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November 17, 2005 QuadraSpec completes $3.9 million Series A funding round
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - QuadraSpec Inc., a Purdue Research Park-based protein-diagnostics company, announced today (Thursday, 11/17) that it has closed a $3.9 million Series A round of venture financing that will allow the company to further develop its patented BioCD. The investor leading this round is Carmel-based Spring Mill Venture Partners, with Massachusetts-based Village Ventures as a co-investor. As part of the financing, Ken Green, M.D., managing partner of Spring Mill Ventures, has joined QuadraSpec's board of directors. All other investors in this round are individuals from Indiana. The majority of the funds will be used to build QuadraSpec's manufacturing capabilities and to further develop a device that has the ability to perform advanced blood screening for disease detection, among other things. QuadraSpec's BioCD is scheduled for release prior to July 2006. ''QuadraSpec was able to pull together a tremendous amount of funding for an early-stage company, and we were able to do it here in the Midwest,'' said QuadraSpec's President and CEO Chad Barden, who believes that the Indiana financing market continues to improve for life science entrepreneurs. ''Seed capital is hard to come by as the venture capital community prefers deals that are at or closer to revenue. However, if you have a quality management team and a truly unique technology, you can and will succeed in getting funding.'' Barden credits the Indiana Future Fund's vision and the Venture Capital Investment Tax Credit - recently made available by the Indiana Economic Development Corporation (the state of Indiana's lead economic development agency) - for much of the company's success in securing funding. The VCI Tax Credit program was established to improve access to capital for fast-growing Indiana companies by providing individual and corporate investors an additional incentive to invest in early-stage firms. Investors who provide qualified debt or equity capital to Indiana companies receive a credit against their Indiana tax liability. Barden also praises the Purdue Research Foundation, the parent organization of the Purdue Research Park, for providing QuadraSpec with necessary early-stage, seed capital soon after the foundation licensed the Purdue University technology to the company in 2004. QuadraSpec secured $1.5 million in its seed capital round. ''QuadraSpec has an exciting future - a future that was made more secure and more certain by the tremendous support of the Indiana community,'' said Joseph B. Hornett, senior vice president, treasurer and COO of the Purdue Research Foundation. QuadraSpec's success in securing funding is a prime example of the Purdue Research Park's new BusinessMaker Process (tm). This new approach to technology commercialization, which utilizes technology road shows to engage entrepreneurs and early-stage investors across the state, is one of the reasons why the park was honored with the Association of the University Research Park's 2005 Excellence in Technology Transfer Award. Since the company signed its license agreement with the foundation, QuadraSpec has grown to occupy nearly 4,000 square feet of office and laboratory space at the West Lafayette-based Purdue Research Park and to employ 15 people full time. About QuadraSpec Founded in 2004 by the principal inventors and IN-Vivo Ventures (a management and investment company that greatly accelerates the commercialization of promising research),QuadraSpec Inc.'s mission is to build the diagnostic platforms that make personalized, preventative medicine an everyday reality. QuadraSpec's technology is largely based on the pioneering research of David Nolte and Fred Regnier, Purdue University faculty who were able to identify a way to efficiently measure many different protein interactions. QuadraSpec is developing a BioCD and other products built around this core technology, which enables a user to directly detect up to 1,000 unique antigens, biomarkers or other molecular species on a single array. It enables the measurement of concentration levels of those complex molecules with unprecedented speed, throughput, sensitivity and scalability. QuadraSpec's technology also has the ability to run 100 samples across each of these 1,000 array elements simultaneously on a single disk. About Purdue Research Park Based in West Lafayette, Purdue Research Park is Indiana's first Certified Technology Park and home to the largest university-affiliated business incubator in the country. The park is owned and operated by the Purdue Research Foundation, which is the Purdue University-affiliated entity also responsible for Purdue's technology-transfer program. More than 190 of the park's peers at the Association of University Research Parks named Purdue Research Park the nation's top program for technology transfer (2005) and top research park (2004). About Spring Mill Venture Partners Spring Mill Venture Partners is an early-stage venture capital firm focused on investing in high-growth information technology and life sciences companies located in Indiana and the surrounding Midwest region. Spring Mill Ventures focuses on providing the strategic and tactical assistance that early-stage companies need to grow and prosper. About Village Ventures Village Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm investing in exceptional entrepreneurs building technology and life science companies in emerging domestic geographies. Village Ventures identifies these investment opportunities in partnership with its proprietary nationwide network of early-stage venture capital funds that are focused on emerging domestic geographic markets. Venture capital is a local business, and Village Ventures has built its enterprise around the deeply integrated local VC who knows regional entrepreneurs and is familiar with local opportunities. The Village Ventures structure allows local VCs to utilize a national framework of world-class services and investment support. Because capital alone does not ensure success, Village Ventures also offers back-office support for the fund network and growth resources for entrepreneurs. Contact: Jeanine Phipps, media relations, (765) 494-0748, (765) 409-2745 (mobile), jeanine@purdue.edu
PHOTO CAPTION: A publication-quality photo is available at https://www.purdue.edu/uns/images/+2005/quadraspec-lab.jpg |
