Nora Lozar

Cast 21, an EnterpriseWorks startup that makes waterproof, breathable casts, has closed a funding round of $800,000. IllinoisVENTURES is among the list of investors, who also include Memphis Biomed Venture Partners, Innova Memphis, Bindley Capital Partners, and an undisclosed number of angel investors reported Chicago Inno. Cast 21 was founded by three former University of Illinois students, who have been avid consumers of resources across the University of Illinois entrepreneurial ecosystem including the Cozad New Venture Competition, the iVenture Accelerator, and AWARE. They moved into the EnterpriseWorks incubator in August. Congrats to Ashley, Jason and Justin!

CHAMPAIGN— The News-Gazette’s Paul Wood interviewed Sanjay Patel for his Wired In column this week. Sanjay Patel is the CEO and co-founder of Personify and an electrical and computer engineering professor at the University of Illinois. Personify creates technology and products for video communication, and virtual and augmented reality. The company spent two years in the EnterpriseWorks incubator and is now located in Urbana. Read more about Sanjay Patel and Personify in the News-Gazette.

Reconstruct, a computer vision based analytics company for the construction industry based in the EnterpriseWorks incubator, has received $850,000 of seed round funding. The raise was led by Serra Ventures, which is also based in the University of Illinois Research Park, with Illinois Ventures joining as part of the syndicate. Reconstruct was founded by Mani Golparvar-Fard, an assistant professor of Civil Engineering and affiliate Assistant Professor of Computer Science at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). The company has been an enthusiastic participant in and consumer of entreprenuerial resources at the University of Illinois, including the I-Start program at EnterpriseWorks; I-Corps; and the Cozad New Venture Competition. ““Almost every large construction project experiences cost and time overruns.  Images captured by drones and other devices have the potential to improve efficiency, which translates directly to the bottom line.  Reconstruct is the only platform we have found that can turn those images together with BIM into actionable information about both actual and potential delays,” Serra Ventures Managing Partner Rob Schultz said in a press release.  Interested in learning more from CTO, Derek Hoiem? Visit the link.