Tag: Member News

Cozen O’Connor Commits $150,000 in Services to Minority and Traditionally Underrepresented Entrepreneurs in Philadelphia

Amanda Nardi

PHILADELPHIA, June 12, 2020 — Cozen O’Connor, through its startup program COpilot, has launched a program, committing an initial sum of $150,000 in legal services to minority and traditionally underrepresented entrepreneurs in the tri-state region. Led by Michael Crossey and Christopher McDemus, co-chairs of Cozen O’Connor’s Emerging Business & Venture Capital Practice, the initiative is part of the firm’s COpilot program. COpilot provides qualified young startups and new entrepreneurs with access to discounted legal services and deferrals..

Through the new initiative underrepresented entrepreneurs will have access to the firm’s attorneys and receive an initial grant of services. Companies who are selected to participate in this new program have the opportunity to continue working with Cozen O’Connor after the initial grant expires, but are not obligated do so. The firm plans to collaborate with entrepreneurial organizations in the mid-Atlantic region to identify eligible businesses, as well as conduct outreach to local universities.

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Naval Special Warfare Command Modernization

Amanda Nardi

NSWC’s New Department Searches for, Identifies, and Capitalizes on Transformational and Exponentially Disruptive Technologies

Naval Special Warfare Command (NSWC) is among the DOD’s top warfighting forces working to develop a robust defense against the advances and aggressive actions of America’s adversaries in the fight to counter violent extremists organizations and great power competition. To that end, NSWC established a new department within its headquarters structure – the N9 Future Concepts and Innovation directorate.

This small and empowered team serves as the community’s headlights, searching in the often unexplored spaces of horizon technologies and accelerating technology sectors to identify and capitalize on transformational and exponentially disruptive opportunities, which will increase precision, speed, and lethality on the battlefield while also reducing risk to mission and force, and costs.

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MissionOG Portfolio Company DivvyCloud Acquired by Rapid7 for $145 Million

Amanda Nardi

MissionOG is pleased to announce the acquisition of portfolio company DivvyCloud by Rapid7 (ticker: RPD) for $145 million. The acquisition represents a great outcome for the DivvyCloud team, its investors, and the acquirer.

DivvyCloud broadens Rapid7’s product offerings to include infrastructure security and compliance. As Rapid7 CEO Corey Thomas stated, “We have been very impressed with the DivvyCloud team and its technology for some time. As the rate of cloud adoption continues to rise, the DivvyCloud platform will be an important part of our offering, giving customers a much deeper, comprehensive view into their cloud security posture.”

Founded by Brian Johnson and Chris DeRamus and headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, DivvyCloud provides automated policy enforcement for multi-cloud and container environments to help enterprises manage infrastructure cost, compliance, and security.

MissionOG first invested in DivvyCloud in October 2017 and participated in a subsequent growth round in April 2019. DivvyCloud’s business was well matched to a core investment theme that we have pursued – enterprises will continue to migrate workloads in mass to the cloud, creating great demand for tools to effectively innovate and manage their cloud infrastructure.

The exit from DivvyCloud marks the firm’s second successful investment outcome within the cloud infrastructure space with the prior being the acquisition of Cloudamize by Blackstone. We have been thrilled to watch DivvyCloud build a leadership position in a fast-growing market and remain excited about their future, now with Rapid7.

To learn more about the transaction, please see additional coverage on Venture Beat and ZDNet.

Anexinet Launches Innovative Identity & Access Management (IAM) Modernization Assessment

Amanda Nardi

Program Analyzes Enterprise Identity Management Program and Provides a Roadmap to Modernize Policies, Procedures, and Tools 

Philadelphia, PA – April 21, 2020 – Anexinet Corporation, a leading provider of digital business solutions, today announced its new Identity & Access Management (IAM) Modernization Assessment. The IAM Modernization Assessment helps organizations better manage identities and control privileged access to sensitive data by identifying gaps in the IAM program and toolsets. Additionally, the assessment will provide an actionable roadmap to build a more robust identity management program. These issues are particularly relevant in the face of the Coronavirus and the remote workforce.

To learn more about preventing Ransomware attacks, Anexinet is holding a live webinar, Modernize Your IAM to Prevent Ransomware Attacks, Tuesday, April 28th at 9:00 AM EDT. Anexinet’s experts will explain how advanced IAM solutions dramatically reduce the attack surface to make remote workers less vulnerable. Webinar registration is available at https://bit.ly/3bwpeiJ.

Further, the prevalence of enterprise cloud and hybrid environments has made Identity and Access Management (IAM) more complex than ever before. Anexinet’s IAM Modernization Assessment provides comprehensive visibility into the overall Identity Management Program by compiling the business and technology requirements and analyzing whether existing policies, procedures, and tools are sufficient to achieve them.

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Guru closed a $30M Series C led by Silicon Valley’s Accel — yes, during a pandemic

Amanda Nardi

Here’s how the Center City software company worked a relationship with the West Coast VC firm into its next round of fundraising, which is focused on expanding its customer base, CEO Rick Nucci told Technical.ly.

Written by Paige Gross, Technical.ly Philly

Amid a pandemic and subsequent recession, one of the best-case scenarios for a growth-stage company is to have a round in the bank, a venture capitalist will likely tell you.

Securing a round of fundraising now could buy a year or so of safety during unpredictable times for a biz looking to add employees, roll out a new product or simply survive unscathed during the next few months.

Guru Technologies, one of Center City’s steadiest-growing tech companies, announced Tuesday that amid one of the most suddenly challenging periods for local economies in recent history, it had just closed a Series C — a $30 million round led by Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm Accel, which has funded the likes of Facebook and Spotify.

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A Positive First Quarter; Market Pause Expected Ahead Due to COVID-19

Amanda Nardi

Wayne, PA (04/16/2020)

12:29 PM

Newmark Knight Frank (NKF) released its first quarter 2020 industrial market reports for Greater Philadelphia and the I-81/78 Corridor. First quarter statistics are reflective of activity prior to the economic disruption stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic and reinforce that both industrial markets were on strong footing going into the crisis. Current market indicators suggest that repercussions related to COVID-19 are likely to be less severe for the industrial sector than for other property types, yet this market pause will likely affect leasing volume throughout the balance of the year, causing an uptick in vacancy and potentially a slight softening in rents.

Activity in the I-81/78 Corridor industrial market was robust in the first quarter, with 3.3 million square feet of net absorption tallied, numerous significant new leases signed and average asking rents growing 1.3 percent quarter-over-quarter. Multiple million-square-foot or larger occupancies occurred throughout the market. True Value and NFI occupied 1.0-million-square-foot build-to-suits in Northeastern Pennsylvania, Smuckers moved into a 1.1-million-square-foot warehouse in Central Pennsylvania and in the Lehigh Valley, Qurate Retail Group took occupancy of its newly expanded 1.7-million-square-foot fulfillment facility.

As school districts go virtual, a Malvern edtech company is stepping up

Amanda Nardi

As millions of students and teachers make the massive shift to online learning amid the COVID-19 pandemic, administrators are left with a hefty task of their own — remotely managing all of the complex back-end operations that keep their schools running.

More than 80,000 schools nationwide use Malvern-based Frontline Education’s software, which has applications that allow districts to manage human resources, recruiting and hiring, professional growth, payroll, absence and time tracking, student information systems, special education requirements, school health operations and finances.

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Anexinet Receives Ten Consecutive Years of CRN’s Service Provider Accolades

Amanda Nardi

Company Achieves 2020 Elite 150 Managed Service Provider Rank

 Philadelphia, PA – April 14, 2020 – Anexinet Corporation, a leading provider of digital business solutions, today announced that CRN®, a brand of The Channel Company, has named the company to its 2020 Managed Service Provider (MSP) 500 list in the Elite 150 category. The Elite 150 is made up of solution providers who have successfully established a large-scale managed-services portfolio focused on mid-sized and enterprise clients.

“MSPs are the critical bridge for customers looking to assess, implement and migrate their IT and cloud solutions to drive efficiencies, lower costs, and secure their environment,” said Bob Skelley, CEO of The Channel Company. “On behalf of our team at The Channel Company, I want to congratulate the accomplished companies on CRN’s 2020 MSP 500 list and thank them for their commitment to finding innovative solutions that move the IT channel forward.”

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