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GOOSE Portfolio Company Saranas Heads to Clinical Trials

Saranas Inc, a GOOSE portfolio company and Houston-based medical device startup, recently closed a round of $2.8 million to kick off clinical trails for their Early Bird Bleed Monitoring System. This round brings their total funding to $12 million.

Early Bird Bleed Monitoring System, invented by Dr. Mehdi Razavi at the Texas Heart Institute, is meant to detect bleeding complications during procedures.  The company anticipates FDA approval in early 2019.

In 2017, Saranas was named a finalist for the International Cardiovascular Innovation Award:  one of the most prestigious awards for medical startups worldwide.

Dr. Phillippe Géneréux (CMO), Kevin Maples (Board Director), and Zaffer Syed (CEO) at the International Conference for Innovations in Isreal.

Larry Lawson, GOOSE board member, and Kevin Maples, a close friend of GOOSE and son-in-law of GOOSE member Dan Steppe, sit on the Board of Directors for Saranas.

A big thank you to Houston Innovation Map and Business Wire for covering Saranas in full detail and the Texas Medical Center Innovation Institute for the support offered to Saranas and countless other healthcare startups.

GOOSE Portfolio Co NuMat Receives $9M contract with US Army

NuMat Technologies received a $9 million contract from the US Army Research, Development, and Engineering Command Chemical and Biological Center (RDECOM C&B).  The contract is to develop and manufacture the next-generation materials that will protect and sustain the warfighter.

NuMat is the first company in the world to commercialize MOF’s (metal organic frameworks), applying them first in the electronics and speciality gas sectors, but with potential applications in life sciences, energy and industrial sectors.  With the new funding, NuMat will build the world’s first dedicated, commercial-scale manufacturing site for MOF’s and a state-of-the-art application development lab for next-generation filtration and purification technologies.

NuMat Technologies a U.S. based tech company innovating at the intersection of high-performance computing, chemistry, and engineered systems.  NuMat’s technology is from Northwestern University and the team won the 2012 Rice Business Plan CompetitionJay Collins, GOOSE President, is on their Board of Directors.

GOOSE Portfolio Company SiNode Enters $4.5M Joint Venture

SiNode Systems, a Chicago-based developer of advanced materials out of Northwestern, and JNC Corporation, a Tokyo-based speciality chemical manufacturer, announced the formation of NanoGraf Corporation, a joint venture focused on commercializing materials for the Lithium-ion battery industry.  NanoGraf Corporation launches with $4.5 million and plans to expand commercial production and continue the development of additional materials platforms.

NanoGraf’s technology enhances the performance of battery materials via a proprietary graphene-wrapped silicon anode and can improve battery energy density by 50%.

Ashok Rao, Board Member of both SiNode and the GOOSE Society, was an integral part of the negotiations.  GOOSE invested in SiNode Systems after the company won the grand prize at the 2013 Rice Business Plan Competition in Houston, TX.

See NanoGraf’s media page for the full press release.

 

 

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GOOSE awards $60,000 in prizes at Texas A&M New Ventures Competition

Thank you to TNVC for providing this press release!

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[Houston, Texas, May 25th, 2018 ]  Two companies stood out from the competition and each earned $30,000 investment prizes from GOOSE Society at last week’s Texas A&M New Ventures Competition (TNVC) in College Station.   Each of these companies will also be invited the pitch to the exclusive group of super-angel investors, which comes with an opportunity to get much more funding.  GOOSE judges included Louis Raspino (finals judge), David Klein, and Samantha Lewis.

Houstonbased Arovia, creators of the Spontaneous Pop-Up Display (SPUD), was awarded a GOOSE Society investment prize, as well as $50,000 as the overall winner of the 2018 TNVC.

Arovia Co-Founder, President and CEO Alexander Wesley, a Rice Business Alum, said he was excited to win the competition because he doesn’t consider pitching competitions to be his specialty.

“I’m definitely not a natural pitcher, but I love our product, I love our team and the state of Texas has been really great for us as well,” Wesley said. “I definitely don’t view myself as being a stellar pitch man so I had no expectation at all, but I’m glad the enthusiasm I have for our product and our team and what we’re doing for our customers comes through.”

The second company awarded an investment prize by GOOSE was Houston-based and TMC Biodesign Alum, M&S Biotics, which is developing an autonomous internet of things solution to detect, track, count and locate surgical items within the operating room in real-time. They hope to effectively automate the surgical counting process while providing downstream analytics regarding instrument utilization by leveraging machine learning. M&S Biotics also earned $25,000 by finishing third overall in the competition.

Samantha Lewis, Director of the GOOSE Society said she was impressed with the company’s accepted into the competition and appreciates the diligence TNVC provides beforehand.  “The two teams we chose were able to field the tough questions that were asked of them and clearly communicate their value proposition and traction.  We also liked the Houston ties, of course!”

Both companies will also have the opportunity to pitch at the next GOOSE Society investment  meeting, which can present an even bigger opportunity.

Samantha commented on what a great experience “the geese” had in College Station and is excited about growing the relationship between TNVC and the GOOSE Society.  “GOOSE cares about the Texas ecosystem and TNVC is just another way we can do our part to boost entrepreneurship in the state and help startup companies.”

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Anthony George to Join the GOOSE Society

We are pleased to announce that Anthony George, CEO of Nautical Control Solutions, is joining the GOOSE Society of Texas.  Anthony has spent twenty-five years in the fields of automation and control systems engineering and marine fuel management systems as an entrepreneur and inventor.  Nautical Control Solutions owns the FuelTrax line of Marine Fuel Management products and Anthony holds patents in US, Canada, and Europe.  FuelTrax is the first and most advanced, end-to-end, marine fuel measuring, monitoring and reporting system on the market today.  Installed on several hundred vessels world-wide, the company is growing rapidly.

Prior to Nautical Control Solutions, Anthony founded Control Dynamics International (CDI) which managed automation engineering practices in the lumber, food, cement and oil and gas industries.  During his tenure as President of CDI, Anthony had a few stand-out accomplishments including:

  • Inventing and patenting, in conjunction with ExxonMobil, the Universal Master Control Station that controls all aspects of sub-sea oil and gas production and greatly enhances the control and flexibility oil companies now enjoy in deep water fields.
  • Inventing, in conjunction with Frito-Lay, the automation equipment responsible for the Scoop Chip.

CDI was sold to a publicly traded engineering company in 2001.

Anthony grew up in Beaumont, TX and now resides in The Woodlands, TX.  He is passionate about education and takes an active board level role in Christian school organizations.   He is currently the Board President of The Woodlands Christian Academy and has sat on the board of or founded multiple entrepreneurial organizations including The Woodlands Entrepreneurs Organization and CICE at Lamar University.

He is happily married to Michelle George and has two sons, Blake and Grant.  He holds a Bachelor of Science in Physics with Electrical Engineering Concentration and a minor in Computer Science from Lamar University.  He completed Rice University’s Corporate Financial Management Executive Education course 1999.

Members of the GOOSE Society of Texas invest a minimum of $350,000 – $500,000 annually and must have a passion for getting deeply involved in startup operations and helping GOOSE portfolio startups and the Houston entrepreneurial ecosystem succeed.

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