Ann Arbor startup plans move to Detroit after securing venture capital investment

The startup, a firm called Are You a Human, received an investment from Detroit Venture Partners, which revealed the investment today and announced that it had attracted a fourth investment partner: NBA legend Magic Johnson.

Are You a Human has developed an alternative to CAPTCHAs, which are distorted images of text that Internet users often have to decode to make purchases or post web comments.

The firm's founders told AnnArbor.com in May that they were close to securing their first outside investment and that they planned to introduce their CAPTCHA alternative sometime this summer.

The firm, founded by several U-M student entrepreneurs, including a team of recent MBA grads, has been using space at TechArb, a U-M business incubator for student-led companies.

The company plans to move to Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert's Madison Theatre Building, a downtown Detroit facility that is currently being renovated, Are You a Human co-founder Tyler Paxton said in an email.

Detroit Venture Partners, which is also based there, said in a statement that it hopes to turn the building "into a hub where tech and creative companies can collaborate and innovate."

Are You a Human is developing a game that could replace CAPTCHAs. People would take just a few seconds to complete the game, but that activity would be enough to certify that the user is not a computerized “spambot” — a perpetrator of web clutter whose existence necessitates the existence of an authentication step.

The company recently won $154,100 in cash after a strong performance at the Rice University Business Plan Competition in Houston, where it also won the Most Promising Technology Startup award.

Contact AnnArbor.com's Nathan Bomey at (734) 623-2587 or nathanbomey@annarbor.com. You can also follow him on Twitter or subscribe to AnnArbor.com's newsletters.