Customers of three Michigan companies might soon see much better now that the Michigan Microloan Fund has given them a combined $121,000 to develop their products.
Seeing what you’re killing: RiserCam, based in Saline, MI, makes video equipment for the outdoors industry. Its flagship product is the Roscoby Riser Cam, which is a flash memory video recorder mounted on crossbows and shotguns. The technology enables hunters to create video records of their hits and misses. A video explaining how it works can be found on the company’s Web site. Richard Millunchick, RiserCam’s CEO, is grateful to Ann Arbor SPARK, praising the venture incubator that manages the fund for being “willing to assist and take risks with young companies like RiserCam at a time when traditional lending institutions are not.”
Seeing who you’re hiring: Inventure Enterprises, based in East Lansing, MI, develops technology for workforce management and background checks. The funding will help Inventure commercialize its idView suite of background-check products, which it says streamlines and raises standards for screening of potential federal, state, municipal, and private employees. The microloans will help complete product development and marketing, and hire some college interns, says Robert Fulk, Inventure president.
Just seeing better: LED Optical Solutions, based in Washington, MI, develops LED bulb technology that allows municipalities to easily retrofit streetlights for energy savings of 50 to 60 percent. The technology can also be used in parking structures, and on billboards or highway signs. CEO Ingo Schneider says the loan comes “at a perfect time,” with 10 prototypes about to be placed in several cities signed up for pilot-testing programs.
