NJEDA-Supported Companies Raise $31.98 Million During Last Quarter of 2020

Several NJEDA-supported companies were among those to receive investments, six of them raising a combined $31.98 million, plus a seventh that raised an undisclosed amount.

Two Princeton-based  companies – Arable Labs and Soligenix previously participated in New Jersey’s Net Operating Loss (Program). The NOL Program allows companies that have not yet reached profitability to sell their net operating losses and research & development tax credits for cash. Arable Labs, which announced on October 29 that it had raised $20 million in investments, has developed smart technology to help farmers monitor the conditions of their crops. Soligenix is a late-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing products to treat rare diseases where there is an unmet medical need. The company received a $1.5 million National Institutes of Health grant to advance COVID-19 vaccine development.

InquisitHealth, located in River Edge, previously closed on an NJ CoVest Fund loan. The NJ CoVest Fund is designed to help emerging technology companies bridge the funding gap between product development and commercialization The health technology company helps patients with diabetes, asthma, hypertension, and other chronic diseases overcome the social determinants of health and adopt healthy lifestyle changes through its online peer mentoring program. The company announced on October 20 that it had raised $260,000 in late-stage venture capital funding.

BioAegis Therapeutics is a graduate of the  NJEDA’s New Jersey Bioscience Center – Incubator in North Brunswick and a current tenant at the Authority’s New Jersey Bioscience Center Step-Out Labs. The clinical-stage biotechnology company is developing groundbreaking discoveries in inflammation and infection and announced in October that it had raised $7 million in investments, including funding from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Strategically located in the heart of the State’s research corridor between Rutgers and Princeton universities, the NJ Bioscience Center – Incubator offers early-stage life sciences companies wet and dry labs, office space and an array of resources to help them grow.  The Step-Out Labs is an intermediate space designed for Incubator graduates or other life sciences companies that have outgrown their incubation space.

Another Step-Out Labs tenant, Bionex Pharmaceuticals, received a $200,000 investment in October 2020. Bionex offers contract research & development services, from early-stage concept development to full-scale commercialization, in bio-pharmaceutical, food and cosmetic products. The company also develops and out-licenses its own proprietary formulations, technologies, and products related to drug, health food, and skin-care applications. Bionex participated in the NJEDA’s Angel Investor Tax Credit Program in the fourth quarter of 2020. The program offers a refundable tax credit against New Jersey corporation business or gross income tax for qualified investments in an emerging technology or life sciences business with a physical presence in New Jersey that conducts research, manufacturing, or technology commercialization in the state. 

Urigen Pharmaceuticals, which also previously benefited from the Angel Investor Tax Credit Program, announced in November that it has raised $3.02 million in funding. The Bound Brook-based company designs and implements products for patients with urological ailments.

In October, ROAR Augmented Reality announced that it had raised an undisclosed amount and had become the first New Jersey company to receive an investment from Golden Seeds investors since the NJ Chapter of Golden Seeds was founded in February 2020. ROAR, based in East Hanover, is a software-as-a-service no-code augmented reality (AR) content management platform that enables businesses and enterprises to create, deploy and manage AR content at scale. Golden Seeds is a nationwide angel investor network dedicated to investing in women-led startup companies. Golden Seeds expanded into New Jersey last year in partnership with the NJEDA and New Jersey First Lady Tammy Murphy.

We look forward to sharing about additional NJEDA-supported companies raising funding in our next edition of NJ Capital Connection.