After 10 years of development and testing, Charlottesville’s BrightSpec Inc. is ready to commercialize a cutting-edge scientific instrument. To that end, the company recently closed an $18.4 million Series C round.
San Francisco’s Genoa Ventures and Ann Arbor, Michigan’s Arboretum Ventures led the round. Existing investors Medvest Capital of Birmingham, Alabama, Charlottesville’s Felton Group LLC and the UVA Seed Fund also participated.
BrightSpec produces molecular rotational resonance spectrometers, a scientific instrument used in molecular testing that was originally developed at the University of Virginia by Brooks Pate, a chemistry professor. The intellectual property was spun out of the university a decade ago and has been mainly used in academia and government research.
“Historically, we have done some custom builds,” said Walter Colsman, BrightSpec’s CEO of three years. “For example, [NASA’s] Jet Propulsion Lab wanted to study a certain class of molecule, and…
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