Nebraska Angels provide $500k seed funding to MRail
(Left: Photo pointing out a selection of the components of MRail's technology. Courtesy of the Nebraska Angels.)
MRail, a Nebraska-based company developing technologies for the rail services sector, has obtained $500,000 in seed funding from members of the Nebraska Angels. The terms of the deal have been kept private.
In a press release yesterday from the Nebraska Angels, MRail co-founder Shane Farritor, PhD, was quoted to say that the partnership with the Nebraska Angels is an important milestone for the company. "Together, with the Nebraska Angels, we plan to continue our development efforts and to move the technology to the marketplace," Farritor said.
MRail’s initial technology was developed by Farritor (left, photo from engineering.unl.edu) and Richard Arnold, PhD at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. Their research was sponsored by the Federal Railroad Administration and has led to the development of a system for measuring vertical rail deflection that is an indicator of track stiffness and integrity.
Lou Halperin, senior director at TeraMedica Healthcare Technology and member of the Nebraska Angels, provided a few comments on the funding:
We at the Nebraska Angels are pleased with our investment in MRail. We are excited by the prospects for MRail’s initial and follow-on technologies. In addition to Dr. Farritor’s research, we believe that there is a lot of potential in the additional technologies in the MRail patent portfolio invented by a team led by Dr. Joe Turner. We look forward to helping MRail develop its business.
Also to note, Farritor is also a founder of Virtual Incision Corporation, another Nebraska-based company that recently raised a round of funding. See our article: Virtual Incision Corporation completes $2M Series A financing.
ARCHIVED COMMENTS
Congratulations to MRail. The Nebraska Angels are also winners. I'm very biased because I have done volunteer work for the Angels and know many of the members personally. However, I think this funding is significant because demonstrates the Angel's ability and willingness to do deals.
Many entrepreneurs I know still prefer to work with one very committed angel investor at a time versus an investment group like the Angels. There are certainly benefits to the single-angel approach, however, group deals will start to become more attractive to Nebraska entrepreneurs if the volume, size, and publicity of the deals continue to increase.
Moreover, the Nebraska start-up funding universe has expanded greatly this year: more deals, bigger deals, more funds, more publicity, more collaboration between all parties, and there is still more to come yet this year. I can't wait to see how 2011 stacks up to 2010 in this regard.
Wow. I wrote my glowing report about 2010 before I even saw the Archrival acquisition. Exits mean a lot and will help continue the other trends. Congrats to Charles and Clint.