BrightStar Announces a New Investment
MILWAUKEE, October 6, 2021 – BrightStar Wisconsin Foundation, Inc. is pleased to announce that it’s Investment Committee has approved a $150,000 investment in University of Wisconsin licensed spin off company, Immuto Scientific, Inc. The three year old Madison firm has developed a process that enables pharmaceutical companies to analyze biomolecules with unprecedented speed, resolution, and accuracy. This funding round will allow the founders, led by co-inventor Dr. Michael Sussman and CEO Faraz Choudhury, to scale up the needed equipment and manpower to provide commercial analytical research to already identified drug discovery customers.
“BrightStar’s Investment Committee was very impressed with the potential of Immuto, its management team, the IP protection and its technology,” said Jay Wigdale, BrightStar Investment Committee member and Lakefront Partners Founder. “Imagine how the drug pipeline can be accelerated and overall costs reduced when a molecule’s suitability for drug development can be determined in weeks vs a year or more.”
The technology was developed using $1.4M in non-dilutive funds via a collaboration between the University of Wisconsin labs of the Electrical Engineering and Biochemistry departments. BrightStar co-invested with Wisconsin Investment Partners, Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, Marquette Golden Angels, and the newly formed Milwaukee Venture Partners fund.