UM Ventures

Recent Successes

Since 2011, more than 145 startups have been created. Read more about recent UM Ventures startups and 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.