Summary of BAF Expanded Services Activity Through August 31, 2021
Posted as appendix to MI-SBDC BAF Helps Michigan Tech Companies Fight COVID-19 press release
COVID-19 Tech Companies
The BAF modification expanded eligibility and expedited the proposal/review process for companies developing advanced technologies that would alleviate the public health crisis. The following 15 companies have been approved and are receiving BAF support, several achieving important accomplishments.
$50K BAF engagement to Esperovax through Ann Arbor SPARK
The Plymouth-based company, located in the Michigan Life Sciences Innovation Center, is developing an oral vaccine using biological medicine to replace injectable vaccines. The BAF engagement will support their efforts to develop an oral vaccine for the COVID-19 coronavirus.
$50K BAF engagement to Olive Biosciences through OU INC
The Ferndale-based company is an accredited Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendment (CLIA) testing laboratory that currently tests blood for PFAS contamination. The BAF engagement will help the company achieve “High-complexity” CLIA accreditation required to conduct SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 virus testing using the RT-PCR assay.
In response to the proposal being approved, the OU INC Gateway Representative said “Thank you very much for making this happen. Unbelievable, a $50K BAF Engagement in 14 days from concept to approval.” Olive has completed regulatory approvals, established an innovative robotic automated processing system, and built an organization that stands out during the pandemic for responsiveness and rapid turnaround time (12-24hr) of the ‘gold standard’ COVID-19 PCR test results. This has resulted in service arrangements with several large organizations in the state, leading to $1.3m in sales and employing 6 people in less than a year. Olive is proud to report its unique service offerings have recently led to interest from several out-of-state governments to support district-wide COVID-19 school screening efforts.
$50K BAF engagement to Bedestrian through Ann Arbor SPARK
This Ann Arbor-based company designs, develops, and supplies a system of autonomous delivery robots to hospitals and other health care providers to augment medical staff and enhance patient care. The BAF engagement will help the company develop and test “hands off” package pick-up/drop-off and a sealed cooling system. This modification is needed by the company’s health care and elder care center customers in response to COVID-19.
$50K BAF engagement to Tygrus through Centrepolis (LTU)
This company is headquartered in Troy with a manufacturing facility in Madison Hts. Tygrus has developed a unique patented, water-synthesized chemistry, a safe non-toxic acid called Tydracide™ that has gone through rigorous testing by a 3rd party lab and shown to be effective to kill the COVID-19 virus. The BAF engagement will help the company receive the required EPA approvals enabling product to be marketed as COVID killing as well as safe & non-toxic. This will enable the company to ramp up for production at scale at Madison Heights manufacturing facility with 1 million gallons per week production capacity. Now in production in their Madison Heights plant and selling product. They’ve secured licensing deals with large companies (e.g., Vision, AFCO, ZEP). Successfully raising several million in capital.
$41,950 BAF engagement for Asalyxa Bio through Ann Arbor SPARK
This Ann Arbor-based company is commercializing a University of Michigan technology to treat COVID-19 patients with acute respiratory distress for which there is no approved therapeutic. The current standard of care is “best supportive care” provided by ventilators. The BAF engagement is for process design and development for scale-up of manufacturing the drug. The company has since raised a $2 million seed round
$25,000 BAF engagement for Shoshana Technologies through MSU Gateway Grand Rapids
This Ann Arbor based SaaS company serves over 300 Home Care and Home health agencies with a central operating system to manage operations including scheduling, payroll, billing, compliance, field data collection, etc. The BAF will engage Grand Rapids-based aMDI to add COVID-19 Health Screening survey tracking and reporting capabilities.
$15,000 BAF engagement for Eagle View Imaging through Tech Town
This Troy based company has developed a 3D augmented reality (AR) desktop surgical planning system. The BAF engagement assists with intellectual property protection as they expand their product line to create 3D AR images of patient lungs to help frontline healthcare workers to treat COVID-19 patients. Detroit Receiving Hospital’s Emergency Department is piloting the new product. The company has entered the ENT field (was in neurology prior to COIVD). Entered partnership with Wayne State University Department of Otolaryngology to validate the technology in this field. They continue to make progress in neurology and will be presenting at the Congress of Neurological Surgeons in Austin, TX this October.
$45,750 BAF engagement for NOTA Laboratories through Ann Arbor SPARK
This Ann Arbor company has developed ViriNOx™, a single-use, time-release chemistry in a sealed sachet that delivers a measured volume of inhaled nitric oxide (iNO) over a 1-3-hour period to treat and/or prevent viral and bacterial infections including COVID-19,
the annual flu and chronic bacterial sinusitis. This BAF engagement will allow NOTA to make progress toward establishing a production process at a GMP facility and to produce several pilot batches of products for EUA use. NOTA has completed its product formulation stage of development. They are planning to apply for an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) shortly.
NOTA is in the process of raising financing for its clinical trials that are planned for the 2nd quarter 2021.
$40,055 BAF engagement for JustLight (formerly Archimedes) through Centrepolis (LTU)
This Ann Arbor-based company has developed the “HALO” product utilizing UV-C short wave-length light that is proven to quickly and reliably sterilize human skin and objects like phones. Unlike currently available UV-C devices, the HALO is designed to be safe for human skin.
The BAF engagement will optimize the product design for purposes of customer demonstrations and safety lab and FDA testing. Secured partnership with a Michigan based manufacturer (Eypex in Auburn Hills), beta prototypes complete, completing efficacy testing with LTU, secured $1M investment from Asahi Kasei (total funding raised to about ~$2M)
$50,000 BAF engagement for Navv Systems through Ann Arbor SPARK
This Detroit-based company is the developer and seller of NavvTrack® – A healthcare-focused indoor location navigation and tracking software platform that provides real-time “indoor GPS” powered by smartphones and WiFi networks. Navv is developing a workplace safety module, NavvTrack® DETECT, that leverages the location data from the core platform to provide contact detection capabilities to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the workplace. NavvTrack® DETECT is currently in a paid pilot at Henry Ford Health System in Detroit.
The BAF engagement will provide QA testing of NavvTrack® DETECT at enterprise scale, legal services for HIPPA compliance, and marketing support.
Company has raised $3.2 million in venture capital to accelerate their sales into the health care industry.
$32,800 BAF engagement for Celcius One through Centrepolis (LTU)
This Southfield-based company was founded to produce and sell a non-toxic alternative to cleaning and disinfecting chemicals. Its core product, Nano bio water, has been shown to be effective in killing a wide variety of bacteria and virus, including coronavirus.
The BAF engagement provides marketing services and a prototype of a dispensing machine for their product. Company is currently selling disinfectant product, securing EPA approvals, going through GreenSeal certification. Finalized machine design for higher throughput, secured partnership with strategic channel partner (Bar Made) to provide machines into restaurant industry. Raising funding now.
$50,000 BAF engagement for Individuallytics through Ann Arbor SPARK
This Ann Arbor-based company has developed IAQplus™, the industry’s first telemedicine platform that combines data from remote monitoring devices with the best clinical guidelines and, using a patent-pending analytical engine, optimizes multi-therapy care for Multiple Chronic Condition patients including those with COVID-19.
The BAF engagement will integrate the company’s cloud software with major medical records systems, implement COVID-19 care requirements, and provide intellectual property protection support.
$42,999 BAF engagement for MagPlasma through LEAP
This Veteran owned Troy-based company is developing the Dry Plasma Autoclave which disinfects PPE without exposing it to steam or liquid disinfectants such as bleach.
The BAF engagement will provide third-party testing services to help the company optimize the plasma process conditions, system operation methodology, and prepare for final validation.
The 3rd party testing lab demonstrated that this novel disinfection device was >99.99% effective (4-log reduction) in rapidly disinfecting a Bacillus bacterium.
$20,000 BAF engagement for Student Achievement Systems through MSU Gateway Grand Rapids
This Grand Rapids-based company has developed a cloud-based SaaS product that helps school administrators, teachers, and educators monitor the “Pulse” of their virtual classrooms and remote student performance in real time.
The BAF engagement will provide marketing services to help the company increase awareness of its product among schools who have implemented or expanded their virtual classrooms in response to the pandemic.
$43,270 BAF engagement for Purified Handle through Ann Arbor SPARK
This Ypsilanti-based company has developed BEACON, a highly effective, low maintenance self-sanitizing door handle that utilizes UVC light to kill 99.9% of harmful bacteria and viruses in seconds without changing the way users interface with doors or burdening facilities with high maintenance costs.
The BAF engagement will provide third-party safety and efficacy testing required to obtain EPA approval.
Read the entire press release here