TNInvestco update

We got yer TNInvestco portfolio investment updates, righ'cher.

MBVP TnInvestco cash

Memphis Bioventures TNInvestco fund announced its first TNInvestco investment, and says there are more on the way. Story here.

Musculoskeletal Ventures: This week

MB Ventures and Memphis Bioworks collaborate for the Musculoskeletal New Ventures Conference, beginning tomorrow.

MB Ventures in Spinal Restoration B round

In Memphis, Managing Partner Gary Stevenson confirmed MB Venture Partners recently participated in a $16MM Series B round for its portfolio company Spinal Restoration. The early-stage company recently announced progress toward clinical testing for its nonsurgical treatment of symptoms associated with low-back pain. MB Ventures is founder and co-host with Memphis Bioworks of the Musculoskeletal New Ventures Conference each year, with the next outing scheduled for October. Austin Ventures, Path4 Ventures and Sante Health Ventures also invested in the B.

GTx target after FDA blow

Memphis-based GTx may be an acquisition target, in the wake of an FDA adverse ruling on a clinical trial that sent its stock reeling. The CA reports. A fuller story also appears in today's Memphis Daily News. The situation vividly illustrates the type risks many Tennessee VCs say they can live without. MB Venture Partners exited the stock at its IPO in 2006.

TN Investco process begins

The Memphis Daily News provides an update on Memphis VCs Innova Memphis and MB Venture Partners' interest in participating in the soon-to-launch Tennessee Small Business Investment Company Credit Act program, that will charter TN Investcos to invest in early-stage Tennessee ventures, in the interest of jobs creation and economic development. Other VNC TNInvestco coverage of the new program.

VCs let venture CEO pick Memphis hometown for HQ

Now, that's what we're talkin' about: Novalign Orthopaedics (formerly known as Osteolign) was hatched out of the Innovation Factory in Duluth, Ga., and funded by VCs who let the CEO Jeff Roberts, a Memphis native and U. Memphis grad, pick the Novalign headquarters. He picked Memphis. The VCs are Accuitive Medical Ventures, Duluth, Ga.; SV Life Ventures of Boston; and, Versant Ventures, Menlo Park. MB Ventures of Memphis is also mentioned as having invested in other medical devices. Novalign's big play, right now, is a nail approved by FDA for use in fixing messy fractures. The story was recently reported by the Commercial Appeal.

VCs hold differing views on Tech plays

In one story, Seth Harward (left) of Frontier Capital says Nashville is a good hunting-ground for SaaS and IT companies for his private-equity firm, while in a second offering this morning MB Venture Partners' Gary Stevenson says he'd rather leave that to the natives, while he collaborates with them and tends his own chosen niche. The two stories thus complement one another.

MB Venture sets Fund III

Pitt Hyde-founded MB Venture Partners in Memphis is apparently angling toward the launch of its third fund, suspected to go north of $100MM, on top of the $76MM assets already under management at the bio-oriented firm. Read our story here, including MBVP Managing Partner Gary Stevenson's (left) nonrevelatory comment.

Venture Forum model for Nashville eyes

In Memphis last week, 22 fledgling companies presented their business plans to an audience of about 200 gathered at the FedEx Institute of Technology, for the 6th Annual Musculoskeletal New Ventures Conference (MNVC). The co-sponsors are Memphis Bioworks Foundation (MBF) and MB Venture Partners. This is the kind of thing that might one day occur in Nashville, if the Chamber and Partnership 2010 continue on their path toward creating a 'Virtual Entrepreneur Center'. The closest thing we have, right now, is the general business plan competition conducted biannually by the Nashville Business Incubation Center (NBIC).