VentureOhio Awards Three In Cincytech Portfolio

It's no longer a secret: Ohio is an excellent place to plant a stake in the ground and launch a technology or life science startup.  Smart founders are building innovative companies in all corners of the state, catalyzed by Ohio Third Frontier and a network of investors, accelerators and incubators.

With this in mind, we're thrilled to report three entrepreneurs and companies from our portfolio have been recognized with awards from VentureOhio.  Genetesis, a medical device company that's addressing a problem that leads to eight million emergency room visits in US hospitals every year, was named 2018 Early Stage Company of the Year.  The distinction comes a year after Genetesis won VentureOhio's 2017 Seed Stage Company of the Year, and months after the company closed a $7.5M Series A financing.  

CincyTech led the round with participation from renowned investor Mark Cuban's Radical Investments, as well as Ohio Innovation Fund and Raptor Group. Co-founder and CEO Peeyush Shrivastava and team are developing a tool for emergency medicine clinicians that uses biomagnetic imaging and proprietary software to enable rapid, noninvasive and accurate triage of undiagnosed chest pain.  The current standard of care is often inconclusive, forcing many patients to endure lengthy, expensive and invasive testing in the emergency and observation units of the hospital.

‍Losant co-founder and CEO Charlie Key (pictured on left in the photo) was named a VentureOhio 2018 Entrepreneur of the Year.  Charlie is a talented, repeat entrepreneur who's active in Cincinnati's startup community.  Losant is an IoT developer platform that helps companies-- including Verizon, Bosch, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise- build connected solutions that allow leaders to make decisions based on meaningful, real-time data.  Losant closed a $5.2 million Series A round in February 2018.  

Joining CincyTech in the financing: Revolution’s new Rise of the Rest® Seed Fund, led by Steve Case and JD Vance, TechNexus, and Vine StreetVentures. Dr. Michael Triplett, PhD, CEO of portfolio company Myonexus Therapeutics, (pictured above right) was named a VentureOhio 2018 Entrepreneur of the Year.  Myonexus Therapeutics is a spinout of Nationwide Children's Hospital, a clinical-stage gene therapy company developing first ever corrective gene therapies for limb girdle muscular dystrophies.   CincyTech led Myonexus Therapeutics' seed financing in late 2017.  

In 2018, Myonexus entered into a partnership with Cambridge, MA- based Sarepta Therapeutics, involving an upfront payment of $60 million from Sarepta and an option to purchase, as Myonexus moves forward with development of potentially life-changing therapies. Finally, congratulations to the team at Hillman, a diversity and inclusion accelerator that launched in Cincinnati in 2017.   CincyTech and our ecosystem partners at Cintrifuse, Brandery and UC earmarked dollars to get the Hillman team off and running, and run they have, with their vital mission.  It is rewarding to see Hillman recognized by VentureOhio as a 2018 Catalyst of the Year. (Photos of Genetesis, Key and Triplett ©2018 Stephen Takacs)