Critical Signal Technologies acquires firm, plans to grow

metromode, 10/1/2009

Jeffery Prough and two others started Critical Signal Technologies in Farmington Hills three years ago. Today they are picking up venture capital, buying firms, and hiring people at a torrid pace.

"We have had an aggressive growth strategy, to say the least," says Prough, president and CEO of Critical Signal Technologies.

The start-up hit about 50 employees in Metro Detroit earlier this year before buying a Massachusetts-based firm this summer, bringing another 70 people into the fold. It also recently collected $8.7 million in venture capital, including $2 million from Michigan's 21st Century Jobs Fund and $100,000 from Automation Alley.

Of its new hires, 20 of them came on board within the last year. Prough expects "pretty significant growth" over the next two years, enough to create 100 new jobs in Michigan.

Critical Signal Technologies is a life sciences tech company that develops 24-hour personal emergency response and remote medical monitoring services for elderly and disabled people. The idea is to allow them to live a safer and more independent life.

Prough used to work as the CEO of a local security company and was taking care of his elderly parents when he saw the need for these services. Shortly thereafter he was striking out on his own.

"I saw the absolute void in care," Prough says.

Source: Jeffery Prough, president and CEO of Critical Signal Technologies
Writer: Jon Zemke

Entrepreneurship , Healthcare , Investment , Oakland County

Farmington