Organization awards funding through the Technology Commercialization Fund
COLUMBIA, Md. (Oct. 28, 2014) – The Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) announced today that 15 companies have received a total of $1.5 million in funding from the organization’s Technology Commercialization Fund (TCF) since January 2014. The funding will be used to advance the companies’ technology and product commercialization efforts. Funds were awarded to startups representing a wide-range of industries including medicine and disease treatment, health care, software development and professional development. Companies including Autonomy Engine, LLC; JPLC Associates, LLC; Kitchology, Inc.; Lessoncast Learning, LLC; Maven Medical, Inc.; Mindoula Health, Inc.; Opia Holdings, Inc.; RedShred, LLC; Sol Vista Consulting, LLC; TenantRex, LLC; Triea Systems, LLC; Tutela Industies, LLC; Vheda, Inc.; Vitus Animal Health, Inc.; and WhiteBox Corporation were each awarded $100,000.
“Early-stage companies in Maryland benefit immensely from the investment of capital the Technology Commercialize Fund is able to provide,” said Rob Rosenbaum, president and executive director of TEDCO. “The portfolio of this core TEDCO program includes some of the most dynamic emerging companies in the State, and we’re proud to support the 15 newest start-up additions.”
TCF provides funding to companies developing technology-based products in collaboration with universities and/or federal labs in the state. To be eligible for an award, companies must be collaborating with a federal lab or university, be located in an affiliate incubator company in the state, be involved in either the ACTiVATE® or INNoVATE programs or participate in TEDCO’s Rural Business Initiative (RBI²). In addition, companies must have fewer than 16 employees, be a university spin-off less than five-years-old or have venture investments under $500,000. All companies must have more than 50 percent of their employees present in the state.
Since the program’s inception, 225 companies have received TCF funding and completed their projects. With an investment of over $15 million these companies have gone on to receive more than $678 million in downstream funding from angel and venture investors, federal awards and other resources. Companies that have been awarded TCF funding since January 2014 include:
- Autonomy Engine, LLC, located in Martiottsville, created a VoiceVibes TM voice-monitoring technology that analyzes a person’s voice and shows them how they can improve the impressions they make on others.
- JPLC Associates, LLC, located in Baltimore, develops and commercializes revolutionary new technology for quality assurance in radiation therapy. The technology, Raven QA, is the only device available that measures and records laser, light and radiation, setting a new standard for quality assurance in radiation therapy.
- Kitchology, Inc., located in Germantown, is launching a mobile food platform that enables consumers to modify any recipe on the web to fit their nutritional goals, budget, and schedule and to use what’s on-hand or locally available.
- Lessoncast Learning, LLC, located in Towson, provides professional learning tools for teachers of teachers. Its cloud-based software finds relevant teacher-learning experiences that produce e-portfolio evidence of professional growth and teaching effectiveness.
- Maven Medical, Inc., located in Baltimore, is a software company offering a clinical decision support product aimed at helping healthcare providers eliminate unnecessary overutilization. Maven’s product allows physicians to understand the economic impact of clinical decisions they make and provide predictive insight into the long-term health effects of those decisions using a combination of curated evidence-based research and machine learning algorithms.
- Mindoula Health, Inc., located in Bethesda, is an early stage startup that is redefining behavioral health case management by providing multi-platform, behavioral health support to individuals and families facing behavioral health challenges.
- Opia Holdings, Inc., located in Baltimore, has created a social shopping experience that uses on-site traffic to turn online browsers into buyers.
- RedShred, LLC, located in Baltimore, finds, analyzes and pre-qualifies RFPs so customers can focus on an increased pipeline of best-fit opportunities by taking complex business documents and quickly extracting the information that is most important.
- Sol Vista Consulting, LLC, located in Silver Spring, provides a software as a service offering that reduces client utility expenses through a combination of onsite efficiency services and a subscription-based monitoring and reporting platform called Skywalk.
- TenantRex, LLC, located in Baltimore, pioneered an analytics tool that brings together commercial real estate comparative lease data in a way that helps brokers specialize and customize conversations with clients and prospects to build deeper relationships and secure new business.
- Triea Systems, LLC, located in Frederick, is commercializing its cleantech energy recovery system, which converts waste such as chicken litter, composting manure and rejected heat from cooling towers into heat sources and other productive uses.
- Tutela Industies, LLC, located in Baltimore, develops digital health technologies for hospital patients, families and critical care staff to stay in touch, such as a secure video conferencing platform to connect parents remotely to their infant’s bedside in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
- Vheda, Inc., located in Columbia, is a mobile disease management and data analytics company that partners with health plans and self-funded employers to engage their highest cost, chronic disease patients and keep them out of the hospital. The company’s mobile-based interventions combine live video visits with a Vheda care team, remote monitoring from biometrics and behavior change modification.
- Vitus Animal Health, Inc., located in Urbana, created a cloud-based software that helps veterinarians share medical information with other members of the health care delivery chain by interfacing with the systems already installed in veterinary hospitals and securely extracting, storing, and displaying medically relevant information online.
- WhiteBox Corporation, located in Baltimore, handles all aspects of online sales and marketing for producers and creators.
Applications for funding programs are accepted continually and reviewed every two months by the TEDCO funding review team, which includes representatives from TEDCO, the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development and affiliated venture capital groups. Applicants must submit a proposal, commercialization plan for the technology to be developed, scope of work and budget to be considered for funding.