OSU Will Showcase Promising Startups at the 2019 MGCS Tech Transfer Pitch Track
The Ohio State University will be one of seven research universities and institutions participating in the Tech Transfer Pitch Track at this year’s Midwest Growth Capital Symposium.
“I’m excited to showcase some of our early stage companies that are based on Ohio State technologies,” says Cheryl Turnbull, senior director of new ventures in Ohio State’s Corporate Engagement Office. “We’ve done a lot as a university to build an infrastructure that is conducive to creating, developing and growing successful startups. Today we have a portfolio of 88 active early stage companies compared to only 12 startups six years ago.”
As a large public, land-grant university, Ohio State has 15 different colleges with strong academic and research capabilities. Therefore, invention disclosures come from many different disciplines, according to Turnbull.
On average, the early stage companies in the new ventures portfolio are less than three years old. One of the metrics used as an initial indicator of success is the amount of private capital raised.
“Our startups have raised more than $400 million of capital while they were private,” Turnbull reports. “We’ve also have had three exits over the last five years.”
She attributes this success to the university’s efforts to attract and support entrepreneurs and business leaders who want to license and commercialize Ohio State technology and spin it out into startups.
“We provide access to capital as well as to discounted service providers, such as lawyers, business advisers and CPAs, who can help make it easier and less expensive to launch a company,” Turnbull explains.
Several examples of the technology-based startups that recently have emerged from Ohio State are:
- Aether Therapeutics – which is developing a first-in-class preventive treatment for Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome
- Simple-Fill – which has developed a compressor that uses liquid pistons, thereby eliminating moving parts and preventing leaks
- Tech4Imaging – which is developing noninvasive imaging technology known as ECVT (electrical capacitance volume tomography) for commercial and industrial use.>
“A lot of transformative technologies have come out of Ohio State, and I’m looking forward to showing them to entrepreneurs and investors at this year’s MGCS,” Turnbull says.
