S.C. Helps Sabal Grow with Funding

Just what the doctor ordered: A two-year-old Daniel Island health care technology startup that is developing a mobile medicine cabinet has been administered a check to help grow its business.

The funding is the second portion - or "tranche" in Wall Street lingo - of a roughly $2.6 million pot of money that Sabal Medical Inc. raised with the help of the state of South Carolina earlier this year.

"We closed on this tranche as a result of reaching key customer milestones," Bill Park, Sabal's president and chief executive, said in a statement. "With our sales pipeline growing, we have some very exciting times ahead of us, and the additional funds will allow us to continue our commercialization efforts already under way and scale up as sales growth continues."

The $2.6 million was provided by Massachusetts-based Nexus Medical Partners and its German affiliate, Medicis Nexus Partners GmbH.

Nexus, which also has a Charleston office, is one of the firms that's investing money raised under South Carolina's Venture Capital Act. That legislation enables the state to borrow up to $50 million at low-interest rates and hire professional gunslingers to scout out promising technology startups. The goal: to lift the state's average income level by developing a broader knowledge-based economy.

Sabal was established in Seattle in 2006, but moved to Charleston later that year with the help of S.C. Launch, an arm of the South Carolina Research Authority that provided it with $150,000 in seed capital.

The company said it plans to use its more recent round of financing proceeds to help roll out MedCenter. Sabal said the mobile cart uses bar-code verification software to ensure that patients in hospitals and long-term care centers receive the right medications and proper dosages at the correct time.