Contact: Sarah Seagraves,
Senior VP for Marketing
(405) 813-2403
or email [email protected]
OKLAHOMA CITY — i2E, Inc., recently led an $889,000 investment round in Stillwater, OK-based MaxQ, a startup company that has developed proprietary insulated packaging systems for the blood supply chain and associated life science industries.
MaxQ offers a comprehensive suite of validated, reusable or one-way shipping systems for donor blood collection, hospital distribution, transfusion blood storage, vaccines, and biological agents. Its packaging systems lower costs and reduce inefficiencies and hassles from the blood transport workflow.
“Life-saving biological products like blood, vaccines and pharmaceuticals must be stored and transported within a specific cold chain,” said Saravan Kumar, Ph.D., MaxQ CEO. “For instance, a unit of blood, which costs $250 to $500, must be maintained under precise temperatures during transport. Deviation from required temperature range during handling could potentially affect the viability of the blood unit leading to it being discarded or, worse yet, lead to adverse clinical outcomes during transfusion.”
The investment round included $300,000 from the i2E-managed Oklahoma Seed Capital Fund, along with $125,000 from the Oklahoma Angel Fund, which is also managed by i2E. The remaining $464,000 was invested by members of the SeedStep Angels, an Oklahoma investment group founded and managed by i2E and other investors.
In addition, MaxQ could receive an additional $444,500 in Phase IIB supplemental funding from the National Science Foundation, bringing the total amount of new funding for the company to $1.33 million.
“The majority of funds from this Series A investment round will be used to expand our marketing and sales operations, and vertically integrate production,” Kumar said. “With this capital raise, our primary goal is to establish MaxQ as the leading total packaging solutions provider in the blood packaging industry.”
The Oklahoma Seed Capital Fund is a state-appropriated investment fund managed by
i2E through the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology.
The Oklahoma Angel Fund was created by i2E as a vehicle by which investors can pool their capital and efficiently invest in Oklahoma based startups.
The SeedStep Angels group was founded by i2E in 2009 and is now the state’s largest angel investment group with more than 50 members and chapters in Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Ardmore and Muskogee.
About MaxQ
MaxQ provides enterprise wide solutions that could serve every single need of the blood supply chain. Blood collected from donors at mobile collection centers are transported to a central facility where they are processed into different components, which are then shipped to various hospitals for transfusion. MaxQ’s turnkey suite of reusable and one-way packaging systems drive costs, inefficiencies and hassles out of the blood transport workflow. It delivers higher usable volume, thermally efficient, easy to use, robust solutions that stay within the preferred performance requirements year round. Its requirements-driven approach is focused on increasing operational efficiency and reducing potential losses for their customers and end-users. MaxQ’s packaging solutions are used by some of the leading hospitals and blood banks in the U.S. and Canada. Saravan Kumar, Ph.D., is CEO.
About i2E, Inc.
With offices in Oklahoma City and Tulsa, OK, i2E’s nationally recognized services include business expertise and funding for Oklahoma’s emerging small businesses. i2E has more than $50 million of investment capital under management. www.i2E.org
