In a nod to newer routes of health care delivery, last month Livonia-based Michigan Urgent Care Centers opened its tenth location, at 3280 Washtenaw Avenue in Ann Arbor. The 8,000-square-foot building at the corner of Huron and Washtenaw Avenues was formerly a Hollywood Video store. The clinic occupies about half of the space; a pharmacy is being built in the remaining area. Washtenaw Urgent Care is open seven days a week, from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., and serves pediatric and adult patients. "Health care is moving away from the hospitals, back into the primary care and urgent care settings because the care [hospitals and emergency rooms] provide is very expensive, and it is not sustainable," says Mohammed Arsiwala, an internist and the owner of Michigan Urgent Care. The clinic has 8-12 employees on staff, including a doctor, nurse practitioner, or physician assistant on duty at all times. Source: Mohammed Arsiwala, internist and owner of Michigan Urgent Care Writer: Tanya Muzumdar

PicoSpray is reaching a couple of new milestones this fall. The clean-tech start-up recently graduated from the TechArb incubator at the University of Michigan and has landed financing from the Michigan Microloan Fund. The Ann Arbor-based start-up is commercializing a low-cost electronic fuel injection system for the small engine market. The business got its start last year when a mechanical engineering student began developing a super efficient fuel-injection system for the kinds of small engines that drive motorcycles and lawnmowers. The idea is to create a cost-efficient system that is both fuel efficient and cleaner. PicoSpray has been developing its technology at the TechArb over the last few months, utilizing the student-driven small business incubator's resources to continue developing its technology. "We're nearing the end of the development phase," says Lihang Nong, founder of PicoSpray. "We learned a lot. We want to focus commercializing the technology." PicoSpray has also received a microloan from the Michigan Microloan Fund. The microloan specifics weren't released but those loans average about $50,000 in size. PicoSpray's microloan enabled the start-up's team of four people to buy testing equipment and showing quantifiable benefits of the technology. The company has also filed for a provisional ballot for its technology. Source: Lihang Nong, founder of PicoSpray Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Omeid Seirafi-Pour at first followed a fairly typical path after graduating from the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business. The freshly minted BBA took a consulting job in Chicago. That lasted about a year before he and some fellow grads came back to Ann Arbor and started walking down the entrepreneurial path with myfab5. "I knew consulting wasn't right for me," Seirafi-Pour says. "I always wanted to do something entrepreneurial." He came to that realization earlier this year and made the move back to Michigan to launch the tech start-up. He now oversees a team of five employees and another five interns. They're all working out of TechArb, a business incubator at the University of Michigan geared toward student entrepreneurs. Ann Arbor-based myfab5 is creating an Internet/mobile platform that helps people rate and find eateries and retail businesses. While popular sites like Yelp! depend on a star system, myfab5 allows its users to name its top five businesses according to category, such as best pizza places or Chinese food. "We found that it is much easier to think this way," Seirafi-Pour says. "People aren't geared to think in regards to star rankings." Seirafi-Pour and his team are working on perfecting the platform now and expect to release a public version focused on Ann Arbor-area businesses within the next few weeks. Source: Omeid Seirafi-Pour, co-founder & CEO of myfab5 Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

One of the first priorities of the Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition when it launched in 2010 was to connect local entrepreneurs with investors from near and far. Now that the $1 million business plan competition is entering its third year, it's starting to collect a roster of investment relationships. Accelerate Michigan offers a $500,000 cash prize for the event's winner, along with a number of smaller prizes that usually clock in at the five-figure mark. It has attracted top tier Great Lakes State tech start-ups, as well as firms from across the U.S. interested in moving to Michigan. Organizers also use the competition as a platform to showcase the state's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem to both local and out-of-state investors and strategic partners. Last year organizers were able to make a particularly significant connection: Alex Wong, a tech venture capitalist with roots in Ann Arbor and one of the top people at D.E. Shaw Group, a $27 billion fund based in Silicon Valley. Accelerate Michigan organizers were able to schedule a day of meetings with Wong and potential partners (both entrepreneurial and investor) during the competition. "Everybody from that meet-up found it really valuable," says Lauren Bigelow, executive director of Accelerate Michigan. The competition has also helped move the pens on some significant term sheets. Last year's winner, DeNovo Sciences, leveraged the $500,000 prize in last year's competition to a $1.75 million seed capital round this year. The Plymouth-based start-up is developing a platform for early detection of cancer from blood as an alternative to painful biopsies. DeNovo Sciences is hoping to land a $6 million Series A round next year. Accelerate Michigan moved from Ann Arbor to downtown Detroit this year. It will be held at the Book-Cadillac Hotel, Guardian Building and Orchestra Hall over Nov 13-15. For information, click here. Source: Lauren Bigelow, executive director of Accelerate Michigan Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.