Beringea records profitable exit with acquisition of Saffron Digital

Beringea recorded its first exit of the year with the acquisition of Saffron Digital, capping a flurry of exit activity in Metro Detroit over the last week.

University of Michigan spin-off Cielo MedSolutions was acquired last Friday, and fellow U-M-bred start-up Accuri Cytometers went on Monday, creating even more happy entrepreneurs and investors in Ann Arbor. Two days later, Farmington Hills-based Beringea, Michigan's largest venture capital firm, announced one of its portfolio firms has been acquired in a multi-million dollar deal.

"It's clearly a sign that market conditions have improved," says Charlie Rothstein, co-founder and senior managing director of Beringea.

Beringea invested $1.8 million in Saffron Digital, a developer of video delivery platforms. Its acquisition by HTC valued the company at $48 million, generating a 65 percent internal rate of return. Rothstein says the recent string of exits in southeast Michigan is helping local venture capitalists prove their business models and generate more investment. He believes it's a promising sign for the local economy.

"There is really a lot of life that has been pumped into the region, and a lot of that has to do with the capital that has been invested in it," Rothstein says.

Source: Charlie Rothstein, co-founder and senior managing director of Beringea
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.