Michigan’s Seneca Partners Plans to up the Ante with $50M Health Care Venture Fund

Seneca Partners, a venture capital firm with offices in Birmingham, MI, Ann Arbor, MI, and Bannockburn, IL, plans to raise between $50 million and $75 million for another health care venture fund this year, according to a report in VentureWire.

Back in 2004, Seneca closed a $14 million fund health care fund and invested in nine companies. Seneca tells VentureWire that it has bigger plans with a bigger fund, but would not name any potential partners. Seneca did not immediately respond to Xconomy’s request for comment on the news.

Seneca works with middle-market companies in health care, business services and high-value manufacturing industries. Seneca health Partners provides growth capital to health care device, service and IT companies in what it calls “Middle America.”

That must include Kalamazoo, MI, since Seneca announced in April that it had acquired a majority interest in Micro Machine Company, a manufacturer of orthopedic and spinal instruments, tools, and implants. That $1.9 million round will enable Micro Machine to offer a broader product line.

Author: Howard Lovy

Howard Lovy is a veteran journalist who has focused primarily on technology, science and innovation during the past decade. In 2001, he helped launch Small Times Magazine, a nanotech publication based in Ann Arbor, MI, where he built the freelance team and worked closely with writers to set the tone and style for an emerging sector that had never before been covered from a business perspective. Lovy's work at Small Times, and on one of the first nanotechnology-themed blogs, helped him earn a reputation for making complex subjects understandable, interesting, and even entertaining for a broad audience. It also earned him the 2004 Prize in Communication from the Foresight Institute, a nanotech think tank. In his freelance work, Lovy covers nanotechnology in addition to technological innovation in Michigan with an emphasis on efforts to survive and retool in the state's post-automotive age. Lovy's work has appeared in many publications, including Wired News, Salon.com, the Wall Street Journal, The Detroit News, The Scientist, the Forbes/Wolfe Nanotech Report, Michigan Messenger, and the Ann Arbor Chronicle.