Last year meant several things to North Coast Technology Investors. The Ann Arbor-based venture capital firm made some high-profile investments, expanded its portfolio and began deploying its third investment fund in earnest. "It was one of the most active years we had in a while," says Hugo Braun, co-founder of North Coast Technology Investors. The 20-year-old venture capital firm has in excess of $100 million under management through three investment funds that are invested in 35 companies. It closed on its third investment vehicle, worth $30 million, in 2010 and currently has eight portfolio firms in that fund. It's latest investment is in Stik, an Internet start-up based in downtown Detroit's M@dison Building. North Coast Technology Investors co-led the Series A round worth $2.3 million with Detroit Venture Partners. Stik's technology helps authenticate that online reviews were made by actual people. It was founded by two Metro Detroit natives that graduated from Harvard with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg. They moved it to downtown Detroit last fall and have since hired six people. North Coast Technology Investors' investment in Stik was its fourth of 2012. Among its higher-profile investments from last year was a follow-up investment in Ann Arbor-based CytoPherx, a clinical stage medical device company. Braun expects North Coast Technology Investors' team of three to make four investments this year. Source: Hugo Braun, co-founder of North Coast Technology Investors Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

The Renaissance Venture Capital Fund is making its first investments in its second investment vehicle, worth $60 million, over the last year. The downtown Ann Arbor-based venture capital firm also has an office in downtown Detroit, has invested $3 million of it second fund so far. The first recipient is Allos Ventures, a venture capital firm with offices in Indianapolis and Cincinnati. "They have been pretty active in looking for deals in Michigan," says Chris Rizik, CEO of Renaissance Venture Capital Fund. Renaissance Venture Capital Fund is a fund of funds, which is primarily used to invest in other venture capital funds that will in turn invest in individual companies. The Renaissance Venture Capital Fund invests in VCs that are looking to invest in Michigan-based start-ups. The 5-year-old fund of funds, which has derived its capital from private sources, launched with a $50 million fund. It closed on a $60 million fund last year. When the Renaissance Venture Capital Fund launched it deployed its capital relatively quickly to meet pent up demand. Rizik expects the deal flow to even out a little more in coming years with his company making $15 million to $20 million investments "Now it's sort of a steady flow," Rizik says. "There is no backlog. We will invest this in a steady fashion." Source: Chris Rizik, CEO of Renaissance Venture Capital Fund Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

When Chris Rizik goes to the Michigan Growth Capital Symposium, he doesn't spend much time watching presentation. The longtime Ann Arbor-based VC and CEO of the Renaissance Venture Capital Fund, a fund of funds that invests in smaller venture capital firms, ends up spending most of the conference networking with people who are eager to bend his ear. "It's a great opportunity to do that (network with people who are hard to get ahold of)," Rizik says. "I spend about three quarters of my time in the hallway, not in the sessions." The Michigan Growth Capital Symposium has been helping make these connections for a little more than 30 years. The two-day conference annually held in Ann Arbor, May 21-22, is widely regarded as one of the best places for high-level networking in the start-up and investment worlds in the Midwest. This year's symposium will feature presentations from 40 of the Midwest's top high-growth companies and representatives from 65 investment firms. Overall attendance is expects to exceed 400 people, including entrepreneurs, angel investors and venture capitalists. Start-ups that have pitched at the Michigan growth Capital Symposium have raised in excess of $1 billion in seed capital over the years. "You get a concentration of interesting people in that place," Rizik says. "You have people in the audience whom they (entrepreneurs) would have a hard time getting a meeting with. That's valuable." Source: Chris Rizik, CEO of the Renaissance Venture Capital Fund Writer: Jon Zemke

Source: Phil Tolliver, Smokehouse 52 Writer: Natalie Burg

Molecular Imaging is turning its growth spurt into a growth streak in Ann Arbor, expaning its revenues by triple digits and more than doubling its staff since its acquisition nearly two years ago. The Ann Arbor-based company provides in vivo pre-clinical imaging services for pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical devices industries. The 10-year-old firm was acquired nearly two years ago by a group of venture capital firms led by Farmington Hills-based Beringea. Since then, Molecular Imaging tripled its revenues in 2012 and expanded its staff from 13 employees to 28 employees today after hiring 10 people over the last year. "We're looking for roughly a doubling of the business this year over 2012," says Tom Ludlam, CEO of Molecular Imaging. Ludlam attributes the growth spike to a few factors. First, he points out that there is an underlining growing demand for the types of bio-tech imaging services his firm offers. He adds that Molecular Imaging has doubled down on its sales and marketing efforts, which is accelerating his firm's sales. Molecular Imaging has also expanded its service offerings. Two of those offerings include Fluorescence Molecular Tomography, which enables quantitative imaging of the fluorescent probe, or marker concentration to the picomolar level with no tissue depth limitation. It can be used as a discovery screening tool for assessing biologics biodistribution rapidly and cost effectively in the whole body. The other is Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography, a 3-D nuclear medicine imaging technique that provides qualitative and quantitative physiologic measurements. It is beneficial for earlier stage testing of pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, disease/tissue targeting as well as later stage regulatory, biodistribution and drug metabolism studies.  Source: Tom Ludlam, CEO of Molecular Imaging Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Tom Crawford has been working in software since the 1980s, and working on mobile software when it first started to come into its own in the mid 2000s. Now he has turned that wealth of programming experience into his own business, Visualization Network. The Ann Arbor-based start-up creates custom mobile apps for clients and its own apps for sale. Some of its work includes VizChef (an interactive recipe app) and OnStage Now (for presentations). It's latest offering is Happy Hour, an app that helps its users find the best deals for drinks and foods during...you guessed it, happy hours. It allows users to search by location, day, time or their favorite type of drink. So far the app is viable in communities across Metro Detroit and is in the process of adding in Lansing, East Lansing and Grand Rapids. "We're adding more and more cities as we grow," Crawford says. "Toledo will be our next target as we finish our Michigan cities." Visualization Network is currently a one-person operation that often employs a stable of independent contractors to bring its apps to life. Crawford hopes to add an employee to his team this year to help accommodate the demand for Happy Hour. Source: Tom Crawford, owner & principal of Visualization Network Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.