aOva Technologies raises $3 million

Madison, Wis. - aOva Technologies, a developer of natural egg protein products, has added $3 million to its nest egg.

aOva recently announced the closing of its latest financing round, which began on March 17 and closed one week ahead of schedule. The funding, collected from various angel investors, will be used by the company to further its line of antibody egg products that improve feed efficiency and animal growth in agriculture.

Bryan Renk, president and chief executive officer of aOva Technologies, said the company hopes to use this funding to expand its customer base. Since its founding, aOva has partnered with several smaller companies such as VitaPlus and has been in talks with larger firms such as Hormel Foods, and hopes to improve that track record with larger sales.

"From a sales and marketing standpoint, we've had limited sales over the last four quarters and what we really needed to do to drive our business was to increase those sales," Renk said. "We have to execute contacts so we can drive production forward."

Once new customers are formed, the company hopes to expand its production line. According to Renk, aOva Technologies now has 6,000 hens laying eggs to produce the powder used in their antibody products, and it hopes a growth in sales will require an increase to 40,000 hens by the end of 2006. aOva Technologies also plans to use the funding on further research and development of the company's antibody products, which were based on technology developed by Mark Cook of the University of Wisconsin-Madison's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Renk said the company plans to continue its testing and collaboration with UW-Madison, and is also working with researchers at the University of Illinois and University of Missouri.

This financing round continues a positive trend for aOva Technologies, which was founded in 2001 to commercialize its technology. Lauren Flanagan, chief executive officer of SCIO Corp. and an investor in the company's first round of financing, said aOva Technologies obtained a total of $1.5 million from Continuum Investment, LP, and other investors in its previous round of financing between December of 2004 and February of 2005.

This time, Renk said the company was a bit ahead of expectations. "Our target for the race was $3 million, but we actually went over, so we sent some of it back," he said. "We are oversubscribed right now, and from a business perspective we didn't need more than that."

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