Highland Capital Partners Announces Summer@HIGHLAND 2012 Teams

Fourteen Startups to Participate in Fifth Year Program to Help Next Generation of Talented Entrepreneurs Become Successful

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. and MENLO PARK, Calif., June 6, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Highland Capital Partners, a venture capital firm focused on helping exceptional entrepreneurs build great companies, today announced the teams participating in the Summer@HIGHLAND 2012 program.  In its fifth year, this innovative program provides selected student entrepreneurs with the environment and resources for advancing the development and growth of their startup over the course of the summer.

"As history continues to show, college campuses are incredible environments for fostering the development of game-changing ideas and innovative new business models," said Michael Gaiss, Senior Vice President at Highland.  "We're thrilled to have the opportunity once again this summer to work closely with an exceptional group of entrepreneurs and startups."

Over 250 university-affiliated startups applied for consideration in this year's program.  Fourteen teams were selected with students from Boston University, Caltech, Harvard, Illinois, MIT, Penn, Pomona, Princeton, Rutgers, Stanford and UC San Diego.  Participating teams in the program include:

• Airbrite – helping brands get the most out of their mobile traffic
• Anchovi Labs – software for automatically tagging and organizing images and video based on visual content
• Axio – a next generation connected health device capable of both monitoring and improving people's ability to get 'in the zone'
• Brothersport Games – a mobile game developer building next-gen sports games in HTML5
• CareDojo – re-engineering home care provision with a set of tech-enabled tools that establish a connected care environment
• Collections – "Finder" reinvented for the age of cloud computing
• HandyBook – allowing users to find, book and pay for household services in a single, easy visit to our website
• MyBetterFit – intelligently interprets side effects of different birth control methods to find women the drug that fits them best
• Piccolo Technologies – their flagship mobile app, Melt, is revolutionizing the shopping and loyalty experience
• Prawg – interactive TV platform that allows users to interact with any show in real-time using their smart phones
• SnapBite – making it possible to order at a restaurant by pointing your phone at the menu
• Webcred – enabling people to rent, share and sell safely and efficiently by building trust in peer to peer marketplaces through credibility and transparency
• Wellframe – organizing clinical knowledge and using human-centered design to build a next generation technology-enabled treatment program for cardiovascular disease
• Wholesome – fixing the dinosaur that is retail with NFC, analytics, data visualization and prediction algorithms.

Selected teams receive $15,000 and complimentary office space in Highland's Kendall Square or Sand Hill Road office.  In addition, they work closely with the Highland team throughout the summer and have access to exceptional entrepreneurial mentors & speakers, along with resources from such firms as Amazon, IDEO, Silicon Valley Bank and WilmerHale. Highland receives no equity stake in exchange for participation in the program and teams are under no obligation to Highland after the summer.  Past participants have included the founders of such companies as CloudFlare, Wildfire Interactive, Gemvara, Affine, Ksplice, Imprint Energy, Tivli, AdPop and ByteLight.

"Summer@HIGHLAND continues our efforts to find innovative ways to partner with super-compelling university students with big ideas and help them become successful," said Sean Dalton, General Partner at Highland. "Applicant quality to Summer@HIGHLAND has always been excellent, but was off the charts in 2012.  We expect the summer to be an amazing experience for all and we're really looking forward to working with this year's teams."

Summer@HIGHLAND is one of several initiatives that Highland has implemented to connect directly with the next generation of entrepreneurs and talented individuals emerging from universities.  For years the firm has worked with college placement offices and student leaders to help make it easier for students to find permanent positions and internships at startups.  Earlier this year, Highland launched the first ever StartupTrek, an innovative three-day road trip involving eleven startups to recruit talent at some of the top technical universities in the country (Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, Michigan).

About Highland Capital Partners

Highland Capital Partners was founded in 1998 with the mission of helping great people build great companies.  With over $3 billion of committed capital and offices in Boston, Silicon Valley, Geneva, London and Shanghai, Highland has invested in and worked to create such firms as Ask Jeeves, Avid Technology, CheckFree, Conor Medsystems, Coremetrics, lululemon athletica, Lycos, MapQuest, Navic Networks, Ocular Networks, Odyssey Healthcare, P.A. Semi, Qihoo 360, Quattro Wireless, Quigo, Starent Networks, Sybase, Telica, Vertica and VistaPrint.  For more information, visit Highland's web site at www.hcp.com.

SOURCE Highland Capital Partners