Press

SOUTHERN PINES, N.C., March 3, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — First Bank, the largest community bank headquartered in North Carolina, has announced its launch of Autobooks, a small business payment and accounting platform that seamlessly integrates with the bank’s online and mobile banking.

Autobooks allows First Bank business clients to create invoices, accept payments, and pay bills automatically. This saves them from having to track down their customers or vendor partners for credit card numbers or checks. Business owners also get access to accounting tools and real-time reporting within Autobooks that make month-end, year-end, and tax-time assessments much less stressful. All of this lives directly within First Bank’s secure online banking system, making it easier for a small business owner to manage their cash flow.

“First Bank is committed to being the best bank for small businesses, so the decision to add Autobooks was an easy one,” said Jenna Williams, SVP, treasury services manager at First Bank. “Everything is extremely accessible from within our online and mobile banking platforms, and it automates a number of otherwise time-consuming, complicated processes for our clients.”

Steve Robert, co-founder and CEO of Autobooks, said, “We are proud to partner with First Bank to make small business banking better.  By integrating our solution directly within online and mobile banking, a small business owner consolidates the management of their business an

This is an article about portfolio company, Bloomscape.

I don’t exactly have a green thumb. In fact, I’ve managed to kill quite a few succulents, and I’m much more comfortable with the idea of a faux plant adding a pop of color to my living room than tending to a live one. So when I heard about Bloomscape, an online plant shop that delivers potted plants nationwide and provides free care advice from its resident “Plant Mom,” it seemed like the best way for me to start a living houseplant collection.

View source version on yahoo.com: https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/tried-bloomscape-delivery-turned-plant-135339647.html

Grand Rapids, MI, March 4, 2020 (Business Wire) – Tetra Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel treatments for patients with cognitive impairment and memory loss, today announced it has entered into an expanded strategic alliance with Shionogi. The two companies will work together to develop and commercialize BPN14770 for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, Fragile X syndrome and other indications marked by cognitive and memory deficits.

 Under the terms of the expanded alliance, Shionogi has increased its equity investment in the company to 50% and has the option to complete a structured buyout of the remaining equity if certain closing conditions are met based on the topline results of the company’s clinical Phase 2 PICASSO AD trial in patients with early Alzheimer’s disease expected to read out later this month.

 Tetra is developing BPN14770 for the treatment of brain disorders marked by cognitive and memory impairment including Alzheimer’s disease and Fragile X syndrome. In addition, Tetra has completed enrollment in a Phase 2 study of BPN14770 in adults with Fragile X syndrome, an indication for which BPN14770 has received Orphan Drug Designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

“This expanded alliance with Shionogi further validates our platform and the potential for BPN14770 to provide a new treatment option for patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease,” said Mark Gurney, Ph.D., Chairman and Chief Executiv

The new space race is happening between companies, not countries.

This is an article about portfolio company, Orbion.

A new alliance between two out-of-this-world companies could make commercial accessibility to space easier and cheaper. That’s thanks in part to a technology called Hall-effect plasma thrusters.

Hall-effect plasma thrusters are a type of ion drive in which a propellant is accelerated by an electric field. The technology has been around since the 1960s, and Hall-effect thrusters were in use on Soviet satellites between 1972 and 1990. 

View source version on tzdnet.com: https://www.zdnet.com/article/plasma-boosters-to-enable-access-to-space-as-a-service/

This is an article about portfolio company, Bloomscape.

If you’ve spent any time on Instagram or watched even one YouTube beauty tutorial, you may have noticed that all the coolest women seem to have plants in their bathrooms. Naturally, these green-draped self-care oases are a source of envy for anyone who considers their daily skincare routine to be an almost spiritual practice, but how do you know if the plants you’re bringing into your bathroom are actually good for that specific space? 

View source version on refinery29.com: https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/best-plants-for-bathroom

Detroit, MI - According to Pitchbook, in 2019 Invest Michigan was the fifth most active venture capital investor in the ‘Great Lakes’ region. In 2019, Invest Michigan made 16 investments into 14 high-growth technology companies. PitchBook defines the ‘Great Lakes’ region as comprising six of the states that border the Great Lakes: Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin.

Since 2014, Invest Michigan has been among Michigan’s most active early-stage investors, completing 110 investments into 52 early-stage companies.

Pitchbook’s 2019 Global League Tables can be found at:

 https://files.pitchbook.com/website/files/pdf/PitchBook_2019_Annual_Global_League_Tables.pdf

Movellus co-founder Jeff Fredenburg also promoted to CTO as part of executive team expansion to meet accelerating demand

SAN JOSE, Calif. and ANN ARBOR, Mich., Feb. 18, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Movellus, a leader in design-optimized, process portable “analog” IP technology, today announced the appointment of Dr. Ken Wagner as Vice President of Engineering. The hiring of the semiconductor, IP, and software veteran underscores Movellus’ commitment to ensuring its customers have the industry’s most advanced analog IP in substantially shorter delivery times, as well as its goal to rapidly expand the company’s analog IP coverage.

Dr. Wagner brings decades of semiconductor experience from companies such as Sidense and PMC-Sierra, where he served as VP of Engineering; he was also a Solutions Director at Synopsys. Dr. Wagner is also an adjunct professor of ECE at McGill University. He received his MS and PhD in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, and a BSEE with honors from McGill University. He holds 12 patents.

“Dr. Wagner’s strong track record in building and running multi-site teams, and as both a provider and consumer of IP and tools, will be invaluable to Movellus as we grow our team and expand our technology,” said Mo Faisal, President and CEO of Movellus. “Further, his deep SoC design expertise will ensure that Movellus IPs are implemented for the best possible performance, power and area as it pertains to the e

This is an article about portfolio company, Tetra.

Scientists have shown that inflammatory disease in the body is associated with an increased risk of Alzheimer’s

View source version on thepharmaletter.com: https://www.thepharmaletter.com/article/disease-modifying-ad-options-within-a-decade-says-tetra-ceo

Genomenon Commended by Frost & Sullivan for Advancing Clinical Genomics Interpretation and Personalized Medicine with Its Mastermind Platform

The company’s content-rich genomic database platform and AI-driven processing help mitigate early-stage genomic translational research challenges

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Feb. 11, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Based on its recent analysis of the global clinical genomics interpretation market, Frost & Sullivan recognizes Genomenon, Inc. with the 2020 Global Company of the Year Award. Genomenon offers products and services to pharmaceutical companies and clinical diagnostic labs to streamline clinical genomics interpretation and connect scientific evidence to patients’ genomic data. Its flagship product, Mastermind, automatically simplifies variant interpretation for faster, more accurate diagnosis and clinical decision-making. In just over two years, Mastermind amassed more than 5,000 users in 1,700 clinical laboratories across 101 countries.

Genomenon

“Powered by its proprietary Genomic Language Processing™ algorithm and genomic literature database, Mastermind has emerged a leading automated disease-gene-variant association database,” said Christi Bird, Principal Consultant at Frost & Sullivan. “Unlike other commercially available tools, the first-in-class genomic database sea

Rising startup acknowledged for flexible and collaborative work environment

Autobooks is a small business payment and accounting platform integrated within a financial institution’s digital banking experience. Today, the company announced that it has been named one of the 2020 Best Places to Work in Financial Technology by Arizent, publisher of American Banker and PaymentsSource. This is Autobooks’ first year on the list, ranking No. 36 of 49 companies.

Each year, Arizent and research partner Best Companies Group determine the rankings based on results from a two-part employee survey. Nominated companies were evaluated on workplace policies, practices, philosophy, systems, demographics and employee experience. Autobooks was recognized for its modern offices and leading amenities in booming downtown Detroit and Austin, benefits such as 401k matching, and professional development opportunities with organizations like the Detroit Fintech Association and Association for Financial Technology. Autobooks, now over 60 individuals strong, is passionate about ma

ANN ARBOR, Mich.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—ChoiceOne Bank, based in Sparta, Mich., announced today that it is expanding its relationship with HT Mobile Apps (HTMA), to offer the company’s entire portfolio of engaging apps: Plinqit, Banker Jr. and Hip Pocket™.

“Our customers love Plinqit, and they continue to keep saving and engaging because of the app’s rewards and a great user experience”

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When the bank launched Plinqit two years ago, its goal was to address its primary challenge of revenue optimization – acquiring low-cost deposits, writing good loans and creating long-lasting relationships, all with the goal to build and grow the business. The app enables customers to securely link their Plinqit account to their checking account, set a savings goal and automatically set as

This is an article about portfolio company, Bloomscape.

According to the National Gardening Association, U.S. houseplant sales grew 50% over the last three years. Bloomscape Founder and CEO Justin Mast joins On The Move to discuss the demand for houseplants and the online gardening landscape.

View source version on yahoo.com: https://finance.yahoo.com/video/u-houseplant-sales-grew-50-180754118.html

Ripple Science signs the world’s leading full-service ophthalmic Clinical Research Organization, Ora, Inc., as its one hundredth customer. With Ripple, Ora will centralize patient recruitment in order to improve efficiency at clinical trial sites. Utilizing Ripple’s offerings to bring recruiting in-house will enable us to gain performance visibility across all clinical sites.

ANN ARBOR, MICH. (PRWEB) JANUARY 23, 2020

Ripple Science today announced their one-hundredth customer. Ora, Inc., the world’s leading, full-service ophthalmic Clinical Research Organization (CRO), has adopted Ripple SaaS, enabling Ora to centralize patient recruitment in order to improve efficiency at clinical trial sites.

Rod Walker, Sr. Director, Head of Patient and Site Solutions at Ora, commented, “Utilizing Ripple’s offerings to bring recruiting in-house will enable us to gain performance visibility across all clinical sites. This will help to reduce risks and lead to greater retention and accelerated studies, which means better results for our customers.”

“The partnership with Ora represents a significant milestone for Ripple Science which embarked on a mission a year ago to develop product features and functionality specifically for the CRO market,” commented Peter Falzon, President and CEO of Ripple Science. “I am pleased that the team continues to achieve key milestones and that Ripple is attracting industry customers that have high expectations.”

A long-standing issue for clinical trials

This is an article about portfolio company, B2B.

Business payment startups and banks are rushing to offer clients the same kind of intuitive, automated payment experience that consumers have come to expect from their favorite personal finance apps. 

While startups like Bento for Business, HighRadius and AvidXchange are working with businesses to solve expense management pain points, Miami-based startup Biller Genie is embedding with banks in its effort to offer best-in-class payments experiences for business clients. 

View source version on bankinnovation.net: https://bankinnovation.net/allposts/innovation/startups/b2b-fintech-biller-genie-helps-banks-automate-business-payments/

This is an article about portfolio company, Ripple Science.

An Ann Arbor-based maker of HIPAA-compliant clinical research software has raised $2.5 million through equity financing, with more than 80 percent coming from funds outside Michigan.

View source version on crainsdetroit.com: https://www.crainsdetroit.com/finance/ann-arbor-based-ripple-science-nabs-national-vc-interest-25-million-round

This is an article about portfolio company, Bloomscape.

The Challenge

Bloomscape, a DTC plant delivery company, wanted to launch itself in a way that would achieve fast growth, but also bring value to its customers. 

Says Kelsey Cohen, director of growth, “I did not want to repeat the mistakes that I had seen so many other companies make. I have seen and worked for other companies that went full-force for acquisition without a content nurturing strategy and then floundered when they realized continued engagement was important to sustainable growth. 

“I also wanted to make sure that we were making our content work for us on multiple levels.”

View source version on mediapost.com: https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/345994/case-study-bloomscape-creates-conversations-with.html

Genomenon Extends its Lead over HGMD in the 4th Quarter

Genomenon® announced that over 175,000 recently documented genetic variants (DNA mutations) have been added to the Mastermind® Genomic Search Engine in the 4th quarter of 2019, for a cumulative total of more than 5.9 million genetic variants. This number reflects the rapidly accelerating pace of genomic discovery, and stands in stark contrast to the number manually curated by HGMD, the previous “gold standard” tool for variant interpretation: Qiagen added just under 11,700 variants in the HGMD Q4 2019 release, for a total of less than 276,000 genetic variants.

For many children and adults with rare diseases, definitive diagnosis is challenging due to the difficulty doctors face in connecting patient DNA with the scientific evidence found in the medical research describing the causative genetic variants. This limits the ability of doctors to diagnose and treat rare disease patients. The team at Genomenon created the Mastermind Genomic Search Engine to overcome this challenge.

Since Mastermind’s launch in 2017, the world’s top clinical laboratories and pharmaceutical companies have come to rely on Genomenon’s patented Artificial Intelligence processes to keep pace with the explosive growth of genomic research. Manual curation used for databases such as HGMD simply cannot scale, as demonstrated by the numbers abo

This is an article about portfolio company, Bloomscape.

Does your 9 to 5 grind leave you feeling anxious and uptight? According to this new study, you may want to turn to the power of plants. 

A team of researchers from the University of Hyogo in Japan recently found that having a plant on your desk can significantly reduce your stress in the workplace, publishing their findings in a study called “Potential of a Small Indoor Plant on the Desk for Reducing Office Workers’ Stress” in the American Society for Horticultural Science Journal. 

View source version on yahoo.com: https://ca.news.yahoo.com/desk-plants-significantly-decrease-stress-211339743.html

First Community Bank announced today that it will offer Plinqit, a savings app and the only savings tool that pays users for learning about personal finances, helping customers save money and creating higher engagement for financial institutions.

An expansion of First Community’s digital offerings, Plinqit supports the savings needs of customers. With Plinqit’s patent-pending Build Skills™, the only platform that pays users for engaging with content, users can grow their knowledge of finances. By simply watching a video or reading an article from the Plinqit library and taking a short quiz, users are rewarded for learning more about financial wellness.

Plinqit’s ease of use and implementation attracted First Community Bank to the tool, but the institution’s desire to help the members of its community achieve financial wellness made Plinqit a perfect fit.

“At First Community Bank, we believe that

This is an article about portfolio company, HTMA.

While third-party personal finance apps have garnered attention through direct-to-consumer offerings, HT Mobile Apps is looking to reach more users by offering savings and financial literacy tools to partner institutions. The eight-year-old company is working with banking technology giant FIS to reach new financial institutions. Through the FIS partnership, HTMA, which currently partners with 41…

View source version on bankinnovation.net: https://bankinnovation.net/allposts/biz-lines/retail/htma-aims-to-reach-users-through-more-bank-credit-union-partners-in-2020/

This is an article about portfolio company, Shoulder Innovations.

Holland, Michigan-based Shoulder Innovations, LLC has received FDA clearance for its InSet Plus™augmented glenoids for the InSet™Total Shoulder System.

The system, says the company, is “used to treat significant disability in degenerative, rheumatoid and traumatic disease of the glenohumeral joint and avascular necrosis of the humeral head. The InSet™System includes patented inset glenoid technology, originally innovated by Stephen Gunther, M.D. The new InSet Plus™ glenoids feature an angled articular surface and are available in both 5° and 10° variants with multiple diameters.”

Don Running, vice president, Research and Development for Shoulder Innovations explained, “The key to the long-term clinical success of the InSet™glenoid has been both the unique flat back design and novel bone pocket created in the fossa to allow for a secure fixation that is ‘set in’ the subchondral bone.”

View source version on ryortho.com: https://ryortho.com/breaking/fda-510k-clearance-for-shoulder-innovations-inset-plus/