Angel Insights Blog

By: Sarah Dickey, ACA Membership Director

Congratulations Upstate Carolina Angel Network on an 11X Exit with Selah Genomics!

Editor’s Note: Welcome to a new periodic feature – ACA Member Exits. We want to help you share the great news about your exits with your ACA colleagues and the public. Please send funding and exit news to ACA so we may share it and if you have any questions about this feature please contact Sarah Dickey.

ACA member group Upstate Carolina Angel Network (UCAN) of Greenville, SC is celebrating their April 2014 11X exit of Selah Genomics. UCAN is an angel network of about 50 members that has invested over $9 million in 33 companies since forming in 2008. Selah Genomics has sold to EKF Diagnostics, a publically traded company in the United Kingdom. Selah Genomics is a molecular and clinical diagnostics company focused on personalized medicine. After a six-month lock-up and future earnout –for which the key milestones are largely in place – this $70 total acquisition could represent an ~11X exit for UCAN investors.

The foundation for this UCAN exit began at the group’s first presentation meeting in 2008. During that meeting the group met and invested in CEO Michael Bolick’s company – Selah Technologies. Although eventually sold in a private stock deal to Lab21, the original Salha acquisition has not yet brought liquidity to its investors. Fast forward to 2013 when, based on their previous working relationship, CEO Bolick approached UCAN for support in spinning out a new company and they gladly accepted the opportunity. As UCAN Director Matt Dunbar explained, “We knew the CEO Michael and we knew the business, so due diligence and the investment process moved quickly for us.”

Selah Genomics spun out of Lab21 in late 2012 with a focus on providing advanced molecular and genomic diagnostic services to healthcare providers and the pharmaceutical industry. By the time of the August 2013 investment by UCAN, Nexus Medical Partners and SCLaunch, the company was finalizing several large contracts that would take them to multi-million dollar revenues very quickly.

According to Dunbar, "The Selah story is a great example of the unpredictable twists and turns startups often take before realizing great outcomes. The ultimate fate of the original company is still to be determined, but Michael is a talented and resourceful CEO, so when he saw opportunity to create a new spinoff company he seized it.  This is a big win for our startup community.  These kinds of exits are just what we need to continue building our entrepreneurial ecosystem in South Carolina - keeping people not just engaged, but excited about growing our future through bold, uncertain, promising startups."