in the Southeast - Atlanta and Miami - according to a new report.

RALEIGH, NC - Apple Inc. plans to locate a $1 billion data center in North Carolina, according to NC Gov. Beverly Perdue. The announcement came after Perdue signed Senate Bill 575 into law. The bill changes the method that capital intensive businesses calculate their corporate taxes in the state.

ATLANTA - Approximately a third of the electricity consumed by large data centers doesn't power the computer servers that conduct online transactions, serve Web pages or store information. Instead, that electricity must be used for cooling the servers, a demand that continues to increase as computer processing power grows.

RICHMOND, VA—Digital tools and the Internet can help provide stimulating multi-media lessons in the classroom and Richmond-based SoftChalk sells an integrated solution that helps teachers create web enhanced lessons without needing the skills of an IT professional.

ATLANTA (AP) - What if the humble old landline phone could be as interactive as the flashy iPhone?