Press

This is an article about portfolio company, Bloomscape.

On this episode of ‘Cheddar Reveals’: The features and garden editor at Martha Stewart Living discusses the best plants to grow in your garden; The official ‘Plant Mom’ for Bloomscape discusses how to get started on your plant parenting journey; Cheddar gets a look at CuriosityStream’s ‘Big World in a Small Garden’ where experts explore how to connect with nature through plants.

View source version on cheddar.com: https://cheddar.com/media/the-best-indoor-or-outdoor-plants-for-your-home-or-garden-plant-parenting

This is an article about portfolio company, Bloomscape.

A season of social distancing and staycations, summer 2020 has been deemed the best time to adopt more plant babies. Because if you have to spend more time at home, you might as well turn your house into a lush oasis, right? It seems many have the same idea. Victory Gardens made a serious comeback this spring, prompting a spike in online sales of vegetable seeds. 

View source version on realsimple.com: https://www.realsimple.com/home-organizing/gardening/indoor/trendiest-houseplants-summer-2020

ANN ARBOR, MI – July 9, 2020 - Ripple Science today announced their partnership with Lakeside Life Science, a diagnostic research organization that is performing a clinical study to determine antibodies using Medsential’s COVID-19 IgG/IgM Rapid Test Cassette. With 9.1 Million cases and 472,000 deaths worldwide, the public health crisis that is COVID-19 has accelerated organizations to adopt technology like Ripple, which shorten time-to-market for biopharma solutions.

Ripple is a web-based platform designed for clinical research teams who want a secure and streamlined way to recruit, manage, and retain patients for trials. Ripple is a purpose-built CRM and project manager which organizes clinical trial recruiting and research efforts,
leading to valuable time and cost savings. Medsential’s test is already available for high-complexity CLIA certified labs. Lakeside’s study will be validating the test in a clinical setting. Paul Allard, COO of Lakeside Life Science, explained how Ripple helps with a very short timeline: “Ripple is streamlining the whole clinical study process for us. Our timeline for this study is incredibly short. Normally we need four to six months for study start-up and 18 months to enroll patients. Our goal is to complete this entire study under a month
and a half.”

Allard anticipates a follow-on study to determine how long a person has the antibodies. Lakeside, an expert in testing validation, has confirmed that Medsential’s IgM/IgG antibody test outperforms anti

This is an article about portfolio company, Autobooks.

Missouri-based First Bank will now be using Autobooks to help clients such as small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) boost their banking experiences, according to a press release.

Among the new features will be the ability for customers to get paid at a distance and monitor cash flow in real time, the release states.

View source version on pymnts.com: https://www.pymnts.com/news/b2b-payments/2020/first-bank-implements-autobooks-boost-b2b-smbs/

This is an article about portfolio company, SpellBound.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – SpellBound, an Ann Arbor-based augmented reality company, has received a $1.8 million fast track grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to study opioid use in pediatric cancer patients.

The study will measure the effects of SpellBound’s augmented reality scavenger hunt, ARISE, on the length of hospital stay and opioid use by pediatric cancer patients after surgery.

View source version on clickondetroit.com: https://www.clickondetroit.com/all-about-ann-arbor/2020/07/08/ann-arbor-augmented-reality-company-spellbound-receives-18m-grant-for-pediatric-study/

This is an article about portfolio company, Bloomscape.

Real Simple’s mission, through its 20 years, has been to simplify your life with smart finds like these. Automate your life even more, so you have time for the smaller things—like teaching little ones how to fish or nurturing your own plant seedling—with these clever finds.

View source version on realsimple.com: https://www.realsimple.com/work-life/life-strategies/problem-solvers-062620-grow-how-kit

CANTON, Mich.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Fusion Coolant Systems (“Fusion”) announced today the formation of a strategic partnership with Air Liquide, initially targeted in the South West European Region (France, Italy, Spain, Portugal). The partnership is focused on increasing sustainability, productivity, and employee health & safety for manufacturers engaged in CNC machining, by pairing two industry leading and forward-thinking companies.

Fusion is the inventor and exclusive source of a highly successful and proprietary technology called Pure-Cut®, which utilizes supercritical CO2 as a replacement for traditional mineral oil coolant and lubrication systems in CNC machining. Air Liquide, with newly secured sourcing solutions in Europe of purified CO2, a sub product from chemical & biogas industries, and strong know-how in gas installations design, is uniquely positioned to support the wide-spread introduction of supercritical CO2 machining offered by Fusion, in compliance with established safety and regulatory regulations.

The firms expect to jointly sell and install Pure-Cut systems in South West Europe, while exploring opportunities to expand the geographic reach of the alliance. This partnership highlights how Air Liquide regularly brings to its customers the latest, most innovative technologies that support industrial efficiency and sustainability objectives.

Jean-Marie Padovani, Director of Innovation of Air Liquide commented, “We look forward to our future collaboration with Fusi

This is an article about portfolio company, Levitas Bio.

NEW YORK – Levitas Bio, a Stanford University spinout, is preparing the launch of a technology that sounds nearly imaginary: magnetic levitation-based cell separation.

“Unlike anything else out there, when it comes to separating particles, we don’t attach or bind anything to the cells,” said CEO Martin Pieprzyk. “No dyes, no antibodies. It’s touch free.” The workflow requires only three steps and can be done in 20 minutes, he added.

View source version on genomeweb.com: https://www.genomeweb.com/sample-prep/stanford-spinout-levitas-bio-launch-magnetic-levitation-cell-separation-platform

This is an article about portfolio company, SkySpecs.

Dutch company Certion and drone service provider SkySpecs have completed blade inspection works at Eneco’s Prinses Amalia Windpark and Eneco Luchterduinen in the Netherlands.

In total, 70 wind turbines were inspected in five days at Prinses Amalia Windpark and Eneco Luchterduinen offshore wind farm.

View source version on offshorewind.biz: https://www.offshorewind.biz/2020/06/19/certion-skyspecs-complete-blade-inspection-at-enecos-prinses-amalia-windpark/

This is an article about portfolio company, Autobooks.

DETROIT: TCF Bank today announced it has teamed with Detroit fintech company Autobooks to provide an integrated banking experience to its small business customers.

Small business customers of Chemical Bank, a division of TCF National Bank, can enroll in Autobooks at www.ChemicalBank.com/autobooks and within a few moments begin accepting online payments via ACH and Credit Card — with funds deposited directly into their Chemical Bank checking account. In order to help customers in this time of caution and uncertainty — Chemical Bank is waiving the monthly software fee for the first 90 days.

View source version on newkerala.com: https://www.newkerala.com/news/2020/104439.htm

This is an article about portfolio company, Autobooks.

DETROIT: Autobooks, a small business payment and accounting platform built on Microsoft Azure, today announced the launch of a new initiative to encourage small businesses to Get Paid with Autobooks.

This initiative will enable small businesses and nonprofits to enroll directly with Autobooks to receive card and ACH payments online and have those payments deposited directly into their existing account at their financial institution. Additionally, Autobooks is waiving monthly fees for customers using Get Paid through 2020 in light of the unique financial strain COVID-19 has placed on small businesses.

View source version on newkerala.com: https://www.newkerala.com/news/2020/97983.htm

DENVER (PRWEB) JUNE 18, 2020

Angel investors are actively investing in startups, despite growing uncertainty in public markets. Many angel investors (individuals with either income exceeding $200,000 per year or with a net worth of $1 million or more) have taken some of their money out of the markets in anticipation of coming declines in stock prices. In many cases investors are using Self-Directed IRAs or 401Ks that allow them to invest a portion of their retirement funds in promising startups.

“This is a great time to be investing in startups” says Peter Adams, Executive Director of the Rockies Venture Club (RVC), the longest running angel investing group in the U.S. “Historically, angel investors and venture capital funds that invest in economic downturns have outperformed investments made during bull market years. In the 2008-2009 period companies like WhatsApp, Venmo, Instagram, Uber, Pinterest, Slack and Square were founded and went on to be multi-billion dollar companies.”

RVC is excited for the prospects of the six companies that closed deals in the month of April and May.

Vaporox uses Vaporous Hyperoxia Therapy (VHT), which involves a proprietary combination of vapor, oxygen, and an antimicrobial to promote wound healing that far exceeds current solutions on the market. While the VHT product has a broad range of use cases, Vaporox plans to initially target the diabetic foot ulcer (DFU) market due to its Medicare reimbursement potential.

Nymbl Science has developed a smartphone application to assist

CANTON, Mich.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in conjunction with the American Chemical Society (ACS), has selected Fusion Coolant Systems and its founder, Dr. Steve Skerlos to receive the 2020 Green Chemistry Challenge Award. The award cites the ability of Pure-Cut® technology to reduce the environmental, health, and safety impacts of machining operations on a global basis.

In the 23-year history of the Green Chemistry Challenge, the US EPA has presented only five awards per year out of nearly 2,000 nominations. Fusion Coolant Systems (“Fusion”) will be recognized as one of this year’s winners at a virtual event June 16th and in person at the National Academy of Sciences on November 19th in Washington D.C.

“We are extremely proud to be selected as a recipient of this prestigious and highly meaningful award,” stated Brian Ahlborn, Fusion’s CEO. “Only about 1 award in 400 nominations is made, and we are delighted that our technology has distinguished itself once again in a competitive environment. Our team accepts this award with a commitment to bring the environmental and economic benefits of Pure-Cut to the entire manufacturing sector.”

Pure-Cut harnesses supercritical CO2 as a next generation machining fluid to eliminate existing health risks for workers and water pollution while massively reducing tool wear and machining time to achieve economic benefits and life cycle greenhouse gas reductions. Pure-Cut d

ANN ARBOR, Mich., June 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Akadeum Life Sciences, Inc., creators of a next generation floatation-based isolation platform, and NanoCellect Biomedical, Inc., a leader in the development and manufacturing of innovative and simple solutions for cell sorting, today jointly announced a new collaboration to improve rare-cell workflows. From single cell genomics to antibody discovery, researchers increasingly require more efficient, rapid, and gentle workflows to advance cellular research applications.  Use of the two gentle and high purity processes of floatation-based cell isolation ahead of single-cell sorting and plating can significantly improve these workflows.

NanoCellect’s WOLF® Cell Sorter (left), Akadeum’s Human CD4+ T Cell Isolation Kit (right)

NanoCellect and Akadeum are combining the strengths of their core products and technologies to provide customers improved cell isolation, analysis, gentleness, and rare-cell sorting efficiency to single-cell workflows.  Together, this collaboration will demonstrate through application notes and joint marketing activities, the significant improvements achievable.

To generate high quality single-cell sequencing results, cell sample preparation is critical.  Isolating cells that are free of debris, doublets, and free-DNA ensures obtaining the desired cell type at a high frequency.  In many cases

ANN ARBOR, Mich.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—First Bank announced today that it has partnered with HT Mobile Apps (HTMA) to offer Kids Cash, a free mobile application designed to educate children ages three to 12 years old on the benefits of saving, and Plinqit, the only savings app that pays users for learning about personal finances.

“When we created Plinqit and Banker Jr., we wanted to build something easy to use that offered lower operating costs than traditional accounts”

In the bank’s search for products that focus on family to provide digital banking tools that appeal to younger generations, First Bank chose to partner with HTMA to offer Kids Cash, white labelled on HTMA’s Banker Jr. platform. Kids Cash offers informative games and lessons on a free mobile platform to tea

This is an article about portfolio company, Tetra Therapeutics

GRAND RAPIDS — Tetra Therapeutics Inc.’s sale to a Japanese pharmaceutical company provides a final pathway toward bringing to market potential new drugs to treat Alzheimer’s disease and a form of autism, as well as generates a handsome return for financial backers.

Investors in a $7.2 million Series A capital round Tetra raised in 2016 got a return of five times their original investment, founder and CEO Mark Gurney said. Participants in an earlier July 2013 debt offering got an ROI that’s close to 13 times their investment, he said.

View source version on mibiz.com: https://mibiz.com/sections/finance/tremendous-win-tetra-therapeutics-sale-offers-healthy-returns-for-investors-validation-for-local-ecosystem

This is an article about portfolio company, Shoptelligence.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Retail software company Shoptelligence has welcomed three new members to its team including Frank DeFalco as business development director as well as Julie Kennedy and Doug Collier as new members on its board of advisors.

“We are delighted to extend the Shoptelligence team with such talent and industry expertise”, said Laura Khoury, Shoptelligence CEO.

View source version on furnituretoday.com: https://www.furnituretoday.com/furniture-people/shoptelligence-adds-industry-veterans-to-roster/

This is an article about portfolio company, Tetra Therapeutics

Grand Rapids biopharmaceutical company Tetra Therapeutics Inc. announced this week that it has a definitive agreement to sell to a Japanese firm in a deal that could reach $500 million, according to a statement.

Tetra Therapeutics, which develops drugs for people suffering from Fragile X syndrome, Alzheimer’s disease, traumatic brain injury, and other brain disorders, has finalized a 2018 agreement with the Japanese company.

View source version on crainsdetroit.com: https://www.crainsdetroit.com/mergers-acquisitions/grand-rapids-based-tetra-therapeutics-finalizes-deal-sell-japanese-partner