Michigan jumps from 25th to 15th nationally in VC investment
Venture Capital investment in Michigan is on the rise, bucking a national trend of shrinking VC investment, according to a new report from the Michigan Venture Capital Association. The report shows Michigan venture capital firms invested $242 million in local start-ups in 2012, allowing the Great Lakes State to jump to from its rank of 25th to 15th in a national venture capital ranking. "We have had growth with a lot of firms," says Carrie... [Read More...]
Current Motor Co. finds success in fleet electric scooter sales
Current Motor Co's business plan has focused on expanding its sales of electric scooters into South America, where the vehicles are popular. That plan is starting to gain traction this summer with the beginning of the company's first fleet sales. The Ann Arbor-based start-up manufactures an electric scooter that provides the same sort of mobility and capability as regular gas-powered scooters, but with a much smaller carbon footprint. Many... [Read More...]
Current Motor Co. finds success in fleet electric scooter sales
Current Motor Co's business plan has focused on expanding its sales of electric scooters into South America, where the vehicles are popular. That plan is starting to gain traction this summer with the beginning of the company's first fleet sales. The Ann Arbor-based start-up manufactures an electric scooter that provides the same sort of mobility and capability as regular gas-powered scooters, but with a much smaller carbon footprint. Many... [Read More...]
HistoSonics looks to add jobs as it preps for clinical trials
HistoSonics is getting ready to start clinical trials later this year, which will mark the beginning of the last product development phase for the Ann Arbor-based start-up. The 3.5-year-old firm, a spin-off from the University of Michigan, is developing a medical device that uses tightly focused ultrasound pulses to treat prostate disease in a non-invasive manner with robotic precision. The company's name, HistoSonics, is a combination of histo... [Read More...]
Dexter’s k-Space Assoc expands staff as it moves into new HQ
Dexter-based k-Space Associates is celebrating its 20th year of being in business and Darryl Barlett, the firm's general manager, attributes its success to two things: "It's making products people can actually use," Barlett says. "That's No. 1. The No. 2 is giving people good technical support. The manufacturer and tech firm develops and makes diagnostic tools for the semi-conductor industry. It recently doubled... [Read More...]
Ultra Electronics AMI adds 10 new staff, including new CEO
Ultra Electronics and the University of Michigan are two important aspects of Bill King's life, which is why the veteran executive decided to take the helm at the Ultra Electronics AMI, formerly Adaptive Materials. King has spent 31 years working for Ultra Electronics and graduated from the University of Michigan in 1979. He is now the president of Ultra Electronics AMI, which is now a division of United Kingdom-based Ultra Electronics... [Read More...]
Caelynx expands staff on strength of new software sales unit
Caelynx is continuing its seven-year-long growth streak thanks to organic expansion of its two traditional lines of business (staffing and services) and the addition of a new unit, software sales. The Ann Abor-based company is a computer-aided engineering firm that specializes in consulting services in the aerospace, automotive, defense, energy, life science and consumer product industries. It recently received a Fast Track growth award Ann... [Read More...]
Thomson-Shore adds 20 people in Dexter
The people behind Thomson-Shore didn't view the recent recession as a problem as much as an opportunity. The Dexter-based printing company took the shrinking of its traditional business in hard economic times as a way to break into new markets, such as ebooks and print-on-demand jobs. "The recession, in many ways, was healthy for us," says Kevin Spall, president & CEO of Thomson-Shore. "We took that opportunity to look... [Read More...]
U-M students launch TurtleCell to solve earbud tangle
Paul Schrems has two ambitions these days. One is to start his own company and the second is to not have to keep untangling the earbuds for his smartphone. He's doing both with TurtleCell, a consumer-electronics start-up he is launching with Nick Turnbull. Schrems and Turnbull are engineering students at the University of Michigan. They both love their smart phones and protective case they are in but hate reaching into the pockets to pull... [Read More...]
U-M alumns look to turn myfab5 into better version of Yelp!
Omeid Seirafi-Pour at first followed a fairly typical path after graduating from the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business. The freshly minted MBA took a consulting job in Chicago. That lasted about a year before he and some fellow grads came back to Ann Arbor and started walking down the entrepreneurial path with myfab5. "I knew consulting wasn't right for me," Seirafi-Pour says. "I always wanted to do something... [Read More...]
