Ansar Khan, a recent grad of the University at Buffalo whose venture Refulgent Software we've mentioned previously as a tenant of our member the UB Technology Incubator, was named to Forbes magazine's exclusive list of 2012 All-Star Student Entrepreneurs.

Refulgent Software's initial product Ambur is a mobile app for point-of-sale management in restaurants, and it was founded while Ansar was a student. It is currently profitable and employs nine programmers and salespeople, of whom eight are UB students or alumni. For more info, see the UB news release. Congrats to Ansar!

Sweetwater Energy, a client of the NYSERDA-sponsored Clean Energy Incubator operated by Rochester Institute of Technology in partnership with our supporting member the Venture Creations incubator, announced it has raised $9 million in Series A venture funding to finance production of industrial sugars from technically challenging cellulosic plant materials. These sugars can be refined into biofuels or used as feedstock for chemicals not based on petroleum.

For more information, please see the company's news release and coverage in BloombergBusinessWeek and the Rochester Business Journal.  

Coferon, a biotech firm newly based at our supporting member the Long Island High Technology Incubator at Stony Brook University, announced a $12 million Series B financing provided by three prominent venture-capital firms.

Coferon is developing "self-assembling" active pharmaceutical ingredients optimized for specific diseases. The firm is led by former executives of OSI Pharmaceuticals, also of Long Island, and one of its scientific founders is a faculty member at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City.

For more information, please see the company's news release and coverage in Long Island's ThreeVillage Patch.

The role that our member the Pratt Design Incubator plays in the ongoing revitalization of Brooklyn is highlighted by WNET-TV's MetroFocus program. The MetroFocus story notes how the Pratt Institute, its alumni, and energy created by the incubator at the Brooklyn Navy Yard are all helping revitalize the Myrtle Avenue corridor where the Institute's main campus is situated. The story also includes a video produced by WNET's companion program Treasures of New York, featuring several incubator tenants and program director Deb Johnson (video embedded after the break).