Displaying items tagged: Venture Capital

GRAND RAPIDS — West Michigan medical device company Shoulder Innovations Inc. has raised $42 million from investors that will go to accelerate commercialization and distribution.

A $500,000 state grant will help relaunch a statewide fellowship program to develop new talent for Michigan’s venture capital industry.

Grand Rapids-based venture capital fund Grand Ventures led a $3 million capital round for iink Payments, a Tampa, Fla.-based platform that expedites payments for property insurance claims.

A new West Michigan private equity firm has kicked off with a pair of deals for direct-to-consumer products companies. 

The second investment by the New Community Transformation Fund — a recently formed Grand Rapids investment fund for minority entrepreneurs — went to a Texas fintech that relocated its headquarters to downtown Grand Rapids.

The state has begun the process to dispense nearly $237 million in federal funding to support small businesses.

GRAND RAPIDS — Three years after forming a fund to invest in companies needing growth capital, Charter Capital Partners LLC has begun preparing to start a larger, successor fund.

A recently formed Grand Rapids investment fund supporting entrepreneurs of color is serving as a model for a similar effort in Colorado, while fund organizers say the effort could be replicated in even more U.S. cities.

Venture capital investing in Michigan held up well through midyear compared to national trends, as the number of deals were essentially even while the amount invested nearly doubled.

Angel investing in Michigan rebounded well in 2021 as the amount invested neared — and deal flow exceeded — pre-pandemic levels.

GRAND RAPIDS — The venture capital fund formed a year ago in Grand Rapids to invest in minority-owned businesses has netted $8.5 million in commitments from investors and aims to hit $10 million this year.

GRAND RAPIDS — A new mezzanine fund based in Grand Rapids seeks to raise $100 million to invest in growing companies, MiBiz has learned.

GRAND RAPIDS — Thornapple River Capital LLC invested $10 million in a Denver, Colo.-based company that developed a digital marketplace for private parties to buy and sell vehicles and borrow money for a purchase.

Kalamazoo-based Vestaron Corp. plans to use $40 million in new capital to expand commercialization and accelerate the development of an additional line of environmentally friendly pesticides. 

EAST LANSING — With a new investment fund at Michigan State University, students can gain experience on either side of the venture capital industry. The Student Venture Capital Fund offers students with an idea for a business or an innovation “priceless” experience in seeking capital and pitching to prospective investors, said Jeff Wesley, the executive director of Red Cedar Ventures at MSU.

The amount of venture capital invested in the Midwest grew at a compound annual rate of 17 percent from 2013 to 2018, the third highest in the U.S., behind the West Coast at 28 percent and the Mid-Atlantic region at 22 percent. The growth rate was one of the reasons the National Venture Capital Association and the University of California Berkeley chose Ann Arbor as the place to launch a new education program, VC University LIVE, on May 15-17 at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business.

A venture capital fund led by women investors to back women-owned startups has raised $4.5 million so far toward a $20 million goal. Belle Michigan Impact Fund LP has attracted 57 investors to date, including its first institutional investor in Toronto-based Canadian Imperial Bank Corp.

Venture capital funds based in Michigan more than doubled the amount they invested in startups in 2018, although the money went to fewer companies.

Genesis Innovation Group LLC and its affiliated venture capital funds invested in HAPPE Spine LLC, a Grand Rapids startup developing and commercializing a material for orthopedic implants.

Cultivate(MD) Capital Fund II LP, a venture capital fund operated by Grand Rapids-based Genesis Innovation Group, invested in Embody Inc., a Norfolk, Va. company that developed a collagen-based micro-fiber implant for Achilles’ heel and rotator cuff repairs.

The $77 million investment in Ablative Solutions Inc. ranks as the largest known venture capital deal ever in Michigan, possibly helping draw more attention to the state’s life sciences research and development. 

Ablative Solutions Inc. secured $77 million in financing that ranks as the largest known venture capital deal ever in Michigan.

Venture capital investors made fewer deals in Michigan during the third quarter than the same period a year earlier, although the amount invested more than tripled.

Venture capital firm Grand Ventures I LP was among the investors in a Charleston, S.C. software firm that uses artificial intelligence to work with clients to identify and engage with job candidates.

Enterprise software developer Blue Medora LLC has raised another $8 million in capital that will support continued growth.

Venture capital fund Grand Ventures I LP was part of a $5 million funding round for an Indiana tech firm.

A new venture capital fund in West Michigan closed on its first deal this week.

Across West Michigan, Native American tribes have started to hang out their own shingle in enterprises that move them away from the familiar tribal-owned casino.

Spectrum Health has formed a new venture capital fund that could invest up to $100 million into health care-related companies over the next decade, MiBiz has learned.

Drug developer Tetra Discovery Partners LLC said it’s closed on $5 million in new venture capital funding.