ACA Awards $184,832 in Fast Grants to Early Stage Companies

PHOENIX, AZ (February 21, 2012) — The Arizona Commerce Authority awarded $184,832 in FAST Grants to 25 Arizona small businesses. The grants, which range from $5,000 to $7,500 per company, will be used to help initiate the commercialization process. A full list of award winners is below.

“This is a seed investment the ACA is making towards startup companies which we believe will assist the company advance in the crucial steps towards bringing the idea to the market place,” said Don Cardon, president and CEO of the Arizona Commerce Authority. “We are pleased with the significant response we received for this year’s program – these responses continue to demonstrate the ever increasing presence of innovation within our state and are a promising glimpse into the future of Arizona.”

The awards can be used toward services such as reviews of technology, commercialization feasibility studies, and commercialization assistance such as training or preparation for federal grant submissions.

“We are so thankful to the AZ Commerce Authority for their support of Stimwave’s efforts in expanding the reach of our innovative wireless neuromodulation platform,” said Laura Tyler, executive director of Stimwave Technologies. “The AZ FAST Grant will allow Stimwave to complete additional market investigations and device planning as well as pre-clinical development with local research partners such as TGen/TD2 and Barrow’s Neurological Institute to further our ability to provide effective, minimally invasive therapies for cancer pain patients and those suffering from various brain disorders.”

“Acudora is honored to be a recipient of the AZ FAST Grant. This money will assist in our continued commercialization efforts, in particular, in preparing for the submission of an SBIR grant application. We are grateful to the AZ Commerce Authority for this support and recognition,” said Dr. David McClain, co-founder and chief technology officer of Acudora, Inc.

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Medipacs is very pleased to be awarded the AZ FAST grant,” said Mark Banister, founder and chief technology officer of Medipacs, Inc. “This grant will provide Medipacs the ability to finish market research and our product launch plan for a medipacs device that can be launched in the Veterinary market late this year. This product will help build value for our investors and jobs for Arizona.”

“I want to thank the Arizona Commerce Authority for their support. We will use the AZ FAST grant to assess the feasibility of VisonGate’s unique 3D cell imaging platform that will enable Cytogenic Biodosimetry to be administered quickly and efficiently in the field to patients at risk of radiation poisoning,” said Scarlett Spring, president of VisionGate.

Start-ups are the lifeblood of Arizona’s economy and serve as a prime engine of economic growth. Arizona ranks fifth in the U.S for business start-ups and saw a 57 percent increase in entrepreneurial activity since 2008. Through a suite of programs, including the FAST Grants, the ACA is providing valuable tools to help small businesses and start-ups advance in our economy and ultimately ignite job creation in the state.

In addition to this program, the ACA secured $18.2 million from the U.S. Department of Treasury’s State Small Business Credit Initiative for the Arizona Innovation Accelerator Fund to spur lending to Arizona’s small businesses and foster business expansion, capital investment and job creation in Arizona. The ACA also received more than 300 company applications for the second Arizona Innovation Challenge, which will award $1.5 million dollars to early stage ventures. Semi-finalists for the Challenge will be announced in early March.

2012 Arizona FAST Grant Recipients:

Acudora, Tucson, $7,500

Arbsource, Tempe, $7,500

Arizona Cancer Therapeutics, Tucson, $7,500

Castle Biosciences, Inc., Phoenix, $7,500

Colnatec, Gilbert, $7,500

Cyclone ADG, LLC, Tucson,$7,500

Earth Knowledge, Tucson, $7,440

ECOmplete, LLC, Chandler, $7,500

Fennova Corp., Tucson, $5,000

inXsol, Phoenix, $7,500

Kinetic Muscles, Inc., Tempe, $7,500

Latitude Engineering, LLC, Tucson, $7,440

Medipacs, Inc., Tucson, $7,500

MSDx, Inc., Tucson, $7,500

NEST Energy Services, Prescott Valley, $7,500

Power Gold, Phoenix, $7,500

Prime Solutions Group, Goodyear, $7,500

Provista Diagnostics, Inc., Phoenix, $7,500

Quaesta Instruments, LLC, Tucson, $7,452

Reply Buy, Inc., Scottsdale, $7,500

Science Tomorrow, LLC, Phoenix, $7,500

Serious Integrated, Chandler, $7,500

Siegel Consulting, LLC, Scottsdale, $7,500

Stimwave Technologies, Inc., Scottsdale, $7,500

VisionGate, Phoenix, AZ, $7,500

Media Contact

Nicole McTheny, Arizona Commerce Authority, (602) 8451-1231, [email protected]

About the Arizona Commerce Authority

The Arizona Commerce Authority (ACA) is the state’s leading economic development organization with a streamlined mission to grow and strengthen Arizona’s economy. The ACA uses a three-pronged approach to advance the overall economy: attract, expand, create – attract out-of-state companies to establish operations in Arizona; work with existing companies to expand their business in Arizona and beyond; and help entrepreneurs create new Arizona businesses in targeted industries. For more information, please visit azcommerce.com and follow the ACA on Twitter at @azcommerce.