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Michigan Venture Capital Association Announces Nominees for 2021 Annual Awards Dinner

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Michigan Venture Capital Association Announces Nominees for 2021 Annual Awards Dinner

Event Celebrates the Successes of Michigan’s Entrepreneurial and Investment Community

August 3, 2021 (Novi, MI) — Michigan Venture Capital Association (MVCA), the trade association for the venture capital and angel community in Michigan, today announced the nominees for the 2021 MVCA Annual Awards Dinner. The event will be held on Thursday, September 30th, at 6 p.m. – 9 p.m. at Greenfield Village in Dearborn to celebrate the achievements of the Michigan entrepreneurial and investment community.

“We are excited to bring back the awards dinner after a year absence due to the pandemic. It is important that we continue to acknowledge and recognize the achievements being accomplished by the investment and entrepreneurial community in Michigan,” said Ara Topouzian, Executive Director of MVCA.

The awards ceremony recognizes the capital events that are fueling the growth of Michigan’s companies, the significant investment milestones enabling companies to grow and excel in Michigan, the companies that are producing groundbreaking solutions in their sectors, and the organizations working to engage with their communities and enrich their local economies.

The MVCA members will be voting to select the awardee for each category and the four awardees will be announced live at the dinner on Sept. 30th. The MVCA Annual Awards Dinner Nominees are:

Financing of the Year

The Financing of the Year Award recognizes the significant financing milestones enabling companies to grow and excel in Michigan.

  • Autobooks $25M, Series B: Autobooks is the first fully integrated payments & accounting platform for business, delivered through online banking.
  • HistoSonics $40M, Series C: HistoSonics is a privately held medical device company developing a non-invasive platform and proprietary sonic beam therapy utilizing the science of histotripsy, a novel mechanism of action that uses focused ultrasound to mechanically destroy and liquify unwanted tissue and tumors.
  • Orbion Space Technology $20M, Series B: Orbion Space Technology manufactures Hall effect plasma thrusters for use in small and cube satellites.

Exit of the Year

The Exit of the Year Award recognizes companies that were funded by Michigan investors and achieved a successful acquisition or exit. The following nominees are companies that are strengthening the entrepreneurial and investment community by increasing capital available in the state.

  • LLamasoft (Coupa Software acquired Llmasoft for $1.5B):  LLamasoft is a supply-chain planning company that elevates lives and organizations through the science of smarter decision-making.
  • NeuMoDx (Molecular Qiagen acquired NeuMoDx Molecular for $248M): NeuMoDx Molecular, Inc. operates as a molecular diagnostics company. The company develops solutions for molecular diagnostic (MDx) testing.
  • Tetra Therapeutics (Shionogi & Co. Ltd. acquired Tetra Therapeutics for $500M): Tetra Therapeutics is a clinical stage biotechnology company developing a portfolio of therapeutic products.

Up-and-Coming Company of the Year

The Up-and-Coming Company of the Year Award recognizes Michigan companies across all stages of growth that are producing groundbreaking solutions in their sectors. The following nominees are making a national impact by transforming legacy industries.

  • CertifID is a digital identity and device verification solution used by title companies, law firms, lenders, realtors, and home buyers and sellers in the United States, to securely send, confirm and collect wiring instructions. At $3M in ARR and closed strategic deal with Stewart Title rolling out to over 250 offices in 2021.
  • Facility Health is a SaaS enterprise asset management platform that provides healthcare systems with objective and transparent data about their physical infrastructure, allowing for superior capital planning. FHI’s software, Origin, assesses the current condition of assets and builds out optimal models for future maintenance, repair, and replacement expenditures. It will help CFOs prioritize and avoid future unexpected costs. $4M in ARR with 15x revenue growth in two years.
  • MemryX Inc. is a fabless semiconductor Ann Arbor based company that has orders of magnitude superior performance to a von Neumann-architecture employing a radically, innovative new in-memory compute architecture with deterministic data flow to enable low-power edge compute performance to enable high value AI applications. Their most recent Series-A financing includes ARM IoT Capital, HarbourVest, M Ventures, eLab Ventures, Motus Ventures, and the University of Michigan. MemryX also announced recently the addition of Rick Wallace, President and CEO of KLA Corporation and one of the most respected thought leaders in the semiconductor industry, to its Board of Directors.

Community Impact Award

The Community Impact Award recognizes organizations, events or individuals that create the meaningful, effective connections necessary to build Michigan’s entrepreneurial economy. The following nominees promote collaboration and provide critical resources for the growth of Michigan’s entrepreneurial and investment community.

  • Start Garden 100 Ideas: Start Garden created The 100 as a no-strings-attached way to fund people to take a shot at new endeavors each year. It’s a community-wide investment in the businesses and organizations of tomorrow. The 100 exists to open the gate for the whole community to try out new ideas each year, knowing that some can be life-changing. $1000 first check. Winners receive $20,000.
  • Tech Startup Stabilization Fund ID Ventures, With support from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation and Detroit-based New Economy Initiative, ID Ventures launched the Tech Startup Stabilization Fund in April 2020 to provide runway capital to startups most impacted by COVID. IDV funded 58 companies in 12 weeks through the $3M fund, adding 32 new companies to the ID Ventures portfolio.
  • The Renaissance UnDemo Day™ makes connections with Michigan’s most promising early-stage companies and hundreds of venture capital firms from around the country. In the past three years, the UnDemo Day™ events have initiated over 1,500 one-on-one meetings between investors and Michigan’s best early-stage companies. These relationships take time to develop, but to date Renaissance is aware of over 25 companies have found funding through Renaissance UnDemo Day™. Renaissance will be hosting its eighth UnDemo Day™ event on October 13th, 2021 at Ford Field in Detroit.