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Ann Arbor’s HT Mobile Apps has acquired Hip Pocket, a platform that uses social influence and personalized consultation to generate qualified mortgage and retirement leads. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Ann Arbor’s HT Mobile Apps has acquired Hip Pocket, a platform that uses social influence and personalized consultation to generate qualified mortgage and retirement leads. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“HTMA was created from a passion for technology and financial literacy,” says Kathleen Craig, founder, and CEO of HT Mobile Apps. “Hip Pocket is a great complement to our range of products. Each of our products empowers customers to grow their knowledge of personal finances while also helping financial institutions provide better digital offerings and develop more meaningful relationships with their customers.”

Hip Pocket, based in Nebraska, was launched in 2013 and has since worked with banks and credit unions to compare mortgage rates and retirement accounts to customers’ peers, allowing the institutions to consider finances in a personal way. The platform is designed to find customers better deals while also helping them make informed financial decisions.

HTMA is a fintech company that serves banks and credit unions across the country, introducing them to new services for attracting and retaining customers.

LANSING, Mich. — The Lansing region and Michigan’s entrepreneurial ecosystem was well represented at the Aug. 13 Manu-Tech Night pitch competition hosted by Lean Rocket Labs in Jackson, Michigan. Top players in the Michigan startup accelerator ecosystem including PROTO Accelerator, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC), 100k Ideas, Ann Arbor SPARK and Centrepolis/LTU were in attendance to evaluate high-tech manufacturing startups as they pitched their products in the hopes of securing additional funding. Among the night’s winners was a 2018 graduate of LEAP’s PROTO Accelerator physical products program, Black Pine Engineering.

Black Pine Engineering is a manufacturer of cutting-edge compressor engines which includes several innovations allowing for the production of a smaller, more efficient and lightweight turbine. Black Pine took second place at Manu-Tech Night as the night’s People’s Choice award winner, competing against four additional startups.

Black Pine received investment and comprehensive business guidance in 2018 through the PROTO Products program to further develop and market their innovative turbine compressor technology. In addition, PROTO president Tony Willis assisted Black Pine CEO Zach Hoyle in fine-tuning his pitch for the recent Manu-Tech pitch night.

“LEAP’s PROTO Accelerator products program allowed us to iterate and test our prototype and prepare to enter the market with a solid product,” said Zach Hoyle, CEO of Black Pine. “Even after the program off

ANN ARBOR, Mich., Aug. 22, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — ONL Therapeutics, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company developing novel therapies for protecting the vision of patients with retinal disease, today announced it recently raised $3 million in a convertible note financing. Participation in the financing was a balance of current investors, ONL management, and new investors. Current investors included Invest Michigan, the University of Michigan’s Michigan Investment in New Technology Startups (MINTS) program, Invest Michigan, the Biosciences Research & Commercialization Center, and the Capital Community Angels. The largest new investor in the company is InFocus Capital Partners, a venture capital firm focused on unique investments in the ophthalmology market.

“ONL Therapeutics is developing first-in-class therapeutics to protect the vision of patients with retinal disease,” commented David Esposito, CEO of ONL Therapeutics. “We are grateful to our new and existing investors, who recognize the opportunity we have to make a meaningful difference in the lives of patients. The addition of InFocus Capital Partners to our list of investors will help us advance our efforts in the clinic and accelerate the raising of additional capital to accomplish our goals.”

ONL Therapeutics is currently preparing its lead compound ONL1204 for a Phase I study in retinal detachment to be conducted in Australia later this year. The company is embark

DETROIT—(BUSINESS WIRE)—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 recognized as a finalist for the inaugural Finovate Awards along with ChoiceOne Bank, a subsidiary of ChoiceOne Financial Services, Inc. (OTCBB: COFS).

.@Autobooks and @ChoiceOneBank recognized as finalists for @Finovate’s inaugural award in the SMB/SME Banking category.

Autobooks and ChoiceOne have been recognized in the Best SMB/SME Banking Solution category, given to a financial institution that excels at engaging with small and medium-sized businesses by offering quality products and an exceptional digital experience. By partnering with Autobooks, ChoiceOne Bank has simplified the way small businesses get paid and manage finances within its existing digital banking channels. The bank has become a one-stop digital destination for the rapidly evolving small business segment by driving new account openings, increasing deposits from current SMB clients, and capturing additional fee income.

ChoiceOne has a strong focus on small business banking and supports these customers with mobile banking and deposits, innovative payroll sol

ANN ARBOR, MI — ONL Therapeutics, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company developing novel therapies for preserving vision in a range of retinal diseases, today announced a key leadership appointment as part of its evolution into a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company. David A. Esposito has been appointed chief executive officer and a member of the board of directors, bringing with him a wealth of leadership experience in building life science companies. The appointment of a new CEO is designed to further supplement ONL’s leadership as it continues to advance its innovative retinal neuroprotection technology.

“David is an experienced healthcare executive and combat veteran with a proven track record of building successful life science companies,” said Mark Hooper, Chairman of the Board of ONL Therapeutics. “As ONL continues to prepare for first-in-human clinical trials, David will help accelerate the operating plan for the company. We also want to thank Dr. David Zacks for his leadership as interim CEO during this transition.”

Mr. Esposito has more than twenty-five years of healthcare leadership experience. Most recently, he was the CEO of Armune BioScience, Inc. (cancer diagnostics). In December of 2017, Armune BioScience sold a portfolio of protein biomarkers to Exact Sciences, Inc. (EXAS). Mr. Esposito started his healthcare career with Merck & Co. Inc. as a sales

Canton Township-based Fusion Coolant Systems Inc., a spinoff from the University of Michigan that uses supercooled carbon dioxide to lubricate cutting tools used in manufacturing, has wasted no time putting a funding round of $8 million it raised last October to good use.

Fusion Coolant uses the liquid CO2 to replace the traditional mix of water and oil used to cool industrial cutting tools, hitting the surface of the tool at between minus-20 and minus-60 degrees Celsius.

The CO2 speeds up machining time, increases tool longevity, sharply reduces the cost of cleaning up waste created by the oil and water and the associated health and environmental risks and can be used in a wider range of manufacturing, including implantable medical devices where oil is a contaminant.

In March, the company hired Brian Ahlborn as its full-time president and CEO. Ahlborn has more than 30 years in the automotive sector and was recruited from Linamar Corp., a company based in Guelph, Ontario, that had $7.6 billion in revenue last year. Positions he held there included president of its European Group and of the U.S./Canada Group. Previously he served as CEO of Los Angeles-based Transonic Combustion Inc., and as president of Livonia-based McLaren Performance Technologies.

Fusion Coolant doubled its square footage in Canton in December from 4,200 square feet to 8,400 square feet and will soon open a new customer center there to demonstrate its technology. The center will triple the company’s machining capacity.

The company will open an office in Europe in the

When Stephen Gunther, M.D., of Charlottesville, VA, began to dream up a design for a revolutionary new glenoid, even he didn’t foresee how successful his unique design could be in solving total shoulder arthroplasty’s number one problem, glenoid loosening.

It’s now been nearly a decade since his first InSet Glenoid designs were implanted and Dr. Gunther was able to follow-up with 21 of the 24 patients. He recently wrote a paper detailing the long-term results of his InSet Glenoid implant which were recently published in the Journal of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery (JSES), a peer-reviewed publication for eight leading specialty medical organizations.

We recently sat down with Dr. Gunther to discuss his paper and the implications of his results for total shoulder arthroplasty.

David Blue: Congratulations on publishing your paper.

Dr. Gunther: Yes, thank you. It required an incredible amount of work but was absolutely worth it. In fact, this InSet Glenoid project has been my life’s work for the last 15 years and it’s been so rewarding to see my efforts coming to fruition in the published results.

David Blue: Tell us about your motivation. Was there a defining moment for you in your journey creating the InSet Glenoid?

Dr. Gunther: Actually, there was. A long time ago, I was at UCSF performing a revision surgery that involved a broken screw from a bone graft. This ended up being a six-hour case and four of those hours were spent removing another surgeon’s broken screw from th

Grand Rapids, MI — Tetra Discovery Partners, a clinical-stage biotechnology company, today announced the initiation of a Phase 2 clinical trial (PICASSO AD) of BPN14770 in patients diagnosed with early Alzheimer’s disease (AD). BPN14770, a novel agent that selectively inhibits phosphodiesterase-4D (PDE4D), is designed to enhance early and late stages of memory formation and to potentially improve cognition and memory in central nervous system (CNS) disorders including AD.

“Recent estimates cite AD as the 6th leading cause of death in the United States, and the only one with no effective means to prevent, cure, or slow its progression. This disease has an overwhelming impact not only on those diagnosed with the condition, but on families, caregivers, and the health care system,” said Paul Stephen Aisen, M.D., Professor of Neurology; Director, Alzheimer’s Therapeutic Research Institute, Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC). “We are excited to see agents with novel mechanisms of action expand into a patient population in need of new treatments aimed at improving the devastating symptoms of the disease.”

The PICASSO AD trial is a three-month randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase 2 study that will be conducted at up to 60 sites across the United States. The trial will enroll approximately 255 patients, ages 55-85, with a clinical diagnosis of early Alzheimer’s d

Genomenon Inc., the leading genomic search company, today announced that Bio-IT World has awarded them Best of Show for the Mastermind Genomic Search Engine. Mastermind was one of 31 products considered for this prestigious award at last week’s Bio-IT World Conference & Expo in Boston.

Bio-IT World’s Best of Show Awards Program recognizes the best of the innovative product solutions for the life sciences industry, as judged by a panel of experts from academia, industry, pharma and biotech. Winners are judged based on the products’ technical merit, functionality, innovation, and in-person presentations to the judges at the show. During the April 18th awards ceremony, Mastermind was applauded as a product that was unique, important to the industry, and offered a compelling return on investment.

“The judges believe Mastermind and the team behind it are addressing not only really interesting problems in genomics, but are anticipating customer needs and solving problems proactively.” Said Bio-IT World Editor Allison Proffitt at the presentation of the award to Mark Kiel, founder and CSO, Genomenon.

“It’s quite an honor to be recognized as Best of Show at Bio-IT this year”, said Mike Klein, CEO of Genomenon. “This recognition belongs to our entire team, dedicated to putting the genomics information needed to diagnose & cure patients with cancer and rare diseases at the fingertips of doctors and researc

Fifth Eye, an Ann Arbor-based medical software startup spun out of technology developed at the University of Michigan, today announced that it has raised $9 million in new investment capital, bringing its total venture backing to date to $11.5 million.

The round was led by Arboretum Ventures and Cultivation Capital, with participation from Invest Michigan, U-M’s MINTS program, and a bevy of angel investors. Founder and CEO Jen Baird says Fifth Eye will use the new capital to complete clinical studies at several hospital systems as it initiates the FDA approval process in preparation for a commercial launch.

Fifth Eye’s software is designed to act as an early warning system to predict when a patient might be in imminent trouble, based on their electrocardiogram (ECG) data. When the heart overcompensates for other trouble in the body, the signs are subtle, Baird says, but they have detectable mathematical characteristics, which helps the company’s software to assess the patient’s condition.

The company’s technology alerts medical professionals to hemodynamic instability, which is when blood flow to vital organs decreases to levels that are insufficient to support normal functions, which Baird says is one of the most common causes of deterioration and death for critically ill or injured patients. Once alerted by Fifth Eye’s technology, doctors could take proactive measures to avoid adverse health events and improve patient outcomes—ideally shortening hospital stays and reducing healthcare costs in the process.

Invest Michigan announced today it has completed its 100th investment deal since the inception of the fund four years ago. The 100th investment was made in Fifth Eye Inc, an innovative healthcare IT company. This woman-led company improves quality of healthcare with real-time early warning systems by utilizing vital signs resulting in improved patient outcomes and reduced costs.

“Invest Michigan was instrumental in helping Fifth Eye launch in 2018 and build up the value required to raise its Series A financing round this spring,” said Jen Baird, Founder, CEO and director of Fifth Eye Inc. “The entire Fifth Eye team is excited to have the support of such great investors like Arboretum Ventures, Cultivation Capital and Invest Michigan as we take our medical device software through the FDA-clearance process and launch our product to help save patient lives.”

Supported by the Michigan Strategic Fund, Invest Michigan is the fund manager for the Michigan Pre-Seed Fund II, a statewide investment fund that aims to assist high-tech early stage pre-revenue companies and diversify Michigan’s economy. In the last year, Invest Michigan has completed 23 investments in both existing and new companies, which now totals 51 companies. More than one in three of these recent investments were made to women-led companies.

“Invest Michigan is proud to play such an integral role in the future succe

Fifth Eye Inc., a health care spinoff from the University of Michigan, will announce Monday that it has closed on a Series A venture-capital round of $11.5 million.

The funding was led by two new investors, Ann Arbor-based Arboretum Ventures LLC and St. Louis-based Cultivation Capital LLC. It was joined by Michigan Investment in New Technology Startups (MINTS), a direct investment program of UM’s endowment, and by some of those who invested in the company’s seed round of $2.5 million last year, including Detroit-based Invest Michigan and 15 angel investors, including some from the Lansing-based Capital Community Angels.

Fifth Eye has developed software that monitors hospital patients for warning signs of post-operative distress before they can become life-threatening, promising to improve patient outcomes, limit hospital stays and lower health care costs.

Jen Baird, the company’s CEO, said the company will begin human trials on at least 100 patients at three Michigan hospitals later this month. One will be Michigan Medicine, formerly called the University of Michigan Health System. She said she doesn’t have permission to name the other two but that they are major health care systems in the state.

She said she hopes to have trials concluded by the end of fall and, if they are successful, to get approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration early next year to go to market.

Fifth Eye, which was founded in 2017 and based on research at UM, uses noninvasive electrocardiograms to continuously monitor post-operative patients for what is

ANN ARBOR, MI and LEUVEN, BELGIUM (February 19, 2019) — Diploid, leading AI-based software provider for rare disease diagnostics, and Genomenon® , the genomic search company, announced today that they have entered into a partnership to improve genome interpretation for rare disease diagnostics.

With its Moon software, Diploid provides the most efficient workflow for rare disease diagnostics. Moon allows its users to go from VCF to causal variant in just minutes thanks to advanced machine learning and deep phenotype integration. As a result, the software was selected by Dr. Stephen Kingsmore at Rady Children’s Hospital to establish a new world record for fastest genome interpretation in the NICU.

“Moon returns a very short list of variants that might be relevant for the patient’s phenotype: typically about 4-8 variants for exome or whole genome data” says Peter Schols, Diploid’s founder and CEO. “This breakthrough saves clinical laboratory scientists a lot of time compared to manually filtering and curating hundreds or even thousands of variants.

“Cyrielle Kint, Diploid’s CSO, adds: “We wanted to make the process of evaluating the handful of remaining variants reported by Moon even more efficient, and that’s why we are integrating with Genomenon’s Mastermind® , the clear leader in genomic search engines.”

Genomenon’s Mastermind Genomic Search Engine filters and prioritizes millions of genomic articles to find the most usefu

Genomenon, the Ann Arbor, MI-based genomics search engine startup, has raised $2.5 million in what the company calls a “seed extension” round.

The equity financing included investments by IrishAngels, a group founded by Notre Dame alumni; H.W. Kaufman Group; Invest Michigan; and all previous investors, including Genomenon CEO Mike Klein. He says the company will use the new capital to beef up commercial development, sales, and marketing. It also plans to add at least three employees, bringing its headcount to approximately 20 by the end of the year.

Genomenon is the maker of Mastermind, an artificial intelligence-powered search engine that combs scientific publications for information on gene variants to help guide doctors to faster and more accurate diagnoses for patients with cancer or rare diseases.

Klein says Mastermind is now used by more than 2,200 clinicians in 35 countries and 200 labs. “We’ve been able to demonstrate we got the business model right, now it’s time to add fire with more investment in sales and marketing,” he says. “We’re at the precipice of three key technologies: big data, A.I., and cloud computing. Our mission is to find every mutation in publications and put it at the fingertips of doctors. We couldn’t have done that even five years ago.”

Klein says that Genomenon’s client base started as mostly cancer and genetics labs but now has expanded to pharmaceutical companies seeking to “leverage data in drug discovery. We can surface any mutation and la

ANN ARBOR, MI (February 4, 2019) — Genomenon®, the leading genomic search company, announced today that industry veteran David Anstey has joined the executive team as the company’s Vice President of Sales. Anstey was most recently the Vice President of Sales at Fabric Genomics, which provides bioinformatics solutions to clinical labs.

In his new role at Genomenon, Anstey is responsible for building out and leading the company’s sales and business development efforts. Prior to his position at Fabric Genomics, Anstey held positions at Illumina, YarcData, and IDBS, selling informatics solutions to genomics labs and pharmaceutical companies. His background and experience align well with Genomenon’s focus on those markets.

“What I found most compelling about Genomenon is its leadership position in genomic search for clinical decision support and its role in advancing pharmaceutical research and development” said Anstey. “Much of the genomic data that is critical to precision medicine has been buried deep inside millions of scientific publications. Genomenon unlocks this data and provides a comprehensive genomic landscape that accelerates patient diagnosis and drug discovery.”

Last month, Genomenon announced a $2.5 million equity financing round to fund the acceleration of its commercial efforts. Anstey is actively recruiting sales talent to drive that acceleration.

“Dave brings 20 years of experience selling into li

One and done: That’s the story of Micro-LAM’s equity fundraising.

Most tech startups go out to the funding market for a seed round, then a larger A round and, more often than not, subsequent B and C rounds that keep the company alive but dilute the equity of earlier investors.

The goal is eventually be able to fund growth out of cash flow.

Micro-LAM’s early investors haven’t had to worry about their equity being diluted. Nor will they, based on revenue and employee growth curves. Unlike many other early stage CEOs, founder Deepak Ravindra doesn’t have to worry about spending time on new PowerPoint presentations for investors or going on road shows to try to get venture capitalists to write him checks.

Soon after he sold his first machine in 2016, cash flow has been all the capital he’s needed for his fast-growing company. Revenue was $1.7 million in 2017 and $4.6 million last year, with projections of almost $9 million in 2019.

Micro-LAM’s formal name is Micro-Laser Assisted Machining Technologies Inc. The company makes laser-based tools to improve machining for ceramics, silicon and metal. The lasers generate heat of about 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit at a tiny point a tenth the width of a human hair, softening the target and greatly reducing cutting time and decreasing cutting tool wear.

The advantage for customers is they can retrofit Micro-LAM’s laser tools into their existing CNC machines, a retrofit that can be done in about two hours. Systems range between $175,000 to $235,000. Ravindra said the company shipped 11 systems in 2

ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN (January 8, 2019) — Genomenon® announced that it has completed a $2.5M equity financing round. The financing will expand the company’s commercial reach with clinical diagnostic labs, biotech, and pharmaceutical companies.

Genomenon connects patient DNA with the evidence in scientific literature to help doctors provide faster and better treatment decisions for patients with rare diseases and cancer. In the last year, over 2,000 clinicians and researchers from 35 countries started using Genomenon’s Mastermind® Genomic Search Engine - which is quickly becoming the gold standard for genomic interpretation.

Investors in this round include IrishAngels, H. W. Kaufman Group, and all of Genomenon’s earlier investors including the company’s CEO, Mike Klein. The company initially set out to raise $2.0M in new financing, but with strong interest from both current and new investors, the round was oversubscribed.

“IrishAngels is happy to join Genomenon as an investor” said Kaitlyn Doyle, Director of IrishAngels. “The revolutionary technology behind Genomenon’s Mastermind Genomic Search Engine will have a huge impact on the interpretation of genomic data, and this team has the requisite experience to scale the company to its potential.”

“We’ve seen strong demand from clinical labs desiring to accelerate their genomic interpretation process, and from pharmaceutical companies who want t

Invest Michigan, an investment fund supported by the state-backed Michigan Strategic Fund, hit a major milestone at the end of 2018: it invested in its fiftieth company in four years.

Ann Arbor’s Spellbound, which has developed a therapeutic tool to help kids cope with illness and engage in treatment through augmented reality technology, received the funding. (The amount was not disclosed.)

Invest Michigan, which does early-stage investing and manages the Michigan Pre-Seed Fund II, has made a total of 93 investments since 2014 in those 50 companies, including follow-on funding.

“I believe the quality of early stage companies is better now than in 2014,” says Charlie Moret, CEO of Invest Michigan. “Companies seem to have more innovative approaches and technologies.”

In the years since the fund began, Moret says angel, private, and foundation capital have helped to create a more robust entrepreneurial sector locally. “Much of the investments and ecosystem participation are driven much more by early-stage companies,” he says.

When he moved to Michigan five years ago from Connecticut, he says there was more startup activity in Michigan than his home state, and that trend has continued. “Usually, you see more startups when the economy is down as an alternative [career path]. We’ve had a good economy now for eight years, yet we’re still seeing

LANSING, Mich. – The Lansing Economic Area Partnership (LEAP), together with key industry leaders Delta Dental and Farm Bureau Insurance have launched a new insurtech accelerator program, PROTO InsurTech, to inspire and stimulate innovation and entrepreneurship in the insurance industry.

“PROTO InsurTech is the first and only startup accelerator program in the state of Michigan focused on insurance technology and the digital transformation of the industry,” said Bob Trezise, President and CEO of LEAP. “We are eager to leverage this new program in support of Michigan’s insurance industry and its rapidly growing Lansing hub.”

Two major insurance companies, Farm Bureau Insurance of Michigan and Delta Dental of Michigan, join LEAP as significant investors and founders in launching PROTO InsurTech. Both companies are headquartered in the Lansing area and share a passion for insurance industry innovation. PROTO InsurTech has been built to help them and other insurance carriers in Michigan understand and leverage opportunities with insurtech companies.

For Don Simon, CEO of Farm Bureau Insurance, the mentorship opportunities offered through PROTO Accelerator are a key reason for supporting the efforts, “Talent is our most valuable asset at Farm Bureau, and a program such as PROTO Insurtech provides our staff opportunities to engage with products and startups that they would likely