Startup companies that are licensing University of Akron technologies raised $4.2 million from private investors, seed funds and government grants in the first six months of 2018. Roughly 20 of UA’s most active startup companies report funding raised and other significant accomplishments semiannually to the University of Akron Research Foundation and the JumpStart Entrepreneurial Network.
The $4.2 million raised from Jan. 1 through June 30 represents a major increase in funding activity, eclipsing the $2.7 million raised in all of calendar year 2017. (Pictured above, from left, are Pavey Investments founder Bob Pavey; Hedgemon co-founders Doug Paige, Emily Kennedy and Nathan Swift; and JumpStart CEO Ray Leach. Earlier this year, Hedgemon, one of UA's startup companies, won the Morgenthaler-Pavey Startup Competition.)
All of the UA startup companies reporting data are licensees of UA intellectual property that are located in Northeast Ohio, and most of them employ current UA students or alumni. Most companies receive support from UARF, a UA-affiliated nonprofit that aims to transform and expand the region’s innovation economy through entrepreneurship education, technology commercialization, application of UA research and creation of new entrepreneurial ventures. Specifically, UARF provides UA-affiliated startup companies with training in developing their business models, access to experienced mentors, basic legal documents and accounting services.
Among the companies reporting:
- Fontus Blue, which sells software that helps water treatment professionals at utilities in six states and Canada provide exceptional drinking water to more 3 million people;
- i-Imaging (DBA Unify Medical), which develops hands-free, wireless goggles that provide real-time imagery to help guide surgeons; and
- 21MedTech, a medical technologies company offering revolutionary materials for resorbable technology, regenerative medicine, drug delivery and more.
UARF has helped launch 63 startup companies based on UA inventions and technologies since 2002, and 23 of these companies are still active today.