TAMPA, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Florida Venture Forum (http://www.floridaventureforum.org) has selected 17 Florida companies to present at its Early Stage Venture Capital Conference, to be held at the Reunion Resort in Orlando on October 5, 2011.
Seventeen of Florida’s best early-stage prospects for equity financing will make 10-minute presentations to an audience of venture capitalists, private equity investors, angel investors, investment bankers, financial intermediaries and entrepreneurs.
Presenting companies are:
Central/East Central Florida
ConvergTV, Inc., (www.convergTV.com), Merritt Island, is a new media company that uses its proprietary network of "disenfranchised content producers", cutting edge digital editing software tools, and its proprietary contractually licensed distribution platform to create and distribute on "three screens" (TV, PC and mobile devices), the high production value, interactive media that can attract major media advertising dollars, but at a dramatically lower production cost than traditional media offerings, making it much more profitable than traditional media companies.
Igenti, Inc. (www.igenti.com), Winter Garden, has developed Igenti-suite, an online marketing and contact interaction system, to provide certain marketing services to small organizations under full-service (do-it-for-me) and self-service models. Most marketing services provided to small organizations are not cost effective because they rely on expensive, high risk “prospect marketing” processes. Igenti provides a cost effective alternative based on new methods using database marketing that have evolved over the past years. The Igenti service helps organizations improve the effectiveness of marketing while reducing its cost.
Zentila, (www.zentila.com), Winter Garden, is a sales solution for hotels that will deliver incremental EBITDA by reducing hotel’s meeting and convention acquisition expense, increasing sales team productivity, and delivering never-before seen data to assist hotels with better strategic selling decisions. The first fully-integrated booking engine for meetings and conventions, Zentila will bring hotels and their corporate and association customers together through a complete booking process where planners can search, source, and book their short-term meetings (inside 90 days) in under 3 hours, versus the current process of 3-5 days.
Southeast Florida
Copley Retention Systems, (www.copleysystems.com), Weston, The Student Drop-Out issue is the number one problem facing institutions of higher learning with attrition rates averaging sixty percent. Copley Retention Systems is dedicated solely to developing and instituting practices and software products that increase student success. We accomplish our goal by transforming proven, real world student success practices that have enriched education including; Early intervention, Collaboration, Study Groups and Mentoring Sessions into the digital world.
COWs – USA, LLC (www.866-Get-A-COW.com) Miami, COWs Mobile Storage is the biggest innovation for moving, storage & equipment rental businesses since “the motorized truck surpassed the horse and buggy!” COWs are changing the way people MOOOOve and Store. The COWs Dealership Program is designed specifically to "bolt-on" to an existing business. In addition to rustling the Herd of COWs Dealerships in North America (30 COWs Dealerships are already up and running in 14 states and 2 countries). COWs is also the manufacturer of its patent pending Delivery Trailer and COWs - Container on Wheels®.
HercuWall Inc, (www.HercuWall.com), Sunrise, manufactures and markets HercuWall(R), a high-performance, pre-engineered wall system that is superior in structural strength and performance to block and wood frame construction utilizing a proprietary patented concrete composite technology. HercuWall® technology is: easy to adopt, scalable using unskilled construction labor, energy efficient (R-34), solutions-based, and cost efficient attracting the attention of builders and developers worldwide.
Intermodal Marine Lines, LLC, (www.intermodalmarine.com), Fort Lauderdale, the signature product is the Enduro Series Ship – a Roll-on, Roll-off Cassette Container Vessel Design #L10-052-601-01 – an environmentally-friendly, multi-modal freight vessel. This vessel is ECA/IMO environmentally compliant and introduces a new freight service concept to provide domestic “intermodal” service between U.S. ports that can help solve a looming U.S. transportation crisis. With the Enduro Series, the Company has created a green alternative to trucking and railroads that serves the needs of both commercial and naval applications. As a Dual Use vessel, the Enduro Series has been designed for commercial use by some of the world’s leading freight carriers and for military use as the vessel can easily accommodate many of the U.S. Navy’s national defense features.
JumpStart Wireless Corporation, (www.jumpstartwireless.com), Delray Beach, provides custom business mobile apps without custom programming. Using revolutionary patented artificial intelligence technology, we deliver mission-critical mobile apps, for 1/10th the effort of conventional mobile app development, without programming, running on any mobile device. Existing customers include Toyota, Ecolab, and Fluor as well as government agencies, in industries including field service, facility management, construction, and healthcare.
LED Source, LLC, (www.LEDSource.com), Wellington, is in the business of LED Lighting sales and value-added distribution and has recently (in 2010) begun selling Franchise businesses to do the same. As of now, the company has 8 franchises sold, with many more in the process.
Ocean Biomedicines, Inc., Vero Beach, their primary business goal is to commercialize human pharmaceutical products that are being developed at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute (HBOI) in Ft. Pierce, Florida. Since January 1, 2008, HBOI has been part of Florida Atlantic University (FAU), a Florida state university, based in Boca Raton, Florida.
Raw Talent, Inc., (www.rawtalentguitar.com), Boca Raton, their vision is to bring effective and enjoyable music education to market through outstanding products, technology and services. In support of this vision, Raw Talent announced its first product, Raw Talent Guitar, at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Raw Talent Guitar is a revolutionary guitar training system and features a guitar-to-USB cable, allowing a student to learn on their own guitar. Included is everything a guitar player would need, but what makes Raw Talent Guitar truly revolutionary is the patented RT Evaluator®, which grades your guitar playing ability and delivers immediate feedback.
Savvy Penny (Green Virtual Solutions LLC), (www.savvypenny.com), Plantation, is an in-store digital coupon network designed for supermarkets. It is the only media channel that delivers targeted promotions directly to the consumer at the moment of truth, through two-way interactive full color touch screens located directly on the store shelf. Savvy Penny maximizes consumer savings by making digital coupons highly relevant and easy to use. Brand marketers use Savvy Penny to target shoppers with laser-like precision in a highly interactive exchange. Savvy Penny seamlessly captures all point of sale data, allowing marketers to accurately measure the impact of (and make changes to) promotional campaigns in real time.
SeaRobotics Corp, (www.searobotics.com), Palm Beach Gardens, develops leading edge autonomous robotic marine systems. Their product focus covers two new and important markets for unmanned systems technology; Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USVs or robotic boats), and autonomous Hull Grooming Systems (HullBUG). Their small USV deployments are revolutionizing shallow water survey and harbour security. Similarly innovative, their hull grooming technology can improve fuel efficiency of ships at sea by 8-20% based on prior maintenance procedure, with the associated reduction in carbon footprint.
West/Central Florida
Physical Health Insights, LLC, (www.physicalhealthinsights.com), Palm Harbor, has created a medically based, three tier online assessment program to identify the risk for injury or arthritis in the ten major body regions. The system provides self-care guidelines for corrective actions including tailored stretching and exercise activities based on risk levels, age and exercise experience to prevent or mitigate existing and future disorders with health care practitioner referrals as appropriate.
Sundrop Mobile, Inc., (www.sundropmobile.com), Maitland, is a loyalty program provider removing the friction of loyalty participation for the merchant and the customer by replacing plastic loyalty cards with customers' mobile phone numbers, dramatically boosting participation while eliminating merchant administration. Sundrop is delivering the industry’s leading loyalty platform with the largest number of POS integrations & greatest functionality in its SaaS platform.
True-Safe Technologies, Inc., (www.true-safe.com), St. Cloud, has developed and is in the process of commercializing Arc Fault Circuit Interrupter (AFCI) devices in response to National Electrical Code (NEC) mandates. It is to be used on the 145 million homes in USA and Canada in need of protection from the effects of arcing, which is recognized to be the primary cause of electrical fires. Their products address the need for protection from electrical fires claiming annually, in the United States alone, about $1.4 billion in property damages/losses and about 400 deaths.
Water Optimizer, (www.wateroptimizer.com), Tampa, their green technology helps address the pressing challenge of providing for the stainability and efficient management of limited water resources. This new technology has applications for both water providers (utilities and municipalities) and customers (commercial and residential) irrigation. This green technology can save up to 70% of water used for irrigation and will provide the property owner the opportunity to water 7 days a week (in the State of Florida based on recent legislation for exceptions to watering restrictions for smart irrigation controllers). The WaterOptimizer® is a remote monitored electronic controller that allows for the consumer to irrigate their landscaping when it needs it, in the amount that is needed.
About The Florida Venture Forum
The Florida Venture Forum is Florida’s oldest, largest and most prestigious statewide support group for venture capitalists and entrepreneurs, helping emerging growth companies come together with sources of capital from across the country. Throughout the year, the Florida Venture Forum provides monthly programs on a statewide basis. For additional information, please visit the web site at http://www.floridaventureforum.org.