FLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY®

FAU Tech Runway Announces Fourth Class of Companies

Florida Atlantic University’s Tech Runway® has selected its fourth Venture Vintage class of startup and early-stage companies to participate in its business accelerator program.

By brittany sullivan | 5/26/2016

Florida Atlantic University’s Tech Runway® has selected its fourth Venture Vintage class of startup and early-stage companies to participate in its business accelerator program. 

This year, five companies will receive a $25,000 non-equity grant, participate in a 16-week intensive boot camp, engage in a rigorous year-long mentoring program with a team of five accomplished business mentors, and will be provided a workspace for one year. The five companies are:

  • Aquaco Farms is designed to be one of the largest saltwater fish grow-out facilities in Florida and will provide a sustainable, highly sought-after commodity in the seafood industry. 
  • Faceplay is a communications tool that harnesses picture and video technology to bring back intuitive and personal exchange between users.
  • Rotation Manager is an online and mobile document management platform that enables students in the healthcare professions to submit documents for clinical rotations by connecting them to schools and hospital employers.
  • Squeeze is a FinTech application designed to be a financial concierge that analyzes your spending habits, reduces your bills, and grows your wealth through expert coaching, and comparative pricing analysis.
  • Symptify is a versatile and powerful symptom evaluator, coupled with a facility geo-locator, check-in application, health library, emergency contact notifier, and transmissible health bank.

In addition, seven more companies were awarded special designations based on other FAU programs and the pillars of the FAU strategic plan. This will give them many of the same benefits as the prior five companies, minus the $25,000 grant. The seven companies are:

  • Marine Science/Ocean Engineering Pillar Designee: BGB Designs is small, portable, hydrokinetic device which generates electrical power via flowing water from streams, rivers, or water moving past a paddled canoe or kayak.
  • Tech Garage Designee: The Bionic Glove Project is a technology with the capacity to deliver ambidextrous function to people who have lost, or were born without, a working hand.
  • Non-Profit Designee: Mind & Melody is focused upon improving the quality of life for people experiencing dementia, Alzheimer's, and other neurocognitive impairments, through music and novel musical instruments.
  • FAU WAVE Competition Designee: Meti Co. develops and employs multiple platforms to promote career and business development for users.
  • Environmental Science Pillar Designee: Let It Rot is revolutionizing the gardening and waste processing industries by giving rotten food and other “garbage” a new purpose.
  • Neuroscience Pillar Designee: Neuro Pharmacologics is exploiting genetic adaptations to develop therapeutic drugs focused on neurological indicators such as migraine headaches.
  • Healthy Aging Pillar Designee: RENAL TRKRR is a mobile chronic disease management platform that educates, supports, and motivates patients with kidney disease into making needed behavioral changes that can lead to the retention of kidney function, postponement of dialysis, and improvement of their quality of life.

Two additional companies qualified for the TechRunway® program on equal terms and will receive the same benefits as the aforementioned seven designee companies:

  • Invoice Syndicate™ enables approved investors to purchase, at a discounted rate, buyer-approved invoices from the Invoice Marketplace™.
  • KISScientific Instruments produces inexpensive chemical education instrumentation, as well as educational materials, appropriate for high schools and colleges.

“The extremely high caliber of the companies which qualified for this incoming class demonstrates the strong draw of FAU Tech Runway’s Launch Competition and class program, which can optimally position a venture as it prepares to step out into the marketplace, compete, generate revenues, and create jobs,” said Rhys L. Williams, associate vice president for research and the managing director for FAU Tech Runway®. “All the companies put in immense time and effort to excel in the competition, and their efforts will attract the most talented mentors and private investors to the class program which will follow.”

Under the purview of the FAU Division of Research, Tech Runway® is a public-private partnership formed to foster technology start-ups and early-stage companies. Since its inception in late 2014, FAU Tech Runway®  has supported 15 companies that have produced more than $3 million in total revenue. One of the companies from the second class, Candidate.Guru, won first place and a $100,000 cash prize at the statewide Florida Venture Forum Early Stage Conference on May 17.  Another company that will be entering the fourth Tech Runway® class, Symptify, claimed second place and a $30,000 cash prize at that same event.

“The vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem at FAU goes through Tech Runway®,” said Daniel C. Flynn, FAU’s vice president for research. “As the program matures, it will continue to launch thriving, innovative companies that are ready for their next stage of growth, contributing to the university and the economic vitality of our region and state.”

For more information on FAU Tech Runway®, visit techrunway.fau.edu.

-FAU-

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