Ion Signature Technology sells equipment and software engineered to quickly identify and quantify chemical compounds in test samples. Albert Robbat Jr., a professor of chemistry at Tufts University, developed the technology and founded IST in 1996.

Now based in North Smithfield, IST found support in Cherrystone Angel Group and Slater Technology Fund, who invested $310,000 and $160,000 respectively.

It was Slater’s first investment that drew IST to the state from Cambridge, Mass., last year. “We found doors open up in Rhode Island,” said John C. Moore, president and CEO of IST. “It was a night-and-day situation when I compared Rhode Island to Massachusetts.”

“(Slater) invests in early-stage companies because we see them as the growth engine for Rhode Island’s economy,” Unterman said. “If you look at the job growth in the United States as a whole, small companies with less than 100 employees represent” almost all of it.