Lehigh Valley bioscience startup wins competition

Thread Bioscience Inc. has wonthe 17th annual Ben Franklin Venture Idol competition, which was held virtually this year amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The company, which is at Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania’s TechVentures facility, is working on a diagnostic test for people who suffer from urinary tract infection. Its test is called CultureStat, according to a news release, which also said the infection particularly targets women and is responsible for the largest number of antibiotics prescriptions.

Ben Franklin Venture Idol is a cross between TVshows “Shark Tank” and “American Idol,” but is more business-centric. During Tuesday night’s event, three early-stage business owners vied for seed money to a group of panelists: Dan Loikits, Lehigh Valley Angel Investors; Michael March, 1855 Capital; Margot Matouk, Next Act Fund, and Katherine O’Neill.

Ben Franklin is dividing $15,000 in investment funding among Thread and the other two finalists, based on a vote by the audience whoattended the virtual event. The other finalists were Rocket Cloud Inc. and studio BE Mindfulness LLC.

In an earlier news release, Ben Franklin, which is based at Lehigh University’s Mountaintop Campus, noted Thursday is National Entrepreneur’s Day, and that another early-stage operation in south Bethlehem, Factory LLC is hosting “StartUp Lehigh Valley” on Wednesday afternoon at its Columbia Street location.

This year’s Venture Idol program book is available online by searching nep.benfranklin.org.

The local Ben Franklin, which covers 21 counties, helps develop early-stage companies, funds innovation and operates TechVentures, a business incubator and post-incubator facility at Lehigh.