UM Ventures
Mission: To bring scientific discoveries and inventions to the marketplace and guide the formation of startup companies, fostering economic development and creating jobs.
UM Ventures combines the technology transfer and commercialization efforts at University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) and University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP) to patent, license, and commercialize discoveries. The entrepreneurial resources at UMB and UMCP are designed to support faculty, staff, and students as they launch startups based on their ideas. Faculty commercialize university-invented discoveries and launch successful university startups. UM Ventures also supports both UMB and UMCP’s strategic plan commitments to innovation, discovery, and entrepreneurship.
Faculty-invented products and services include agricultural products, software, clean technology, nanotechnology, sensors, medical devices, diagnostics, and therapeutics.
The initiative supports entrepreneurs with legal assistance, business expertise, and technical know-how. Since 2011, more than 145 startups have been created.
FY22 Stats
Read about recent UM Ventures successes below:
Breethe – A UMB startup developing a portable artificial lung, was acquired by Abiomed in 2020 and is the fourth UM Ventures-backed startup to have a successful exit via acquisition. In 2022, Johnson & Johnson acquired Abiomed to strengthen its medical device unit. This deal should offer additional commercialization support for the Breethe technology.
Hazel Analytics – A startup based on technology developed at UMCP and the University of California, Los Angelos, specializes in the use of data-driven technology solutions to improve food safety and public health, and monitors regulatory compliance at over 300,000 locations in the United States and Canada. In March 2022, Hazel Analytics partnered with Yelp, an online platform for crowd-sourced reviews of restaurants. Hazel Analytics now collects or estimates hygiene scores for Yelp’s nearly 700,000 pages, using data from health departments in 48 U.S. states as well as Toronto and Vancouver, British Columbia.
Ion Storage Systems (ION) – A UMCP startup, is developing a solid-state lithium-ion battery. In Summer 2022, the company announced the initial closing of its $30 million Series A fundraising round. Investors included Toyota Ventures, Tenaska, and Bangchak Corporation. The funds will enable ION to expand its facility in Maryland to commission and qualify a battery cell manufacturing line capable of producing 10 megawatt hours per year of next-generation solid-state batteries. Production will initially be allocated to qualifying commercial cells for its first market customers. The Series A round will also accelerate the development projects ION has with multiple customers and partners in consumer electronics, automotive, and stationary storage markets.
KaloCyte – A UMB-based preclinical startup working to develop a dried, bio-inspired artificial red blood cell, is redefining emergency treatment for victims of traumatic blood loss. The technology is being further developed in partnership with the University of Maryland School of Medicine where KaloCyte co-founder Allan Doctor, MD, leads the Center for Blood Oxygen Transport and Hemostasis.
Pathotrak – A startup based on UMCP technology, uses a patented process to enable food safety testing to occur in six hours instead of 22 to 48 hours, thus reducing the amount of time labs have to incubate food samples to test them for pathogens. Pathotrak uses microfiltration to create an environment where pathogens can reproduce quickly, allowing for faster testing. The company received Association of Official Agricultural Chemists performance tested certification for its kits’ ability to detect salmonella and E. coli, and it plans to start selling its kits to testing facilities in 2023.
CoapTech– UMB startup’s medical device, the PUMA-G System, is the world’s first and only ultrasound gastronomy system, allowing physicians to place gastronomy tubes at the point of care using solely ultrasound imaging, PUMA-G is being sold and utilized at multiple sites in United States and Europe.
To learn more: UM Ventures
