CT lends $1M to seven startups

Connecticut Innovations Inc. on Tuesday announced $1 million in funding for seven technology startups in the first awards from the quasi-public technology investment arm’s pre-seed fund.

“Entrepreneurship is clearly alive and well in Connecticut,” said Peter Longo, CI president and executive director, in a statement.

The seven — based in Farmington, New Haven, Orange and Groton — had to get matching funds from private investors to collect their pre-seed stakes from CI.

Its pre-seed fund totals $4 million and provides loans up to $150,000 for startup and early-stage technology companies. The fund was first launched five months ago.

The recipients are:

–          AlloStem Theapeutics LLC, in Farmington, an early-stage pharmaceutical company developing targeted therapies for cancer patients;

–          Alphachromics Inc., in Farmington, launched by the UConn Research & Development Corp. to provide conductive polymer technologies;

–          CMDBioscience, in Orange, a computational biotechnology company specializing in therapeutic protein-peptide interactions;

–          eGen LLC, in Groton, a energy company studying hydrokinetic power;

–          Floop Inc., in New Haven, developer of social opinion applications for mobile platforms;

–          HDB Newco Inc., in New Haven, a software startup addressing processing demands of data-driven enterprises;

–          Shizzlr Inc., based in New Haven, an online social network specializing in location-driven social planning.

Each received $150,000, except for Alphachromics, which got $120,000, CI said.