Diving for dollars: Firms pitch to investors at tech forum
Friday, January 1, 1904
Chris Watts talks about his headlight renewing system that is now sold in Ace Hardware stores.VENTURE FORUMCompanies to make 8-minute pitches:• CreatiVasc Medical, Greenville, S.C., makes a port-like device for dialysis patients• Headlight Renew Doctor, Chattanooga, offers a three-step auto headlight restoration system• Hooch, Chattanooga, has a mobile and web-based application allowing users to search for a specific brand of alcohol with real time prices and locations• Innovatia Medical Systems, Tampa, Fla., developed a high performance, miniature wireless network device for minimally invasive surgery• MapArt Systems, Chattanooga, offers patent-pending technology to care for art and artifacts• MedTrac, Atlanta, provides a medical device system that tracks and displays the progress of medical instruments in the body in real time and without radiation• Signal Pump, Chattanooga, has portable lighting and pumps for the construction and industrial markets• Urova Medical, Memphis, offers a treatment for female incontinence• Verdeeco, Atlanta, uses data from smart grids to support utility applications• WeCounsel, Chattanooga, has a cloud-based platform enabling mental health providers to communicate and interact with clients and colleagues onlineIF YOU GO• 2013 Technology Transfer Conference and Venture Forum, April 17, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Chattanooga Convention Center
Chris Daly says a South Carolina company plans to pitch its business making a port-like device for dialysis patients during the city's technology forum next week.
"It's an elegant solution," said the Chattanooga Enterprise Center official, noting the product is on fast-track approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. "It's a really cool technology."
The company, CreatiVasc Medical, will be among 10 businesses seeking investments from venture capitalists during the conference Wednesday at the Convention Center.
The tech transfer meeting, the sixth by the Chattanooga economic development group, is about nurturing an entrepreneurial ecosystem in the city, said Wayne Cropp, the center's chief executive.
"We want to continue the technology infrastructure" in the city, he said.
The event will feature Motorola Solutions Vice President Imran Akbar and the Smithsonian Museum Conservation Institute's E. Keats Webb.
Daly, the center's director of technology development and transfer, said five of the companies seeking venture capital are from Chattanooga and the remainder are from other Southern cities, coming as far away as Tampa, Fla.
Company products range from the medical devise by CreatiVasc Medical to Chattanooga-based MapArt Systems' patent-pending technology to care for art and artifacts.
Daly said it's encouraging to see local ventures which can impact the national market.
"We want to play on the big stage," he said.
Daly said the conference has dual missions.
"We want to educate people and we want to have deals done," he said.
In 2012, eight startups from the medical, aviation, logistics, social media and hospitality industries pitched ideas during the conference, which drew more than 300 people. More than $3 million in new capital was raised for startup businesses from the event, Daly said.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318.