ST. LOUIS, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Xceede Solutions, a technology solutions provider, has been selected to partner with BioSTL and its investment arm BioGenerator, to implement a management platform for its various programs, encompassing its economic development oriented programs and venture investments.

"Xceede Solutions brings strong thought leadership and best practices to help us manage the cadre of efforts BioSTL undertakes to help bolster the St. Louis region," said Edward Hamati, Director at BioGenerator. "We are proud to partner with Xceede to implement our new program management platform. It will allow us to strategically use data to manage our various program offerings, including the BioGenerator investment portfolio; create more opportunities for inclusion, diversity and equity within the innovation community; and, continue to attract the U.S. presence of high-growth, innovative companies from overseas."

Canaan has put together an $800 million investment fund. The fund positions Canaan to place a fresh round of bets on early-stage biotechs, continuing the strategy that has delivered it paydays as companies including Johnson & Johnson and Teva have snapped up pieces of its portfolio.

In keeping with the strategy it has followed over its 30-year history, Canaan will split the latest fund between tech and biotech. Today, about 40% of Canaan’s cash goes into biotech and medical technology, the Wall Street Journal reports, suggesting its 11th fund could funnel about $320 million into developers of drugs and devices.

A growing number of companies have embraced the need for strong digital leaders. Our 2016 study of chief digital officers (CDOs), which analyzed the presence of such leaders among the world’s 2,500 largest public companies, revealed that 19 percent of these companies have now designated an executive to lead their digital agenda. This number is up from just 6 percent of companies in our 2015 study. And the uptick has gained momentum in recent years: Sixty percent of the digital leaders we identified in our most recent study have been appointed since 2015.

Image: https://www.strategy-business.com - Illustration by Lars Leetaru

The European Union is planning a grand new body to make the Continent more innovative and to spur the emergence of companies that create entirely new markets, such as Uber, Google and Amazon.

For too long, the EU has been best known for fining and regulating such firms, rather than spawning them, Brussels policymakers believe.

Since President Trump’s election, Republicans officials in nearly one-third of the country’s states have lobbied for ways to reduce political dissent. As the Washington Post has reported, that includes laws against protesting by ratcheting up punishments for highways, outlawing the use of masks to conceal your identity, and in more extreme cases even absolving drivers who might hit those obstructing traffic, and making demonstrators financially liable for any resulting violence or property damage.

Currently, only about 10% of cancer patients in sub-Sahara Africa receive chemotherapy treatment. More than a half million people are diagnosed with cancer in the region annually, while nearly the same number die from it each year, too. Without intervention, that toll is expected to double by 2030, partly because as people are otherwise living longer, thanks to better malaria and HIV treatments and prevention. But chemotherapy and related drugs are both expensive and tricky to use because there are so many types and stages of the disease.

Image: “It’s about driving social impact and it’s also about bringing a little bit of fun back to the workplace, which I think is pretty important.” (Photo: courtesy IBM)

In Silicon Valley, venture capital funding still overwhelmingly favors men. 

Male investors often don't fully understand the value of ideas women entrepreneurs pitch them. They throw capital at food delivery service after food delivery service, but ignore ideas that cater to groups they're not part of. 

There's one type of funding, though, where women are outdoing men. According to a new study from consulting firm PWC and The Crowdfunding Center, women are flat-out better at crowdfunding than men. 

After launching an artificial intelligence-focused venture capital fund earlier this month, Google is today announcing a new program that helps machine learning-centered startups by providing tuned mentorship and support.

The Launchpad Studio (via TechCrunch) is a part of the broader Google Launchpad Accelerator program that provides equity-free support, all-expense-paid training at the Googleplex, and access to Google engineers, resources, and mentors.

Why do some people you know at work consistently get things done, while others never seem to finish anything? It’s certainly not all about intelligence, skills, and training. Some of the best-prepared people I know are the least productive, and they are quick to offer the excuse that they are idea people, perfectionists, or easily distracted. Most experts agree the real key is motivation.

Investing in start-ups used to be the domain of the fabulously wealthy—$2 million net worth or $200,000 annual income only, please and thank you, but Rohan Shah is here to change that. Shah, a rising junior at the University of Pennsylvania, wants to ensure that every average Joe is afforded the same opportunity to invest in start-ups as the 1 percent.

In a scene full of white tech bros from Silicon Valley, Shah is a breath of fresh air. Using money he made from mining BitCoin in high school and investments from Rough Draft  entures, the Philly-based Computational Finance major founded a company called Slice Capital, an equity crowdfunding platform that allows non-accredited investors to invest in pre-vetted start-ups.

Image: Rohan Shah, a junior at the University of Pennsylvania and creator of Slice Capital

Ride-hailing startup Lyft announced last week that it’s making its own self-driving car technology—a move that could help it meet an audacious goal of having autonomous vehicles chauffeur most of its passengers around by 2021.

It sounds a bit far-fetched, considering that autonomous cars are still largely in the testing stages, but Lyft is just one of many companies saying that 2021 will be the year that these vehicles finally get out on the roads en masse. 

Image: MR. TECH

A new type of trial design can help the healthcare industry bring beneficial therapies to patients sooner and stop researching inferior ones earlier.

Value has found a place at the heart of healthcare innovation. For money-conscious governments and other actors in the system, it’s not enough that a new treatment be beneficial and safe. It also needs to be cost effective.

When 3M introduced Scotch tape in 1930, at the start of the Great Depression, it was a remarkably apt product for a scrimping and saving population — and an extraordinary advance. By combining two recent discoveries, masking tape and DuPont’s impermeable cellophane, 3M scientists had produced a clear, clean, inexpensive binding device, useful for mending rips in a wide spectrum of materials. Musicians used Scotch tape to patch ripped sheet music; women, to fix broken fingernails; accountants, to restore torn ledger books; and banks, to repair ripped currency.

Image: Illustration by Lars Leetaru - https://www.strategy-business.com

The Fourth Economy Index (#FECIndex) highlights counties that understand the balance of factors it takes to retain and attract talent, support business growth, and create the environment for a vibrant place.

When we started the Fourth Economy Index back in 2012, we were looking to prove with data what we already knew to be true: while job growth and investment are good indicators of a community’s progress, they are not enough.

I often get calls from senior executives after they’ve lost their jobs or get fed up with corporate bureaucracy. As they seek my advice and connections, (connections often meaning “do you have some business for me?”), what often comes up is their desire to find the perfect entrepreneurial opportunity.

I’m tough with them as I lead them through some self-exploration. Among the hard questions I ask is: Do you really understand what it means to be an entrepreneur? How long can you go without a paycheck, while funding yourself? Are you willing to be selling all the time…especially when you’re selling your vision? Are you willing to do all it takes to be successful?

With the title “Good Jobs That Pay Without a B.A.,” new research from Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce would seem to offer some solace for job seekers with only a high school credential. But not much, as the study shows that an increasing share of well-paying jobs have shifted to workers who hold four-year or associate degrees.

A decision by the Trump administration to delay and possibly rescind an Obama-era rule could cause the U.S. to fall behind other countries in attracting immigrant entrepreneurs who bring investments and create jobs, experts say.

The so-called International Entrepreneur Rule that the Obama administration introduced in August 2016 aimed to grant parole visas for up to five years to qualified immigrant entrepreneurs. The rule was set to take effect on July 17, but a week before that, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees the program, announced that its effective date has been delayed until March 14, 2018.

Full-time professionals interested in continuing their education often face the same worry: Is the loss of income and two years spent out of the workforce worth getting a master of business administration (MBA) degree?

Image: http://www.businessinsider.com 

Washington D.C. – The Center for American Entrepreneurship (CAE), a nonpartisan policy and advocacy organization, announces its establishment and launch today. CAE’s mission is to engage policymakers in Washington, and at the state and local level across the nation, regarding the critical importance of entrepreneurs and start-ups to innovation, economic growth, job creation, and expanded economic opportunity – and to pursue a comprehensive policy agenda intended to significantly enhance circumstances for new business formation, survival, and growth.

Image: http://www.startupsusa.org 

TOHealth! brought together diverse participants from Human Health and Sciences ecosystem in the Toronto region to develop Ontario’s first draft Cluster Action Plan under the Partnerships for Jobs and Growth Act. The draft Plan has been approved by the Minister of Economic Development and Growth / Research Innovation and Science and is now subject to a 30 day public consultation. Please download the draft documents using links above and share your comments using the button below. The consultation period ends August 11, 2017.

Image: http://www.tohealth.ca