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UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS URBANA-CHAMPAIGN

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    EnterpriseWorks

    EnterpriseWorks News Recognition & Awards Research Park

    Epivara Granted NSF SBIR Phase I Award

    Epivara, a startup at the EnterpriseWorks tech incubator in the University of Illinois Research Park, recently received a $255,000 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I award from the National Science Foundation. The startup plans to use the funding to further develop a safe and effective injectable alternative to surgical spays in female dogs. Epivara, a company developing more humane, natural sterilization methods for livestock and companion animals, was founded by Dr. Jay Ko, a faculty member in the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine, The company’s scientists work out of a lab and office at EnterpriseWorks, the technology incubator in the Research Park. Epivara’s mission is to make life better for animals and humans through innovative science and compassionate care. The company has developed iSpay/iNeuter, a low-cost injection to spay and neuter pets efficiently. Currently, this is the only alternative to spay and neuter surgery that works safely, permanently, and works within seconds. In March, Epivara received the 2021 Edwin Moore Family Agriculture Innovation Prize. The award, generously funded by University of Illinois alumni and their families, rewards University of Illinois entrepreneurs focusing on agricultural innovations. To learn more about SBIR funding and to for more resources on how innovative Illinois startups can get funding, check out the FAST Center at Illinois.

    Epivara Granted NSF SBIR Phase I Award Read Post »

    EnterpriseWorks Events News Recognition & Awards Research Park

    Natrion Sweeps Grand Prize Winnings at Cozad New Venture Challenge

    Natrion, a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign student startup developing advanced battery technologies, captured the grand cash prize of $20,000 and other rewards at Wednesday’s Cozad New Venture Challenge Awards Ceremony. During Cozad, Natrion announced its plans to move into EnterpriseWorks, the tech incubator at Research Park. Natrion will start advanced technology development in a first-floor lab as of May 1. Natrion was founded by Alex Kosyakov, a Materials Science and Engineering undergraduate. The startup engineers and manufactures advanced batteries and battery components that make renewable energy and hybrid power systems safe and cost-efficient. Natrion also received the Dr. Paul Magelli Innovation Prize of $10,000 from Illinois Ventures; the best pitch award winner prize of $5,000, from Cozad Asset Management; and a package of legal services from Meyer Capel. AgriWater also received the I-Start prize from EnterpriseWorks. This prize provides new companies with professional services such as legal, business strategy, and more. Agriwater’s smart, clean water technology is a device that purifies and monitors the most polluted water empowering farmers in real-time to track, visualize and store turbidity, pH, and temperature via IoT enabled sensors that communicate data to the AI Cloud. With the help of the Illinois FAST Center, Natrion recently received SBIR grant funding from the United States Air Force to develop a plug-and-play solid-state electrolyte component for existing lithium-ion batteries that would improve battery life and eliminate fire risk. “Natrion was started by two college students out of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who wanted to break away from the standard mold of how battery companies are built. After seeing too many of our peers take academic research findings and try to find a market for them (only to run out of time and money), we pioneered our own R&D approach that is customer-centric, lean, and pivotable.” VALUE PROPOSITION: To mitigate fire risk in batteries, many companies are attempting to implement electrolytes made from either pure solid ceramic or pure solid polymer. However, there are problems with this binary approach.Pure ceramics deliver high performance but use exotic materials and processes that are expensive to scale. Ceramics can also crack inside batteries from internal stresses during operation, compromising them completely. Polymers are durable, flexible, and cheap to produce, but perform poorly. To its knowledge, Natrion is the only company in the world commercializing a ceramic-polymer composite solution. To make LISIC, they start with a proprietary aluminosilicate ceramic that’s processed with the one-step heating of a raw material that costs just $160/ton and is already used in the paper and cosmetics industries. They then turn the ceramic into microparticles and embed it into a polymer that is already used as fire insulation in buildings. LISIC is thus stable to over 600°F, eliminating inherent fire risk in cells. This, in turn, improves battery pack-level performance because manufacturers no longer have to try to use active cooling systems or extensive battery management system (BMS) electronics.

    Natrion Sweeps Grand Prize Winnings at Cozad New Venture Challenge Read Post »

    Community EnterpriseWorks Events Investments News Partnerships & Acquisitions Research Park

    2020 Research Park Year in Review

    In 2020, Research Park accomplished several milestones despite the numerous adaptions. Research Park offered several programming opportunities for small businesses, launched Illinois Reboot, and received a FAST Center grant to aid the impacts of the pandemic. Here is a glimpse of the 2020 Year in Review:  In a virtual environment, Cargill Innovation Lab, Genective, and the Verizon 5G Innovation Hub expanded into the Research Park community. The I-Hotel and Conference Center expansion, the greenhouse for the RIPE project, and the mixed-use building on 1907 S. Fourth St. completed construction during the fall as well.  After the initial lockdown of COVID-19 in March, Research Park offered over 59 hours of programming engaging 243 companies ranging from EnterpriseWorks graduates to current tenants.  In August, Research Park launched the COVID-19 Technology Acceleration Program. This program offered technical assistance, EDA Cares Act funding, and business development assistance. The EDA University Center received over $300,000 from the EDA CARES Act Recovery Assistance program to assist companies impacted by the effects of COVID-19.  Several startups including EarthSense and Serionix transformed their technology to suit the consequences of COVID-19 such as beginning to create high-tech face masks.  Overall, Research Park reached several milestones in 2020 including securing the Illinois FAST Center grant from the U.S. SBA and the addition of two new staff members. Click to view: 2020 Year in Review View previous Year in Reviews: 2018 Year in Review 2019 Year in Review

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    EnterpriseWorks News Recognition & Awards

    Epivara Awarded 2021 Edwin Moore Family Agriculture Innovation Prize

    Champaign, Illinois (March 10, 2021) – Epivara, a company developing more humane, natural sterilization methods for livestock and companion animals, is the recipient of the 2021 Edwin Moore Family Agriculture Innovation Prize. The award, generously funded by University of Illinois alumni and their families, rewards University of Illinois entrepreneurs focusing on agricultural innovations. The Research Park together with the Moore family presented the award to Epivara Co-Founder Dr. Jay Ko and Director of Science Dr. Rex Hess during the Agriculture Technology Innovation Summit. The event was held on Zoom webinar with more than 900 participants from around the world. “We found a major problem in agriculture, which is surgical removal of gonads from healthy animals,” said Ko, a faculty member in the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine, reflecting on the origins of the company. “We thought, let’s do something to make it more humane and at the same time, economical.” “Now we have funding coming from many different sources and we are using the funds to test our products in pigs at university farms, and some other species. It’s an exciting moment, me as a basic scientist reaching a place where we have a product that can impact industry.” The company’s scientists work out of a lab and office at EnterpriseWorks, the technology incubator in the Research Park. The Edwin Moore Agriculture Innovation Fund was established in 2016 with a generous gift to EnterpriseWorks, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s technology incubator. Its goal is to encourage startup companies engaged in development of new innovative technologies that may lead to increased productivity and/or efficiency in farming, or to create new agricultural opportunities, including new processes, new crops, and new food production systems. Previous winners include Aspiring Universe (2020), TellTail (2019), EarthSense (2018) and Soil Diagnostics (2017). About the Edwin Moore Family Agriculture Innovation Prize The award honors the legacy of Edwin E. Moore (1924), who graduated from the University of Illinois College of Agriculture and began farming in Will County. Throughout his agricultural career, he and wife, Iva, used innovative farming practices for both crop production and livestock management. Two of their four children became farmers, Edwin and Thomas (1953, College of Agriculture), and continued use of innovative farm practices. Subsequent generations of Edwin Moore’s family have continued to pursue farming and ag related careers capturing the same innovative spirit. About the Research Park at the University of Illinois The Research Park at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is a technology hub for startup companies and corporate research and development operations. Within the Research Park there are 120 companies employing students and full-time technology professionals. More information at researchpark.illinois.edu. 

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    EnterpriseWorks Features Media Mentions News Recognition & Awards Research Park

    EarthSense Co-Founder Featured by BBC

    Girish Chowdhary, co-founder of EnterpriseWorks startup EarthSense, was featured in a BBC article for his expertise in the field of agricultural robotics. Chowdhary explains that largely autonomous farms are just over the horizon, as many emerging technologies, such as robots that can monitor the health of crops, are being put to use in research fields. “A farm is going to need different kinds of robots,” says Chowdhary. “Some of them are going to be very small…others are going to be big, perhaps even as big as the combine harvester. There will be an autonomous system that is co-ordinating this team of robots, telling them what they need to do in order to get different tasks done.” In addition to robots, Chowardly predicts that drones will be increasingly utilized in the agricultural domain. “Drones are really good at covering a lot of space… they can go somewhere and spray something, or take a picture, really quickly,” says Chowdhary. EarthSense is creating dramatic new possibilities for crop breeders, plant protection products developers, crop scientists, and field agronomists. TerraSentia, their first robot, improves the quantity, accuracy, cost, and speed of in-field plant trait data collection, specifically for under canopy plants. EarthSense machine vision and machine learning-based analytics seamlessly convert field data to specific, actionable information about plant-traits.

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    EnterpriseWorks Features Graduates News Recognition & Awards Research Park

    EnterpriseWorks Graduate Aptimmune Featured in APLU’s University Innovation and Entrepreneurship Showcase

    EnterpriseWorks graduate Aptimmune Biologics was featured as a successful university-related startup at The Association of American Universities and the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities University Innovation and Entrepreneurship Showcase in December. Aptimmune specializes in developing autogenous mucosal vaccines for viral diseases that are costly to the swine industry. Founded by Dr. Federico Zuckermann, a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign veterinary medicine faculty member, the company graduated from EnterpriseWorks in 2018 and is now based in St. Louis. A video about Aptimmune’s technology and impact that was created and shown at the APLU event can be viewed here.  The third annual University Innovation and Entrepreneurship Showcase was held virtually on Dec. 7-11. The showcase spotlighted 22 startup companies from across the nation that have created products and services using federally funded, university-based research.

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    EnterpriseWorks Graduates Investments News Research Park

    EnterpriseWorks Graduate Network Perception Raises $2.7 Million Seed Round

    EnterpriseWorks graduate Network Perception, a Chicago-based provider of a software solution for cyber- compliance and network security in the electrical utility industry, announced this week it has raised $2.73 million in seed funding. The round was led by Champaign-based Serra Ventures, Okapi Ventures, and Energy Foundry, with participation from Early Light Ventures, SaaS Ventures, Illinois Ventures (the venture capital arm of the University of Illinois), and Service Provider Capital. Jeff Bocan from Okapi Venture and Rob Schultz from Serra Ventures joined the NP Board of Directors. “We are very excited to welcome Okapi as new investors. Having their financial and strategic support both validates the market opportunity for our business and fuels our momentum to grow as a company,” said Robin Berthier, CEO and co-founder of Network Perception. The company intends to use the funds to scale its activity in the electric utility sector and beyond. Founded in 2014, Network Perception supplies critical infrastructure industries with a pioneering risk visualization technology empowering their cybersecurity and compliance teams. Network Perception was based at EnterpriseWorks in the University of Illinois Research Park from its founding until it moved its headquarters to Chicago. The company’s technology is based on research originally developed at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  Hear about the history and future of Network Perception in this Startup Cafe presentation by CEO and co-founder Robin Berthier from Oct. 29, 2020.

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    EnterpriseWorks Graduates News Research Park

    EnterpriseWorks Graduate Serionix creates performance face mask

    Serionix, an EnterpriseWorks graduate, created an athletic performance face mask with MERV-13 equivalent nanofiber inserts. These inserts are able to trap small particles, including viruses.  The masks are not only effective, but they’re specifically built for performance athletic use. The masks are comfortable, breathable, and it’s easier to project your voice compared to other masks. Seronix says they’ve received great feedback from multiple athletes ranging from skiers, sprinters, and strongman competitors. Serionix plans to integrate their Colorfil technology with their facemasks in the future. The Colorfil technology can quickly soak up toxic chemicals and filters odors. The masks also change color from vibrant pink to dull yellow to show when the filter expires. The Serionix team is also working with NASA to use its lightweight Colorfil technology on NASA’s spaceships and spacesuits. Serionix is now seeking city approval for a significant expansion in downtown Urbana in order to grow its engineering, assembly, and warehouse operations. Serionix has partnered with Body n’ Sole and Champaign Outdoors, so you can purchase a mask in store or online by visiting their website. Read the full article by WCIA here.

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    EnterpriseWorks News Research Park

    New oversight for FAST Partnership Program

    Alex Gorsuch has joined the EnterpriseWorks staff as a Visiting Associate Director for Entrepreneurship. In this position, he manages the US Small Business Administration Federal And State Technology (FAST) Partnership Program in Illinois. The FAST program funds training programs and workshops, individual mentoring, grant preparation assistance, and technical assistance to technology startups locally and across the state with the support of SBIR/STTR federal award programs. Since its founding in 2003, EnterpriseWorks has helped R&D focused startups and small businesses to receive 471 SBIR/STTR awards totaling over $154 million. The University of Illinois Research Park is one of the 24 recipients nationwide for the SBA FAST Grant. Learn more about the FAST Partnership program here. Gorsuch is no stranger to EnterpriseWorks, having served as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence and a part of the iCorps teaching team. A graduate of the University of Illinois, Gorsuch is a multidisciplinary engineer, serial entrepreneur, startup mentor. Currently, Alex is the VP of electrical and systems engineering at Pivotal Biotech, Chief Technology Officer at Ascent Integrated Tech and H-Trap One, Chief Executive Officer of MagPi Innovations, and mentor to numerous startups.

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    EnterpriseWorks Features Media Mentions News Recognition & Awards Research Park

    EnterpriseWorks Startup Aspiring Universe founder’s study Highlighted By Forbes

    Kaiyu Guan, founder of EnterpriseWorks startup Aspiring Universe, was a principal investigator to the University of Illinois report, Redefining drought in the US corn belt. This report was featured in a Forbes article.  Stating the climate is now trending warmer and drier, global food security is now increasingly dependent on crops’ ability to withstand droughts, and producers aren’t focused on the right metrics when measuring crop-relevant droughts.  Kaiyu Guan said, “Plants have to balance water supply and demand. Both are extremely critical, but people overlook the demand of the equation, especially in the U.S. Corn Belt. If you only consider rainfall and soil moisture, that’s mostly describing the supply side. Of course, if you have low soil moisture, plants will be stressed by how much water they get. However, the demand side from the atmosphere can also severely stress plants. We need to pay more attention to that drought signal.” Aspiring Universe (ASP) is a farming financial risk modeling company. ASP helps financial institutes, public agencies, and individual producers to quantify, manage, and reduce financial risks in the farming-related business.  They aim to monitor and model every crop field’s financial risks in the United States and worldwide. ASP has developed revolutionary approaches to rate historical and real-time financial risks for each crop field and each farmer, by integrating advancing technology in three domains: satellite/corp modeling, artificial intelligence, and agricultural finance modeling.

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