Archive for category: BrightStar News

BrightStar Wisconsin Foundation Celebrates 10 Years

 This past month, BrightStar Wisconsin marked its 10-year anniversary of its charitable mission to create quality jobs in the state by investing in rapidly scalable early-stage ventures.  The Foundation has been involved in getting some of the most successful Wisconsin startups going over the past decade.

“Looking back, in so many ways this has exceeded what I could have imagined,” said Tom Shannon, BrightStar’s Founder and current Executive Board Chair. “There have been so many twists and turns and first of its kind problems along the way, but it has been a fun ride.  In the end, it was about getting capital into as many quality, job creating Wisconsin tech companies as possible to let them do what they do best—innovate and grow.”

Most of the first year in 2013 was focused on lining up initial capital support from the Foundation’s founders, building out the structures of the organization, and most importantly, advancing a very creative and unique non-profit model with the IRS to receive its 501(c)(3) status.   “This is something that hadn’t been done before and frankly I was a bit skeptical when Tom Shannon laid out his vision,” said Anthony Handzlik of Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren, BrightStar’s corporate attorney.  “Helping create an organization so novel was challenging, especially with initial push back from the IRS, but once we figured it out, we knew we had an incredible asset for Wisconsin.  We are very proud to be associated with the organization.”

With the approval of its charitable status and commitments from its founding donors, BrightStar invested in 14 companies that following year, ventures that included Janesville based Shine Technologies and Madison based Fetch, Wisconsin’s first two unicorns, which are startups now valued more than $1B.  “Our mission is to deploy capital as efficiently as possible into Wisconsin tech startups for the good of Wisconsin,” Shannon added.  “And our evergreen model means that when those opportunities provide returns, that capital gets re-deployed into more and more state businesses.”

Getting capital into Wisconsin entrepreneurs and their rapidly scalable businesses is what BrightStar has done, investing over $10 Million into more than 70 companies representing 15 different counties from around the state.  These companies have created over 1,500 jobs.  “I have seen firsthand how BrightStar fills a unique gap for the state in helping get deals done, both by providing new capital and by leveraging their relationships to increase the chances of success.  Their capital and introductions have been invaluable as well as their continued counsel,” said Lindsey Roddy, the CEO of Milwaukee based Roddy Medical.  A sentiment shared by the President of another portfolio company, Phil Fonfara of Blue Line Battery in Beloit, “BrightStar played an essential role in helping us complete our fundraising round with its capital and through the introductions they made to other investors.  It has been people associated with BrightStar since our investment that have been most active in opening doors to strategic partners, customers, and other investors.”

“It is amazing to see the positive changes that have taken place over the past 10 years in the Wisconsin early-stage ecosystem, and we are proud to have been a key player in advancing so many of them,” commented Jeff Harris, BrightStar’s co-founder.  “We are betting on Wisconsin, its people, its ideas, and its work ethic.  These investments are paying off as we have already invested substantially more than has ever been donated.  Each charitable gift grows over time to further support more and more Wisconsin businesses.  With the model proven and successes shown in our portfolio companies, it’s exciting now to have prospective donors contact us expressing interest in supporting our unique venture philanthropy model, and with their help and the returns from our investment, to drive the Foundation to an ever-growing fund to support our best and brightest talent and innovations.”

Please click here to see the recent BizTimes article celebrating our 10-year anniversary and accomplishments!

BrightStar Announces Investment in Madison Business
Company Moved from Singapore

MILWAUKEE, March 23, 2023 – BrightStar Wisconsin Foundation Inc. today announced an investment in Child Health Imprints after it moved its headquarters from Singapore to Madison last year.

The company’s technology platform allows clinicians in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) to more effectively and efficiently review and act upon the extensive amount   of data, including clinical records, physiological data, and lab reports, that is generated by each preemie every day.  The evolution of the product will also allow for artificial intelligence, predictive analytics, video analytics, and pervasive sensing to improve neonatal outcomes.

“Our team is excited to be in Wisconsin and to focus on the US market,” said the company’s CEO, Harpreet Singh.  “We are very thankful to HealthX Ventures for facilitating the move and leading this investment round and for BrightStar to add on and help provide us the capital we need to make this project successful.  It is not an exaggeration to say that this venture is going to save babies’ lives.”

For more information about the company, please visit their website at www.childhealthimprints.com.

BrightStar Invests to Defeat Cancer

MILWAUKEE, September, 2022 – BrightStar Wisconsin Foundation today announced that it has invested in Milwaukee based Tundra Targeted Therapeutics, Inc., joining Golden Angels Investors in the funding round.

The company, originating as a spin-off from the Medical College of Wisconsin, has developed a platform that allows a patient’s own T-cells to more efficiently attack and destroy cancer cells.  Once fully commercialized and available for human use, it would be more effective, limit toxicities, and lower treatment costs in about 30% of the types of cancer than other therapies now available.

“We have all been touched by cancer in some way, and the pain to families dealing with childhood cancer can be even more tragic,” said Todd Sobotka, BrightStar’s Executive Director.  “We are proud that our investment can help to make this technology a reality and hope that near term results even exceed our expectations.”

Following the positive evidence shown thus far in the lab and in animal models, the company expects that additional proven results from the upcoming human safety and efficacy trials  would position this technology to become the initial standard of care therapy for all relevant cancer treatments.  The company will initially focus on CD30 positive pediatric cancers and is seeking patients to participate in studies beginning this fall.  CD30 is commonly expressed on Hodgkin lymphoma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, neuroblastoma, germ cell tumors, and leukemia.

For more information about Tundra Targeted Therapeutics, please reach out to info@tundratherapy.com.

BrightStar Wisconsin invests in a novel, animal
sterilization technology company

BrightStar Wisconsin Foundation, Inc. is pleased to announce its investment in Madison based SpayVac earlier this month.  The company’s revolutionary drug release technology allows for successful sterilization of animals with only a single injection.  Originally developed by a Canadian company for other applications, the SpayVac team brings its unique experience and industry connections to re-focusing the intellectual property on the animal health market, initially targeting the feral animal mitigation market.  The company has decided to make Wisconsin its home.

“I have fallen in love with what Wisconsin can offer our company, especially here in Madison and the potential ties to the vet school as well as area expertise that can help enhance our technology,” said Tom D’Orazio, the company CEO.  “Issues with feral animals have reached crisis level in parts of the world and also within the United States, and SpayVac is here to help those groups struggling to get a handle on the problem.”

The company already has contracts all over the world to address feral horses and deer and have received inquiries on pigs, fish, primates, and even cats and dogs.  The company anticipates expanding from the feral market to companion animals, eventually eliminating the need for surgical procedures for household pets.

“It’s incredible that this company is deciding to do this in Wisconsin and BrightStar is excited to help make it happen.  I was intrigued when they presented to the Investment Committee,” said Jeff Rusinow, a committee member.  “As an avid birder, for years I’ve been aware of this problem, specifically feral cats and their impact on bird populations, and am excited how much of a difference a technology like this can make.  This will allow government agencies and non-profits to more effectively and humanely address this growing issue of population control for so many feral animal species that cause financial and personal hardship throughout many parts of our country and the rest of the world.”