The Ann Arbor SPARK Foundation recently presented the winners of the Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition with their cash awards. The competition’s grand prize of $500,000 in cash was awarded to DeNovo Sciences and the competition’s $150,000 prize was awarded to Fusion Coolant Systems.
“DeNovo Sciences and Fusion Coolant Systems highlight how having a strong entrepreneurial support system can help businesses successfully launch and advance towards attracting capital and commercializing products,” said Paul Krutko, president and CEO, Ann Arbor SPARK. “Both companies are currently being incubated at Ann Arbor SPARK. DeNovo Sciences is a tenant at the Michigan Life Science and Innovation Center and Fusion Coolant Systems is a tenant at Ann Arbor SPARK’s SPARK East incubator. Both companies have also benefitted from Ann Arbor SPARK’s entrepreneurial services, including business planning.”
Denovo Sciences and Fusion Coolant Systems plan to use the Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition prize monies to further their business development goals, including attracting additional capital investments and ramping up commercialization efforts.
“The $500,000 Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition prize definitely helps us stay on track with our goals,” said Kalyan Handique, CEO, DeNovo Sciences. “We will use the funding to test our prototype so that we are ready for big fundraising in the coming year; our goal is to raise $6 million in venture capital.”
DeNovo Sciences is developing an instrument system and reagent kit that allows for the separation, detection and retrieval of circulating tumor cells from peripheral whole blood creating an alternative to traditionally painful and invasive biopsies. Fusion Coolant Systems provides an advanced coolant and lubrication system for use in manufacturing.
See how Fusion Coolant Systems plans on spending their award money:
