VC Investing Hitting the Brakes
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GENERATION NEXT Successor Michael Russell Atlanta’s gained experience before Largest leading his family business. Employers STRATEGIES 31A-35A 19A July 22-28, 2016 52 PAGES • $2.00 VC investing hitting the brakes BY URVAKSH KARKARIA ukarkaria@bizjournals.com or Atl anta’s tech industry, a fundraising winter may be F coming. In what could be a tell-tale sign of a broader retrench- Who’s Who ment, the venture capital industry appears to have applied the fund- in Nonprofi ts ing brakes in the second quarter — VITELLI JOANN Highlighting 50 nonprofi t in Georgia and nationally. leaders including Georgia companies drew $117.24 million in the quarter, PUBLIX IN TALKS Alicia Philipp. down 43 percent from a year SECTION 25A-28A earlier, according to the Money- FOR ANOTHER Tree report, published by Price- waterhouseCoopers LLP and the WATTS C. JAMES BY ILLUSTRATION PHOTO National Venture Capital Associa- marketing budgets to grab market share — INTOWN STORE tion based on data from Th omson Reuters. knowing they can always raise fresh capital. BY AMY WENK Venture funding in Georgia year-to-date, Now, some of these companies are jettison- awenk@bizjournals.com meanwhile, is half of what it was in the fi rst ing jobs and slashing spending as they face ublix Super Markets Inc. looks like six months of 2015. the reality of a tougher and more expensive the latest grocer to become a fan of In good times, tech companies invest in Pthe Atlanta Beltline. growth — bulking up their sales force and CONTINUED ON PAGE 20A Publix would become the grocery anchor in the $250 million redevelop- COVER STORY ment of the Leggett & Platt site, accord- ing to sources familiar with the talks. The site, which spans 17 acres on Memorial Drive and along the Beltline, is being redeveloped by Atlanta-based Fuqua Development LLC. Southside Publix has entered advanced dis- Market Report cussions to become part of the project, known as Madison Yards, which will Hapeville project include 150,000 square feet of retail a sign developers (including a movie theater and grocery are ‘turning south.’ store), 600 residential units, 85,000 square feet of offi ce, and townhomes. B SECTION © American City Business Journals - Not for commercial use Jeff Fuqua, who leads Fuqua Devel- opment with partner Heather Correa, said he could not comment on potential tenants for Madison Yards. Publix, one of the country’s 10 largest supermarket chains, is expanding again in metro Atlanta after several quiet years. In fact, since late 2011, Publix has opened eight stores in Georgia, the closest being in Conyers. Now, the company appears to have more focus on putting stores within JOANN VITELLI JOANN intown Atlanta. As Atlanta Business Chronicle reported in June, Houston-based Wein- Record labels on the garten Realty Investors is in advanced talks with Publix to anchor its planned $450 million redevelopment of the aging rebound in Atlanta Atlanta Civic Center. Publix may be eying areas including A larger presence by major labels would Decatur, according to sources. It may also be scouting Atlanta’s trendy West- boost Georgia’s $3.7 billion music industry. side, especially around the hip shops and STORY BY Phil W. Hudson, 12A CONTINUED ON PAGE 16A America’s best network just made a good plan even better. Introducing the new Verizon Plan for Business. Now with up to 200GB of data and more ways to control it. Carryover Data lets you roll over any unused gigs to the next month. And, when you choose Safety Mode, you can stay connected if you use all your data without surprise overages – or worries. And now get $100 when you buy a new 4G LTE smartphone. 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Coverage, varying by svc, not available everywhere; see vzw.com. © 2016 Verizon. 1.800.VZW.4BIZ | vzw.com/businesspricing JULY 22-28, 2016 ATLANTA BUSINESS CHRONICLE 3A NEWS ARBOR PHARMACEUTICALS Fast-growing Atlanta pharma fi rm aims for $1 billion in sales BY ELLIE HENSLEY to 22 commercialized drugs, including its ehensley@bizjournals.com fl agship products, Edarbi and Edarbyclor, for hypertension, and BiDil, a heart failure Atlanta-based Arbor Pharmaceuticals drug specifi cally for African-Americans. is a fast-growing local company that just “In a landmark study, it demonstrated closed a $467 million acquisition in Sili- a 43 percent reduction in mortality and a con Valley, but chances are you’ve never 39 percent reduction in hospitalizations,” heard of it. Schutter said. “...When they tested it in a And CEO Ed Schutter likes it that way. broader population, it didn’t work as well “My focus is on building the business, in Caucasians.” not talking to the press,” Schutter said. Arbor’s other products include Sklice, But you can expect to hear more about the market-leading prescription treat- Arbor. Schutter has big ambitions. ment for lice; two products for atten- “Our goal is to get at $1 billion in sales,” tion-defi cit hyperactivity disorder; and Schutter says. “I think you need to spend Cetylev, an acetaminophen overdose anti- $200 million a year in research and devel- dote. Although the company is currently opment to compete with the rest of the developing several of its own products, it pharma companies. Th at’s why I say a bil- has grown mainly through acquisitions, lion a year is our target, because then we and none have been so large as its recent BYRON E. SMALL would have the resources to spend that acquisition of XenoPort. Arbor Pharmaceutical just completed a $467 million acquisition of a California much a year.” Arbor’s big acquisition made head- pharma company. Arbor doesn’t publicly announce its lines, but Schutter prefers to fl y under sales, but Schutter said it is poised to meet million this year.” than 20 employees, but it was its licenses the radar. his goal within fi ve years. Arbor will shutter XenoPort’s Cali- Schutter and his investors were after. “We generally don’t do press releases Th e company’s latest deal will propel fornia offi ces within the next 90 days. “We just needed a framework, a com- unless the other partner wants us to. But it toward that goal. On July 5, Arbor com- Th e company had about 200 employees, pany that had licenses to sell and dis- [XenoPort] is a public company, so we pleted its acquisition of Santa Clara, Calif.- and Arbor has brought on board 112 of tribute in all 50 states,” Schutter said. “It had to.” based XenoPort Inc. Formerly a public its reps and a few of its employees from can take you six to nine months to get all And Schutter has no plans to take the company whose stock was listed on the headquarters. those licenses, maybe even a year. Our company public any time soon. Nasdaq market, it posted sales of $41 mil- Schutter was previously president and main reason for that acquisition was to “I like being private,” he said. “My lion in 2015. Its lead product is Horizant, a chief operating offi cer of Atlanta-based buy that distribution network.” last company was public, and then the treatment for restless legs syndrome and Sciele Pharma (now Shionogi Pharma). Since moving to Atlanta, Arbor has focus is on quarterly earnings. I’ve got pain associated with shingles. He bought Arbor in March 2010 along grown to 700 employees. About 100 of very good investors and we’re all aligned “We constantly look at products to with other investors, including JW Asset these are based at the company’s head- on what we’re trying to do here, which acquire and bring in,” Schutter said. Management and businessman Allen quarters in Sandy Springs, Ga., and the is build a good pharmaceutical and tech “XenoPort told analysts they expect Chao . At that point, the Raleigh, N.C.- rest are representatives out in the fi eld. company.” [Horizant] to do $61 [million] to $65 based company had few products and less Arbor has grown its product portfolio TERMINUS Startup launches expansion chasing $3B to $5B market BY URVAKSH KARKARIA employs 65. “Account-based marketing ukarkaria@bizjournals.com Terminus’ subscription software plat- form focuses on “account-based” market- has emerged as a major Marketing software fi rm Terminus will ing, and provides a way to connect with category. It’s a land grab invest $1.5 million in an expansion that qualifi ed prospects so that eff ort isn’t will create more than 100 jobs over the wasted on prospects that aren’t a good we are going for.” next few years. fi t, or unlikely to purchase. Terminus, led by CEO and co-founder © American City Business JournalsMarketing - Not automation for commercial software has use ERIC SPETT Eric Spett, helps marketers target, engage swamped marketers with sales leads. Th e Terminus CEO and co-founder and grow the marketing and sales pipe- pain point is delivering on that pipeline line. Business-to-business marketers are by converting prospects into paying cus- and video) via integrations to more than growing more focused on revenue gener- tomers, Vajre said.