Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania said it has invested $488,400 in a number of early-stage firms and established manufacturers.
Among the early-stage investments:
Ben Franklin invested $20,000 in Ophidon of Bethlehem to help support the firm’s pre-clinical studies of a treatment for Huntington’s disease, a fatal neurodegenerative disease with no current cure.
It also invested $100,000 in Rocket Cloud Inc. of Bethlehem to improve and implement a new marketing and sales strategy for its software program interface for the building materials supply industry.
The technology partners provided 1:1 matching funds for a number of established manufacturers working with college or university partners.
Ben Franklin invested $25,000 in Bearing and Drive Solutions of Reading, which is working with Lehigh University’s Center for Supply Chain Management to implement a new enterprise resource management system and review its manufacturing processes
It invested $25,000 in Brenntag Northeast Inc. of Reading, which is working with Lehigh University’s Enterprise Systems Center to improve warehouse and operating efficiencies.
It also invested $25,000 in Heritage Sign and Display Inc. of Nesquehoning, which is working with Lehigh University’s Enterprise Systems Center to design a new product and conduct industrial engineering work to increase manufacturing efficiency.
Other investments were made in Pike, Luzerne and Lackawanna counties.
