News

AvidXchange’s Series fundraising

AvidXchange Inc., a firm that automates bill-payment processes for businesses, said that it raised $300 million in equity from a group of new investors to bring its service to new industries, potentially acquire smaller competitors and to expand internationally.

Investors in the funding round include Mastercard Inc., Singaporean state investment firm Temasek Holdings Pte Ltd., Canadian pension fund Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and and Peter Thiel, the investor and co-founder of payments company PayPal HoldingsInc.

Since its founding, Charlotte, N.C.,-based AvidXchange has raised over $500 million, more than amounts raised by Stripe Inc., Credit Karma Inc. and other well-known fintech players.

The latest investment, one of the largest for a fintech company since lender Social Finance Inc. announced a $500-million fundraising in February, values AvidXchange at around $1.4 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.

Click here to read more. 

Syngenta acquires FarmShots, Inc.

Syngenta announced it has acquired FarmShots, Inc., a North Carolina-based innovator of high-resolution satellite imagery that detects plant health by analyzing absorbed light from field images.
  
This service was developed to help farmers, agronomists and retailers quickly and accurately spot field issues caused by planter skips, emergence, insect feeding, poor plant nutrition, crop diseases, weeds, other pests and environmental damage. With this capability, FarmShots enables growers and their trusted advisers to reduce field scouting by as much as 90 percent and helps them focus on areas of need. 

Read more about it here 

Sensory Analytics Named a Fast 50 Company

The Triad Business Journal solicits nominations from across the region whereby companies confidentially submit their revenue for the past three years via a secure online portal to Smith Leonard PLLC. The accountants at the firm then verify those revenue figures, and rank companies using a formula that weighs both dollar and percentage change for each company for the three most-recent fiscal years.

There are three criteria that companies must meet to be considered:

  • Must be a private, for-profit venture;
  • Must have its U.S. headquarters in the Triad; and,
  • Must have finished three full fiscal years and had sales of at least $2 million in 2016.

You can view the Fast 50 profile for Sensory Analytics here: https://www.bizjournals.com/triad/news/2017/09/28/fast-50-no-38-sensory-analytics.html

FDA Clears Piedmont Pharmaceuticals Pesticide-Free Resultz® Lice & Egg Elimination Kit

Already top seller in multiple countries; Piedmont explores options for U.S. launch

GREENSBORO, N.C., July 11, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — Piedmont Pharmaceuticals announces it has received clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its patented, pesticide-free RESULTZ® Lice & Egg Elimination Kit, an odorless product that kills and removes head lice and requires only a 5-minute application time. Already a top seller in multiple countries, the RESULTZ Kit is ready to enter the U.S. marketplace, where sales of head lice treatments exceed $250 million. Based on its track record in other countries, this proven, pesticide-free head lice product is expected to be a game changer in the U.S. Piedmont is exploring various strategic options for the RESULTZ Kit, including working with a commercial partner, and has retained Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated to serve as its financial adviser.

Proven in clinical trials, plus real-world use with millions
Clinical studies using the RESULTZ technology have been conducted with more than 1,000 enrolled participants of varying ages. In addition, post marketing safety data have been recorded for many years from Canadian and European partner sales.

Marketed as early as 2005 in 11 countries under RESULTZ and other brand names, Piedmont’s invention quickly became a top seller when it was introduced, and has become one of the world’s most successful pesticide-free head lice products. It has been used on millions of patients in these 11 countries, demonstrating its safety and effectiveness in real-world use.

The new U.S. kit, which includes an easy-to-apply liquid and a comb, is recommended for adults and children ages 2 and older, and requires just 5 minutes to work, the shortest time for lice products.

Demonstrated efficacy against “super lice”
In recent years, genetic testing of head lice has shown that lice have developed resistance to the pesticides used in many traditional treatments. In particular, products containing pyrethroids are becoming less effective. According to a study published in the Journal of Medical Entomology in March 2016, lice in at least 42 U.S. states have shown genetic resistance to traditional treatments.[i]

These insecticide-resistant lice have been branded “super lice” in popular culture. The RESULTZ Kit is proven to kill even these resistant lice, and its unique patented formulation eliminates the potential for resistance.

“If you use insecticide-based lice treatments repeatedly, insects will develop mutations that give them genetic resistance or protection from the chemicals. That’s what’s happened with pyrethroids used in many of the traditional products on the market,” says lice expert John Marshall Clark, Ph.D. Clark directs the Massachusetts Pesticide Analysis Laboratory and is a professor of environmental toxicology and chemistry at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

“Head lice don’t transmit disease; however, they are a global problem, causing itching and scratching and requiring considerable time and effort to eradicate,” says Eric Barnett, M.D., Piedmont’s executive vice president of business development. “Of concern is the potential misuse of pesticide products on children. When traditional products don’t work, consumers may apply them in higher doses or more frequently than labeled. That overuse is worrisome because the products have been evaluated for safety in children when used as directed.”

Expected game changer for U.S. marketplace
“I predict the U.S. head lice market will now significantly change,” says Nick Thompson, former head of OTC marketing for Piedmont’s largest international partner. “Within five years of the launch of Piedmont’s innovative non-pesticide product, which is still a category leader in the U.K. and elsewhere, traditional pesticide products virtually disappeared from the UK marketplace. I anticipate a similar chain of events in the U.S.”

For more information visit www.ResultzLice.com.

About Piedmont Pharmaceuticals
Piedmont Pharmaceuticals LLC is a Greensboro, N.C.-based strategic pharmaceutical development and licensing company focused on human health therapeutics. The company discovers, develops, and achieves regulatory approval for innovative products and then licenses or sells them to strong commercial partners. Piedmont team members have extensive experience and success in developing animal health products driven by superior convenience. Piedmont’s veterinary business is operated separately as Piedmont Animal Health

[i] Gellatly KJ, Krim S, Palenchar DJ, et.al. Expansion of the Knockdown Resistance Frequency Map for Human Head Lice (Phthiraptera: Pediculidae) in the United States Using Quantitative Sequencing. J Med Entomol. 2016;53(3): 653-659.

Contact: Alice Coram, 919.293.0243, ext. 201, acoram@visionairemarketing.com

ACTIVE Network Acquires Virtual Event Bags

New Offering Connects Organizers With Sponsors and Enhances Participant Experience

ACTIVENetwork-logo-e1343338282790DALLAS–(BUSINESS WIRE)–ACTIVE Network®, the premier global marketplace for activities and events and the industry’s leading provider of data solutions, today announced it has acquired Virtual Event Bags™. Virtual Event Bags is an industry pioneer for virtual event bag software and has created a highly scalable technology platform to help activity organizers more effectively connect sponsors with participants through a customized, mobile-responsive micro- site that serves as a central hub for sponsor and exhibitor messaging. This acquisition marks another key step in ACTIVE’s strategy of providing organizers technology and data insights to differentiate their events and grow participation, while enhancing the participant’s experience.

“ACTIVE’s strategic acquisition of Virtual Event Bags reaffirms our commitment to delivering a powerful, comprehensive event management and data insights platform that helps our customers across all markets reach their full commercial potential,” said Darko Dejanovic, chief executive officer at ACTIVE Network. “Virtual Event Bags offers activity organizers a cost-effective way to increase engagement with participants and drive incremental revenue through sponsorships. We’re happy to have Virtual Event Bags join ACTIVE on our journey to support organizers at every stage of the activity lifecycle.”

Virtual Event Bags helps organizers manage sponsors and provides organizers, sponsors and participants a more convenient way to distribute and access valuable merchandise offers compared to onsite physical gift bags. Virtual Event Bags makes it easier for organizers to find new sponsors, engage with participants and access data insights. Integrating Virtual Event Bags’ technology into the ACTIVE portfolio enables ACTIVE to offer a fully integrated, comprehensive solution that further helps organizers connect with participants throughout the event lifecycle. For the endurance industry, ACTIVE now delivers event management, data insights, timing, and virtual event bags together in a robust, one-stop-shop solution.

“We are excited to join the ACTIVE Network team and add Virtual Event Bags to their suite of technology and data insights solutions,” said Gary Schwake, president and co-founder of Virtual Event Bags. “The integration of Virtual Event Bags with ACTIVE allows us the opportunity to continue what we started while taking the solution’s growth and scale to significantly higher levels. It also gives organizers an opportunity to interact with and connect participants to their sponsors as well as national brands in an affordable and measurable way. ACTIVE’s brands partners will now have another channel for increasing brand awareness and exposure. Nearly 2.5 million participants received a virtual event bag this year. This integration of Virtual Event Bags with ACTIVE is good news for organizers, participants and brands.”

The Virtual Event Bags platform will integrate with ACTIVEWorks® and ACTIVE Network Activity Cloud® to give organizers deeper and more comprehensive insights including participant trends and behavior from pre-registration through post-event. Participant visits, views, and engagement levels will be compiled into a dashboard-style detailed report to help organizers extend the value of the event and improve ROI for partners and sponsors. Organizers will also have access to content and promotions from national brands, increasing the availability of discounts and offers for their participants.

About Virtual Event Bags

Virtual Event Bags™ is the leading virtual event bag platform created to help event organizers more effectively connect their event sponsors with their participants. Through a customized, mobile responsive, micro-website, Virtual Event Bags effectively delivers sponsor and event- related content to attendees before, during and after the event. Our online software platform simplifies the process of creating, sharing and reporting on this content for event organizers. Founded in 2010, Virtual Event Bags has helped events distribute over 9 million bags for over 1,000 customers in North America, Australia, Europe, and Africa.

About ACTIVE Network

ACTIVE Network® is the leading global marketplace for activities and events, connecting participants and activity organizers, while offering unparalleled business intelligence through our industry-leading data solutions and insights platform that helps organizers drive increased participation and revenue. ACTIVE Network annually processes nearly 100 million registrations and more than $3B in payments for over 47,000 organizers and 200,000 activities and events worldwide. Our enterprise-level ACTIVEWorks® platform offers organizers leading-edge SaaS technology that streamlines the administration of activities and events. Our ACTIVE Network Activity Cloud® platform combines data analytics and business intelligence tools to provide actionable insights that help organizers better manage their events and increase participation. Founded in 1999, ACTIVE Network is headquartered in Dallas, Texas with offices throughout North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. For more information, please visit ACTIVEnetwork.com and follow us on Twitter.

© 2015 Active Network, LLC and/or its affiliates and licensors. All rights reserved. ACTIVE Network, ACTIVE.com, ACTIVE Net, ACTIVEWorks and ACTIVE Network Activity Cloud are registered trademarks of ACTIVE Network, LLC. Activity and Participant Management and ACTIVEkids are trademarks of ACTIVE Network, LLC. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Contacts
For ACTIVE Network
Kim Miller, 617-610-0583
kim@klmpr.com

AvidXchange Closes $225 Million Financing Led by Bain Capital Ventures

Charlotte, N.C., (September 14, 2015) AvidXchange, a leading FinTech provider of Accounts Payable and Payment Automation, announced today that it has completed a $225 million minority growth financing led by Bain Capital Ventures, with contributions from Foundry Group, NYCA Partners, KeyBank, Square 1 Bank, and TPG Special Situations Partners. The company becomes a part of Bain Capital Ventures’ portfolio alongside companies such as LinkedIn, Staples and Vonage, as well as technology companies Experian, Billtrust and iPay Technologies. The company’s long-term partner, Financial Technology Partners LP and FTP Securities LLC (“FT Partners”), served as exclusive financial and strategic advisor to AvidXchange in this transaction. AvidXchange intends to invest a significant amount of the funding to hire staff to support its rapid client growth, make select strategic acquisitions, and develop new product technologies to further serve its clients.

“We are thrilled with the investor group that we have assembled for this round as it is a combination of investors who have deep financial technology and payments expertise, as well as robust software and SaaS company knowledge in building multi-billion dollar tech companies,” commented Michael Praeger, CEO and Co-Founder of AvidXchange. “We’re excited to have attracted such a distinguished investor group – led by what we believe are the foremost private capital investors in the world with Bain Capital Ventures and TPG Special Situations Partners, along with a leader in software/technology investors with Foundry Group. Joining this group is one of the leading FinTech investor firms in Nyca, one of the most innovative “top 20” banks in the country with KeyBank –plus participation by technology focused business banking leader Square 1 Bank, in addition to partnering with the industry’s top FinTech focused investment bank with FT Partners—it’s an absolutely world-class group that we are proud to have as minority partners,” added Praeger.

“Given our focus at Bain Capital Ventures on financial technology, and high-growth payments companies in particular, AvidXchange has been on our radar for years. We view AxidXchange as leading the evolution of accounts payable automation and business-to-business payments across all verticals,” said Matt Harris, Managing Director at Bain Capital Ventures. “Soon gone are the days of paper checks, manual entry, and lockboxes. Automation is the wave of the future and AvidXchange is the driving force in one of the largest untapped tech sectors – with AvidXchange we see great growth potential,” continued Harris.

As part of this transaction, AvidXchange adds to its board of directors Matt Harris, Managing Director of Bain Capital Ventures, Brad Feld, Co-Founder of Foundry Group and Techstars, and Hans Morris, Managing Partner at Nyca Partners and former President of Visa.

About AvidXchange
AvidXchange revolutionizes the way companies pay their bills. Serving more than 5,200 clients throughout North America, AvidXchange is an industry leader in automating invoice and payment processes for midmarket companies spanning multiple industries including Real Estate, Financial Services, Energy, and Construction. AvidXchange has been recognized as one of the 50 fastest-growing private companies in the Charlotte area for four consecutive years, ranked among Deloitte’s Fast 500 this past year, and recently was named of the top 100 technology companies in North America by Red Herring. In the midst of record growth, AvidXchange has remained true to its most valued competitive advantage—its people. AvidXchange has been recognized as one of the Best Places to Work in Charlotte for six consecutive years. For more information, contact us at 800.560.9305 or info@AvidXchange.com.

About Bain Capital Ventures (BCV)
Bain Capital Ventures (BCV) provides seed through growth capital for companies focused on technology and technology-enabled services primarily for enterprise customers. BCV invests across sectors including infrastructure software, application software, FinTech and healthcare. Select BCV investments include BloomReach, BillTrust, Docusign, Gainsight, Infusionsoft, Kiva Systems, LinkedIn, Optimizely, Rapid7, SolarWinds, SurveyMonkey. TellApart and VMTurbo. As the venture capital affiliate of Bain Capital, a leading global alternative assets firm, BCV has partnered with more than 200 companies since 1984 to start, build, commercialize and grow their businesses. BCV has approximately $3 billion of assets under management and has offices in the Bay Area, New York City and Boston. Follow BCV at @BainCapVC or visit the website at www.baincapitalventures.com.

About TPG Special Situations Partners (“TSSP”)
TPG Special Situations (“TSSP”) is TPG’s special situations and credit platform and encompasses TPG Opportunities Partners, TPG Specialty Lending, Inc., and TPG Institutional Credit Partners.

About Foundry Group
Foundry Group is a venture capital firm focused on investing in early-stage information technology, Internet, and software startups. In addition to providing the necessary venture capital to get a company up and running, Foundry Group is committed to leveraging their experience in starting and growing companies, expertise in the technology industry, and network of relationships to help great entrepreneurs turn great ideas into great companies. Foundry Group is based in Boulder, Colorado, and invests in companies located across the United States. For more information, visit www.foundrygroup.com. Contact: Brad Feld

About Nyca Partners
Nyca Partners is a venture capital and advisory firm exclusively focused on applying innovation in financial services into the global financial system. Nyca has rich experience and deep connections in both finance and technology, which provides a unique perspective and facility to help entrepreneurs transform payments, credit models and financial infrastructure. For more information, visit http://www.nycapartners.com. Contact: Hans Morris

About KeyCorp
KeyCorp (NYSE: KEY) was organized more than 160 years ago and is headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio. One of the nation’s largest bank-based financial services companies, Key has assets of approximately $94.6 billion. Key provides deposit, lending, cash management and investment services to individuals, small and medium-sized businesses under the name of KeyBank N.A. Key also provides a broad range of sophisticated corporate and investment banking products, such as merger and acquisition advice, public and private debt and equity, syndications and derivatives to middle market companies in selected industries throughout the United States under the KeyBanc Capital Markets trade name. For more information, visit https://www.key.com/. KeyBank is Member FDIC.

About Square 1 Bank
Square 1 Bank is a full service commercial bank dedicated exclusively to serving the financial needs of the venture capital community and entrepreneurs in all stages of growth and expansion. Square 1’s expertise, focus and strong capital base provide flexible resources and unmatched support to meet our clients’ needs. Square 1 has offices coast-to-coast in Austin, the Bay Area, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Durham, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York, San Diego, Seattle and Washington, DC. For more information, visit www.square1bank.com.

Leica Microsystems to Acquire OCT Company Bioptigen

Integration of Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) Opens up New Avenues for Ophthalmology and Life Science Research

Wetzlar, Germany / Morrisville, North Carolina, USA. Leica Microsystems, a global leader in microscopy and imaging systems, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Bioptigen, Inc. to strengthen its position in the ophthalmology market. Bioptigen is a technology leader in the field of optical coherence tomography (OCT). The integration of OCT imaging into Leica Microsystems’ surgical microscopes will assist ophthalmologists during eye surgery.

Bioptigen develops and manufactures innovative OCT systems and software and is globally successful with products for clinical as well as translational research applications. Using low-power, near-infrared light, Bioptigen OCTs generate high-resolution, volumetric images of the eye. Bioptigen currently markets the FDA-cleared and CE-marked Envisu C2300 OCT for handheld, pediatric, and perioperative applications, and sells advanced ophthalmic OCT imaging systems for preclinical research globally.

OCT utilizes interferometry to create cross-sectional views of different types of tissue. This non-invasive technique is used to detect and monitor morphological changes of ocular tissue, in particular retinal layer thickness, which can give insight into pathological conditions such as glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration (AMD) or diabetic retinopathy.

Heinrich Dreyer, Vice President of Leica Microsystems’ Medical Division, says: “Adding Bioptigen’s OCT capabilities to our surgical microscopes directly addresses our customers’ requirement for better decision making tools. Bioptigen brings great products and expertise, and will be an important contributor to our growth in the ophthalmology market.”

Eric Buckland, CEO of Bioptigen, says: “We are delighted to join Leica Microsystems. Together, we believe we can jointly leverage our ophthalmic imaging technologies, address broader research and clinical markets, and more efficiently complete the next steps in integrating OCT imaging capabilities into the operating room.”

About Leica Microsystems

Leica Microsystems develops and manufactures microscopes and scientific instruments for the analysis of microstructures and nanostructures. Ever since the company started as a family business in the nineteenth century, its instruments have been widely recognized for their optical precision and innovative technology. It is one of the market leaders in compound and stereo microscopy, digital microscopy, confocal laser scanning microscopy with related imaging systems, electron microscopy sample preparation, and surgical microscopes.

Leica Microsystems has seven major plants and product development sites around the world. The company is represented in over 100 countries, has sales and service organizations in 20 countries, and an international network of distribution partners. Its headquarters are located in Wetzlar, Germany.

About Bioptigen

As a pioneer in the development and manufacture of leading edge Spectral Domain Optical Coherence Tomography (SDOCT) equipment and software, Bioptigen is helping researchers explore the wonders of ocular development and the mysteries of ocular disease. Deployed in top ophthalmic research and clinical institutions worldwide, Bioptigen SDOCT systems are supported by over 40 awarded patents. Bioptigen manufactures and sells SDOCT systems from the company’s Morrisville, North Carolina operations center.

Learn more about Bioptigen and its technologies

AvidXchange Acquires Houston AP Software Solutions Company, Strongroom Solutions

CHARLOTTE, N.C., (May 19, 2015) AvidXchange, leading provider of accounts payable and payment automation solutions for midsize companies, announced today the acquisition of Strongroom Solutions, further strengthening its position as the leading payment provider to the real estate market. Financial Technology Partners LP and FTP Securities LLC (“FT Partners”) served as exclusive financial and strategic advisor to AvidXchange in this transaction. With the majority of AvidXchange’s clients in the real estate space, the merger will provide these clients with a more comprehensive solution for Home Owner Associations (HOA), and will also optimize clients’ payment mix with expanded payment offerings.

Based in Houston, Strongroom is the industry leader in the HOA vertical and has provided accounts payable software solutions to over 200 small and midsize businesses since 2007. The company has developed a SaaS platform that provides payables services that are highly integrated to over 20 different accounting systems, with specific focus on the HOA industry. Due to the high degree of system and process compatibility with AvidXchange, migration to AvidXchange’s AvidPay Network can be rapidly executed and provide Strongroom clients with an easy way to maximize their electronic vendor payments.

“We made a name for ourselves by starting in the real estate space so we were seeking a highly complementary acquisition target in that space that could be seamlessly and quickly integrated with AvidXchange products,” said Michael Praeger, CEO and Co-Founder of AvidXchange. “With Strongroom’s dominant position in the HOA vertical and our leadership in the real estate space, we are able to offer our combined 3,000+ real estate related customers tremendous benefits.”

“Strongroom is excited to join the AvidXchange team,” commented Tyler Gill, CEO of Strongroom Solutions. “We are proud of the reputation we have built in providing innovative accounts payable solutions to the Home Owner Association (HOA) vertical market. AvidXchange’s beginnings in Real Estate and emphasis on delivering best-in-class customer support immediately spoke to me and the Strongroom team. I am looking forward to extending our leadership position in the HOA sector and other verticals through our merger,” added Gill.

About Strongroom

Strongroom Solutions, Inc., headquartered in Houston, TX, has been building accounts payable solutions to the Community Association Industry since 2007. As a Software-as-a Service (SaaS) platform, Strongroom enables real-time, secure invoice management and approvals for Association Managers and Board members. For more information please visit our website at www.strongroomsolutions.com.

About AvidXchange

AvidXchange revolutionizes the way companies pay their bills. Serving more than 4,800 clients throughout North America, AvidXchange is an industry leader in automating invoice and payment processes for midmarket companies spanning multiple industries including Real Estate, Financial Services, Energy and Construction. AvidXchange has been recognized as one of the 50 fastest-growing private companies in the Charlotte area for four consecutive years, as well as ranked among Deloitte’s Fast 500 this past year. In the midst of record growth, AvidXchange has remained true to its most valued competitive advantage—its people. AvidXchange has been recognized as one of the Best Places to Work in Charlotte for six consecutive years. For more information, contact us at 800.560.9305 or info@AvidXchange.com.

For Immediate Release Contact:
Jen Ittenbach
jittenbach@avidxchange.com
704.971.8106

Guerrilla RF closes on $500K funding round

Guerrilla RF Inc., a Greensboro-based provider of microchips for wireless network infrastructure, has closed on a $500,000 funding round and is set to begin mass production of its first products this summer.

The round was led by the Charlotte Angel Fund and also included Piedmont Angel Network and other participants, the company announced.

Ryan Pratt, founder and CEO of Guerrilla RF and son of RF Micro Devices Inc. co-founder Bill Pratt, said mass production of semiconductors will be carried out in Taiwan and packaging will be done in either Malaysia or the Philippines. The money will also allow the firm to develop additional products for the wireless network infrastructure market.

Guerrilla RF was founded in April 2013 and now has eight employees, seven of whom work from a location at 1196 Pleasant Ridge Road.

Pratt said his father is a minority investor in the company and a member of Guerrilla RF’s board of directors.

Greensboro-based RF Micro Devices Inc. and Hillsboro, Ore.-based TriQuint Semiconductor Inc. merged to become Qorvo (NASDAQ: QRVO).

Source: Triad Business Journal

Piedmont Pharmaceuticals Lands FDA Approval for Animal Health Medication

Greensboro-based Piedmont Animal Health has received Food and Drug Administration for its Advantus soft chew, a flavored chewable flea medication for dogs.

It’s the second product from Piedmont Animal Health, which is part of Piedmont Phamaceuticals, to receive FDA approval and the first to be approved as a new animal drug application.

The oral medication uses Piedmont’s patented soft chew technology that can make the medication more palatable to dogs and more convenient for dog owners. Its active ingredient is imidacloprid, an insecticide that acts as an insect neurotoxin.

“From start to finish, this product was developed on a rapid timeline, thanks to our talented and experienced team of professionals,” said Roland Johnson, founder and CEO of Piedmont Pharmaceuticals.

Johnson said that Piedmont Animal Health has more than 20 additional products in various stages of development and that he expects “a steady stream” of FDA approvals for new products.

In 2013, the company received FDA approval for for Quellin, an anti-inflammatory soft chew that uses carprofen to relive pain and inflammation associated with osteoarthritis in dogs.

The company plans to commercialize more than 10 of its pipeline products, and it holds licensing agreements for other products with multiple global animal health pharmaceutical companies. Executives anticipate hitting $175 million in annual revenue for those portfolio products by the end of 2020.

“With a pipeline this rich, I fully anticipate that Piedmont will be among the top seven companion animal veterinary pharmaceutical companies in the U.S. in just over five years,” Johnson said.

Piedmont Pharma in July brought on animal health industry veteran Dennis Steadman, who held senior positions with multinationals such as Merial and Merck, as its chairman.

Source: Triad Business Journal