Control towers for autonomous drones, devices to track equipment, a smart flask – all sorts of inventions using semiconductors that Intel soon will produce in Central Ohio – are among startups a group of serial entrepreneurs are nurturing in Hilliard.
Converge Technologies created an interlocking network – incubator space, engineering and manufacturing support, a seed fund, a city testing innovation for its public services, and workforce development initiative – to kick off a regional industry cluster in advanced manufacturing.
"What we're trying to do is make electronics more accessible and manufacturable in the state of Ohio – while building future leaders of those companies through the student experiential learning programs," said Eric Wagner, Converge co-founder and chief strategy officer.
"Eventually there'll be a fab here that puts out (Intel's) high-end chips – that hopefully our ecosystem and our students will be well versed on, and can use those chips to make things," Wagner said. "And all the suppliers to Intel, the chemical companies or whatever, will also be able to hopefully contribute to this ecosystem of building things."
Converge houses several startups in its 30,000-square-foot facility, visible from I-270 at 4621 Lyman Drive, the former innovation center for the Rahal racing team. The group also has a partnership with Hilliard City Lab, an initiative that encompasses the municipal broadband network, the adoption of technology for civic services, and internships for Hilliard City Schools.
"It's a resource where you can actually test real-world solutions for real-world problems," Converge co-founder and CEO John Bair said in a promotional video for City Lab. "(Hilliard officials) bring us the problems, and then we have other companies that bring us challenges and new technologies. ... The more people we bring in to create businesses, more people will stay in the city of Hilliard."
The city has turned to Converge for a robot that scans sidewalks to prioritize repairs, and is testing drones that spot traffic accidents.
"Our hope is one of these technologies and businesses can demonstrate success and be the next 100-jobs employer," said David Meadows, Hilliard economic development director. "It also allows the city to think outside the box for ways to improve the lives of our citizens and the way we deliver services."
Check the slideshow for a look inside Converge Technologies and its partnership with Hilliard City Lab.
Converge Technologies
Converge's founders and investors have deep ties to Ohio State University, and some of the startups Converge backs license OSU technology.
Bair founded Pinnacle Data Systems in his Ohio State dorm room in 1989, leading it through IPO and acquisition in 2012. Wagner worked in OSU's Technology Commercialization Office several years after rising to president of a nearly $300 million private commercialization consultancy.
Converge operates a $10 million pre-seed fund, Ohio Gateway Tech Fund, in a partnership with Dayton-based Entrepreneurs Center. Half the fund came from Ohio Third Frontier, and half from Lee Mosbacker, a New Albany serial entrepreneur who met Wagner when founding an OSU spinout more than a decade ago.
Converge offers an efficient commercialization path, Mosbacker said. He's also hired the group to develop drone systems.
"The engineering expertise they have is far beyond anything I can offer," he said. "I get the specs, I go to Converge, and they can build it."
The Gateway fund's first investments are software instead of hardware: AlignAI, which is creating a software platform to help businesses adopt AI strategically, and Five-Star Fans, a marketplace for athletic NIL deals.
"At the pre-seed level, it's product-market fit and the team," Mosbacker said. "I really love these inventors, these founders. ... I like to invest in overlooked, scrappy founders."
IC3D, a 3D printing company, has moved its print shop inside the Converge facility, and Converge staff and startups use its services, such as producing drone parts. The city uses it for things like printing grates for tree lawns, Meadows said.
A half dozen startups, including ones that Bair and Wagner founded, also are incubating in the building. Converge's eight-person staff of mechanical, electrical, industrial and computer engineers act as contractors to them.
"They can move between startups and do jobs as needed," Wagner said. "Those startups are not encumbered by the cost of payroll early on – they can use them when they need them."
Among Converge-owned startups are Ubihere, which makes cameras and sensor tags with AI software to track physical assets, and Lighthouse Avionics, which won a military contract in spring toward developing a "virtual control tower" for autonomous drones that can be used by fire departments and other first responders.
Another piece of the puzzle is the Manufacturing Innovation Center, a nonprofit workforce development initiative for K-12 through college students, who gain hands-on experience with electronics while they help the startups. Converge would like to involve Intel, Honda and other advanced manufacturers in the experiential learning initiative, Wagner said.
"We're builders, we like to make things," Wagner said. "Software as a service is high margin, potentially high growth and everybody loves it – but we inherently believe that making something 'sticky' involves incorporating physical things.
"It's easy to switch (software vendors). It's hard to switch from one monitoring system to another monitoring system, whenever you build these high-end sensor systems."
