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UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS URBANA-CHAMPAIGN

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    Community EnterpriseWorks Features News Research Park

    Cache Energy Secures $8.5 Million in Seed Funding

    EnterpriseWorks startup Cache Energy has successfully secured a new investment, boosting its early funding to an impressive $8.5 million. Cache specializes in developing long-duration energy storage (LDES) technology utilizing low-cost materials capable of withstanding high temperatures. The recent investment was led by Voyager Ventures, a venture capital firm that “invests in early-stage climate technology companies, creating the foundation of a decarbonized global economy and livable future for all.” The funding supports the development and scaling of Cache’s thermal storage system. “The energy capacity cost is an order of magnitude cheaper than what we have seen anywhere in the market. The next alternative is at least 8-10 X more expensive,” said Arpit Dwivedi, founder and CEO of Cache Energy.Voyage Ventures believes Cache will revolutionize industries like manufacturing and chemicals, which rely on large amounts of heat energy and need affordable storage options. “With strong customer traction already from major utilities and industrial players, we are thrilled to support Arpit Dwivedi and his talented team as they scale this transformative technology to dramatically reduce emissions while saving customers money in these critical sectors,” said Leonardo Banchik of Voyager. Over the past year, Cache has also worked with Halliburton to speed up its scaling and operations. Cache has earned acknowledgment from the Department of Energy and won two awards: the DOE Energy Innovation Prize and a pitch competition at the White House.

    Cache Energy Secures $8.5 Million in Seed Funding Read Post »

    Community EnterpriseWorks Events Investments Media Mentions News Recognition & Awards

    Nine Cozad New Venture Challenge Teams Receive Awards from EnterpriseWorks

    EnterpriseWorks and Research Park awarded the Student Startup Tenancy Prize to nine teams that competed in the 2024 Cozad New Venture Challenge. This prize, which was awarded to Pathlit, AVEA Robotics, Radiant Looms, AminoSense, ClimeCast, Provenance Security, SeriesFarm, Terravate Energy, and Med Terms, includes access to co-working space, conference rooms, common areas, support services, and entrepreneur assistance. Provenance Security and SeriesFarm received the Catapult Award of $5,000 to be used for startup professional services. ClimeCast, which joined EnterpriseWorks as a tenant earlier in the year, also won third place with a $25,000 investment. ClimeCast uses AI to optimize decarbonization strategy for commercial real estate. ClimeCast also won the Dr. Paul Magelli Innovation Award, Best Pitch at Finals, as well as the Student Startup Tenancy Prize. Cozad New Venture Challenge (CNVC) is a campus-wide program run by the Technology Entrepreneur Center that provides mentoring to teams through the phases of venture creation, and resources in idea validation, pitching skills, and customer development. Between the 200 registered teams, 11 campus colleges and 85 majors were represented. The 2024 CNVC kicked off with registration and kickoff events in January and continued throughout the spring semester with workshops, mentorship opportunities, and training for over 500 undergraduate and graduate students. Between the 200 registered teams, 11 campus colleges and 85 majors were represented. The Demo Day on Thursday, April 11, was held at the Illinois Conference Center and featured several members of EnterpriseWorks and Research Park judging student work. The program concluded on Wednesday, April 24, with a Year-End Celebration and Awards Ceremony at the Campus Instructional Facility. Past participants of the program include EnterpriseWorks graduates Cast21, DeepWalk, Mesh++, Prenosis, Psyonic, and Serionix, in addition to EnterpriseWorks startups Natrion and ZiteAI.

    Nine Cozad New Venture Challenge Teams Receive Awards from EnterpriseWorks Read Post »

    EnterpriseWorks Media Mentions News Recognition & Awards Research Park

    HabiTerre Achieves Third Party Model Validation with Climate Action Reserve

    EnterpriseWorks startup HabiTerre‘s model for quantification of agricultural greenhouse gas sinks and sources was approved by the Climate Action Reserve (CAR) under their Soil Enrichment Protocol (SEP). This model is used as part of HabiTerre‘s advanced system-of-systems modeling approach. It comprehensively models the interplay of energy, water, carbon, and nutrient cycles in aboveground and belowground environments. HabiTerre has adapted and maintained a scalable version of ecosys to support the quantification of greenhouse gas and soil carbon outcomes from agricultural practices. The Climate Action Reserve is the most trusted, efficient and experienced offset registry for global carbon markets. CAR establishes rigorous standards to support and promote climate change solutions that benefit economies, ecosystems and society. “This milestone is just one of many more to come from the team at HabiTerre, where we are fully dedicated to supporting scalable and efficient solutions to drive maximum impact and value to farmers, paving the way for high-quality environmental market opportunities,” said Nick Reinke, CEO of HabiTerre. HabiTerre is a farming financial risk modeling company. The HabiTerre team is dedicated to making the world a better and more habitable place by advancing sustainable agriculture and land stewardship with a holistic systems approach to farm productivity and resource use efficiency. Learn more about CAR and this milestone on the HabiTerre website.

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    EnterpriseWorks Features News Research Park

    New Podcast Episode: Digital Identity Verification

    In the June Innovations @ Research Park podcast episode, host Tanmay Shah talked to Identomat CEO Dr. David Lomiashvili about his career journey, experience at EnterpriseWorks, identity verification, and looking ahead. Dr. David Lomiashvili is the CEO of Identomat, which has created an innovative AI-powered KYC and identity verification solution that assesses if the person in front of a camera is real or an impersonator. Before his current venture, Dr. Lomiashvili had an extensive pedigree in entrepreneurship, not to mention a PhD in Astrophysics. “A new project,  a strategically important project, we are gonna be working on … is Digital Identity Wallet. It is a way to enable SSI, self-sovereign identity. It is what we see the next inflection point in the industry is gonna be, unleashing the wallet economy,” Lomiashvili said when talking about the future of Identomat and digital identity verification. The Innovations @ Research Park podcast highlights the thriving entrepreneurial and corporate innovation culture in Champaign. It is hosted by University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumnus Tanmay Shah. Subscribe to The Innovations @ Research Park to catch up on the latest innovations and news on Apple Podcasts,  Spotify, or your preferred podcast network. Is there something you want to know about Research Park? Do you have an idea for a guest for the show or a story we should pursue? Do you want to provide other feedback? Contact Laura Bleill (lwbleill@illinois.edu).

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    EnterpriseWorks Investments Media Mentions Recognition & Awards Research Park

    Cache Energy Wins EPIC DC Pitch Competition

    EnterpriseWorks clean energy startup Cache Energy won first place in the Energy Program for Innovative Clusters (EPIC) pitch competition. Founder Arpit Dwivedi presented at the White House for this competition on May 15, 2024, winning $30,000 for the company. The Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Technology Transitions (OTT) announced $70,000 total of prize money to three clean energy startups and one incubator through the prize collaboration event. Attendees participated in a collaborative discussion, and a Q&A about supporting incubators,  and traveled to Capitol Hill to meet with Congressional representatives and staff. Cache Energy focuses on creating energy storage that is non-toxic, non-flammable, and safe to transport and install anywhere through long-duration electricity storage. This technology can store grid electricity cheaply on a large scale and helps commercial and residential entities move away from fossil fuel. Learn more about the EPIC DC Pitch Competition on the Office of Technology Transitions website.

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    EnterpriseWorks Features News Research Park

    New Podcast Episode: Perspectives on AI from an NVIDIA Leader

    In the May episode of the Innovations @ Research Park podcast, host Tanmay Shah talked to NVIDIA Accelerated Big Data Platform Engineer Matt Ahrens about his career journey and the future of artificial intelligence (AI). Matt Ahrens oversees performance and tools work for the Accelerated Big Data Platforms group at NVIDIA. He’s a longtime leader in the University of Illinois Research Park community, graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Computer Science in 2003 and working for Motorola and Yahoo! before transitioning to his current role at NVIDIA. Ahrens is also the co-founder and leader of the Champaign-Urbana Data Science User Group, which meets monthly at UIRP during the academic year. The podcast episode discusses using graphics processing units (GPUs) to accelerate data workflows. “A new frontier where we see accelerated computing really having a future is with big data processing,” Ahrens said, emphasizing how GPUs can make these processes more efficient. The Innovations @ Research Park podcast highlights the thriving entrepreneurial and corporate innovation culture in Champaign. It is hosted by University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumnus Tanmay Shah. Subscribe to The Innovations @ Research Park to catch up on the latest innovations and news on Apple Podcasts,  Spotify, or your preferred podcast network. Is there something you want to know about Research Park? Do you have an idea for a guest for the show or a story we should pursue? Do you want to provide other feedback? Contact Laura Bleill (lwbleill@illinois.edu).

    New Podcast Episode: Perspectives on AI from an NVIDIA Leader Read Post »

    EnterpriseWorks Graduates Media Mentions News Recognition & Awards

    EnterpriseWorks Founders Elected to National Academy of Sciences

    EnterpriseWorks startup founders and serial entrepreneurs Stephen Sligar and Ken Suslick were elected to the National Academy of Sciences on April 30, 2024. The National Academy of Sciences recognizes members due to their distinguished and continuing research achievements. Membership is determined by nomination and election by academy members and is a highly prestigious distinction in the science field. Stephen Sligar, founder of EnterpriseWorks startup Mobius Scientific, is a professor in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Illinois. His research centers on metalloenzymes, membrane-bound receptors, and investigations in cancer signaling and cholesterol homeostasis. He currently serves as the Chief Technical Officer of Mobius Scientific in EnterpriseWorks at the University of Illinois Research Park. Mobius Scientific is changing the outlook for patients with progressive vision loss by developing nanodisc-delivered therapies. It is an early-stage, platform biotechnology company treating optical diseases by addressing their root causes. Ken Suslick is a professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Illinois and the founder of EnterpriseWorks startup Iridescent Sensors. His research interests include sonochemical synthesis, protein microspheres, and sensors and artificial olfaction. Iridescent Sensors is creating a field- deployable “optoelectronic nose” that can be placed in first responder vehicles and chemical workplaces to detect toxic chemicals. To learn more about this distinction, visit The National Academy of Sciences’s website.

    EnterpriseWorks Founders Elected to National Academy of Sciences Read Post »

    EnterpriseWorks News Recognition & Awards

    EnterpriseWorks Wins Stage One of the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 2024 Growth Accelerator Fund Competition

    ENTERPRISEWORKS AWARDED $50,000 IN PRIZE MONEY FOR EQUITABLE ACCESS TO ENTREPRENEURSHIP CHAMPAIGN, IL – This week, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) announced the EnterpriseWorks incubator at the University of Illinois Research Park as a Stage One winner for the 2024 Growth Accelerator Fund Competition (GAFC). EnterpriseWorks will receive a $50,000 cash prize for its impactful and inclusive approach to nurturing a collaborative national innovation ecosystem to advance small business research and development (R&D) from ideas to the market. By fostering connections between entrepreneurs, mentors, partners, philanthropies, corporations, investors, and other shared resources, GAFC 2024 catalyzes strategic ecosystem partnerships to build community and organizational capacity for the successful launch, growth, and scale of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)-based entrepreneurs. EnterpriseWorks’ award-winning model, the Entrepreneurial Leadership Development Accelerator (ELDA), identifies and develops talent to develop and/or support academic co-founders in the formation, launch, and growth of new science-based startups. “EnterpriseWorks’ mission is to launch, support, and advance startups that are commercializing disruptive technologies at the University of Illinois,” said Gerald O. Wilson, Ph.D., Director of Entrepreneurship. “The ELDA program aims to provide valuable non-technical support by training students who have business and/or entrepreneurial skills and backgrounds who can accelerate the success of tech startups.” The ELDA program aims to recruit participant cohorts that are at least 50 percent women or underrepresented people in tech. EnterpriseWorks will collaborate with the University of Illinois Office of Technology Management (OTM) to identify sustainability and biotechnology technologies with potential for new venture formation. During Stage One, EnterpriseWorks will work with University partners as well as organizations statewide to define participant profiles, recruiting, curriculum and mentorship processes. “In my opinion, identifying and recruiting cofounders is the single biggest bottleneck to achieving real-world impact with UIUC research. Many—perhaps most—of our faculty inventors would welcome the opportunity to work with a grad student, postdoc, or external business-side lead to commercialize their technologies,” said Michelle Chitambar, Ph.D., Senior Technology Manager at OTM. SBA welcomed Stage One submissions from a broad range of organizations with a collaborative vision to nurture a national ecosystem for equitable access to entrepreneurship. Winners of Stage One were selected through a multi-tier review panel process with experts in entrepreneurship, business, innovation, and strategic planning both inside and out of the federal government. Stage Two offers an additional $50,000 to $150,000 in cash prizes for Growth Accelerator Partnerships. To learn more about Stage Two opportunities and to access the Growth Accelerator Fund Competition Guidelines, please visit https://www.americasseedfund.us/accelerators With Stage Two funding, EnterpriseWorks plans to implement the ELDA program and curriculum, launching its first cohort in fall of 2024. “From inequity and climate change, to supporting national defense and community-driven economic prosperity, the real opportunity is now to build up innovation ecosystems. EnterpriseWorks is eager to launch this program to build more startups taking commercially viable and societally impactful technologies developed from academic research and putting them into the marketplace, while developing a pool of entrepreneurial talent that had been relatively untapped,” Wilson said. About EnterpriseWorks EnterpriseWorks is a business incubator that supports University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and community technology entrepreneurs in all stages of their startup journeys. Its clients build and create disruptive science-based startups across a wide range of domains, reflecting the depth and breadth of university expertise. Since opening in 2003, EnterpriseWorks clients have raised more than $1.4 billion in outside capital and $200 million in non-diluted funding. EnterpriseWorks is located on campus at the University of Illinois Research Park in Champaign.

    EnterpriseWorks Wins Stage One of the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 2024 Growth Accelerator Fund Competition Read Post »

    EnterpriseWorks News Recognition & Awards

    Natrion named 2024 Edison Award Gold Winner

    EnterpriseWorks startup Natrion was recognized as a Gold Winner at The Edison Awards in the Resilient & Sustainable Solutions category. Established in 1987, the Edison Awards are dedicated to recognizing, honoring and fostering innovations and innovators. Named after Thomas Alva Edison, the annual competition honors excellence in new product and service development, marketing, design and innovation. The Gold Edison Award was presented to Natrion during the Awards Gala held on April 18th in Fort Myers, Florida, alongside distinguished innovators from various industries. “It is wonderful for our company to receive this recognition,” said Natrion co-founder and CEO Alex Kosyakov. “Being awarded is a testament to the hard work, skill, and output of our team, as well as the maturity of our technology and its value to OEMs around the world.” Natrion’s recent technical and commercialization progress on its patented components for both Li-ion and Li-metal batteries positions it as the industry leader for solid-state technology. Natrion located to EnterpriseWorks in 2021, and is developing battery technologies that can push the capabilities of EVs. By pioneering new materials for the next generation of batteries, its mission is to service the industry with solutions that will enhance the mainstream market viability of electric vehicles and advance the world closer to a future of clean mobility. Read more on PR Newswire.

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    EnterpriseWorks Graduates Media Mentions News Recognition & Awards Research Park

    EnterpriseWorks Graduate Prenosis Receives FDA Clearance on Sepsis ImmunoScore

    EnterpriseWorks graduate Prenosis recently announced the approval of its artificial intelligence-powered diagnostic tool for sepsis by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Sepsis occurs when the body has an extreme response to an infection, and it is often deadly. It is notoriously challenging to diagnose, but early detection is key since patients can deteriorate quickly. Prenosis’ diagnostic tool, called Sepsis ImmunoScore, uses 22 different parameters such as temperature, heart rate and cell counts to help clinicians assess a patient’s risk of sepsis. Prenosis was an EnterpriseWorks tenant from 2017 to 2018. Founder Rashid Bashir, Dean of Grainger College of Engineering, developed these technologies with his research group in the Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory, along with Bobby Reddy. During its time at the Research Park, the Prenosis team earned a second-place prize in the 14th Annual Dale V. Cozad New Venture Competition. Now based in Chicago, Prenosis has been a longtime client of the Illinois FAST Center. Prenosis’ goal is to detect and prevent the majority of diseases before debilitating symptoms present themselves. By integrating biomarkers and clinical data, its diagnostics present real-time critical information, predicts future outcomes for patients, and expedites the delivery of optimal therapy. Prenosis’ approach stands out for its regulatory compliance and focus on safety and efficacy. The company plans to conduct further studies to demonstrate the tool’s accuracy and impact on clinical decision-making, with intentions to market it globally. “FDA authorization of a sepsis diagnostic tool with significant predictive power is a landmark event for people that could ever be at risk of sepsis at some point in their lives,” said Bobby Reddy, Jr, Ph.D. Read more on the CNBC newspage.

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