Great Lakes Angels invests in Ann Arbor's Blaze Medical Devices

Blaze Medical Devices recently closed a $250,000 seed capital round that was led by a handful of investors from the Great Lakes Angels Group.

The Ann Arbor-based startup is developing a product that focuses on quality control and optimization for the blood banking and transfusion industry. The technology analyzes stored blood to allow clinicians to predict the effectiveness of transfusions by assessing the levels and rates of quality loss during storage for individual units.

The investors from Great Lakes Angels moved on investing in Blaze Medical Devices so they could take advantage of Michigan's angel tax credit (it expired at the end of 2011) and because the 5-year-old start-up has also received two patents. That sort of forward progress makes the start-up an attractive company for a future acquisition.

"It appears Blaze Medical Devices will need less than $10 million to get to an exit," says David Weaver, chairman & founder of the Bloomfield Hills-based Great Lakes Angels. "That creates the opportunity for less dilution."

Weaver adds that Blaze Medical Devices is aiming to be acquired by 2015 or 2016. By then it should have $40 million in sales, proving the products viability but still leaving a high ceiling for  future sales.

Source: David Weaver, chairman & founder of Great Lakes Angels
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.