Stories

Pittsburgh’s Brand Holdings LLC announced that it has acquired Simple Botanics, Chicago-based maker of herbal botanic teas and organic bars. Madison-based Fetch Rewards has raised $210 million in Series D financing, making it one of the few privately held startups to reach the billion-dollar valuation milestone in the Midwest. Business starts in Minnesota are up…

Arch Grants Startup Competition The Arch Grants Startup Competition is open for applications. Through their annual Startup Competition, they award $50,000 non-dilutive grants (and $10,000 non-dilutive support for relocation expenses for companies relocating from outside of MO), and provide professional support services to early-stage companies that locate their business to St. Louis for at least…

Lewis & Clark Ventures is an early stage venture firm managed by former founders and operators. They invest in late seed through Series B companies between the coasts. We spoke with Brian Hopcraft, General Partner at Lewis & Clark. Tell us about the fund. Hopcraft: We founded the fund with the thesis that there wasn’t…

Orthopedic companies in flyover country, like Stryker and Zimmer Biomet, are exploring how utilizing data can improve procedures and patient outcomes. The data is collected before and after operations, as well as collected by robots during surgery. A study from Washington University in St. Louis suggests that giving chemotherapy treatments in the morning rather than the…

Easing PPE demands National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory in Pittsburgh–which has been developing a new kind of respirator that would ease demand for N95s masks during the pandemic–has received a $14 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health. Double lung transplant on COVID patient In December, surgeons at OSU’s Wexner Medical Center Comprehensive Transplant Center successfully…

Omaha-based VC firm Dundee Venture Capital closed on a more than $25 million round to be used toward its goal of fueling early stage tech startups throughout the Midwest. Ohio’s Third Frontier program announced a $46 million investment in 100 small companies, helping establish Northeast Ohio as a high-tech and health innovation hub.   Louisville, KY-based…

Developing rubber from sunflowers With the world’s supply of natural rubber at risk, Edison Agrosciences in St. Louis is working to develop alternative rubber crops. The product it believes can become homegrown rubber? Sunflowers. Steve Case and the Rust Belt Steve Case talks about his investing hypothesis: Rust Belt cities and corporate towns in the…

If you are an inventor, ideas sometimes come from unexpected places. In the case of Mike Saigh, inventor and co-founder of Equine Smartbit, a product idea arose from a set of missing dentures and a cat with larceny on his mind. We spoke to Saigh and CEO Mark Pound. Tell us how the idea of…

Research from the University of Minnesota shows that artificial heart valves implanted in lambs continued to grow and function for at least a year after surgery. Tracking technology is becoming essential for medical and other suppliers. Columbus-based Cardinal Health Inc., along with Chicago-based FourKites, has built a customized system to track the distribution of temperature-sensitive…

COVID and patients’ brains Researchers at UC have been studying the way COVID-19 impacts other parts of the body. Now they’ve found a correlation between the severity of the disease in the lungs and the severity of effects on patients’ brains. Masks and COVID transmission According to a pilot study done in Missouri, when schools…

Michigan Technological University has landed a $4.5M grant from the Department of Energy for self-driving vehicle research and development. The research will be led by the university in partnership with General Motors, the American Center of Mobility, and Stellantis. Leawood, KS-based tech startup Torch.AI, which has developed AI software that can quickly analyze large amounts…

Logica accepted by Y Combinator Omaha-based startup Logica, which builds next-generation business finance software, is the first Nebraska business to be accepted by Silicon Valley startup program Y Combinator. Ford expands autonomous car research Ford is planning to deploy over 100 researchers and engineers at its facility at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, to…

What do you know about Indiana? How about these facts: Seven Indiana cities are recognized for their national Life Sciences strengths, according to Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) and TEConomy Partners’ biennial survey of the US Life Sciences industry. Indiana is also one of only nine states with employment specializations in three of five bioscience sectors…

As part of its efforts toward player health and safety, the NFL Players Association has teamed up with Cleveland Clinic on an initiative to use artificial intelligence to improve diagnosis, prediction of disease progression and treatments for neurological disease. Many patients with back-of-the-eye diseases like macular degeneration or diabetic retinopathy have to undergo eye injections…

5-minute COVID test Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh and UPMC are working on a rapid COVID-19 test that can detect the virus in just five minutes. Researchers used technology from a marijuana breathalyzer created a few years ago. Mathematician explores COVID-19 health interventions University of Kansas mathematician Folashade Agusto is doing COVID-19 research around…

Kansas City-based TripleBlind has raised a total of $8.2M in equity funding. Investors include Accenture Ventures, Flyover Capital, Anorak Ventures, and many others. TripleBlind offers digital privacy as a service, helping companies provide and consume data in an encrypted environment. Ohio’s Rev1 Ventures has launched its Future Value Fund I, a new $10MM for-profit investment…

Pittsburgh and Google Cloud Pittsburgh is partnering with Google Cloud to migrate its legacy IT infrastructure to the cloud. The migration will happen in three phases and should take about a year. Academy helps device companies An Indianapolis-based company called Greenlight Guru Academy has created an online educational platform for helping medical device companies through…

Nationwide Ventures is the investment arm of Nationwide that seeks to invest in startups that are shaping the future of insurance and financial services. Erik Ross leads Nationwide’s mergers and acquisitions and venture capital teams. In his role, he oversees Nationwide’s acquisition, divestiture, and joint venture transactions as well as the $350 million fund that…