A Birmingham startup has secured $1 million in seed funding.
Astound will use the funds to develop a marketplace that provides research institutions and universities a way to find corporate sponsors for scientific research.
The business received the funding from Nashville-based Mark Two Ventures, a venture studio that offers startups seed-stage capital, product development, software engineering and design expertise.
Astound CEO and founder Joel Berry is a biomedical engineer with 30 years of experience in life sciences and bioengineering product development. The company's goal is to help match university research expertise to corporate research and development needs across disciplines ranging from life sciences and engineering to computer science and agriculture.
"Corporate spending on sponsored university research is approximately $80 billion globally and over $40 billion annually in the U.S. alone," Berry said in a release. "Astound will provide a platform that makes it easy and fast for companies to find and sponsor research relevant to their product development goals. Ultimately, our mission is to be a catalyst for advancing science and technology."
Corporate-university collaborations are mutually beneficial.
"Corporate sponsorships provide critical funding for scientific research. In exchange, those corporate partners have the opportunity to commercialize the resulting patents and other valuable intellectual property," said Bill Dean, executive director of Auburn University's Research & Technology Foundation and one of Astound's early supporters. "A tool that could provide real-time, actionable insights into what problems industry has and what they are looking for in terms of R&D support would be tremendously valuable to us."
Glenn Clayton, a managing partner and co-founder of Mark Two Ventures, said Mark Two will provide support beyond just capital to further Astound's mission, including providing a team of product managers, software engineers and designers.
"We were inspired by Dr. Berry's mission to accelerate scientific research by using technology to improve the way universities and corporations collaborate with one another," Clayton said.
Astound plans to have a limited launch for early beta customers later this year with a full launch of its platform in early 2023. The company is actively seeking universities and corporate research sponsors who have an interest in learning more about the platform.
