Ann Arbor SPARK has supported Navv Systems since 2020, when it provided the company with a grant to jumpstart commercialization efforts. With that business accelerator funding, Navv Systems accomplished key website, legal, and technical milestones. Through Ann Arbor SPARK’s Digital Engagement Clinic with Eastern Michigan University, the company accessed marketing interns to support further website development. Once the pandemic hit, Navv was awarded $50,000 in business accelerator funds by the MEDC for testing, legal support, and marketing to pivot its technology to serve healthcare clinics across the U.S. In spring 2021, Ann Arbor SPARK provided Navv with an Entrepreneur-in-Residence that provided critical help towards digital advertising and SEO for SaaS biotechnologies. Ann Arbor SPARK celebrates this important moment for Navv Systems, as this nimble team of doctors and engineers was able to close a round of funding and create new opportunities for our ecosystem as they progress forward.
Navv Systems, a Southeastern Michigan-based healthcare technology company focused on hospital personnel location and equipment tracking and location services, announced the close of a $3.2 million seed funding round led by Arboretum Ventures. Detroit Venture Partners also joined the financing along with existing investors including Narrow Gauge Ventures.
Navv has developed an indoor navigation and location services platform called NavvTrack enabling hospitals to better track equipment, personnel, and clinical workflows. The technology was conceived at Henry Ford Innovations, the development and commercialization arm of the Henry Ford Health System (HFHS) and licensed to Navv in 2019. NavvTrack is in use at all six HFHS hospitals, including Henry Ford’s 877-bed facility in Detroit, Michigan to optimize patient transport, housekeeping, and central pharmacy deliveries.
“This financing is an important achievement to support our continued growth with new health system customers,” said Daniel Siegal, M.D, Navv’s Co-Founder and CEO and Vice-chair of Radiology at HFHS. “Asset tracking remains a difficult challenge in need of a holistic solution that encompasses equipment, patients, and clinicians.”
The company has implementations active with two additional health systems and maintains a strong pipeline of new customers. NavvTrack has demonstrated improvements in workflow and cost efficiency by coordinating teams, better estimating task fulfillment timing, and enabling effective supply chain and resource planning. Additionally, the company has an active partnership with Apple leveraging the “indoor GPS” in iOS devices to optimize mobile workflows and enable real-time healthcare.
Tim Petersen, Managing Partner at Arboretum Ventures, has joined the board of directors.
“We’ve been very impressed with the sophistication of Navv’s technology, and the early customer traction Dan and his team have achieved,” said Petersen. “Navv is another prime example of clinician-led innovation emanating from a world-class organization like Henry Ford, addressing an important and immediate healthcare challenge.”
For more information, please visit https://navv-systems.com/
About Arboretum Ventures
Arboretum Ventures is a venture capital firm specializing in the healthcare sector. Founded in 2002, the firm has raised $700 million in capital to support a portfolio diverse in stage and geography. The investment team targets capital-efficient companies that improve patient outcomes and reduce healthcare system costs across medical devices, life science tools & diagnostics, and tech-enabled care delivery. Arboretum is headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan. More information is available at www.arboretumvc.com.
About Detroit Venture Partners
Detroit Venture Partners backs seed and early-stage startup teams with the grit, creativity, and passion to Since 2010, Detroit Venture Partners has been committed to backing and founding early-stage tech companies that we believe move the world forward. DVP was founded by Dan Gilbert, Rocket Mortgage Founder and Chairman, with a vision to grow Detroit’s entrepreneurial community. We partner with visionary founders and help our portfolio companies succeed by leveraging the more than 90 companies within the Rock Family of Companies, including Rocket Mortgage, Cleveland Cavaliers, Bedrock, and StockX. More information is available at www.detroit.vc.
