GRAND RAPIDS – Grand Angels announced Monday its latest funding commitments in a number of companies across Michigan, including Ablative Solutions, Grand River Aseptic Manufacturing, Local Orbit, LLC, ProNAi Therapeutics, and Vestaron Corporation. With this latest funding, Grand Angels has invested more than $13 million in 28 companies since its inception.
?Our next round of funding includes a range of investments such as ProNAi, a company that was one of Grand Angels? earliest investments, as well as a handful of other talented companies from across the state,? said Jody Vanderwel, Grand Angels President. ?Michigan is an exciting region for growth in technology, health care research and agricultural advancements, and we are thrilled to see these companies flourish in the coming year.?
Ablative Solutions? technology involves endovascular catheters to provide an efficacious, durable, cost-effective and safe alternative to surgical renal denervation for the treatment of hypertension and other diseases caused by an overactive sympathetic nervous system. CEO and CMO Tim Fischell, MD, FACC, and Vartan Ghazarossian, PhD, Ablative?s president and COO have developed a safe outpatient renal denervation process for the treatment of high blood pressure that eliminates the extremely painful ?burning? treatment that most other companies perform. Founded in Kalamazoo, this treatment has been found to quickly reduce pain and recovery time and also decrease the need for long-term medication.
Grand River Aseptic Manufacturing is located in Grand Rapids and specializes in pre-clinical, Phase 1 and 2 clinical trials, and small to medium scale commercial production quantities. The Company offers services for clinical, small-scale and commercial stage products, including sterile product development and manufacture, terminal sterilization, pre-filled syringe filling and analytical and microbiological services.
Based in Ann Arbor, Local Orbit provides thoughtfully designed sales and business management software for the entrepreneurs who are building the New Food Economy. Led by Erika Block, the organization provides tools for farmers, producer coops, food hubs, farmers markets and independent distributors to efficiently sell to local restaurants, grocers and institutions. Online marketplaces powered by Local Orbit are already active across 12 states, and local farmers’ sales through Local Orbit have grown by 300% from 2012 to 2013. The investment from Grand Angels will help Local Orbit expand in targeted regions, while helping people build profitable businesses and healthier communities.
?Local Orbit is emerging as the core infrastructure for local food systems. With our powerful online tools we are helping local food entrepreneurs communicate, connect and transact with ease,? said Erika Block, founder and CEO of Local Orbit. ?During the next six months, Local Orbit is in a unique position to educate and guide emerging food startups, and the investment from Grand Angels will help us expand this activity to new customers nationwide.”
ProNAi Therapeutics, a cancer biotech company leverages its novel and proprietary DNAi drug technology platform to advance a new class of drugs. With offices in Plymouth and Kalamazoo, ProNai has seen recent success with safely treating Non-Hodgkin?s Lymphoma patients in clinical trials, offering hope to these patients whose tumors have failed to respond to other therapies.
Kalamazoo-based Vestaron Corporation is developing a new generation of insecticides using natural peptides from spiders. The Company?s products can be used in agriculture, animal health and specialty non-crop uses and are effective against insects and related pests while being harmless to non-target species, including humans.
For more information, click on GrandAngels.Org
