Tech Expo highlights startup funding efforts

Several recent developments will help efforts to create jobs through research breakthroughs at MU, including an Enterprise Investment Program presented at the Missouri Technology Expo in Columbia.
The UM System’s program will invest up to $5 million to accelerate commercialization of the university’s intellectual property. The aim is to spur startup companies and create high-value jobs in the state, and the application period will run through the end of the year.
Mike Nichols, the system’s vice president of research and economic development, said funding entrepreneurs and early-stage companies will increase the chances that their innovations will move into the marketplace. The payback to Missouri’s economy would be “enhanced tax revenue and new job creation,” he said when the program was announced Oct. 1.
The university said it will give preference to companies in high-tech industries with a strong potential for job growth such as life sciences, nanoscience, information technology, engineering, energy, medicine and medical devices. The maximum amount to any single company is $500,000.
Mike Brooks, president of Regional Economic Development Inc., said at the Oct. 7 Tech Expo that he’s “excited” by the program because for entrepreneurs, obtaining initial funds to start their business ventures is often their “most difficult step.”
“The university’s investment program is a very important piece,” said Andrew Beverly, president of Landmark Bank and Centennial Investors. “This $5 million will go a long way in moving this process forward.”
Gregg Scheller, director of entrepreneurship and industry partnerships at MU’s  College of Engineering, agreed, calling the investment fund “sort of the missing link” in the university system’s efforts to get research commercialized.
Scheller, who also is co-director of the MU Biodesign and Innovation Program, founded two medical device companies and has patents on about 50 medical devices. He said that recession made investment companies wary, but the odds have improved for entrepreneurs seeking startup capital.
“There’s a lot of cash on the sidelines, and people are looking for good investments,” Scheller said.
In other technology transfer developments that surfaced during the Tech Expo:
•    The NanoTechnology Enterprise Consortium based in Columbia has received a draft agreement from the Army on appropriating $5 million for military-related nanotechnology research by consortium members.
“It’s a very positive step forward,” said Rob Monsees, executive director of the consortium, which focuses on furthering the nanotechnology industry in Missouri, including the generation of high-tech jobs and the creation of new research opportunities.
Potential recipients include include NANOS Technologies and NEMS/MEMS WORKS, engineering and material science companies in Columbia that specialize in manipulating materials at the atomic level. NEMS/MEMS previously received $10 million from the Department of Defense for the development of military applications.
•    Nanoparticle Biochem Inc., an MU spin-off company in Columbia, has formed a partnership with Shasun Pharma, a company based in India that’s one of the world’s largest suppliers of Ibuprofin.
Nanoparticle Biochem co-founder Kattesh Katti said Shasun is making a $2 million initial investment in the joint venture, which needed to be approved by both companies and by MU.
The biochemical company, which focuses on nanotechnology applications related to human health, is developing a drug to combat prostate cancer and is using a platform that has the potential for widespread applications, Katti said. The new funding is expected to allow the company to take the drug to clinical trials in humans, he said.