Water Council Funds Pilots

In cooperation with the Metropolitan Milwaukee Sewerage District and the Fund for Lake Michigan, the Milwaukee-based Water Council has committed $600,000 over the next two years.

The funding will go to a new initiative called the Pilot Deployment Program, launched earlier this year, which aims to help water companies move from the lab to demonstration sites.

The first participant in the program is Water POD by Stonehouse Technologies, a compact water filtration system designed for underserved and distressed populations in areas with polluted water. With funding from the Pilot Deployment Program, Water POD has started treating water from the Menomonee River and Inner Harbor with a working prototype.

The PDP was initially funded through a $100,000 Wells Fargo Clean Technology and Innovation grant the Water Council received earlier this year.

The funding partners will also work with water technology startups to find demonstration sites to pilot their projects.

Tricast to double employment with investment

Milwaukee-based Tricast Inc. plans to double its employment to 70 with a $3.3 million equity investment.

The investment was made recently by Wakefield, Mass.-based Brook Venture Partners and Richmond, Va.-based Blue Heron Capital, giving the firms a 33 percent stake in Tricast. The owners and founders of Tricast continue to hold the majority interest in the company, which develops pharmacy benefit analytics software.

The company will use the funds to develop its Reveal auditing and surveillance software tool to become a real-time Software as a Service model, which will require a larger staff, said Greg Rucinski, chief executive officer. Clients use Reveal to manage fraud and waste, particularly in Medicaid and Medicare settings. Tricast will expand its marketing efforts to bring on a wider audience of users for Reveal.

As a result of the hiring push, which will occur over the next 18 months, Tricast will expand its existing space within the same building from 6,000 to 9,000 square feet.

Tricast will also add a board of directors comprised of national industry experts to provide guidance and oversight.

Steinhafels hires 50

Pewaukee-based Steinhafels Inc. recently hosted a job fair to fill 50 positions.

The company recently broke ground on the first of a two-phase, $10 million project to expand its distribution center at its headquarters complex at I-94 and County Highway F. The first phase of the project will add 107,000 square feet of space and the second phase will add another 130,000 square feet of space.

Steinhafels president Gary Steinhafel first revealed plans for the distribution center expansion in a BizTimes Milwaukee cover story last November.

The company plans to eventually add 650 jobs as part of its expansion plans. Steinhafels currently has 750 employees.

Last year, Steinhafels acquired three former American TV & Appliance stores, located in Appleton, Oak Creek and Madison, after American TV announced that it was going out of business. Steinhafels opened new stores in Appleton last year and in Oak Creek earlier this year.

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