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UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS URBANA-CHAMPAIGN

Research Park

    Nora Lozar

    EnterpriseWorks Graduates News Recognition & Awards

    EnterpriseWorks Graduate SNOOZ Raises $1.35 Million

    SNOOZ, an EnterpriseWorks graduate, raised $1.35 million in a seed round led by Serra Ventures. Founded in 2015 by Matthew Snyder and Eli Lazar, SNOOZ  has developed a white noise machine designed to improve sleep. The product is designed for both the hospitality industry and at-home use.  Lazar is an alumus of the University of Illinois, where he studied Mechanical Science and Engineering. “As sleep has emerged as a key focus of the health and wellness space, we think we’re in a perfect position to help improve the bedroom environment for millions around the world. To that end, we’re thrilled to have the support and investment of Serra to help us accelerate our roadmap and continue spreading the good SNOOZ,” CEO and Co-founder Matthew Snyder said. Serra Ventures, located in downtown Champaign, is a venture capital firm that invests in technology companies and works alongside entrepreneurs to develop strategic business development plans. Several of its partners are Entrepreneurs-in-Residence at EnterpriseWorks. Read the original press release here.

    EnterpriseWorks Graduate SNOOZ Raises $1.35 Million Read Post »

    EnterpriseWorks Graduates Media Mentions News

    Personify Named One of Crain’s Chicago’s Most Innovative Companies

    EnterpriseWorks graduate Personify landed in the top 10 on Crain’s Chicago’s Most Innovative Companies list. The company was named number 4, but this isn’t the first time Personify has appeared on the Most Innovative Companies list. Crain’s Chicago Business named Personify tenth on the list in 2018. Personify was founded in 2009 by University of Illinois Professor Sanjay Patel and his colleagues Minh Do and Wen-mei Hwu. The company has developed advanced video technology that allows users to have an immersive video experience. Users can use Personify’s “virtual green screen” to blur video background or customize their background. Learn more about Personify’s technology here.

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    EnterpriseWorks Features Graduates Media Mentions News

    EnterpriseWorks Graduate Serionix Featured in NASA’s Spinoff

    EnterpriseWorks graduate, Serionix was featured in the NASA’s 2019 Edition of Spinoff, an annual publication that features commerical technologies that have origins to NASA-backed research. Serionix was founded in 2011 by two Materials Science and Engineering PhD students at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. While at EnterpriseWorks, Serionix was awarded multiple SBIR awards from the Johnson Space Center. These awards allowed the company to research and design filters for spacesuits and spacecrafts. However, this technology used to filter space can also be used in the home to improve indoor air quality and reduce pet odors. “All of the challenges that we have here are simply magnified up in space. That’s the environment up there, and people’s lives depend on solving those problems,” he says. “The challenges of deploying the technology in space definitely serve us well in making a more robust product for our customers on Earth,” said Co-Founder and President James Langer in the the Spinoff article. Learn more about Serinox’s partnership with NASA and their filtering technology here.

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    Media Gallery

    Procter & Gamble Grand Opening

    Procter & Gamble recently opened its state-of-the-art Smart Lab at the University of Illinois Research Park. The University, Procter & Gamble, and their partners celebrated the grand opening of the Smart Lab, which will bring together interdisciplinary teams of students from a wide variety of backgrounds to rapidly prototype and innovate in the space of consumer insights. Lab students will work directly with P&G employees to move consumer research projects from concept to execution within weeks rather than months. For more information, visit P&G

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    Community Features News Research Park

    Campus Conversation with Susan Martinis, Interim Vice Chancellor for Research

    Susan Martinis, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign‘s Interim Vice Chancellor for Research, spoke with Julie Wurth from The News Gazette on September 18, 2019, about efforts on campus to reduce campus sexual harassment, her experience as a woman in STEM, and the impact of ownership within the Research Park. In regards to the latter, Martinis noted that, “I think that it’s given us a few more players to think about. And I think with a few more players and getting to know our partners, it’s also given us some more opportunities…. They are interested in growing the Research Park, which again is my mission, to double the Research Park in whatever capacity that means.” Martinis provides leadership for campus-wide interdisciplinary research institutes while promoting research initiatives and overseeing appropriate research conduct at the University of Illinois. Her research focuses on leucyl-tRNA synthetase, and she currently leads a W.M. Keck Foundation-supported team to characterize mammalian variants of the synthetase. To hear the full episode, click here for the article.

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    News Partnerships & Acquisitions Research Park

    Purchase of 2001 S. First St. by Arvum Partners LLC

    Research Park’s “State Farm Building” at 2001 S. First St., has found new a new owner under Arvum Partners LLC. The company is now under contract to buy the building next month. One of the entities involved with Arvum Partners LLC is commercial real-estate firm Oxford Partners. The company is Texas based but have offices located in the Midwest. For the many tenants there, not much should change with the new owners. As the new owners of 2001 S. First St., Arvum Partners LLC does not plan on changing much, allowing for a smooth transition. “The new owners, if they’re able to close on this, have made it clear that their intent is to keep the tenants happy, and that tenant-servicing is a priority for them, and that they want to see a well-maintained facility,”  UI Research Park Director Laura Frerichs said. “And that’s important to us as well.” Learn more here.

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    Media Gallery

    ISSS Resource Fair 2019

    The University of Illinois Research Park, sent staff and student representatives to the International Student & Scholar Services (ISSS) Resource Fair from August 16 to August 20, 2019. Student attendees were able to ask questions about available opportunities at the 120+ companies of the Park and hear about upcoming events.

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    EnterpriseWorks News Partnerships & Acquisitions

    Veriflow, 2017 EnterpriseWorks Graduate, Acquired by VMware

    Ajay Singh, Senior Vice President and General Manager of VMware, announced on August 15, 2019, that the company is acquiring Veriflow, a startup that graduated from EnterpriseWorks in Research Park in 2017. “Veriflow is an innovator in network certification, assurance, and troubleshooting…. Once the acquisition is closed, VMware plans to invest in and integrate Veriflow into vRealize Network Insight to increase our overall network monitoring and troubleshooting capabilities and adding new dimensions of network verification and What-If analysis directly to the platform,” Singh said. In 2016, Veriflow was selected as the Barclays “Innovation Challenge Winner,” beating out over 100 competing companies. It was the first networking company to use continuous network verification to eliminate network outages and vulnerabilities. The startup also announced that they had raised over $8 million in Series A funding that same year. In 2017, their success continued as Brighten Godfrey, co-founder and CFO of Veriflow, was awarded the Bay Area CIO of the Year in the Community Champion category by the Silicon Valley Business Journal and the San Francisco Business Times. The University of Illinois Research Park congratulates Veriflow on its multitude of successes. To read the full article, click HERE.

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    News Recognition & Awards Research Park

    AGCO Acceleration Center Reflects on Its Two Years Within Research Park

    AGCO Acceleration Center (AAC) is celebrating its second year within the University of Illinois Research Park. In their August 12, 2019, article, they note they came to the Park for three reasons: Help recruit students that will be our next generation of AGCO leaders Utilize the expertise of the University of Illinois faculty in agricultural and computer science engineering design Share an ecosystem with entrepreneurs who are developing the new technologies to stay on the cutting edge of the ever-changing agriculture industry The company reflects on how successful they have been at achieving these goals and what they have taken away so far from their time in the Research Park and at the University of Illinois. “Since we first opened our doors, we have been able to build and expand the scope of the AAC in ways we never could have imagined,” they said. As the AAC moves forward, they plan to move from startup phase to growth phase in order to better impact the bottom line. They also intend to expand their reach in the agtech ecosystem to continue sharing innovation with the Research Park and beyond.

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    EnterpriseWorks Media Mentions News

    Interview with Tushar Pandey, SimBioSys Inc., CEO

    Tushar Pandey, Chief Executive Officer at SimBioSys Inc., spoke with The News-Gazette on July 21, 2019, about what he does for the company and what the company is accomplishing. The company’s work focuses on cancer, and the SimBioSys team has “created a platform to computationally simulate tumor response to drug regimens to help oncologists in treatment planning phase.” A patient’s tumor can be made virtual, which allows for deeper understanding that impacts drug delivery, chemical interactions, and metabolism. Essentially, a cancer is modeled in order to monitor its behavior. The company has a complete product for early-stage breast cancer, and clinical trials are already underway. SimBioSys is also working with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to gain regulatory approval for their device so it can be used in medical settings. The goal of the company is to have a complete suite for all solid tumors within the next few years, and the first cancer targeted will be lung cancer. Initial work was funded by a grant from the National Cancer Institute and from angel investors, and SimBioSys aims to secure another round of funding in late 2019 to speed up their work. To learn more about SimBioSys, click HERE.

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