Investing in health is one of the reasons some are predicting the Midwest will be one of 2011′s hottest growth markets for venture capital investing. Through the first three quarters of 2010, the amount of venture money invested in Midwestern startups grew 45 percent to $818 million, according to the National Venture Capital Association. That’s a higher amount than Midwestern venture investment in the full year of recession-plagued 2009.

Twin Cities entrepreneurs may soon have a new — or at least improved — resource for mentoring and seed funding, thanks to a federal grant to Cleveland economic development group JumpStart.

With publicly revealed investments of $250,000 from a Cleveland economic development group and $400,000 from an Illinois angel group, rudimentary mathematics tell us heart monitoring startup Endotronix Inc. has raised at least $650,000. But the company’s latest funding round went above that amount, only Endotronix isn’t saying by how much.

Endotronix Inc., which is developing a wireless heart sensor licensed from NASA, has received a $250,000 investment from economic development group JumpStart Ventures.

Dr. Raymond Onders will share a venture capital success story this week during his talk, “Helping Patients Breathe: From Superman to Synapse Biomedical — How orphan diseases can lead to worldwide sales from Northeastern Ohio.”

An Ohio board has approved a $546,055, seven-year tax credit for an expansion of CoverMyMeds LLC’s Columbus office.

TheraVasc Inc., which is reformulating a drug to treat vascular diseases, has raised a $1.8 million Series A1 round of investment capital. But the company isn’t stopping there — it’s looking to add about $450,000 to the round.

Nonprofit JumpStart Inc. has received a national economic development award for its work helping entrepreneurs develop their businesses.

Device maker MAX Endoscopy Inc. and drug developer TheraVasc Inc. each have received $250,000 follow-on investments from JumpStart Ventures, the investment arm of Northeast Ohio venture developer JumpStart Inc. The new commitments follow initial investments of the same amount that JumpStart made in the two companies last winter.

Updated 2:47 p.m., Aug. 5, 2010.Two-year-old drug development company ChanRx has received a $250,000 investment commitment from JumpStart Ventures, the investment arm of Northeast Ohio venture developer JumpStart Inc.ChanRx was spun off by ChanTest Corp. in Garfield Heights, Ohio, to develop small-molecule drugs — specifically, Vanoxerine — to treat atrial fibrillation, an increasingly common arrhythmia [...]