The seed funding is from a broad range of investors in Atlanta, Silicon Valley, New York and Washington, D.C. The innovations on which the companies are based were developed in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, the School of Physics, the Microsystems Packaging Research Center and the Wallace Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering operated by Georgia Tech and Emory University.

Two of the new companies have already been accepted into the Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC), Georgia Tech's technology incubator.

In July, GTronix announced a commitment from Silicon Valley-based Menlo Ventures. A spin-off from Georgia Tech's School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, GTronix produces a novel, fully-programmable analog chip that can be used wherever analog signals are converted for use with traditional digital signal processors. The amount of the investment was not disclosed.

Also in July, Jacket Micro Devices closed its first round of financing, an undisclosed sum from Noro-Moseley Partners, Sevin Rosen Funds, Imlay Investments, the ATDC Seed Capital Fund and Atlanta Technology Angels. The company is commercializing integration technology for radio-frequency (RF) passive components. The work was done in Georgia Tech's Microsystems Packaging Research Center.

In June, Stheno Corporation - which is commercializing technology developed at Georgia Tech for improving pharmaceutical development and manufacturing - closed a $600,000 round of financing. The investment is from New England Partners of Boston, Healthcare Capital Partners of Atlanta, and Acorn LLC of Cabin John, MD. The technology was developed in the School of Physics and Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering.

In April, Orthonics, Inc., a start-up developing biomaterials for spinal disc repair and regeneration, received an undisclosed amount of initial funding from Viscogliosi Brothers, LLC, a New York-based closely held venture capital/private equity and merchant banking firm focused on the musculoskeletal/orthopedics industry. The funding provides the private match for a grant from the Georgia Research Alliance VentureLab Seed Grant program. The research was done in the Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering.

"This impressive round of funding announcements shows that VentureLab is moving Georgia Tech innovations into the marketplace and attracting early-stage investment for them," said Wayne Hodges, Georgia Tech's vice provost for Economic Development and Technology Ventures.

Jacket Micro Devices and Stheno have both been admitted to the ATDC.