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Mason's vibrant tech community expands with the arrival of Genetesis, a biohealth company

OTR startup developed diagnostic heart device
Posted at 7:33 AM, Jun 05, 2017
and last updated 2017-06-05 07:33:37-04

MASON, Ohio -- The city's startup community recently grew by one, when biohealth technology company Genetesis moved operations to the Mason Tech Elevator.

The company previously had operated at Over-the-Rhine's Union Hall.

"It was a really small presence," said Genetesis CEO and co-founder Peeyush Shrivastava.

He and the startup's other co-founders began developing their CardioFlux technology in early 2015. The device non-invasively measures the magnetic field of the heart to detect abnormalities, such as blocked blood vessels.

A preliminary study on 28 patients at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, indicated the CardioFlux effectively determined cardiac abnormalities. The device will be tested on 100 patients in a clinical study next month at St. John Hospital and Medical Center in Detroit.

As Genetesis' technology undergoes testing of increasing scale, financial support for the startup also has grown. The company's relocation to Mason comes only a few months after closing a $1.2 million seed round. Genetesis has raised more than $2 million to date.

The company's new home offers the space for adding to their team, too.

"We certainly see ourselves expanding in terms of team number quite quickly," Shrivastava said.

He and his fellow co-founders aren't the only startup leaders putting down roots in Mason. The city is home to 18 startups operating at three different locations on Mason-Montgomery Road.

Genetesis is one of 18 startups operating in Mason.

"Mason city leadership has put a lot of energy behind fueling and scaling startup companies," said Michele Blair, director of economic development for the city.

The city's leaders began the Mason Tech Elevator program about five years ago. Through the program, city representatives help connect technology and bioscience startups with other complementary companies.

"Companies in those sectors like to be around other companies in those sectors," Blair said.

Through a public-private partnership, the city also assists in underwriting some of the overhead costs for startups operating at the Mason Elevator office space, Mason Municipal campus and office space at 5155 Mason-Montgomery Road.

Fostering partnerships that support the local startup community is part of the city's long-term economic strategy, Blair said.

"The city of Mason's leadership has a really keen eye to leveraging partnerships that are bigger than us," she said.

The city's investment in the startup community was evident to the team behind Genetesis, who graduated from Mason High School. Shrivastava and his fellow co-founders saw the city's support pay off as Assurex Health grew over eight years before being acquired in 2016 by Myriad Genetics for $225 million.

"We got to see that firsthand," Shrivastava said.

He and the rest of the Genetesis team also saw an appeal in the flexibility the Mason Elevator office space offers. The company's founders are for now focused on their CardioFlux device, but they hope to develop other technologies as well.

"We're starting with chest pain … but we certainly see scaling beyond that to a number of other conditions," Shrivastava said.