Invest Southwest Completes Successful Capital Conference

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Derek Sarley
Marketing and Communications Manager
Arizona State University
(480) 884-1564
dsarley@azte.com

Invest Southwest Completes Successful Capital Conference in Scottsdale

Sokikom Voted Best Presentation and Most Likely to Get Funded; WebPT Secures $1 Million

(Scottsdale, Ariz. – December 21, 2010) – Invest Southwest, the premier capital conference in the Southwest, title sponsor The Miller Group, successfully completed the 19th annual event December 8 – 10, 2010. The highlights included a record number of venture capitalists attending the opening dinner.

In addition this year’s attendees were for the first time able to vote by texting on their cell phone after each of the 11 presenting companies gave their 10 minute pitch to investors.  The two primary categories that attendees voted on were “which was the best presenting company?” and “which company is most likely to be funded?”.  Both categories were won by Sokikom, a Scottsdale-based company that has innovated a social-learning software to help elementary school students learn math.

“We felt privileged to be selected to present at Invest Southwest,” said Snehal Patel, founder and CEO of Sokikom. “Being voted as the top pick among all other companies to some degree validates our product as a game changer in education. Our software helps children in grades 1 through 6 learn math in an exciting new way, and we felt that investors realized this from the videos and results that we shared.”

“We’re pleased with the performance of the 11 presenting companies and the strong turnout of the capital community to Invest Southwest this year,” said Stephanie Spong, Chair of Invest Southwest. “Each year we aim to make progress with the conference and this time our new website, new video, new voting system and outstanding keynote presentation by Dr. Peter Diamondis all helped us again raise the bar.”

Dr. Diamondis is known for rewarding entrepreneurs who are able to achieve technological advances such as private spaceflight and 100 mile-per-gallon equivalent cars with an X PRIZE. His luncheon presentation gave investors and entrepreneurs hope that many of man’s significant challenges can be overcome with creativity – and his X PRIZE program aims to continue inspiring that creativity.

Several days after Invest Southwest, another presenting company announced that they had secured $1 million to support their growth.  Paul Winandy, CEO of WebPT, said the funding will help the company begin to market its product beyond the customers they already have.

“I’d like to thank The Miller Group for their title sponsorship, the other sponsors and partners for their financial and organizational support, Arizona State University for their administrative support and everyone who planned and participated in Invest Southwest,” concluded Stephanie Spong. “Special thanks go to the angel and institutional investors who attended in support of Invest Southwest Capital Conference and the technology business community of Arizona and the Southwest. See you next year!”

This year’s presenting companies at Invest Southwest were:

About the Invest Southwest Capital Conference

Invest Southwest has been connecting entrepreneurs and investors in the Southwest since 1992. Presenting companies have raised over $300 million at the conference, and presenters from past conferences have included regional success stories Ventana Medical, NetPro, Vivid Semiconductor and AutoXray. Companies at Invest Southwest typically seek between $500,000 and $5 million in capital from investors from around the US and the world. For more information about the conference, with title sponsor The Miller Group, visit www.investsouthwest.org and www.twitter.com/investsw. Arizona State University is the administrative host of Invest Southwest.

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