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Tabrez Ebrahim Lessons Learned at ATI: Second Installment

Tuesday, March 20th, 2012

Former ATI staff member, Tabrez “Tab” Ebrahim, and NuMat Technologies, Inc. entrepreneur, shares his lessons learned (in the second of two installments) while at ATI and how his involvement with the clean energy incubator contributed to his startup success.

On March 1, 2012, NuMat Technologies, Inc. (NuMat), a clean technology Northwestern University spin-out, was awarded the $100,000 top student prize at the Clean Energy Trust (CET) and the Department of Energy’s National Clean Energy Business Plan Competition (NCEBPC). In partnership with the Department of Energy, CET supports the commercialization of innovative cleantech companies. NuMat was also awarded $10,000 as the top team for the state of Illinois and will be representing the Midwest region for the National Grand Prize competition to be held in Washington, D.C., in the summer of 2012. http://numat-tech.com/

 

Tab Ebrahim pictured above.

4) Investor Perspective:

a. The ATI startup teams always have great technologists. One benefit that ATI provides is an avenue to investors, which not only are a source of capital but even more important, they are available to provide advice, critique, and introductions.

b. While at ATI, I had a unique opportunity to interact with angel investors and VCs, and this interaction helped me to understand the investor perspective. I learned the main questions investors ask, such as what the differences are in angels and VCs, and how corporate VC groups work with startups—these lessons learned have impacted how I and our NuMat team thinks as entrepreneurs and how we prepare for business plan competitions.

5) Entrepreneurial Ecosystem / Targeted Networking:

a. While at ATI, I learned that you need Professional Service Providers to help grow your startup. That is, having good relationships with law firms, accounting firms, marketing/PR firms, etc. help advance one’s startup.

b. ATI provides access to Professional Service Providers that have worked with startups—past ATI entrepreneurs know which are the best professional service providers to work with—and this rich network of trusted provides is a great resource for startups.

6) Process & Challenges in going from Lab-to-Market:

a. While at ATI, I learned more about intellectual property—specifically patents. More so than the nuances of patents, I learned how a startup should develop and advance its patent position. I learned how a tech startup team should attain freedom-to-operate, respond to design-around patent strategies by competitors, and evaluate patent licensing value.

b. My ATI experience helped to understand the challenges and issues involved in technology transfer—working with research faculty, understanding academic tech transfer budgets, and recognizing how industry can work with a university in harvesting technologies from university labs. I have utilized these lab-to-market lessons at NuMat, which is a cleantech university spin-out based on breakthrough materials science and computational research at Northwestern.

7) Twists & Turns of the Startup Journey:

a. While at ATI, I learned that the startup path is not linear and is not predictable. While people only hear about the major successes of the big winner startups, ATI helped me to understand how a startup goes through ups and downs.

b. While at ATI, I better understood how issues related to people, cash flow management, and customer interactions create twists and turns for startups—how a startup management team responds is critical.

8 Targeted Networking:

a. As a technical person, I came to ATI without really understanding the power of a network. While at ATI, I learned that targeted networking can be really helpful to a startup. ATI has an amazing network built on years of incubating startups, and this network continues to give back to ATI startups and the ATI family.

b. While at ATI, I learned that targeted networking can produce unexpected beneficial results for a startup. I have learned this lesson while at NuMat, where I have consciously taken part in targeted networking, and our team has benefited greatly from access to unexpected potential customers and unexpected potential investors. The ATI experience helped me to understand such targeted network—what types of events to attend, what types of people to reach out to, and the process in general. I also learned that targeted networking only works when one also gives back—it’s sort of like karma.

9) Pattern Recognition:

a. When I first heard the phrase “pattern recognition” at ATI, I had thought it referred to image processing theory from one my electrical engineering classes. Later I learned that “pattern recognition” was a business concept that referred to the skill of identifying certain qualities of successful startups.

b. Through learning about “pattern recognition” while at ATI, I have a better sense of what an investor might be looking for in a startup and its business plan.

10) Austin Tech Environment:

a. ATI embodies the spirit of Austin—which is grounded in a progressive, forward-thinking, and risk-taking attitude.

b. ATI is the core of innovation in Austin, which itself is one of the most innovative cities in the world.

c. While at ATI, I learned that for a city like Austin to continue to be innovative, it needs an innovation engine like ATI that brings together multiple stakeholders—academia, local and state government, industry, investors, startups, etc. This “consortium approach” is the hallmark of Austin innovation, and it is clear ATI is a major driving force.

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Former ATI staff member Tabrez Ebrahim Wins Top Prize at the Clean Energy Trust (CET) and the Department of Energy’s National Clean Energy Business Plan Competition with NuMat Technologies, Inc.

Tuesday, March 20th, 2012

Former ATI staff member, Tabrez “Tab” Ebrahim, and NuMat Technologies, Inc. entrepreneur, shares his lessons learned (in the first of two installments) while at ATI and how his involvement with the clean energy incubator contributed to his startup success.

On March 1, 2012, NuMat Technologies, Inc. (NuMat), a clean technology Northwestern University spin-out, was awarded the $100,000 top student prize at the Clean Energy Trust (CET) and the Department of Energy’s National Clean Energy Business Plan Competition (NCEBPC). In partnership with the Department of Energy, CET supports the commercialization of innovative cleantech companies. NuMat was also awarded $10,000 as the top team for the state of Illinois and will be representing the Midwest region for the National Grand Prize competition to be held in Washington, D.C., in the summer of 2012.

NuMat Technologies is a cleantech university spin-out that computationally designs and synthesizes high performing nano-scale materials for gas storage and separation applications. NuMat focuses on the design and synthesis of Metal Organic Frameworks, or MOFs, a revolutionary new class of materials that can be custom designed at the atomic level to capture and store specific molecules. NuMat has also radically shortened the development cycle for MOF research. For example, using its proprietary computational tool, NuMat was able to identify over 140,000 new MOF structures, including one that has the highest natural gas storage capacity of any know material, in under 72 hours. Then, using NuMat’s complimentary low-cost synthesis method, this MOF was synthesized and validated. To put this in context, in the prior 15 years, there have only been ~10,000 MOFs which have been made and reported. NuMat’s technology has the potential to significantly increase natural gas storage capacity in natural gas vehicles, and to fundamentally change the economics in other gas storage and separation applications. http://numat-tech.com/

Photo from left to right: Ben Hernandez, Dr. Omar Farha, Christopher Wilmer, Tabrez Ebrahim

Tab’s Lessons Learned at ATI: First Installment

1) Cleantech Experience:

a. ATI provided a great opportunity to learn about the cleantech sector. ATI’s cleantech-focused forums, networking events, and the Clean Energy Venture Summit (CEVS) helped me to understand emerging technologies and markets in cleantech.

b. ATI also has a broad informal and formal network of cleantech investors across the country. These investors know about ATI’s results—over 200 ATI startups have raised over $1 billion in investor capital—and ATI provides direct access to these investors for its startups.

c. While at ATI, I had the opportunity to attend a few cleantech conferences, which enabled me to learn even more about cleantech efforts across the country and make contacts with potential investors for ATI startups. For NuMat, I have consciously taken up any such opportunities to connect with other members of the cleantech community because I know that such efforts can lead to unexpected positive results for a startup.

d. While at ATI, I learned that cleantech is very unique compared to other tech sectors, since cleantech has a multiple moving parts—academia, government, industry, investors, national labs, strategic corporates, and utilities. Our NuMat efforts have included collaboration with all of those stakeholders.

2) Team, Technology, Timing:

a. Before I started at ATI, I had originally thought that just having a great technology idea would equal startup success. Through my ATI experiences, I learned that while technology is a critical foundational piece, there are several other important factors to success, such as the nature of the leadership team and market timing.

b. While working with startups at ATI, I observed that successful team chemistry was a key to growth. I learned that having complementary skill sets and different personalities on the management team are necessary for success.  We have considered this aspect in the composition of our startup, NuMat Technologies, whose interdisciplinary team hails from several institutions, including the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern School of Law, McCormick School of Engineering, and the Weinberg School of Arts and Sciences. The executive team includes Dr. Omar Farha, Christopher Wilmer, Tabrez Ebrahim, and Benjamin Hernandez.

c. At ATI, I came across many amazing startups that had a great team and a great technology solution, but sometimes, even those were not enough initially. What ATI helped startups with was with understanding the market. ATI helps startups to segment the market, develop their go-to-market strategy, sync up product development and launch with market timing. I am leveraging those market lessons learned at ATI now at NuMat as we advance our product development and build relationships with potential customers.

3) Importance of Advisors & Mentors:

a. While at ATI, I learned that the startup management teams greatly benefit from mentorship. Even the successful serial entrepreneurs know that they don’t know everything—it’s important to learn from someone who has done it before. ATI provides amazing access to such mentors and those mentors want to give back to the new ATI startups.

b. There are a number of successful “graduates” of former ATI startups that continually come back and advise current ATI startups. This is one of the best qualities of ATI—so many of those entrepreneurs that ATI benefits end up giving back to the new startups at ATI. It is like an exponential growth mentorship model! Hopefully when NuMat has more success, I would like to share my lessons learned from my current startup experience.

c. The “ATI family” has been and continues to be incredibly awesome in their support! 

Make sure to read the second installment.

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The Austin Technology Incubator’s Influence Continues to Permeate the Austin Startup Scene

Tuesday, March 6th, 2012

For the last 3 years, Stacey Higginbotham, GigaOm, has wrote about the up and coming Austin startups to watch for during SXSW and the Austin Startup Crawl. Of the list of 30 companies compiled in 2010, 2011 and 2012, 8 companies, notably more than 25 percent, are currently or have been connected in some way to the Austin Technology Incubator, a not-for-profit unit of the IC2 Institute of The University of Texas at Austin that harnesses business, government and academic resources to provide strategic counsel, operational guidance and infrastructure support to its member companies to help them transition from early stage ventures to successful technology businesses. Since its founding in 1989, ATI has worked with hundreds of companies, helping raise close to $1 Billion in investor capital.    

Here is the list of the ones to watch, a little background information and their connections to ATI:

Calxeda, a.k.a. Smooth-Stone, a successful ATI alumni company, offers a processor platform for hyperscale servers that will allow data centers to slash IT costs and energy consumption by as much as a factor of 10.  Calxeda, with its industry-disrupting ultra-low power processors powering servers and data centers, closed an impressive $48 million funding August 2010, and launch its first product with global impact via a partnership with Hewlett Packard November 2011.

GameSalad, a.k.a. Gendai Games, and successful alum of ATI, is an online community that empowers everyone to express and share their ideas through games. GameSalad provides a platform used by creators to rapidly design, publish and distribute original games that have been played by millions of people worldwide. It is currently the number one platform for iOS development and boasts 300,000 developers. 30,000 games have been built with the GameSalad Creator since its 2007 founding. Now at 60 employees and growing, all this was accomplished with just a little over $7 million funding since inception.

Ordoro participated in the SEAL program as UT Austin business students before joining ATI in 2010. Ordoro is a Web-based order and inventory manager. With just a login and a password, online retailers can use Ordoro to process orders, print shipping labels, drop-ship orders and track their real-time inventory at all times. Ordoro helps small and medium online retailers grow their business by spending less time processing orders, tracking inventory and dealing with confusing IT systems.

Ravel, an ATI member company, provides the tools to rapidly discover and integrate knowledge from disconnected data. Ravel’s KnowledgeStream and GoldenOrb products are used by company consultants and clients to acquire, transform, integrate, and utilize large data sets from enterprise databases and web sources.

Wheel InnovationZ, founded by serial entrepreneur Srini Gurrapu, CEO, and a new member of the Austin Technology Incubator, Wheel InnovationZ is privately funded, and still in stealth mode, with its 1.0 product in the hands of early adopter customers by summer 2012.  Wheel is building a Unified Application Store that helps enterprise manage the demands – and needs – of users accessing a variety of applications on a variety of devices.  Wheel will truly enable the ‘any app on any device’ vision with both local and cloud based access with a Unified Application Store enterprise management platform that reduces TCO, and improves security and productivity.

Hurricane Party, free mobile app that helps friends find, share, and create spontaneous parties; moving online experiences offline to make social networking more social, participated in ATI’s 3 Day Startup in 2010.

Macheen is a leading enabler of “Internet Included,” connected devices. Its multi-tenant cloud-based platform makes it easy to sell and market pre-connected devices that sustain profitable relationships with the consumers who buy them. Macheen enables new business models for device makers, retailers and network operators alike. Macheen CEO, Richard Schwartz, is on the Wireless Advisory Board formed in 2011, and was a featured speaker at ATI’s 2011 Texas Wireless Summit (TWS).

ATX Innovation, the company behind the TabbedOut app, participated in the ATI’s 2009 Wireless Seed Stage Forum (WSSF). The TabbedOut app is a secure and easy-to-use mobile payment solution that allows patrons to open, view and pay their tab with a smart phone, eliminating time waiting in line to close your tab and the need to even take your credit card out of your wallet, let alone give it to a stranger. TabbedOut is securely integrated directly into the merchant’s point of sale (POS) system.

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3 Day Startup Call for Spring 2012 Applicants

Thursday, February 16th, 2012

3 Day Start Up liberates students from the classroom, and creates an environment where budding entrepreneurs can learn by doing. Over the course of a weekend, students pitch their business ideas, vote on the projects they find the most compelling, and ultimately self-organize into project teams to create a prototype, perform market research, and formulate a business strategy. Participating students hail from myriad backgrounds including computer science, engineering, business, law and design, to create the skill set necessary to jumpstart a company. The weekend event is hosted by the Austin Technology Incubator.

3 Day Startup (3DS) is currently accepting applications for its spring event, Friday, March 30 at 2pm until Sunday, April 1 at 10pm.

Application deadline: March 1st. Rolling Admissions

Info sessions will be held on February 6 & 16th at 5:00pm in JGB 2.216. If you have any questions contact Rishi Shah at rishi09@gmail.com.

There will be sponsors, mentors, press coverage, and of course, the invited participants don’t pay for anything. The culmination of the event is when students pitch their start-ups to a wide array of Austin entrepreneurs. Past mentors include:

  • Bob Metcalfe, Professor of Innovation, Murchison Fellow of Free Enterprise at the University of Texas at Austin;
  • Gary Forni, Central Texas Angel Network (CTAN);
  • Josh Baer, Capital Factory & OtherInbox;
  • Zaz Floreani, Austin Ventures

Companies that have emerged from previous 3 Day Start Up events include: Famigo (famigogames.com), Hurricane Party (hurricaneparty.com), and HootMe (hoot.me). 3 Day Start Up was started by students and is run by students.

When asked about the influence of 3 Day Start up on their academic and professional careers, previous participants have said the following:

“3DS takes all kinds of people from their respective little boxes and encourages them to bring their talents together to make something great.” – Jeff Zhao, BBA Finance, 3DS Spring ’11

“3DS has been by far the best experience I’ve had thus far as a graduate student. The weekend is intense and sometimes grueling but it’s also just a lot of fun. “- Rene Pinnell, MS Design, 3DS Fall ’09

“At 3 Day Startup, we learned by doing. Instead of sitting in an auditorium, I worked with forty like-minded people to go through the process of launching something great. The next time I go to a seminar on entrepreneurship, I’m going to sit in the middle of the front row, watch the PowerPoint presentation, and think to myself, ‘I’ve done that.’” – Rishi Shah, Plan II Honors, 3DS Fall ’10

If you’re interested, apply at http://austin.3daystartup.org/apply/. Check out our website at http://austin.3daystartup.org or our Facebook Page or Twitter. Questions? Email austin@3daystartup.org.

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Austin Technology Incubator Congratulates the Six Austin Companies Chosen for SXSW Accelerator

Monday, February 13th, 2012

One month from yesterday, 66 companies will present and compete at the fourth annual SXSW Accelerator.  Austin is represented by six companies, Forecast, Hoot.Me, SceneTap LLC, Toopher.com, Tugg Inc. and Umbel Corp.  Hoot.Me, SceneTap and Toopher are all portfolio companies of the Austin Technology Incubator (ATI), a not-for-profit unit of the IC2 Institute of The University of Texas at Austin.

SXSW Accelerator, now in its fourth year, has become one of the Interactive conference’s marquee events, and has grown an entire Startup Village around its focus on showcasing up and coming companies.  In the past, ATI companies such as Spredfast have presented at Accelerator, which is a badge of honor for any selected company.  Accelerator has grown so competitive that over 670 submissions were received for this year’s group.

“We have supported the Accelerator program since inception, loving the idea of giving a spotlight to the next generation of Interactive powerhouse companies,” said Isaac Barchas, Director, Austin Technology Incubator.  “We are extremely proud to be actively involved in three of the six Austin companies represented this year.  This is just another example of the cohesion of the Austin technology community that we hope will show through in success of these six companies at Accelerator.”

About the ATI Backed Accelerator Companies:

Hoot.Me is a Facebook application that allows students to see what classmates are working on and collaborate by posting questions, group video conferencing, doodling, recording videos, and typing math equations via smart chat. Tutoring is also coming soon for the times when teachers and classmates can’t help!

SceneTap utilizes anonymous facial detection technology and video-based software to effectively track customer analytics in a venue or particular space, including crowd density, male to female ratio, and average age. It offers an administrative tool for operators and a social network for consumers.

Toopher is your virtual key ring – vastly improving online security and eliminating fraud and identity theft by using your phone’s location awareness to add another layer of security to passwords – all without leaving your pocket. A rare security tool you’ll actually want to use, it’s the future of mobile… today.

Contact:

Laura Beck for ATI

laurabeckcahoon@gmail.com

512-786-1098

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Austin Technology Incubator Recognizes Gary S. Farmer, Heritage Title and Exchange, with the Prestigious Laura J. Kilcrease Civic Entrepreneurship Award

Friday, January 27th, 2012

Last night, at a special graduation and alumni event, the Austin Technology Incubator (ATI), a not-for-profit part of the IC2 Institute of The University of Texas at Austin (UT), also bestowed on Gary Farmer the Laura J. Kilcrease Civic Entrepreneurship Award.  As 21 stellar Austin technology companies were recognized for their participation in, and graduation from, ATI, Farmer was also recognized for his amazing contribution to the Austin community.  Farmer joins esteemed past winners of the award, which began in 1998, including Michael Dell, Luci Baines Johnson, Dr. Neal Kocurek, William G. Bock, Pike Powers, Lee Walker, and Governor Rick Perry.

“Gary completely exemplifies this Civic Entrepreneurship Award,” said Laura Kilcrease, ATI’s founding Director and Managing Director at Triton Ventures.  “I’ve got to believe he has somehow found the secret of the 25 hour day because this man balances a beautiful family life, successful business career, and literally more charity and civic commitments than you could begin to list.  Gary is an Austin treasure and we are so proud to recognize his countless contributions to our Austin community.”

Initiated in 1989 by Dr. George Kozmetsky and founded by Laura Kilcrease, over more than two decades, ATI has worked with over 200 start-up companies, helping them raise close to $1 Billion in capital.  Kilcrease, who made time in her own busy career, to dedicate to growing other companies through ATI, has had a lasting impact on Austin.  Her involvement in the Austin community – business and beyond – began in earnest in 1989 with the start of ATI, but continues today through her own personal leadership, as well as the award which bears her name.

Gary Farmer is an ideal recipient of the Laura J. Kilcrease Civic Entrepreneurship Award as he epitomizes the meaning of this award for being both a successful entrepreneur by building and growing his own businesses in Heritage Exchange Corporation and Heritage Title Company; along with his outstanding civic entrepreneurship work with Opportunity Austin.  But more than that, Farmer too has found time to dedicate to others, in a variety of civic and charitable endeavors.

Farmer is currently active on the following boards:

·         The University of Texas Chancellor’s Council

·         The UT Development Board

·         The Director’s Council for UT’s Department of Theatre and Dance

·         The Greater Austin Economic Development Corporation

·         The Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce

·         The Real Estate Council of Austin

·         The Greater Austin Crime Commission

·         The Colorado River Foundation

·         The Trust for Public Land

·         The American Heart Association

·         Boy Scouts of America

·         Capitol Area Council

·         Children’s Medical Center Foundation, and

·         The National Multi Housing Council.

Farmer is also the Immediate Past Chair of Greater Austin Economic Development Corporation and Opportunity Austin (1.0 and 2.0), among other former chairman roles. Farmer has also chaired five Capital Campaigns, which have raised approximately $55,000,000 for community endeavors.  Additionally, Farmer has served on three Mayoral Task Forces dealing with the economy, the environment and healthcare.  In 2009, Boy Scouts of America honored Farmer with its Distinguished Citizen Award and in 2006, the Greater Austin Chamber named Farmer its “Austinite of the Year.”  In 2005, the Austin Business Journal honored Farmer with the W. Neal Kocurek Real Estate Lifetime Achievement Award and in 1998; Farmer received the Sam Walton Business Leader Award by the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce.  Last but certainly not least, Farmer and his wife are UT graduates now enjoying all three daughters at UT as well.

Contact:

Laura Beck for ATI

laurabeckcahoon@gmail.com

512-786-1098

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Austin Technology Incubator Graduates Six Clean Energy Companies: Atonometrics, Dorsan Biofuels, Firefly LED Lighting, Ideal Power Converters, OpenAlgae and RRE Solar

Thursday, January 26th, 2012

Tonight, at a special graduation and alumni event, the Austin Technology Incubator (ATI), a not-for-profit part of the IC2 Institute of The University of Texas at Austin (UT), will graduate 21 companies.  Of those 21, six companies were part of ATI’s Clean Energy portfolio, including Atonometrics, Dorsan Biofuels, Firefly LED Lighting, Ideal Power Converters, OpenAlgae and RRE Solar.  These companies have collectively achieved remarkable business successes and have created hundreds of jobs for Texans.

Over 20+ years, ATI has developed and refined industry specific capabilities, currently organized into Information Technology, Wireless, Clean Energy and Bioscience sectors. In each industry sector, ATI brings its portfolio companies deep domain expertise and market- and technology-specific networks of advisors and investors. Tonight’s graduation event showcases successes in all four sectors, including six remarkable companies in clean energy.

Founded in 2001, the ATI Clean Energy Incubator (CEI) is one of the longest-established clean energy incubators in the United States and has a privileged position since UT does more energy research than any other university in the world. Through a strong partnership with the local electric company, Austin Energy, CEI has historically focused on electricity-related startups and is continuing the leadership role as a founding participant in the Pecan Street Project, which is running a $30 million smart grid/smart premises demonstration project in Austin. Currently, CEI is working successfully across the clean energy and clean tech spectrum with companies in the important spaces of water, energy management & efficiency, transportation, and green building technologies.

CEI has always invested in building the clean energy/clean tech ecosystem in Central Texas.  With Austin Energy, CEI hosts the annual Clean Energy Venture Summit, the premier clean energy investment conference in Texas.  The team also partners with the CleanTX Foundation to host CleanTX Forums and Solar Energy Entrepreneur Networking (SEEN) events in Austin. CEI is supported by the City of Austin, the Texas State Energy Conservation Office and the US Department of Energy. The six Clean Energy graduates include:

Atonometrics is a leading supplier of test and measurement technology for the solar photovoltaics (PV) industry.  The company has a worldwide presence with customers in Europe, Asia and North America.  Germany’s leading PV national laboratory, Fraunhofer, has adopted Atonometrics’ products in their PV lab.

Dorsan Biofuels was an early-stage biotech company with a proprietary technology for creating fungal biocatalysts capable of producing advanced biofuels and chemicals from agricultural, municipal and industrial waste materials.  Dorsan Biofuels raised enough angel money and SBIR funding from the US DOD to perform the research required to secure the IP and successfully completed a sale of those assets to Novozymes A/S, a large multinational producer of high-value chemicals, in December 2011. Dr. Kay Hammer returned to ATI as CEO of Dorsan Biofuels after also being the co-founder, along with Robin Curle, of one of the very first portfolio companies for ATI 20+ years ago. In 1991, Hammer co-founded Evolutionary Technologies International (ETI) – the first spin-out from MCC – to commercialize the results of a 3-year research project to build an enterprise solution to data integration management.

Firefly LED Lighting, founded in 2009, provides patented Firefly LED lighting to numerous commercial properties and residences with long life and high efficiency, using only 10% of the electricity versus incandescent lamps. With up to 60,500 hours of light output, Firefly LED lamps are the brightest, most energy efficient LED lights on the market. Made here in the USA in Texas, Firefly lighting is in large hotels, government buildings, restaurants, commercial properties and universities. Notably, the Texas-based, revenue generating company received a $3 million ETF grant and is bringing manufacturing jobs to the state.

Ideal Power Converters (IPC) makes electric power converters critical to clean energy installations, especially commercial-scale solar. Its PV inverter, as one example, reduces the weight and size of conventional inverters by 90%, disrupting this multi-billion dollar market. Recognized by the State of Texas with a $1 million ETF investment, and $2.5 million from the DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, production of these lightweight systems will also create thousands of clean tech jobs in Central Texas.

OpenAlgae enables low-cost recovery of oils from algae – a solution that requires novel technologies and disciplines ranging from biology to engineering, physics to water management. Algae processing requires a series of difficult separations. The difficulties lie not in the separations, but in doing each separation in a cost-effective, scalable way. OpenAlgae efficiently and cost-effectively concentrates algae from water and recovers oils from algae without using solvents or drying. Founded in 2008, OpenAlgae is owned by the Board of Regents of The University of Texas at Austin and Organic Fuels Holdings, Inc., Houston, Texas.

RRE Austin Solar develops large-scale solar farms and plans to become a 500MW+ solar developer within 5 years. It is developing the largest solar energy farm in Texas, the Pflugerville Solar Farm, where it will produce 60 MW. RRE wants to provide renewable energy through solar PV and become a change agent of clean energy perception.

“It is amazing to be part of ATI during a phase of explosive growth of clean energy and technology companies here in Central Texas.  It has been a privilege and a pleasure to work with these six early-stage clean energy companies and assist in getting them to the point of where they are today,” said Mitch Jacobson, Clean Energy Co-Director. “We are very proud of these six companies who are helping to solidify Austin’s and ATI’s leadership in the clean energy and clean tech industry. We look forward to watching their continued success and helping more companies prosper in this very exciting industry.”

Contact:

Laura Beck for ATI

laurabeckcahoon@gmail.com

512-786-1098

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Austin Technology Incubator Graduates Seven Wireless Companies Including Axelo, Famigo, GameSalad, Nitero, RFMicron, Unwired Nation and Wimax.com

Thursday, January 26th, 2012

Tonight, at a special graduation and alumni event, the Austin Technology Incubator (ATI), a not-for-profit part of the IC2 Institute of The University of Texas at Austin (UT), will graduate 21 companies.  Of those 21, seven companies were part of ATI’s Wireless portfolio, including Axelo, Famigo, GameSalad, Nitero, RFMicron, Unwired Nation and Wimax.com.  These companies have collectively achieved impressive business successes, such as garnering $20 million in funding and collaborating on an international scale.

Over 20+ years, ATI has developed and refined industry specific capabilities, currently organized into Information Technology, Wireless, Clean Energy and Bioscience sectors. In each industry sector, ATI brings its portfolio companies deep domain expertise and market- and technology-specific networks of advisors and investors. Tonight’s graduation event showcases successes in all four sectors, including seven amazing companies in wireless.

ATI, in partnership with UT’s Wireless Networking and Communications Group (WNCG) and the City of Austin, launched its Wireless program in 2006, ahead of the smart phone/iPhone/Android explosion. Now, as the world approaches 50 billion connected devices, ATI continues to build on the wireless expertise in Austin with its current companies and these seven successful graduates. ATI-Wireless and WNCG also co-host the Texas Wireless Summit and works with the Central Texas Angel Network to host the Wireless Seed-Stage Forum annually. In addition, ATI-Wireless has a special relationship with the Wi-Fi Alliance, the international wireless standards and certification organization, which moved to Austin in part due to support from ATI and was housed at ATI until it outgrew its facilities in 2010.  ATI-Wireless also works closely with MobileMondayAustin, the second oldest chapter in North America of the global MobileMonday network.  The seven Wireless graduates include:

Axelo is developing breakthrough hardware and firmware solutions for 3D motion-sensing products. Axelo, Inc. patented the first 3D motion-based PC controller, which led to a successful solution for spatial disorientation and motion sickness. Currently, Axelo is embedding its technology into sports headwear to provide a preventable solution for contact sports traumatic brain injuries. ‘Letters of Intent’ have been procured from two leading manufacturers of sports equipment.

Famigo makes mobile technology work for families. Famigo creates a better mobile experience for parents and kids by providing them will the tools to discover, manage and enjoy content & apps on smartphones and tablets. Famigo simplifies app discovery through our reviews and recommendations on Famigo.com and makes Android devices kid-safe with our free app, Famigo Sandbox. Famigo’s proprietary technology captures and crowdsources user behavior to provide the best reviews and recommendations available. Famigo’s products have received praise from outlets like Forbes.com, WSJ Online, Killer Startups, The Next Web, TechCrunch, Vator News, VentureBeat, Austin Chronicle, and Famigo Sandbox was rated CNET’s 2011 Best App of the Year for Parents.

GameSalad is an online community that empowers everyone to express and share their ideas through games. GameSalad provides a platform used by creators to rapidly design, publish and distribute original games that have been played by millions of people worldwide. It is currently the number one platform for iOS development and boasts 300,000 developers. 30,000 games have been built with the GameSalad Creator since its 2007 founding. Now at 60 employees and growing, all this was accomplished with just a little over $7 million funding since inception.

Nitero, a fabless semiconductor company with a design center in Melbourne, Australia and headquarters in Austin, Texas, has developed a standards-based, next-generation 60GHz Wi-Fi solution for smartphone, tablet, Ultrabook™ and gaming platforms, bringing multi-gigabit-per-second video and data transfer with extreme low power and latency. Nitero is a great success story demonstrating the power of collaboration between experienced Austin entrepreneurs and top Australian universities and research institutions, such as the University of Melbourne and National ICT Australia. In 2011, Nitero raised an additional $1.6 million after receiving a $1.4 million grant from Commercialisation Australia.

RFMicron is the first in the wireless tracking industry to offer a complementary hardware and software package, consisting of RFVlink, a web-based software platform and RFMicron’s own passive radio-frequency identification (RFID) chip, configured with RFMicron’s proprietary Chameleon technology; allowing any reader to read RFMicron tags from 30 feet on any material, and anywhere in the world. RFMicron joined ATI in 2007, and in 2010 garnered $1.5 million in funding and added three directors to its board. RFMicron was named one of the Most Promising IT and Web Companies at the 8th Annual Rice Alliance for Technology & Entrepreneurship IT and Web Venture Forum in Houston in 2010.

Unwired Nation has evolved ahead of the wireless space since its founding in 2004. Today, Unwired’s platform helps B2B web application companies with unique customer branding requirements transition to native apps across all major mobile platforms. Unwired Nation’s ability to rapidly deploy mobile apps leveraging customer’s existing web applications and customer relationships has attracted companies like VoiceTech and Q2ebanking, leaders in pharmacy and financial services, respectively. It also attracted $6.5 million in funding, which closed at the end of 2011.

WiMax.com provides equipment, resources and tools that enable operators to deploy high-speed 4G wireless broadband networks. The company is technology agnostic and works with most fixed broadband wireless technologies. The company also provides news, analysis, expert opinions and case studies on the industry at www.wimax.com.

“These seven wireless companies continue the incredible legacy of wireless technology innovation in Austin and demonstrate that ATI-Wireless retains a prominent role in the next wave of technologies – whether hardware or software,” said Kyle Cox, Wireless Director.  “ATI-Wireless has a great partnership with UT from its relationship with WNCG to its support of several courses and events for students.  ATI-Wireless has also helped the Austin community to become a prominent source of innovation while the wireless industry has rapidly evolved in the last several years.”

Contact:

Laura Beck for ATI

laurabeckcahoon@gmail.com

512-786-1098

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Austin Technology Incubator Graduates Two Bioscience Companies: Savara Pharmaceuticals and Terapio

Thursday, January 26th, 2012

Tonight, at a special graduation and alumni event, the Austin Technology Incubator (ATI), a not-for-profit part of the IC2 Institute of The University of Texas at Austin (UT), will graduate 21 companies.  Of those 21, two companies were part of ATI’s Bioscience portfolio: Savara Pharmaceuticals and Terapio. Both have had a tremendous impact on the growing bioscience community in Austin, hiring dozens of workers and raising millions of dollars in funding.

Over 20+ years, ATI has developed and refined industry specific capabilities, currently organized into Information Technology, Wireless, Clean Energy and Bioscience sectors. In each industry sector, ATI brings its portfolio companies deep domain expertise, market- and technology-specific networks of advisors and investors. Tonight’s graduation event showcases successes in all four sectors, including two remarkable companies in bioscience.

Founded in 2008 in partnership with the City of Austin, ATI-Bioscience works closely with other members of the Central Texas and statewide life science ecosystem, including BioAustin, Central Texas Life Science entrepreneurs, the University of Texas faculty and students and regional hospital and healthcare groups.  ATI-Bioscience recently completed a study, supported by the regional community and the Economic Development Administration, to quantitate the need of wet-laboratory space to support life sciences companies in Central Texas.  ATI-Bioscience has also partnered with UT’s College of Pharmacy to create an on-campus wet lab facility, UTech Dorm Room, which can be accessed by early-stage life sciences companies in Austin.  The ATI-Bioscience hosts symBIOsis, a quarterly educational series, co-sponsored with the Rice Alliance, to bring the entrepreneurial, commercial and academic life sciences communities together. The two Bioscience graduates are:

Savara Pharmaceuticals is developing the first inhaled antibiotic for cystic fibrosis (CF) patients targeting the highly contagious “super bug” Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). MRSA is dramatically increasing worldwide.  Savara’s Aerovanc has recently completed its first clinical with encouraging results.

Terapio is a biopharmaceutical company developing the RLIP76 protein as a medical countermeasure for radiation exposure and chemical threats to civilian, military and first responder populations. The RLIP76 protein works though the oxidative stress pathway and protects as both a prophylactic and post-exposure treatment. Terapio tapped the unique talents and network at ATI to help secure Texas ETF, federal grant and venture capital funding totaling over $7M in less than two years.

“We are extremely excited and pleased about our first bioscience graduate companies,” said Cindy WalkerPeach, PhD, Bioscience Director. “Terapio and Savara are exceptional healthcare-focused companies that will not only have a positive impact on patient care but will favorably impact regional economic growth as well.”

Contact:

Laura Beck for ATI

laurabeckcahoon@gmail.com

512-786-1098

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