When Akron Ascent Innovations sold its assets to an unnamed “large multinational tech company” earlier this month, it was a win not only for founding professor Shing-Chung Josh Wong, but also for the University of Akron Research Foundation.
The foundation, known as UARF, held a minority stake of about 15% in the company, said Barry Rosenbaum, a senior fellow who heads the university’s startup support and technology marketing division. The foundation will receive a portion of the sales proceeds that were not disclosed and a portion of future revenue from the company’s technology, Rosenbaum said.
But it’s not the home run that he hopes UARF will still score.
“It’s not a lot of money. (Akron Ascent Innovations) wasn’t a big acquisition,” said Rosenbaum.
UARF still has an interest in Akron Ascent Innovations and the company could develop other products, he said. In addition, UARF has other companies in the pipeline that managers hope will close even bigger deals.
UARF doesn’t count its chickens yet. But it closely watches over the eggs, for which it helps to care for.
“There are three now applying for (federal) funding, and based on the correspondence I’ve seen, I’m pretty sure they’ll get it,” said Elyse Ball, UARF Assistant Counsel and Project Manager.
It relates to funding from the National Science Foundation’s Small Business Innovation Research program. It awards grants to promising startups, usually in servings of up to $ 256,000 or $ 1 million, which can be important for new businesses that are running on tight budgets, Ball said.
Two of the most promising companies UARF supports have ties to a single former professor of chemical engineering at the University of Akron, Dr. Chelsea Monty-Bromer, who was laid off during the downsizing last year and started a job at Cleveland State University.
She is the CEO of RooSense, an Akron company that develops wearable sensors for athletes that analyze a person’s sweat and provide them with data to better manage their fluid and electrolyte levels.
“We are about a year away from launch,” said Monty-Bromer in an interview last Wednesday, July 14th. “We should have our first beta prototype next week and then we’ll be in an exercise lab and testing on real athletes for about six months.”
The company, which is searching for volunteer testers on its website, is hoping to launch its product next year under the name SweatID, available in the form of a bracelet or incorporated into the apparel of a promised sportswear company, she said.
“Hopefully we’ll go into full production in the first quarter of next year,” said Monty-Bromer.
The company has determined how to make its product, she said, but has not yet identified its manufacturing facility.
“We know how, we’re working on the where,” said Monty-Bromer.
She is hoping RooSense will get new SBIR funding, Ball predicts, and it has already received a grant. The same hope goes for another company she co-founded called MIC Monitor. (Ball believes it will likely get SBIR funding soon as well.) MIC Monitor is developing a system for natural gas pipeline operators to monitor their systems to identify and treat microorganisms that would otherwise corrode their expensive steel pipes .
Yes, there are germs that come from drilling and producing natural gas, and they can eat metal, said Monty-Bromer. She hopes stopping her from doing so will be big business.
A third company that Ball said should be a candidate for SBIR funding is PolyLux, which is working on making new adhesives that are released under certain spectra of light. The company is working on an initial application for medical bandages and then hopes to enter other markets, said Kaushik Mishra, CEO of PolyLux.
“We already work with a few larger multinationals,” said Mishra. “We have two subsets of materials. One is for medical adhesives and the other is for industrial adhesives.”
PolyLux is likely to raise more money with new investors by the end of this year, which has been postponed until 2020 due to the pandemic, Mishra said. He said it is easier to convey what the product does when it can be demonstrated on a real person – a tactic he also uses to convince doctors to try the technology.
All companies, along with others that UARF works with, have something in common. They will all receive help with applying for state and federal funding, as well as introductions to local angel investors and professional service providers through UARF. You’ll also go through NSF’s I-Corps training – a process Ball and others say forces entrepreneurs to refine their idea by speaking to hundreds of potential clients at the beginning of the formation process.
UARF isn’t a great source of capital, say those who work with it. But that’s not its purpose. Instead, they say, UARF is preparing them to look elsewhere for more capital when they are ready.
“I think anything over a million dollars is beyond UARF’s ability,” said PolyLux’s Mishra. “But they’re very important in getting the right people early on. They’ve been invaluable to us.”
Rosenbaum said UARF pays for itself through its activities. But he wants the foundation to be a source of support for Akron University entrepreneurs as well as significant financial support for the school itself. Time will tell if that happens.
“If we’re successful, we’ll help finance the university,” said Rosenbaum.
Beyond school, UARF is an important part of the ecosystem that supports new startups in Akron in general, said Bill Manby, founding partner of mutual fund Akron Fusion Ventures.
“I think they are crucial for that,” said Manby. “They not only bring technology, they bring expertise, they bring access to government funding, they bring patent aid. You have people who can help write scholarships that all of these startups need before they can hire people to do these things “when they get to another level”
Manby is another person who is committed to the success of companies in the UARF pipeline. You are also a source of potential investors for his company and customers.
“We did a couple of deals with them and we kept our eyes on the RooSense guys,” he said.
