From Christmas Day Terror to Promising M&A Deal
While Christmas Day’s close brush with an alleged plot to blow up an airplane kept the nation on edge, one venture-backed company played a role in nabbing the suspect.
“The haz-mat officials were using an Ahura device on that airplane in Detroit,” said Nina Saberi, managing general partner at Castile Ventures, an early investor in Ahura Scientific Inc., which sells a line of handheld devices to identify chemical substances from common household items to deadly industrial toxins.
Ahura’s presence in the first responder, military and pharmaceutical markets–bolstered by about $45 million in revenue in 2009–helped drive interest from several industry players, culminating in an acquisition agreement from Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. for $145 million cash up-front and a further earn-out based on 2010 sales.
