The private businesses we have owned, invested in, or loaned to so far.
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GeoH is scheduling, Electronic Visit Verification (EVV) compliance, and billing software for home-health-care agencies, designed for extreme ease-of-use.
Our Role: Equity Investor, Board Observer
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Ferritiva was founded by students at UIUC. They are developing an easy at-home saliva test to help athletes, pregnant women, and others determine if they may have low iron levels.
Our Role: Equity Investor, Board Observer
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Petrichor offers enterprise software for agricultural commodity supply-chain participants to track sourcing, transportation, certification, transactions, and risk. Their customers are businesses that buy, transport, and sell agricultural commodities such as cocoa, around the world.
Our Role: Equity Investor, Director
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Neurava is developing a wearable device to monitor epilepsy patients and detect the onset of SUDEP, potentially allowing life-saving intervention just in time. SUDEP (Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy) is the leading cause of death in patients with epilepsy that has not responded to treatment. Neurava’s device also carries potential to speed and improve epilepsy treatment by gathering monitoring data while patients are on a waiting list to enter an inpatient Epilepsy Monitoring Unit (EMU).
Our Role: Equity Investor
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Mesh++ started by making smarter mesh network protocols that move more data over more nodes with less loss.
They went on to make their own solar-powered, outdoor wifi devices that use those protocols to bring Internet access to hard-to-reach places where reliable electricity is not available and/or wired broadband access is not feasible.
Our Role: Equity Investor
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Eclipse is developing a handheld x-ray-guided orthopedic drill to simplify a surgical procedure that is currently difficult for surgeons who are not trauma specialists. The device also offers lower x-ray radiation exposure for the surgical team and eliminates reliance on a C-arm and radiological technician.
Our Role: Equity Investor, Board Observer
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DAtAnchor provides a unique, easy-to-use data security system that allows data to be stored anywhere in encrypted form, while the data owner retains real-time, dynamic control over who can access that data under what conditions. DAtAnchor brings this new paradigm in access control to organizations, helps them comply with cybersecurity regulations, and protects their data from breaches, ransomware/doxware, and internal misuse.
Our Role: Equity Investor
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CareAdvisors uses automated, scalable systems to increase medicaid enrollment and access to healthcare. This helps hospitals receive payment for emergency healthcare services they provide to medicaid-eligible patients. CareAdvisors also works with medicaid care managers to increase patient engagement, wellness, and re-enrollment.
Our Role: Equity Investor
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Epivara, formerly Insigna, is developing and clinically testing single-injection non-surgical sterilization applicable to dog, cats, other pets, and food production animals such as pigs and cows. If successful, their approach will provide strong economic and animal-welfare benefits.
Our Role: Equity Investor and Board Observer
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Inprentus makes optical blazed diffraction gratings to extreme specifications enabling performance levels not previously possible.
Our Role: Equity Investor and Board Observer.
Former Role: Lender (paid off).
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Photonicare is working to bring a new medical device to the detection and treatment of middle ear diseases, especially ear infections in children. Their handheld otoscope can not only see the exterior of the eardrum, it uses optical coherence tomography (OCT) to see through the eardrum to what’s behind it. Their ultimate goal is to reduce overuse of antibiotics, avoid unnecessary tube surgeries, and expedite effective treatments based on direct observation of the infection.
Our Roles: Lead Seed-Round Investor
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Virtual Auditor detects, scans, and profiles numerous devices and resources to increase security and compliance across your network. It covers network devices, virtual hosts, databases, OSes, & web applications.
Our Role: Lender (paid off), Warrant Holder
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BoxCast is a complete, easy-to-use live streaming solution for organizations. Here’s a nice intro video. The company allows colleges, high schools, churches and businesses the ability to create stunning, professional live video experiences with minimal effort.
Our Role: Seed-Round and Follow-On Equity Investor, Board Observer 2018-2021.
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ATS Acoustics manufactures and sells sound-absorbing wall panels and other acoustical products at reasonable prices with flexible, made-to-order customizations.
Our Role: Owner, Founder, and CEO
Former / Exited Portfolio Companies
SNOOZ is a modern-looking and great-sounding sleep noise machine. No harsh or repetitive digital tones — it uses a real fan blade to produce the smooth, acoustic sound of moving air.
Our Former Role: Lender. Financed first production run.
Exit: Paid Off
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Surgical Innovation Associates (SIA) is commercializing an improved resorbable surgical mesh. Their primary aim is to offer a safer and less expensive alternative to acellular dermal matrices (ADM’s) for soft tissue support in breast reconstruction following mastectomy surgeries.
Our Former Role: Equity Investor
Exit: Sold to Integra LifeSciences (Nasdaq: IART)
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Hopscotch is a local bakery led by pastry chef Kaya Tate. Her artistic dessert creations and skillful marketing have brought success and growth to the business.
Our Former Role: Lender. Financed renovation of new facility
Exit: Paid off
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7 Watts is a cutting-edge controller modding organization devoted to bringing exceptional rapidfire products to dedicated gamers.
Our Former Role: Growth Lender.
Exit: Paid off
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Farmers-Merchants National Bank was a three-branch community bank headquartered in Paxton, Illinois. These branches continue to provide community banking services, now as part of a larger institution.
Our Former Role: Shareholder and Member, Board of Directors
Exit: Sold to Merchants Bank of Indiana (Nasdaq: MBIN)
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www.centerstreetproductions.com
Center Street Productions creates custom videos focusing on businesses and organizations in Illinois and across the U.S. Owner and filmmaker Phil Gioja has experience creating unique motion pictures for manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, and more.
Our Former Role: Business Start-Up Lender
Exit: Paid Off
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www.centralillinoisaviation.com
Central Illinois Aviation is run by top-notch flight instructor Nick Zink. The company’s own Cessna 172 is available for flight instruction and for rental use. Nick provides a full range of flight instruction services, aerial photography work, commercial pilot services, and more.
Our Former Roles: Lender and Consultant
Exit: Paid Off
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ATS Rentals provides online rentals of projectors, video cameras, and other A/V gear, shipping to events and productions nationwide.
Our Former Role: Owner, Founder, and CEO
Exit: Sold to LensRentals.com