NDT exceeds funding goal for initial series

Joel Ivers is making it look easy to raise venture capital dollars in Southwest Ohio.

As CEO of NanoDetection Technology, Ivers recently announced that the start-up company had closed its Series A funding round with 21 investors and was "oversubscribed" – venture capital talk for taking more money than it set out to raise.

The company had set a $2 million goal for the round of financing, but investor interest was so strong it decided to take an additional $300,000, Ivers says. And even more impressive: All but three of the 19 individual investors are local individuals.

"We were thrilled by the number of individuals who saw the potential for our technology, especially so many local investors," says Ivers.
Ivers joined NDT, a health-care diagnostics company, last fall after CincyTech brought it here from Knoxville, Tenn. CincyTech led the round, which closed in July, with a $400,000 investment and brought half a dozen investors into the deal. Southern Ohio Creates Companies invested $100,000, and 19 individual investors put in the rest.

"The seven-month effort was especially impressive given the tough fund-raising climate," Ivers says.

NDT is focusing initially on marketing a low-cost point-of-care diagnostic system to hospitals and physicians' offices, with a first target on the detection of MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) in skin and soft tissues. Ivers says this investment round will fund efforts for clinical trials and for NDT to complete Food and Drug Administration clearance of its new test. NDT expects its initial U.S. MRSA-targeted sales early in 2013.

NanoDetection Technology was founded by Knoxville physician Charles Barnett, who developed a way to detect and identify pathogens much more quickly than existing technologies – within minutes instead of days. Ivers was brought in to run the company in Cincinnati after working in biomedical fields in the region for 30 years. He has served as president of Union Springs Pharmaceuticals and CEO of Hill Top Research.

NDT moved to the Tech-Way Office Park in Franklin, Ohio, in March, and hired two research scientists. Tech-Way Industries will produce the plastic parts for the devices and assemble the final product.

NDT's local capital-raising success validates its move here, says Bob Coy, president of CincyTech. "It was serendipity that NDT came across our radar, but serendipity only happens when your networks are robust to begin with."

By Sarah Blazak