presented by UTRF, Three Roots Capital, and Best Behavior Creative Club
Video of 11-8-17 Rise and Grind Session (coming soon)
The University of Tennessee Research Foundation’s (UTRF) Business Incubator hosted discussions on licensing technology, entrepreneurship, and raising capital Wednesday, November 8 with a Rise & Grind event.
The event was hosted by Three Roots Capital with Chad Seaver, CEO of Arkis BioSciences and Ken Woody, President of Innova Memphis participating in the conversation.
Arkis BioSciences provides advanced medical devices and technologies used in treating hydrocephalus, traumatic brain injuries and strokes. These technologies offer less invasive surgical instrumentation compared to modern techniques. Separately in August, Seaver’s other company Vortex BioTech secured a licensing agreement with UTRF researchers Dr. Jayne Wu and Dr. Shigetoshi Eda on their innovative point-of-care diagnostic device. UTRF facilitated the licensing agreement process.
Innova Memphis is a pre-seed, seed and early-stage investor focused on starting and funding high-growth companies in the Biosciences, Technology and AgTech fields. In 2016, Arkis BioSciences secured $3.4 million in Series-A funding led by Innova Memphis, followed by Angel Capital Group, the Lighthouse Fund, and other private investors.
“To date, Arkis BioSciences has raised $6 million in capital,” said Chad Seaver.
To continue to fuel its growth and demand, Arkis BioSciences is planning a Series B round. The goal would be $5 to $8 million raised by the end of the first quarter of 2018. The funds would be used to boost sales and marketing, grabbing more market share in the U.S., plus securing international certification for its products.
During the Rise and Grind event, Seaver elaborated on how Arkis BioSciences was founded in 2013 and for the first couple of years, he was the only employee. He quit his full-time job at Siemens and went “all in” at the startup. Today, the company has expanded with 10 employees on his team. Arkis BioSciences recently moved to the second floor of the University of Tennessee’s Cherokee Farm Innovation Campus. The medical device startup was previously conducting operations at the UTRF Business Incubator.
The strategic move to Cherokee Farm provides access to the resources of the Joint Institute for Advanced Materials (JIAM), the University of Tennessee, UT Medical Center and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Arkis BioSciences has a large intellectual property portfolio with 27 U.S. patents and ten of those 27 patents have been licensed to date.