Acquisitions, Fundings, Donations, Hirings, and More (Two-Week Highlights, June 5—18, 2021)
Code Corp. gets bought; RET Ventures raises $165 million; the UofU lands a $110 million donation for its School of Medicine; healthcare VCs pledge $50 million to a Utah incubator; and more.
Maybe it’s my take on what I see as the downward-sloping trend of a worldwide pandemic or impressions from decades ago from my youth, but in my mind it feels like the summer months are supposed to be slower, a bit more relaxed, than the rest of the year.
And maybe that’s the way it is for you, my readers.
As far as I’m concerned, however, I haven’t been this busy in June for many, many years.
But I am, and that’s probably a good thing, right?!?! At least it beats the alternatives.
So … personal busy-ness being the thing, today’s edition of Deseret Business Watch features the highlights of the top business stories from the State of Deseret for the past two weeks, namely Saturday, June 5 through Friday, June 18.
Enjoy.
Code Corp. Acquired for $173 Million by Brady Corp.
Yesterday morning, 107-year-old Brady Corporation (NYSE:BRC) announced it was acquiring Salt Lake City-based Code Corporation for $173 million.
Salt Lake City-based Code is known for its “durable high-performance barcode scanners” and the related software that runs such devices, solutions primarily sold to North American healthcare providers.
RET Ventures has Raised $165 Million for an Investment Fund Targeting Real Estate Technology Innovators
Park City, Utah-based RET Ventures announced 10 days ago that it had raised $165 million for a fund focused on placing investments with technology firms focused on the real estate market.
According to the RET news release, the $165 million for RET Ventures Fund II was secured from over
“… 40 leading multifamily and single-family real estate owners, operators and developers in North America who serve as technology development partners and customers for the startups RET invests in.”
According to the news release, RET previously raised $108 million in RET Ventures Fund I in November 2018.
UofU School of Medicine Receives Total of $110 Million in Donations from Two Eccles Foundations
The Nora Eccles Treadwell Foundation.
According to the news release, “The gift includes
“$40 million for endowment, which will enrich student scholarships, recruitment of top-flight faculty, and innovative medical education programs;
“$40 million for research, focused on cardiovascular science and heart disease; and
“$30 million for a new, state-of-the-art School of Medicine building.”
In connection with the significant donation, the University announced it would rename the School of Medicine the Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine.
The news release further explained that
“University of Utah Health is the only academic medical center in the Intermountain West, providing patient care for nearly 10 percent of the geographic area of the continental United States.”
Clearly, this is a really big deal for the University, the Medical School, and the citizens of Utah and the surrounding states. Bravo!
$50 Million in Investment Funding Pledged to Salt Lake City-based Incubator, Altitude Lab, and its Focus on Attracting and Supporting Underrepresented Founders of Healthcare Startups
Fourteen healthcare venture capitalists have banded together to pledge $50 million in funding dedicated to attracting and supporting underrepresented healthcare startup founders via Altitude Lab.
Salt Lake City-based Altitude is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit incubator founded in 2020 by SLC-based Recursion Pharmaceuticals (NasdaqGS:RXRX) and the University of Utah’s PIVOT Center.
The founding investors supporting this initial $50 million in funding are
Alaa Halawa, Mubadala Capital
Andrea Jackson, Northpond Ventures
Austin Walters, SpringTide Capital
Greg Yap, Menlo Ventures
Jack Boren, Epic Ventures
Katelin Roberts and Branden Rosenhan MD, MedMountain Ventures
Keith Marmer, University of Utah Innovation Fund
Michael Schmanske, AngelMD
Nan Li, Obvious Ventures
Nathaniel Horwitz, RA Capital
Nickolas Mark, Intermountain Ventures
Zachary Bogue, JD, DCVC
Zavain Dar, Lux Capital
BookClub Lands $20 Million Series A Round of Funding
Salt Lake City-based BookClub announced earlier this week that it has closed on a $20 million Series A round of funding.
Formed during the height of the Covid-19 outbreak in May 2020,
“BookClub is the world’s first virtual book club platform led by authors themselves. Video-based and mobile-first, BookClub provides an entirely new way for readers and writers to connect and discuss books.”
The funding this June follows a $6 million Seed Round of funding for BookClub last September.
LDS Church Pledges over $9 Million in Humanitarian Aid and Scholarships to the NAACP and United Negro College Fund
Earlier this week, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints pledged over $9 million in combined humanitarian aid and scholarships to
“bring relief to suffering souls in underprivileged areas of the United States” and to
“… help young black students in the United States … allow selected students from the USA an opportunity to learn more about their heritage.”
News of the humanitarian and academic aid was shared earlier this week by senior leadership of the LDS Church, the NAACP, and the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) during a press conference held in the Church Administration Building in Salt Lake City.
Specifically, the LDS Church has expanded its partnership with the NAACP and will donate $6 million in humanitarian aid for inner cities in the United States f($2 million per year for the next three years).
Additionally, the LDS Church will donate $1 million per year for the next three years to help young black students in the U.S., with the scholarships overseen by the UNCF.
The Church is also providing $250,000 “for an Amos C. Brown Student Fellowship to Ghana” that will allow 50 U.S. students the opportunity to travel to Ghana to learn firsthand about their heritage.
More details about the donations can be found here.
Other News Items of Note from This Week
What follows below are six additional Noteworthy News Items taken from the breaking news announcements that hit our radar recently from Utah’s business community, news items we thought you might find worthwhile if not also intriguing.
Case in point —
Innovations in Nutrition + Wellness Acquires Capstone Nutrition from Brightstar Capital Partners
Ogden, Utah-based Capstone Nutrition was purchased 10 days ago from private equity company, Brightstar Capital Partners, by Innovations in Nutrition + Wellness (INW).
According to the news release, Capstone’s 300,000-square-foot manufacturing facility is one of the largest in the nutrition industry where it formulates, develops, manufactures and packages a wide range of capsules, tablets, and powders for customers around the globe.”
No other terms about the transaction were disclosed by the parties.
Vivint Smart Home Names New CEO
Provo, Utah-based Vivint Smart Home (NYSE:VVNT) has named David Bywater as its Chief Executive Officer.
David replaces company founder, Todd Peterson, who will remain on the firm’s Board of Directors.
According to the company news release, David was
“… chief executive officer of Vivint Solar (until April 2021), a position he held since December 2016 after serving in the role in an interim capacity beginning in May 2016. Before joining Vivint Solar, (he) served as the chief operating officer of Vivint Smart Home from June 2013 until May 2016.”
Pluralsight Names New CFO
Just because a company gets acquired by a major private equity group and no longer has publicly traded stock does NOT mean it doesn’t need a Chief Financial Officer.
So Mark Miller being tapped as the new CFO for Pluralsight is not a complete surprise.
You can read the details here in this Pluralsight news release.
Spy Hop Receives One-Time $3 Million Grant from MacKenzie Scott
MacKenzie Scott, one of the wealthiest women in America and the former wife of Amazon Founder and Chairman, Jeff Bezos, announced this week that she gave away over $2.7 billion in the first half of 2021 to 286 nonprofits.
And one of these organizations was Salt Lake City-based Spy Hop which received a $3 million donation from MacKenzie.
According to its website, Spy Hop
“ … is a digital media arts center offering in-school, after-school, youth-in-care, and satellite programming for students ages 9-19 of all skill levels and aspirations.”
To learn more about the donation, check out Spy Hop’s blog post on the subject.
Conservation Group Sues U.S. Government to Stop New Washington County Highway
In mid-January, I reported on the fact that “Two Federal Agencies Approve a Four-Lane Highway Thru the Red Cliffs Conservation Area in Washington County.”
However, a coalition of environmental conservation organizations has now filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government to fight such transportation development efforts.
Full details on the suit can be found here.
Louisiana-based District Judge Slaps Preliminary Injunction on the Federal Government, Effectively Undoing President Biden’s Halt to Oil and Gas Leases in Utah and 12 Other States
On the other side of the environmental coin, a federal judge in Louisiana has ruled in favor of a 13-state lawsuit to prevent the federal government from halting oil and gas leases in Utah and 12 other states.
Stated as simply as possibly, the ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Terry Doughty is an effective slap in the face of President Joe Biden and his efforts to prevent oil and gas extraction efforts on land and offshore by Executive Order, an EO signed January 27, 2021.
The bottom line is that as shown in his ruling, Judge Doughty eviscerated President Biden and issued a Preliminary Junction to prevent the federal government from halting oil and gas leases.
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Hashtags this week: #deseret #business #deseretbusinesswatch #utah #news #utahnews #utahbusiness #utahbusinessnews #acquisition #acquire #funding #donation #humanitarian #scholarship
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About the Author
David Politis is a Marketing Mercenary, which is a fancy way of saying that organizations and individuals hire him to solve their marketing problems. To learn more, please feel free to visit David’s LinkedIn Profile or the website for his business: The David Politis Company. If you have a story idea for him (or would just like to connect), you can reach him at me@davidpolitis.com.