[Updated 7/15/14 at 4:49 p.m. See below.] The Michigan Pre-Seed Fund 2.0, a $6.8 million statewide investment fund, announced today that it has made the fund’s first investment in ENT Biotech Solutions, a Detroit-based medical device startup. The company will receive $100,000 toward the development of a surgical tool for use in tonsil, adenoid, and soft tissue removal.
The product developed by ENT Biotech, called the Elasso, is a disposable, single-use, one-step tool that cuts, cauterizes, and removes tissue during tonsil and adenoid surgery. [This sentence was shortened because of a source error.] The company was founded in 2011 and is currently incubating at TechTown.
ENT Biotech has racked up a number of awards since its inception, including the $25,000 first-place prize in the emerging company division of the 2013 Great Lakes Entrepreneur’s Quest business competition; the first-place prize of $15,000 last year at Entrepreneur-YOU competition put on by Walsh College; MichBio’s Innovator of the Year award in 2012; the $25,000 first-place prize in the medical devices category of the 2013 Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition; and first place in the emerging biosciences category at the 2013 MichBio Expo.
Last fall, ENT Biotech CEO Andrea Roumell Dickson told Crain’s Detroit Business that she expected the company would pursue FDA approval of the Elasso as soon as this year.
The Pre-Seed Fund 2.0 is managed by Invest Michigan, a Detroit-based nonprofit, and targets early-stage tech startups across Michigan.
