Swift Biosciences, an Ann Arbor, MI, company that makes reagents for genetic tests, has announced that it received $3 million in Series A financing in June led by VC firm DFJ Mercury and joined by several Michigan-based investors. Swift was founded in January by former Accuri Cytometers Chief Scientific Officer David Olson. “Swift Biosciences plans to grow operations and launch products next year,” Olson says in an e-mail to me this morning. “I think the Ann Arbor area is a great place for us.” As we reported in May, Houston-based DFJ Mercury is actively seeking investment opportunities in Michigan.
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.
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