Armune Biosciences, ReGenerate take winning share of Accelerate Michigan's $1 million-plus in prizes

As Larry Freed, president and CEO of ForeSee Results, headlines in his blog after attending the first Accelerate Michigan Innovation competition: "WOW – Look what Michigan is doing."

The inaugural Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition awarded over $1 million in cash and in-kind services on Dec. 11 to the winners of the world's largest business plan competition. Armune Bioscience, Inc., a molecular diagnostic company fueled by technology from the University of Michigan, won the top $500,000 cash prize, thanks to a coalition involving the URC, state businesses, business incubators, and nonprofits. The Kalamazoo-based company is developing a technology that utilizes autoantibodies created by the body's own immune system to detect cancer at an early stage.

Ann Arbor-based Arbor Photonics received the $150,000 company first runner up prize for the development of a fiber optic technology platform used in high power laser solutions which will improve manufacturing efficiencies and enable new capabilities in advanced manufacturing and defense.

The grand prize of $25,000 in the student division of the competition was awarded to University of Michigan students Hunt Briggs, Paul M. Davis, Robert Levine, and Nolan Orfield for their company, ReGenerate. The company has developed a Compact Organic Waste System (COWS), which transforms unwanted and costly organic waste into a renewable source of electricity and nutrient-rich compost. Targeted toward university cafeterias and supermarkets, the system provides a lower cost and environmentally preferable alternative to traditional waste disposal.

U-M students Zaher Andraus, Vimal B. Bhalodia, and Matthew Neagle received the $15,000 first runner up prize for their company, Reveal Design Automation, which provides the electronic design market with the software tools to verify correctness of complex digital chip designs.

"The Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition highlights the incredible innovation being developed at our world-class research universities by entrepreneurs and students. The Competition shined a bright light on the innovation which will reinvent Michigan," says URC Executive Director Jeff Mason.

The awards were made possible by The New Economy Initiative for Southeast Michigan's $750,000 grant to Ann Arbor SPARK to launch the Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition on behalf of the Business Accelerator Network for Southeast Michigan, which is composed of four of the region's key business accelerators – Ann Arbor SPARK, Automation Alley, Macomb-OU INCubator, and TechTown. Joining the Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition as premier sponsors is Accelerate Michigan, a partnership of the URC and Business Leaders for Michigan. A complete list of Accelerate Michigan sponsors may be found on the Accelerate Michigan website.

"We congratulate all the companies and students this year for demonstrating their competitive entrepreneurial spirit," says Dave Egner, executive director of the New Economy Initiative for Southeast Michigan. "Armune BioScience and ReGenerate topped a list of nearly 600 outstanding businesses and students that initially entered the competition. These companies demonstrate how the entrepreneurial ecosystem continues to grow and thrive in a state that was built on the foundation of innovation."

The competition was narrowed down to 50 company semi-finalists, and 28 student/student team semi-finalists. Ten company and 10 student/student-team finalists competed on the final days of the competition for a chance at a piece of the more $1 million in cash, in-kind services, staffing, and software.