​
​​Ambiq Micro is a semiconductor company, based in Austin, TX, developing the world’s most energy-efficient integrated circuits. Ambiq is developing a series of ultra-low power products based on its Subthreshold Power Optimized Technology (SPOT™) Platform.  The company’s first product is a standard-setting, energy-efficient real-time clock (RTC) that has gained significant customer traction. The company’s key markets include smart cards, wearables, wireless sensors, smart watches, medical devices, and a wide variety of other wireless devices.  (http://newscenter.io/2017/06/)

MORRISVILLE, NC–(Marketwired – June 15, 2017) – Isagro USA, Inc. (Isagro) has signed an agreement to market Vestaron Corporation’s (Vestaron) Spear®-T biological insecticide for use on greenhouse vegetables in the United States.

Under the terms of the agreement, Isagro will immediately begin marketing Spear-T in the USA as an effective and environmentally conscious choice for the control of the greenhouse vegetable industry’s toughest pests — thrips, whiteflies and spider mites.

“Building a dynamic portfolio of biological and organic crop protection in addition to plant beneficial nutrient products has been our priority for several years in the United States,” according to John Paul Du Pre, Executive Chairman of Isagro USA.

Spear-T has proven to be highly effective on target pests, and by nature of its design is non-toxic to honeybees, fish, birds, humans and other mammals. Field trials of Spear-T demonstrate results that are equivalent or superior to many conventional control insecticides.

John Paul Du Pre added “Spear-T is a biological insecticide that delivers a novel biocontrol solution in a quality formulation for a high degree of consistency and targeted whitefly, thrips and spider mite control. Spear-T is a perfect fit with the Isagro biosolutions portfolio of crop protection and nutrient products.”

The product’s active ingredient utilizes a new mode of action to control insects, making Spear-T an excellent fit in a chemical resistance and/or integrated pest management program. It also has a four-hour re-entry interval (REI) and zero-day post-harvest interval (PHI) to maximize grower flexibility.

“We are pleased to be teaming with Isagro to bring this product to greenhouse, vegetable growers,” said Vestaron CEO/President, John Sorenson. “Isagro impressed us with its biosolutions portfolio and Spear-T fits well with their strategy.”

About Vestaron Corporation
Vestaron is a privately-held biotechnology company that specializes in the development of effective bioinsecticides derived from naturally-occurring peptides. More information at www.vestaron.com.

About Isagro USA
Isagro USA, Inc. is headquartered in Morrisville, NC (Research Triangle Park) and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Isagro S.p.A., based in Milan, Italy. Isagro S.p.A. is a global discoverer, manufacturer, formulator and marketer of crop protection products with a portfolio based on proprietary molecules coming from its own R&D unit. Besides its presence in the U.S. Isagro holds subsidiaries in some key markets and serves customers in approximately 80 countries. For more information, visit www.isagro-usa.com and www.isagro.com.

Spear is a registered trademark of Vestaron Corporation.

Contact:
Mike Allan
919-321-5200
www.isagro-usa.com

​Less than a year after receiving a sizeable investment from St. Louis-based venture capital firm Lewis & Clark Ventures, Blue Medora, a Detroit startup that develops enterprise cloud software, is set to grow fast as it deals with some of tech’s biggest companies.

Blue Medora raised $8.6 million from investors led by Lewis & Clark in October 2016. 

Today, according to Crain’s Detroit, Blue Medora has nearly $10 million in revenue with plans on doubling that figure this year.

Blue Medora’s software allows a single view of applications, databases and infrastructure to quickly resolve IT issues, increase uptime and optimize performance for business applications. The technology is used by companies such as IBM, Oracle and VMware.

The company has grown its product business by more than 240 percent and increased its customer base by 200 percent over the last year.

“Our growth is fueled by enterprises shifting their IT budgets to the cloud and demanding simpler, more comprehensive solutions to unite infrastructure, application and database monitoring,” Nathan Owen, CEO at Blue Medora, recently said in a statement. “Our customers are using IT analytics to increase application uptime and decrease engineering and time to market. We look forward to continuing this momentum in 2017 with some exciting new additions the pipeline.”

Other investors in the company include VMware, eLab Ventures, Start Garden and Grand Angels.

Lewis & Clark Ventures was founded by Tom Hillman in January 2015, shortly after he sold his stake in Answers Corp. for an undisclosed amount. Answers was acquired by Apax Partners in a deal worth $900 million.

Brian Hopcraft, another former Answers executive, is Lewis & Clark’s managing director. Hopcraft sits on Blue Medora’s board of directors.
 ​
Brian Feldt covers technology, venture capital, startups, real estate and sports business.