Mainebiz

V O L . X X I I N O. I I JA N UA R Y 2 5 , 2 0 1 6 6 Lobster industry will continue its marketing push Maine's lobster industry will continue a marketing push that started last year. e Maine Lobstermen's Association will continue a collaboration with chefs, restaurants and food journal- ists, the Boothbay Register reported. Last year, it hosted events in New York and Chicago. is year, according to Matt Jacobson of the lobstermen's association, events will be held in New York, Atlanta and Washington, D.C. Lobstermen are reporting an excel- lent year for both volume of lobster landings and profit for the 2015 fishing season. Maine's lobster industry is the state's largest commercial fishery and has an economic multiplier impact of over $1 billion. Last year, the Maine Lobstermen's Association hired the Boston office of Weber Shandwick to expand the awareness of lobster among chefs and restaurants across the country. Six companies receive national award Rising Tide Brewing Co., Black Dinah Chocolatiers, Bixby & Co., Turtle Rock Farm, Gold Star Honeybees and Posto Bello Apiaries received the Good Food Award. ey were voted on by a 215-person judg- ing panel consisting of several top chefs, culinary experts and journal- ists covering the national food scene. e awards were presented in San Francisco on Jan. 15. In addition to coming out on top in regional tast- ings, all finalists passed a rigorous vetting to confirm they met specific Good Food Awards standards around environmentally sound agriculture practices, good animal husbandry, transparency and responsible relation- ships throughout the supply chain. N O T E W O R T H Y S T A T E W I D E Camden National Bank commit- ted $10,000 a year for three years to support the Maine Center for Entrepreneurial Development's Top Gun and Maine Mentor Network pro- grams, making the bank the largest contributor for Top Gun 2016. The Maine Cancer Foundation in Falmouth awarded Maine Medical Center Research Institute in Scarborough and Eastern Maine Medical Center Cancer Care in Bangor $200,000 each to improve their biorepositories, which are pro- grams that distribute biospecimens to researchers. These awards also fund a new web portal that streamlines the process researchers use to request and acquire samples. Gorham Savings: from ATMs to ITMs Gorham Savings Bank will use a new banking technology called the inter- active teller machine, which essen- tially is an ATM with the ability to call a remote teller and see him or her on the screen. e company intro- duced the new ITM machines on Jan. 19, saying the ITMs combine the ATM with the personal experience of working with a teller at a branch. "Each ITM allows us to deliver 99% of the full-branch experience using 1% of the real estate," Chris Emmons, CEO of Gorham Savings Bank, said in a statement. e bank is operating the ITMs at two locations: Munjoy Hill in Portland and Kennebunk. It plans to set up more, including one in Gorham in two months. Long-time employee buys Bath cabinet maker e Kennebec Co. has been sold to a longtime employee, James Stewart, the new owner said Jan. 18. e com- pany, which is based at 1 Front St. in Bath and has 18 employees, special- izes in custom kitchen cabinets and related work and was founded by David Leonard, the seller. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. "We saw this as an opportunity to make the succession," said Stewart, who joined the company in 2000. Kennebec Co. specializes in historic restorations and has been featured on "is Old House" five times. Many of its clients are based in Boston or the North Shore area north of Boston, Stewart told Mainebiz by phone. e com- pany was founded in 1974. N.H. company plans urgent care centers ConvenientMD, a privately owned chain of urgent care centers, plans B U S I N E S S M A I N E Business news from around the state S T A T E W I D E S O U T H E R N Investment in Maine companies rises sharply The amount of money raised by Maine companies rose almost fivefold from 2014 to 2015, though the number of total deals remained the same, indicating a rise in the average amount raised per deal. Maine companies raised $88.17 million in 12 total deals for 2015 versus $18.67 million in 12 deals in 2014. Fourth-quarter deals also were up dramati- cally year-to-year from two deals worth $2.38 million in 2015 compared to two deals worth $75,000 in 2014. The figures are from the latest MoneyTree Report from PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and the National Venture Capital Association released Jan. 15. The data is based on Thomson Reuters figures. "I didn't expect this, but I'm not totally surprised," Tom Ciccolella, U.S. Venture Capital Market Leader at PwC, told Mainebiz. "The number of deals shows there's more appetite [for investing]. The deals have almost doubled since 2012 and 2013." Hyperlite Mountain Gear Inc., a Biddeford-based consumer products and services company, raised almost $1.14 million in an expansion-stage deal in the fourth quarter. Academic Merit LLC, a cloud-based education company in Falmouth, raised more than $1.24 million in an early stage deal. Both were funded by Maine Venture Fund and an undisclosed firm. In 2015, six firms raised $17.79 million in the first quarter, one firm raised $200,000 in the second quarter, three firms raised $67.8 million in the third quarter and the two firms raised $2.38 million in the fourth quarter to total close to $88.17 million for the year. Looking at other New England states, 12 deals in Connecticut raised $175 million in the fourth quarter of 2015, 94 Massachusetts deals raised more than $1 billion, three New Hampshire deals raised $21.93 million, five Rhode Island deals raised $9.45 million and one Vermont deal raised $2 million. Nationwide, the venture capital ecosystem deployed $58.8 billion in 2015, the highest full-year total in the last 20 years. For the fourth quarter of 2015, $11.3 billion went into 962 deals, down 32% in dollars and 16% in deals com- pared to the third quarter of 2015. The fourth quarter also marked the eighth consecutive quarter of more than $10 billion of venture capital invested in a single quarter. Ciccolella said in a statement when the data was released: "The fourth quarter's largest deals included startups that deploy technologies to challenge incumbents in the financial services, education, retail and consumer industries. These emerging tech-enabled segments have disrupted traditional industries and should continue to command a larger portion of venture capital dollars in 2016 and beyond." He added that if there are successful exits for investors, such as acquisi- tions or initial public offerings, the number of new companies and investments in them could grow, because entrepreneurs from the exit companies will form new companies and stay in the state. — L o r i V a l i g r a Deals Amount Invested Deals Amount Invested CT 13 $142,672,200 12 $175,077,100 MA 108 $1,920,878,900 94 $1,052,027,800 ME 2 $75,000 2 $2,379,000 NH 4 $68,680,100 3 $21,928,700 RI 4 $37,299,800 5 $9,450,900 VT 3 $8,079,000 1 $2,000,000 New England venture capital investments S O U R C E : The MoneyTree Report by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association based on data from Thomson Reuters Q4 2014 Q4 2015

• Cover