NewHavenBIZ

4 n e w h a v e n B I Z | D e c e m b e r 2 0 2 1 | n e w h a v e n b i z . c o m NYC digital currency investor moving to Stamford, expected to create over 300 jobs Digital Currency Group, an investor in bitcoin and blockchain technology com- panies, is moving its headquarters from New York City to Stamford. DCG, which has invested in over 200 blockchain companies and owns several subsidiary businesses, signed a lease for over 90,000 square feet in the Shippan Landing complex at 290 Harbor Dr., Stamford. e firm is overseeing renovations at the site and expects to open its doors there in late 2022, together with various subsidiaries. e company is set to receive a grant in arrears of up to $5 million to support the move from the state Department of Economic and Community Develop- ment, contingent upon its creation and retention of more than 300 new, full-time jobs, state officials said. PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED Shippan Landing Ion Bank to acquire New Jersey lender e parent company of Nau- gatuck-based Ion Bank has entered an agreement to acquire a New Jersey lender and merge their operations. In a statement, Ion Financial said it will combine with Lincoln Park Ban- corp, the corporate parent of Lincoln 1st Bank, in a trans- action valued at approximately $7.5 million. With the completion of the deal — projected to take place in the third quarter of 2022 — Lincoln 1st Bank will merge into Ion Bank, and Lincoln Park Bancorp will be dissolved. e linkup would give Ion Bank, for the first time, a presence in northern New Jersey. CooperSurgical to acquire life science company in $1.6B deal Trumbull-based CooperSurgical Inc. says it has reached an agreement to ac- quire a fertility company, Generate Life Sciences, for $1.6 billion. Generate Life Sciences, based in California, provides donor egg and A r o u n d t h e R e g i o n sperm for fertility treatments, fertility cryopreservation services, and storage of newborn stem cells from cord blood and tissue. e acquisition is expected to be finalized in 2022, subject to required regulatory approval. According to CooperSurgical, the acquisition is expected to complement its offerings in fertility solutions. SBA arranged $368M in CT small business funding in fiscal year '21 e U.S. Small Business Adminis- tration's Connecticut District Office facilitated over $368 million in lending to the state's small businesses over the last 12 months, the highest volume the agency has seen in over five years. SBA's most recent complete fiscal year ran from Oct. 2020 to Sept. 2021. In that time, the Connecticut office oversaw more than 768 traditional loans. According to an agency breakdown, the funding disbursed through fiscal year 2021 included $294 million in 7(a) loans — in which the SBA guarantees the repayment of a certain portion of a private lender's loan — for 632 small businesses, a 78% increase over $165 million in volume in fiscal year 2020. Quantum-Si acquires Majelac Technologies Quantum-Si Inc., a Guilford-based protein sequencing company, has acquired Majelac Technologies LLC in a deal expected to prevent supply chain woes. e privately-owned Majelac, which is based in Pennsylvania, provides semiconductor packaging and integrated circuit assembly services, which are key for Quantum-Si's busi- ness operations. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Serial entre- preneur Jonathan Rothberg founded Quantum-Si in 2013. e company is focused on the field of proteomics, or the study of proteins. Its technology is powered by a semiconductor chip that enables single-molecule protein sequencing. e technology can be used to advance drug discovery and for diagnostics. John Stark, CEO of Quantum-Si, said the acquisition brings chip assembly and packaging capabilities in-house. Pfizer strikes $1.24B deal with Biohaven to market migraine drug globally Pharma giant Pfizer has struck a ma- jor deal with a New Haven bioscience company. e pharma company is betting on Biohaven Pharmaceuticals and its mi- graine drug Nurtec ODT, also known as rimegepant, agreeing to pay $500 million upfront for the rights to com- mercialize the drug outside the U.S. Biohaven announced the deal, po- tentially worth up to $1.24 billion, in November. Under the agreement, Pfizer is paying Biohaven $150 million in cash upfront and will buy another $350 million worth of equity in Biohaven. Biohaven is eligible for another $740 million based on milestones as well as tiered double-digit royalties on ex-U.S. net sales. Biohaven will continue to be respon- sible for developing Nurtec ODT and marketing it domestically. PHOTO | FILE IMAGE Biohaven Pharmaceuticals CEO Dr. Vlad Coric holds a Nurtec pill box. Oxford manufacturer completes $2.9B acquisition RBC Bearings Inc., an Oxford-based manufacturer, recently finalized its acquisition of the DODGE mechanical power transmission division of Asea Brown Boveri Ltd., for $2.9 billion in cash. e company had announced its plans to purchase the South Caroli- na-based company in July. RBC Bearings produces bearings and components used in the industri- al, defense and aerospace industries. DODGE manufactures mounted bear- ings and mechanical products. e acquisition is expected to add to RBC's portfolio and enhance its capa- bilities, footprint and customer base, according to company leadership. New paid internship program aims to develop bioscience talent Area bioscience companies have joined forces to launch an internship program with a goal of developing and attracting new talent. The new program, dubbed SPRINT, stands for "Student Program to Ready Interns for Next-generation Talent." The goal is to provide more than 100 paid jobs in the life sciences industry in the summer of 2022. The program is geared toward students who are attending colleges and universities in Connecticut, or for students with ties to the state. Both emerging and established life sciences companies are participating in the internship program. Interested students can obtain internships for various roles, from scientific to finance to administrative positions. For more information, visit www. LifeSciSprints.com. Applications for summer internships will open in early 2022. Bioscience incubator opens doors on New Haven's Congress Ave. The latest bioscience incubator space to open in New Haven is set to nurture the next great Elm City entrepreneurs. A ribbon-cutting for the New Ha- ven Innovation Labs, a new startup space inside the John B. Pierce Labo- ratory, took place in November. Pierce is a nonprofit, independent research institute affiliated with Yale University and named for famed 19th-century inventor and entrepre- neur John Bartlett Pierce. The New Haven Innovation Labs incubator houses 7,630 square feet of lab and office space for up to 19 startups inside the Pierce building at 290 Congress Ave., near the Yale Medical School. The project, a partnership with BioCT, recently wrapped up after more than a year of renovations funded by a $550,000 grant from CTNext, the state entrepreneurship program. PHOTO | LIESE KLEIN Pierce Laboratory Director John Geibel (center) cuts the ribbon at the New Haven Innovation Labs on Nov. 16, 2021. B R I E F S Ion Bank CEO David Rotatori. PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED CooperSurgical Inc. headquarters in Trumbull. Jonathan Rothberg RBC Bearings' products.

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