Current Motor Co. lays groundwork for scooter production
Beta is a word commonly used with Internet start-ups, but it's a word that's en vogue with one automotive start-up, Current Motor Co. The Ann Arbor-based firm finished testing its pilot electric scooters earlier this year and is now in the final stages of developing its Beta bike. The three-year-old start-up hopes to begin mass producing the scooters later this year and with an eye for a market break-out in 2012. The company also plans... [Read More...]
Current Motor Co. lays groundwork for scooter production
Beta is a word commonly used with Internet start-ups, but it's a word that's en vogue with one automotive start-up, Current Motor Co. The Ann Arbor-based firm finished testing its pilot electric scooters earlier this year and is now in the final stages of developing its Beta bike. The three-year-old start-up hopes to begin mass producing the scooters later this year and with an eye for a market break-out in 2012. The company also plans... [Read More...]
U-M start-ups score $34K in Dare to Dream grants
The University of Michigan's Dare to Dream grants aren't so much about growing student-led start-ups as they are about growing the student entrepreneurs themselves. The Dare to Dream program, organized by U-M's Zell-Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies, distributes up to $100,000 each academic year to U-M students. The grants range in size from $500 to $10,000 and help students fund things like feasibility studies, business... [Read More...]
U-M start-ups score $34K in Dare to Dream grants
The University of Michigan's Dare to Dream grants aren't so much about growing student-led start-ups as they are about growing the student entrepreneurs themselves. The Dare to Dream program, organized by U-M's Zell-Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies, distributes up to $100,000 each academic year to U-M students. The grants range in size from $500 to $10,000 and help students fund things like feasibility studies, business... [Read More...]
U-M Tech Transfer breaks records in tech commercialization
Officials at the University of Michigan Office of Tech Transfer like to say that they are striving for more quality start-ups rather than more stats. That doesn't mean they can't do both. The university recorded 101 license and options for its technology in the fiscal year ending on June 30. That's more than any other previous year. U-M researchers also recorded 322 inventions and filed for 122 patents. U-M also helped launch 11 start-ups... [Read More...]
Plymouth Venture Partners raises $41M fund, surpasses goal
The Plymouth Management Company, commonly known as Plymouth Venture Partners, has recently closed its second investment fund, raising $41 million and surpassing its goal of $30 million. The eight-year-old venture capital firm raised $23.5 million in its first fund, resulting in 29 investments in mostly firms in the Great Lakes region. Among its most notable successes were Pump Engineering (acquired in late 2009 for $27 million) and Accuri Cytometers,... [Read More...]
Michigan Microloan Fund receives payback on successful start-up loans
The Michigan Microloan Fund Program got its start two years ago loaning seed capital to start-ups, and the first of those loans are starting to come due. One has even been paid back early. "We have $400,000 in loans that are due between now and the end of the year," says Skip Simms, a senior vice president of Ann Arbor SPARK and manager of the Michigan Microloan Fund Program. The $1.5 million fund got its start in the wake of the financial... [Read More...]
Ann Arbor SPARK brokers Liebherr-Aerospace expansion in Saline
Ann Arbor SPARK has made its work practically synonymous with growing start-ups, but the business accelerator is doing more to grow other new economy segments of the region's entrepreneurial ecosystem. The latest example of that is the expansion of Liebherr-Aerospace's operations in Saline. The aerospace supplier is expanding its 100,000-square-foot facility by another 33,000 square feet for landing gear manufacturing. It's an expansion... [Read More...]
Akervall Technologies Repays $15,000 Michigan Microloan Fund Program Award
Sassa Akervall, COO of Akervall Technologies, and Skip Simms, senior vice president of Ann Arbor SPARK Akervall Technologies recently repaid its Michigan Microloan Fund Program award, making it the first microloan recipient to repay funding. The company, whose work on the innovative Protech Dent™ mouth guard was also awarded phase I SBIR funding, repaid its $15,000 microloan in just 15 months, nine months before it was due. “Akervall Technologies... [Read More...]
Ann Arbor SPARK scores $10.8M for investments and programs
Ann Arbor SPARK plans to spread $10.8 million it received from the state last week toward replenishing the Michigan Pre-Seed Capital Fund, funding the Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition and starting the Michigan Angel Fund. The Michigan Economic Development Corp awarded the money from the state’s 21st Century Jobs Fund. Most of it, $9.17 million, will go toward reloading the four-year-old Michigan Pre-Seed Capital Fund. The $14 million... [Read More...]
