Tech Council names new director of Wisconsin Angel Network

Early stage companies can apply to present in front of the most active investors in the Midwest at the annual Wisconsin Early Stage Symposium, to be held Nov. 4-5 at Madison’s Monona Terrace. Many past presenters have cited their participation at the conference as a key factor for getting funding and growing their business. Companies selected for the Wisconsin Angel Network track presentations will receive a complimentary individual Wisconsin Innovation Network membership for one year (a $100 value), as well as discounted conference registration, exhibit space and access to a mentoring session. Applications are due no later than 5 p.m. Monday, Sept. 28. Learn more and get started here.

High-ranking employees at Milwaukee-based Robert W. Baird and Co. plan to raise $50 million for a private equity fund, according to a Sept. 10 SEC filing. Seven executives, including CEO Paul Purcell, are named in the filing. The fund will be called Baird Principal Group Partners Fund I Limited Partnership. (Xconomy)

Superior, Wis.-based Fasetto, which makes both cloud storage software and solid state drives, has raised $5 million since 2014, says CEO Coy Christmas. The company plans to use the money to hire more software developers and put finishing touches on its wearable Link, which can hold up to a terabyte of data and will go on sale in March 2016. (Xconomy)

Tricast, a Milwaukee-area healthcare insurance consulting business that started selling analytics software last year, has raised nearly $3.3 million from investors to grow its software business, president and CEO Greg Rucinski says. The two funds that participated are Blue Heron Capital, of Wakefield, Mass., and Richmond, Va.-based Brook Venture Partners. (Xconomy)

The Water Council announced the Pilot Deployment Program, a two-year, $600,000 initiative to advance new clean water technologies. The Water Council is partnering with The Fund for Lake Michigan, backed by Milwaukee-based We Energies and the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District on the project. (Milwaukee Business Journal)

Biotech startup Invenra has raised $2 million in new equity financing, bringing their 2015 fundraising totals to over $4 million. The company, based in Madison, Wis., is one of a select few using cell-free protein expression to develop therapeutic monoclonal antibodies. (Xconomy)

FluGen Inc., a Madison biotechnology company that is developing flu vaccines, has raised $12 million in a funding round. Investors in the company's latest round of funding include Venture Investors LLC, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation and the State of Wisconsin Investment Board. Existing investors, including Knox LLC, also participated. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

Madison-based Shoutlet was acquired by Austin, Texas-based Spredfast, a fellow player in the social media management space, for an undisclosed sum. As of February, Shoutlet had raised about $31.2 million, a relatively large amount for a tech business in Wisconsin. (Xconomy)

Rent College Pads, a Milwaukee startup that helps college students find off-campus housing, raised $500,000, said founder and CEO Dominic Anzalone. The financing round marks the first outside investment in the website. Anzalone declined to name the seven investors who participated in the round. (Xconomy)

Integrated Vital Medical Dynamics is still developing its software product, but the Madison company reports getting its first outside funding of $342,000 from the Wisconsin Investment Partners angel, or individual, investor group. (Wisconsin State Journal)

Bright Cellars, a subscription wine service that started in Boston and now calls Milwaukee home, has raised about $1.8 million in a funding round that could reach $2 million, according to a regulatory filing. The latest financing round comes on top of $367,000 and $25,000 investments in Bright Cellars, according to SEC documents filed in January. (Xconomy)