2010 – Page 22 of 78

Hamztec wins $1M grant to research an end to hair pulling

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September 1, 2010

Ann Arbor-based Hamztec has received a $1 million grant from the National Institute of Health. The company plans to use the proceeds for development of a product that will help people stop compulsively pulling their hair.The Ann Arbor SPARK client will use the grant to hire six people plus a handful of independent contractors. David Perlman, co-founder of Hamztec and its only employee, expects his start-up to commercialize its product within 2.5 years, a timeframe that could be as short as one year if the company attracts more investment.Hamztec was co-founded in 2007 by David Perlman and Joseph Himle, a professor of psychiatry and social work at the University of Michigan. The firm's principal product tracks and helps correct Trichotillomania, a disorder in which people compulsively pull out their own hair."Ninety percent of this behavior happens out of consciousness," Perlman says. "They would study or read a book, get up and there is a pile of hair there and they don't know how it got there."The product will track hand movement and set off an alarm when patients pull their hair. A specific code must then be entered to turn the alarm off. This technology also tracks and logs the behavior for analysis by mental health professionals.'This is the first method so a therapist knows behavior outside of the office," Perlman says.Source: David Perlman, co-founder of HamztecWriter: Jon Zemke

Ann Arbor start-ups take $90M in VC funds year-to-date

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Economic Development

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September 1, 2010

Venture capital spending is up in Michigan, and Ann Arbor start-ups are proving to be king of the hill. Year-to-date, Michigan-based firms have attracted $123 million in venture capital investment, with Ann Arbor-based companies taking in about $90 million of the total. The biggest investment ($51.75 million) went to Cerenis Therapeutics, a bio-tech firm with twin headquarters in France and Ann Arbor that's composed mostly of ex-Pfizer employees."This is a testament to the quality of companies that Michigan is creating," says LeAnn Auer, executive director of the Michigan Venture Capital Association.The total dollar amount invested is up 35 percent compared to 2009 year-to-date. However, the number of deals is lower, with 12 by August of last year and 10 so far this year. Life science firms took in the biggest chunks, with 57 percent of the total investment dollars last year and 75 percent so far this year. Cleantech firms were the only other ones to capture double-digit shares over each of the last two years. Other firms, including IT, received token amounts.The jump in venture capital investment can be attributed to economic improvements over the last year. A double-digit recession could force a drop in those numbers, Auer says, but barring that she expects to see a steady increase in the near future."Over the last few years we have had a couple of investment firms that have capitalized," she says. "Now they're being active."Source: LeAnn Auer, executive director of the Michigan Venture Capital AssociationWriter: Jon Zemke

TCH Pharmaceuticals scores $200K in loans, retains ex-Pfizer talent

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Community Development

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September 1, 2010

Ann Arbor-based TCH Pharmaceuticals will use a $200,000 loan from the state of Michigan to hire four people, all ex-Pfizer employees."These four will be the first employees of the company," says Thomas A Collet, president and CEO of TCH Pharmaceuticals.The 4-year-old company, currently staffed by its three co-founders, commercializes non-toxic proteasome inhibitors to be used in therapies that treat inflammatory diseases. It is using technology licensed from Michigan State University. "We have a family of compounds we want to take into clinical development," Collet says. "They would help us do that."TCH Pharmaceuticals (TCH is an acronym for the founders' last names) is one of five Michigan companies to share the most recent $530,000 in loans from the state's Company Formation and Growth Fund. That initiative began in 2007, shortly after Pfizer announced the closing of its Ann Arbor campus. It's aimed at keeping Pfizer's talent in-state by accelerating start-up formation and growth. The fund has made $8 million in loans to a total of 41 life-science companies in Ann Arbor, Chelsea, Jackson, Livonia, and Saline.Source: Thomas A Collet, president and CEO of TCH PharmaceuticalsWriter: Jon Zemke

Ann Arbor’s MetaSpring plans to add interns, contractors

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Arts & Culture

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September 1, 2010

Safety is in numbers, but the people at MetaSpring are seeing profits in numbers, too.The Ann Arbor-based web-development and marketing firm is partnering with more local companies for its marketing, design, search engine optimization, and social media work. "We have all sort of come to the conclusion that we have all gone through ups and downs so we are sharing more work," says Julie Cameron, marketing director for MetaSpring. The 6-year-old company employs five people, a couple of independent contractors, and the occasional intern. The firm expects to bring on a marketing intern or two this fall, along with a couple of independent contractors to take on the extra work created through more partnerships.Source: Julie Cameron, marketing director for MetaSpringWriter: Jon Zemke

Research Essential Services receives $100K loan, plans hires

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Community Development

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September 1, 2010

Research Essential Services is beginning to collect ex-Pfizer workers at its home in the Michigan Life Science and Innovation Center, a Plymouth-based wetlab incubator run by Ann Arbor SPARK.The start-up plans to hire two ex-Pfizer employees with a recent $100,000 grant it received from the state of Michigan's Company Formation and Growth Fund. It has already hired two other former Pfizer workers and two more life science employees with a $200,000 loan previously received from the fund.The company was founded by ex-Pfizer workers and now specializes in providing preclinical research services tailored to start-up and biotech firms. It offers professional veterinary care and design and execution of high quality research protocols in a state of the art facility.Research Essential Services is one of five Michigan companies to split the most recent $530,000 in loans from the state's Company Formation and Growth Fund. That initiative began in 2007, shortly after Pfizer announced the closing of its Ann Arbor campus. It's aimed at keeping Pfizer's talent in-state by accelerating start-up formation and growth. It has made $8 million in loans to a total of 41 life-science companies in Ann Arbor, Chelsea, Jackson, Livonia, and Saline.Source: Michigan Economic Development CorpWriter: Jon Zemke

U-M, St. Joseph Mercy Hospital team up for statewide blood clot prevention initiative

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Economic Development

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September 1, 2010

The University of Michigan Medical Center is taking a leading role in a new state-wide initiative to prevent blood clots as a way of elevating patient care and cutting health-care costs."The main reason to target this is because it's a communal problem," says Dr. Scott Flanders, a professor of medicine at U-M and the director for this project. "Almost every patient who is hospitalized is at risk for blood clots."U-M, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, St. Joseph Mercy Hospital, and 15 other hospitals throughout the state are working together to take down the blood clot problem as part of the Value Partnerships, a long-term collaboration among health-care organizations aimed at improving quality in medical care. This specific initiative will focus on ensuring the state's major hospitals reduce the risk of blood clots by studying, benchmarking, and implementing the best practices to eliminate preventable blood clots."Our initiative is to prevent these things in the first place," Flanders says.The first one to two years will be spent on an assessment of the problem and its various solutions. Picking low-hanging fruit could reduce the blood clot rate by as much as 50 percent in that time.Source: Dr. Scott Flanders, a professor of medicine at the University of MichiganWriter: Jon Zemke

Ann Arborites return to launch Resonant Venture Partners

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Economic Development

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September 1, 2010

The University of Michigan's Wolverine Venture Fund is supposed to serve as a real-life proving ground for Ross School of Business students aiming for a career in venture capital. It's now serving as the launching pad for a local venture capital start-up - Resonant Venture Partners.Two U-M MBA students, Michael Godwin and Jason Townsend, are using their experience with the $5.5 million student-run fund as a primary leg for their new Ann Arbor-based VC firm to stand on. The other leg is the two Michigan natives' entrepreneurial experience in Silicon Valley before they decided to return home and set up their own shop."We came back to get our MBAs and enter the venture capital world," says Jason Townsend, partner of Resonant Venture Partners. "There is opportunity to enter the venture capital industry here. On the coasts, the venture funds are being culled."Resonant Venture Partners recently made its first investment, teaming up with Silicon Valley-based True Ventures to invest $1 million in Ann Arbor-based Scio Security. The VC firm has attracted two top names to its board in EDF Ventures' Mary Campbell and Tom Kinnear, managing director of the Wolverine Venture Fund and head of U-M's Zell Lurie Institute.Godwin and Townsend have a $10 million fundraising target over the next 18 months. They hope to stay planted in Ann Arbor and have $100 million under management within the next decade. They see a steady pipeline of high-quality start-ups coming from the University of Michigan and its office of Tech Transfer. "We're hitting the investment trail hard right now," Townsend says.Source: Jason Townsend, partner, Resonant Venture PartnersWriter: Jon Zemke

Ann Arbor’s Algal Scientific doubles staff, wins award

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Entrepreneurship

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August 25, 2010

A little over a year ago Algal Scientific was a project for four students at the University of Michigan and Michigan State University. With it they won the U-M/DTE Energy Clean Energy Prize. Today that project is now a company that employs the four student founders... and then some.The start-up, based in the Michigan Life Science and Innovation Center, took the $65,000 from the Clean Energy Price and another $50,000 from the Michigan Microloan Fund Program to create a staff of nine people."In general we have staffed up in a number of areas," says Paul Hurst, CEO of Algal Scientific. Algal Scientific is working on a waste-water treatment system that uses algae to remove nutrients from contaminated water leaving the raw materials for biofuels. Earlier this summer the company set up a pilot system in a waste-water treatment plant and expects to set up a couple more within a few months."It's much larger," says Geoff Horst, CSO of Algal Scientific. "We're dealing with hundreds of gallons instead of dozens of gallons in the lab."The company expects to establish a demonstration scale project within the year and start generating revenue. It plans to continue hiring during this time, too. Algal Scientific also won the CleanTech Entrepreneur of the Year Award from the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering's Energy and Environmental Technology Applications Center and New York New Energy earlier this month.Source: Paul Hurst, CEO of Algal Scientific and Geoff Horst, CSO of Algal ScientificWriter: Jon Zemke

Dynamic Advisory Solutions opens Ann Arbor office, plans to hire

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Economic Development

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August 25, 2010

The decision for Dynamic Advisory Solutions to open an office in Ann Arbor was an easy one. At least it was when the Troy-based financial firm took a quick look at Tree Town's entrepreneurial ecosystem."It's because of the local entrepreneurial community," says Ren Carleton, president and CEO of Dynamic Advisory Solutions. "We think it's a great place to be."The 10-year-old company specializes in financial consulting and making growth financially viable for small- and medium-size firms. Dynamic Advisory Solutions essentially out sources the CFO and controller jobs for growing companies, so the founder can focus on the strategies that make their start-ups bigger and more profitable. Dynamic Advisory Solutions has one person at its Ann Arbor office, but Carelton expects that number to grow soon. He expects the company to hire another person within the next six months and a few more within the next year.Source: Ren Carleton, president and CEO of Dynamic Advisory SolutionsWriter: Jon Zemke

Ann Arbor SPARK gets $750K for Accelerate Mich Innovation Competition

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Community Development

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August 25, 2010

Ann Arbor SPARK is getting ready to break a lot of ice - between entrepreneurs and investors. During the Big Chill hockey game later this year they'll be hosting the Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition.The business plan competition will highlight local resources available to small businesses and spotlight southeast Michigan's entrepreneurial ecosystem. It will also expose local entrepreneurs and start-ups to venture capitalists, angel investors and executive talent from around the world who will be in Ann Arbor for the hockey game between the University of Michigan and Michigan State University at Michigan Stadium on Dec. 11. "When you start to look at the information and resources that have been cultivated over the last few years, we expect to have a lot of high-quality start-ups here," says Michael Finney, president and CEO of Ann Arbor SPARK. The Business Accelerator Network for Southeast Michigan (Ann Arbor SPARK, TechTown, Automation Alley and Macomb-OU INCubator) is working to put together what it calls the world's largest business plan competition. It will feature $1 million in cash awards, services, staffing and software up for grabs. It is open to start-ups and entrepreneurs from both inside and outside of the state that are willing to set up shop in Michigan. "The future of Michigan is based on its entrepreneurs and innovators," says David Egner, executive director of the New Economy Initiative, which supplied a $750,000 grant to Ann Arbor SPARK for the event. "They are the people that will drive growth in Michigan for the next few decades."The competition will focus on second-stage businesses and student concepts with long-term viability. It will be divided into nine categories, including advanced materials, advanced transportation, alternative energy, homeland security and defense, information technology, life science, medical devices, next generation manufacturing and products and services. Students attending any Michigan university or college can submit their business concepts in a separate category. For more information about the Accelerate Michigan Innovation competition, click here.Source: David Egner, executive director of the New Economy Initiative and Michael Finney, president and CEO of Ann Arbor SPARKWriter: Jon Zemke