Partnerships & Acquisitions

EnterpriseWorks Media Mentions Partnerships & Acquisitions

Boston Bioprocess Helping Nourish Ingredients Make a More Realistic Meat Substitute

Have you ever bitten into a meat substitute product and find yourself longing for the real deal? The aroma, the flavor, the texture, and the taste of… meat? You’re not alone. EnterpriseWork’s very own Boston Bioprocess is teaming up with Nourish Ingredients to create just that– utilizing wild fungi and yeast strains to trick even the biggest meat lovers into thinking they are consuming a meat product. The secret ingredient? To effectively scale and replicate the most potent fat molecules, the ones responsible for making that irresistible, animalistic aroma that makes your mouth water. In a Food Navigator USA article, it was explained that Boston Bioprocess is not only assisting Nourish Ingredients in developing a more realistic-tasting product but ensuring that the product will meet regulatory requirements as well. The partnership between Boston Bioprocess and Nourish Ingredients is coming after a significant drop in the plant-based protein market. Nourish Ingredients CEO James Petrie hopes to change the downward market trajectory. “In one way [it’s] been healthy for [the industry] in the sense that… there’s a bit of pressure on the plant-based industry at the moment and it’s forcing us to take a collective look at the quality of products,” said Petrie. Boston Bioprocess works to provide their clients with the equipment and expertise they need to improve yield, decrease costs, and access product for commercial testing. Visit their tenant directory to learn more about the company. Read the full Food Navigator feature.

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EnterpriseWorks Partnerships & Acquisitions Research Park

HabiTerre to collaborate on Carbon Breakthrough in Agriculture with Arable and Shell

EnterpriseWorks startup HabiTerre is playing a critical role in an important collaboration between industry leaders Arable and Shell to create a breakthrough in carbon management. The startup helps financial institutes, public agencies, and individual producers to quantify, manage, and reduce financial risks in the farming-related business. By commercializing technology made on campus, the green initiative aims to make an impact on mitigating the effects of climate change by enhancing carbon monitoring in agriculture. Together, the two companies are pooling university resources to develop technologies that will track and measure the carbon footprint of agricultural production, enabling farmers to reduce their emissions while improving their yields. HabiTerre CEO Nick Reinke says that the company “is proud to support this innovative project, which holds the exciting potential to advance sustainability worldwide.”   The company’s unique ecosystem of metering instruments, cloud-based analytics, and crop models are essential in creating a comprehensive understanding of the overall carbon cycle of agricultural production.  Habiterre’s tools allow Arable and Shell to more accurately measure and analyze the effects of changes to carbon models, such as composting, cover crops, irrigation, and fertilization, to determine how to best reduce emissions. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change suggests that up to 10 gigatons of CO2 need to be removed from the atmosphere annually in order to reach global emissions reduction targets, up to half of which could be captured by leveraging agriculture. HabiTerre’s technology plays a key role in this approach, enabling Arable and Shell to pursue their ambitious carbon reduction initiative and foster the unlocking of potential benefits across the global agricultural industry.  Read the full article on the Arable website. 

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EnterpriseWorks Partnerships & Acquisitions

Verizon’s Champaign Innovation Hub To Host Open Hours, Welcome Visitors

The Verizon 5G Innovation Hub at EnterpriseWorks is now hosting open hours where guests can explore how the next generation wireless technologies can benefit their work, their research, their business, or their community. During the open hours, Verizon’s Champaign Innovation Hub advisor will provide an overview of the hub, the technologies, and address questions. This Hub is equipped with a private wireless network with the latest 5G technologies. It is independent from the Verizon commercial network, and some of the technologies are more advanced than what’s been deployed in the commercial network. It can support innovative development work such as new device testing, application/network integration, and edge computing. See the Research Park calendar for specific dates and times; virtual visits are also available. The Hub is located at EnterpriseWorks Room 209 (second floor). EnterpriseWorks is located at 60 Hazelwood Drive, Champaign. Parking is free. There is also bus access via the LINK on MTD.

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Community News Partnerships & Acquisitions Recognition & Awards Research Park

New Institute for Math and Statistical Innovation (IMSI) Has Significant Ties to Research Park

Champaign – The National Science Foundation has awarded a $15.5 Million grant to four Illinois universities, including the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, to create an Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation (IMSI). The aim of the IMSI is to bring powerful mathematical ideas to bear on key contemporary scientific and technological challenges. Laura Frerichs, executive director of the University of Illinois Research Park, has been selected for one of the seven IMSI Board of Trustees. In addition to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IMSI will include a collaborative group of mathematicians and statisticians from the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, and the University of Illinois at Chicago. The $15.5 million grant will be provided by the National Science Foundation (NSF)  over the next five years. “The project builds on the leadership of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences,” said Matt Ando, associate dean for life and physical sciences at the College of LAS, who played a key role in forming the institute. “The university’s outstanding record of success with interdisciplinary institutes, such as the Beckman Institute and the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, and the innovative record of the departments of Mathematics and Statistics in workforce development, in collaboration with the University of Illinois Research Park, were important strengths of the proposal.” Researchers at the new IMSI will build a platform that efficiently applies mathematical and statistical techniques into solutions for urgent real-world applications. Some of these applications include climate change, health care, quantum information theory, artificial intelligence, data science, economics, and materials science. IMSI will also have a sustained focus on communication with researchers in other fields, and in educating the public about how mathematics and statistics can be used for everyday problems and social issues. IMSI will sponsor outreach and workforce development programs aimed at K-12 students, teachers, undergraduates, and graduate students. With the goal to introduce participants to career opportunities in mathematics and statistics, especially to communities who traditionally have been underrepresented in STEM. To read more about the IMSI grant, click here.

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EnterpriseWorks News Partnerships & Acquisitions

Enterpriseworks graduate, Pattern Insight, technology acquired by VMware

Pattern Insight was founded by former University of Illinois Computer Science professor YY Zhou and the company’s first employee was Jed Taylor, who now advises EnterpriseWorks clients as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence. Pattern Insight was located at EnterpriseWorks from 2007 to 2011. Pattern Insight is a data mining technology company that enables real-time analysis of source code, changing how software-intensive products are developed, tested and supported. Log Insight, a log analytics product, aims at management and real time operational analytics for IT data regardless of scale. On August 7, 2012 it was announced that Log Insight, together with its technology and team, have been acquired by VMware. EnterpriseWorks is pleased for this successful acquisition by one of its former clients. Pattern Insight will continue to have its Code business. http://patterninsight.com/blog/blog-post/2012/08/07/log-insight-has-been-acquired-by-vmware/  

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News Partnerships & Acquisitions Research Park

Bytemobile Acquired by Citrix

Citrix today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire privately held Bytemobile, a leading provider of data and video optimization solutions for mobile network operators. This acquisition gives Citrix a key strategic foothold in the core infrastructure of more than 130 mobile operators in 60 countries around the world, significantly extending the company’s market reach, and enhancing the broader Citrix strategy of powering mobile workstyles and cloud services. (read the entire news release). Bytemobile has deep University of Illinois roots. University of Illinois Electrical Engineering professor Constantine Polychronopoulos’s research in multithreading computer architectures and wireless network performance optimization at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) formed the core of Bytemobile technology. The company was founded in 2000, and it is a graduate of the Technology Commercialization Lab, the incubator facility that was the predecessor to EnterpriseWorks.  It opened a research and development facility in the Research Park in 2006. Citrix is publicly traded on the NASDAQ, and becomes the 14th publicly traded company to have an operation in the Research Park. Here is the News-Gazette’s coverage of this milestone.

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News Partnerships & Acquisitions

New NSF Innovation-Corps (I-Corps) Program to Provide Startup Support

On July 28, 2011, the National Science Foundation launched Innovation-Corps (I-Corps), a public-private partnership designed to bring promising research projects out of the lab and into the marketplace. Supported by the Deshpande and Kauffman Foundations, I-Corps was developed in conjunction with the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and is a part of the Obama Administration’s focus on innovation. Through I-Corps, NSF seeks to identify and nurture research capable of transitioning out of academia and the laboratory, and link it into a broader network of entrepreneurs, investors, and industry experts. I-Corps requires awardees to attend classes and learn the mechanics of creating a start-up company. Awardees would be required to assess their field and potential competitors, determine their customer base, attract investment, and market their ideas. Critically, this process is meant to enable grantees to define what value their idea or invention adds to the marketplace. While there are many possible outcomes for I-Corps teams, those envisioned by NSF include: start-up businesses, licenses to technologies or products, SBIR proposals, and business plans ready for investor support. Each team will utilize a mentor, who is a volunteer from the private sector with expertise in converting academic research into commercial products and technologies. NSF anticipates awarding one hundred $50,000 grants a year for three years. Each award will be made to a team led by a Principal Investigator (PI). PIs must either be current NSF grantees or have received an NSF award within five years previous to submitting an I-Corps proposal. More information is available at http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/i-corps/.

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News Partnerships & Acquisitions Research Park

Littlefuse Grand Opening press release

WHAT: On January 25, 2011, Littelfuse Inc. (NASDAQ/NGS:LFUS) is hosting a grand opening event for their new engineering facility in the Research Park at the University of Illinois. This event will include leadership from Littelfuse dedicating the new building, including their CEO, Mr. Gordon Hunter. The University of Illinois will also welcome Littelfuse to the Research Park with remarks by Interim Chancellor Robert Easter and UI Vice President of Technology and Economic Development Avijit Ghosh. Littelfuse opened a new facility on the University of Illinois campus for the POWR-GARD division. The facility will house more than 20 full-time employees and student interns. Tours of the facility will be given including demonstrations in the new high power testing facility enclosed with bullet proof glass, which sends high voltage electricity through fuses to test their durability. WHO: The event will include Littelfuse executive leadership including CEO Gordon Hunter, CFO Philip Franklin, and leadership of the Electronics Business Unit. The University of Illinois community and the press are invited to attend. Formal remarks from the University of Illinois will be made by Interim Chancellor Robert Easter and UI Vice President of Technology and Economic Development Avijit Ghosh. WHEN: The event will take place on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 from 3:00-6:00 pm, with the formal ribbon cutting and ceremony commencing at 3:30 pm, followed by a reception, building tour, and technology demonstrations from 4:30-6:00 pm. WHERE: The event will take place at the Littelfuse Building located at 2110 S. Oak Street in the Research Park on the University of Illinois campus. The Research Park is immediately south of Assembly Hall, the Littelfuse building is between Hazelwood and Gerty on Oak Street. The building was constructed by Fox/Atkins Development LLC, the developer of the Research Park. WHY: The Research Park at the University of Illinois provides an environment where technology-based businesses can work with the research faculty and students. Littelfuse is the newest publically traded firm to open an R&D facility within the Research Park. The new location adds jobs to the Champaign-Urbana community, internships for students to get real world experience during the academic year, and increased engagement with the University.

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EnterpriseWorks News Partnerships & Acquisitions

New Entrepreneur-in-Residence at EnterpriseWorks: Alan Singleton

EnterpriseWorks hires Entrepreneurs-in-Residence to assist entrepreneurs and inventors that are starting a business. EnterpriseWorks hires local-experienced entrepreneurs that have effectively commercialized technology to provide consultation to local entrepreneurs at no cost to the company. The EIRs provide advice on business development, attracting investment, revenue creation, and engagements with industrial clients. They also provide entrepreneur training, and help fill early management guidance for startups and help inventors determine a path for starting their business. EnterpriseWorks will cover the cost of the consulting services for Research Park clients and other University of Illinois entrepreneurs. EnterpriseWorks requires a request for counseling submission to be completed, which is online at https://illinois.edu/fb/sec/8330154 . Alan Singleton specializes in corporate formation and transactions, intellectual property, and securities law. He has over 17 years of experience working with entrepreneurs to develop solutions to the wide variety of business and legal issues they face in establishing and growing their companies.  Alan regularly advises clients on issues including company formation, raising capital, securities compliance, taxation and implementing stock option plans, mergers and acquisitions, and asset sales.  Alan has established a reputation for being a leader in technology commercialization and early stage companies in East Central Illinois.  In recognition of his work, Alan was selected by the University of Illinois and the Champaign County EDC as the 2008 recipient of the Entrepreneurial Advocacy Award.  Alan is active in both the business and educational communities.   His firm organizes the business plan review group Second Saturday and he has served as a judge for the V. Dale Cozad Business Plan Competition.  While maintaining an adjunct faculty appointment with the University of Illinois College of Medicine, Alan has given guest lectures for the University of Illinois MBA course on technology commercialization, the senior Capstone Design Course in the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, the Academy for Entrepreneurial Leadership Idea to Enterprise Workshop, the Technology Entrepreneur Center Advanced Invention to Venture workshop and for medical residency programs throughout the state.

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