ANN ARBOR SensiGen, an Ann Arbor company developing a diagnostic test for early detection of kidney disease, won first prize and a check for $50,000 Tuesday night from the Great Lakes Entrepreneurs Quest business plan competition, in a ceremony dominated by IT start ups from Ann Arbor.
SensiGen, owned by Kris and Dave Kumit, also was named winner of the December 2003 Entrepreneur Bootcamp celebration at the Ann Arbor IT Zone.
Second place in the 2004 Spring Cycle competition and a check for $15,000 went to Polytorx, also of Ann Arbor. Polytorx makes a concrete reinforcing product.
Third place and $10,000 went to Biopolymer Innovations of Kalamazoo. The company makes a natural ingredient for eye treatment that enhances other eye treatment drugs.
Runners up status in the five-team finals was awarded to DCM Association of Mt. Pleasant, which develops eLearning courses for hazardous materials training, and Sci_Zone of Holland, which makes unmanned aerial vehicles that could be used by the military and civilian authorities for search and rescue operations.
The spring competition ceremony also awarded checks to the best new business ideas from the state, split into two regions. West/North winners were AST Group of East Lansing ($5,000), Otox of Okemos ($2,500) and TEC Publishing of Oscoda ($1,500); East winners were Metafuel Technology of Ann Arbor ($5,000), Pixel Velocity of Ann Arbor ($2,500) and Rapid Dry of Farmington Hills (1,500).
GLEQ Chairman David Brenner, co founder of IdeaWorks and StartupCentral in Grand Rapids, said the spring competition featured about 100 business plans judged by 50 plan experts. The list was then narrowed to five finalists, which gave three-minute elevator pitches Tuesday night to a judging panel. The pitch made up 25 percent of the overall scores used to pick the winners. Brenner also said the competition featured 35 training sessions in 12 cities.
The in-kind support was probably more valuable than the cash awards, Brenner said.
