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The Team from Native Traits Recently Discovered that Their Non-GMO EaSY™ Trait Increases Hybrid Corn Yield

KALAMAZOO, MI / ACCESSWIRE / January 3, 2018 /Native Traits Corporation is pleased to announce a discovery that has the capability to change the way hybrid corn is developed, produced, and marketed. EaSY™ is a naturally-occurring, non-GMO trait that was identified by using NT RECOVERY™, a proprietary trait identification technology. The EaSY (Enhanced Seed Yield) natural genetic trait is noted for its ability to increase inbred yield and reduce the cost of seed production. Remarkably, it has now been found that EaSY also has a dramatic effect on hybrid yield, a discovery that was recently posted on their blog - http://nativetraits.blogspot.com/.

According to Native Traits CEO and President Dr. James W. Friedrich in recent product development trials throughout the Midwestern Corn Belt, EaSY enhanced the yield of hybrid varieties by twenty or more bushels per acre - a development with far-reaching implications for the hybrid seed industry.

“EaSY is an obvious choice for seed producers looking to improve profit margins and, at the same time, capture market share by offering a superior product to farmers,” Friedrich said.

Native Traits is currently working with several seed corn developers to make the EaSY native trait available in as many inbred and hybrid products as possible. Both conventional and organic (non-GMO) seed producers are involved.

Based near Kalamazoo, Michigan, Native Traits has been supported by angel investors and t

ForeSee founder Larry Freed is CEO at Give and Take

Ann Arbor-based Give and Take Inc., a tech startup that allows employees at companies to better collaborate and share knowledge, announced Thursday morning that it has raised a seed funding round of $2.2 million and launched the beta version of its software platform, called Givitas.

The company raised the money from Ann Arbor-based RPM Ventures, Grand Rapids-based Grand Ventures, Detroit-based Invest Michigan, angel investors and Larry Freed, who has become the CEO.

The funding will be used to continued development of the Givitas platform, marketing and staffing.

Give and Take is based on research at the University of Michigan and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Its founders are Wayne Baker, a professor at the Ross School of Business at UM; Cheryl Baker, Wayne Baker’s wife and co-creator of the Reciprocity Ring, an organizational exercise that has been sold to Fortune 500 companies and top business schools; and Adam Grant, a professor at Wharton.

Freed was the founder of ForeSee Results Inc., an Ann Arbor-based Web analytics company founded in 2001 as a joint venture of UM and Detroit-based Compuware Corp. It was sold in 2013 for 22 times its original investment.

The next year, Freed and former members of his management team at ForeSee founded 2nd Stage Partners in Ann Arbor to help growing companies go from early stage to business maturity. According to Crain’s estimates, ForeSee had revenue of about $42 million in 2013.

“Fortune 500 companies lose more th

ContentOro, the award-winning digital content marketing company, today announced a public stock offering through the Netcapital online funding portal. ContentOro helps brands attract and engage customers online by offering the world’s first high-quality, ready-made source of written and illustrated articles.

“The most powerful companies in the world, Google and Facebook included, insist that quality content will win the day. At ContentOro, we live that,” said Bob Chunn, founder and CEO of ContentOro.

When Bob was CMO at a major national retailer, he knew that content (information and images) attracted customers to his company’s website, but it was expensive and time-consuming. So he thought of a new way to quickly create high-quality, authoritative content that’s changing the $160 billion content marketing industry for the better.

ContentOro revolutionizes Content Marketing with its proprietary technology and exclusive agreements with internationally-recognized publishers. Businesses can easily select content from millions of curated articles and images, instantly integrate them into their websites and apps, and use them to attract and engage customers online.

ContentOro has raised money through traditional funding routes, but founder Bob Chunn wanted to be sure that everyone had chance to share in the success of the future of Content Marketing. This desire led to the decision to offer stock on the Netcapital platform.

Netcapital’s private securities platform combines key infrastructure inspired by public markets with the flexibili

Silicon Valley investors have led a funding round of almost $1.5 million in Ann Arbor-based Akadeum Life Sciences Inc., a spinoff from the University of Michigan, to develop its technology for tissue, water and food testing.

The lead investor, BioInfleXion Point Partners, specializes in early-stage life-science investments. The round was joined by other Silicon Valley and Michigan investors.

“Our fund typically operates in the Bay Area, but the opportunity to invest in Akadeum Life Sciences — our first Michigan investment — is something we couldn’t overlook,” Brock Siegel, a managing partner of BioInfleXion, said in a news release. “They have the perfect combination of a disruptive technology, a smart team that delivers results and operates in a large, fast-growing market.”

“Akadeum is a great example of the type of exciting investment opportunities that exist in Michigan,” said Doug Neal, a managing director of Ann Arbor-based eLab Ventures LLC, a firm headed up by Silicon Valley veterans with an office in California, whose business model is finding West Coast investors for Michigan tech companies.

eLab was an original investor in Akadeum, which spin off from UM in 2014. In October 2015, it finished raising a seed round of $1 million. The company has a specific niche in the lab testing world, using what it calls buoyancy activated cell sorting, trademarked as BAGS, to make it easier, less expensive and faster to prepare samples for testing.

The company was co-founded by John Younger, a physician and professor at UM, and Brandon McNaught

DETROIT (July 10, 2017) – Detroit Public Television’s Board of Directors elected two new members – attorney Kenneth John Clarkson, a partner in the law firm of Jaffe, Rait, Heuer & Weiss, and Charlie Moret, president, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Invest Michigan.

“We are delighted and honored to welcome two such forward-thinking leaders to our board,” said Rich Homberg, President and CEO of Detroit Public Television (DPTV). “They become part of an exceptional team of directors, who have done so much to help DPTV achieve its strategic mission – airing the best in PBS programming, engaging the local community in our work and telling the unfolding story of Detroit – which we think, at this moment, is the most important city in America.”

Clarkson is a partner in the Southfield office of Jaffe Raitt Heuer & Weiss and a member of its Real Estate Practice Group. He has extensive experience with the development of senior living facilities including independent, assisted and memory care projects.

He also serves on the Board of Directors and Finance Committee of Bedrock Community Development Support, a Michigan non-profit corporation that assists in the development of housing for low income, seniors, veterans and homeless persons and related services.

A graduate of the University of Michigan Law School, Clarkson lives in Farmington Hills with his two children.

In 2014, Moret was selected by the Michigan Economic Development Corp. to head up a new non-profit organization based in Detroit, Investment Michigan, which provid

Charlie Moret is chairman and CEO of Invest Michigan, an organization that invests in early-stage companies in the advanced manufacturing materials, life sciences, and information technology industries. DBusiness Daily News interviewed Moret about the importance of investing in innovation and the role of capital investors in Michigan’s economy.

1. DDN: What does Invest Michigan do?

CM: Invest Michigan is a non-profit that was funded by the Michigan Strategic Fund through the the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. Our mission is to invest capital, support early-stage companies, helping them to build their business into sustainable and viable businesses in Michigan that ultimately will employ people in new and innovative companies.

2. DDN: What does your role as chairman and CEO consist of?

CM: I’m responsible for overall fund management, including responsible for setting the funds strategy direction, and assuring that we are living up to our mission as agreed to with our main funder, the Michigan Strategic Fund.

3. DDN: What is Invest Michigan looking for as far as these early stage companies?

CM: The first thing we look for is technology that is innovative and that works. We’re looking for management teams that have domain expertise to advance this technology into the commercial marketplace. And then we’re looking for innovative technologies that not only does the commercial market need the technology, but they also want it, and are willing to pay for it.

We invest in a broad array of technologies. These include m

Invest Michigan had its most active quarter to start the year, and deal flow in the second quarter continues at a fast pace, according to President and CEO Charlie Moret.

The Detroit-based nonprofit, which was created by the Michigan Economic Development Corp. in 2014 to invest in early-stage companies through the $10.5 million Michigan Pre-Seed Fund 2.0, made nine investments in the first three months, closed on three more in April and has others under consideration.

“We have nine deals in due diligence, companies we recognize as having good potential that have passed the proof-of-concept stage,” said Moret. “We’ll see how many we invest in once we peel back the onion, or peek under the kimono or whatever metaphor you want to use.

Around the state, things remain extremely active. I continue to be impressed by how much more deal flow there is here compared to where I came from.”

Moret was recruited to Detroit’s TechTown in December 2012 as managing director of technology-based entrepreneurship after spending 13 years at Rocky Hill, Conn.-based Connecticut Innovations, a provider of support services for emerging technology companies.

He then was picked by the MEDC to run Invest Michigan. Since launching in 2014, Invest Michigan has made 57 investments in 35 early-stage companies. As portfolio companies hit growth targets, they get follow-on investments as needed.

“As they make progress, we don’t let them run dry,” said Moret.

Moret said about half of the state’s original investment has been deployed. “We have enough left to be fai