Our Portfolio

API Outsourcing

API Outsourcing is a leading business process outsourcing provider to Fortune 1000 companies. Founded in 1998, API provides state-of-the-art billing and accounts payable automation solutions. The process uses API's proprietary database technology to parse the customer's data and provide information in a designated format - print, email, e-bill and EDI - to complete transactions. Exited in 2008.

Avant Healthcare Professionals

Avant Healthcare Professionals sources and places foreign-trained nurses and physical therapists on contract assignments with U.S. hospitals. Avant’s nurses and therapists come to the U.S. from Australia, New Zealand, The Philippines, United Kingdom, India, China, Kenya, Puerto Rico, Spain and Canada. These healthcare professionals fill a large and growing shortage in the U.S. market. Avant has become recognized in the industry for its unique transition training and clinical support programs, and has been certified by The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.

Coolibar

Coolibar was founded in 2002 to bring Australia’s world-leading approaches to sun protection to the American market. The company, based in Minnesota, manufactures sun-protective clothing which is sold via catalog and its website (http://www.coolibar.com/). The company has extensively redesigned Australian sun protective clothing styles to meet the tastes and needs of fashion- and health-conscious Americans. Coolibar is the only clothing company to be awarded the Skin Cancer Foundation Seal of Recommendation. A coolibar tree is an Australian eucalyptus that provides protection from the sun in the Australian outback.

Gedney

M.A. Gedney, founded in 1881, is a Minnesota-based manufacturer of premium branded pickles and relish. The company is also a contract manufacturer for private label and national brands. Gedney markets its products to over 200 retail customers and 10 nationally branded and private label customers. Gedney is the branded pickle leader in the Midwest with a 65% market share, and also manufactures and sells pickles under the Cains and Del Monte brands.

Gentra Systems

Gentra Systems is a life science tools company focusing on DNA and RNA purification chemistries and instruments. Gentra's reagent products purify and prepare DNA and RNA samples for downstream processing and testing. Gentra began operations as a reagent company. Over the years the company has built a brand around its chemistries highlighting their yield, stability, and ease of use. Gentra also designed and is selling a high-throughput processing instrument the Autopure LS. This instrument automates the process of DNA purification using Gentra's chemistries. Exited in 2006.

Global ID Group

Global ID Group provides analytic testing, third-party certification, and consulting services to the agriculture and food industries. The company’s products are used for the testing of food and agricultural products to detect genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and to ensure compliance with national and international government regulations, client and trading partner demands, and consumer information needs. The company was founded in Fairfield, Iowa in 1996 by Dr. John Fagan, a pioneer in GMO detection techologies who recognized that the food safety and environmental concerns caused by the introduction of GMOs into the food chain would create new markets for foods free of GMO content. With offices in the U.K., Germany, Brazil, and Japan, Global ID Group is a worldwide leader in the GMO testing industry.

Halo Innovations

Halo Innovations was founded in 1994 to develop and market consumer products that provide a healthy and safe sleep environment. In 2000, Halo introduced the Halo SleepSack, a wearable blanket for infants and the only product ever endorsed by the National SIDS Alliance, which offers a safer sleep environment for infants by eliminating the need for traditional baby blankets and bedding, which can bunch up over the infant’s mouth and lead to suffocation. The company also owns a patented technology that creates purified air in the immediate crib environment.

Immaculate Baking Co.

Immaculate Baking Company is a manufacturer and marketer of all-natural and organic refrigerated dough products. Based in Wakefield, MA, products include ready-to-bake cookies, scones, and buttermilk biscuits, and are sold in the refrigerated dough section of Whole Foods, natural food stores, and grocery chains nationwide. Immaculate Baking Company was founded in 1995 by Scott Blackwell, who had a passion for good natural food and folk art. An aspect of the brand's unique positioning is the packaging design, which features national folk artists.

Inlet Medical

Inlet Medical develops and markets laparoscopic procedures and devices for pelvic reconstructive surgery in women. Its products include the Elevest procedure kit, to facilitate uterine prolapse repair, and the Avesta procedure kit, for uterosacral support after a hysterectomy. The Metra kit and Uplift procedure treat conditions related to a retroverted uterus. A fourth product, the Inlet CloseSure procedure kit, is considered one of the best trocar wound closure devices for full thickness wounds. Exited in 2005.

JobDig

JobDig publishes free weekly employment newspapers in the central U.S., and operates JobDig.com, a comprehensive site centered around jobs, work, careers, and human capital management. In addition, the company integrates radio and television job advertising with the newspapers, provides private label career micro sites for broadcast media web sites around the country, and operates www.LinkUp.com, a site that aggregates jobs directly from corporate web sites and is positioned to transform the process of online job search and employment advertising.

Portero

Portero operates an online marketplace (www.Portero.com) for preowned, authenticated luxury goods. The site offers the world’s most exclusive brand names in watches, jewelry, and accessories. Portero has developed strategic and product sourcing relationships with over 140 retailers, manufacturers and dealers.

SimonDelivers

SimonDelivers offers the premier online grocery shopping experience in the greater Twin Cities area. Customers order farm-fresh produce, restaurant-packaged meats, fresh baked goods, grocery household products, plus a hand-picked selection of wine, beer and spirits online, and groceries are delivered at a specified time to their home. SimonDelivers targets the busy family by offering shopping services at comparable prices to local retailers. Exited in 2008.