COnovate Inc., a Shorewood company developing materials designed to add battery capacity and charging speed to lithium ion batteries, and VasoGnosis Inc., a Milwaukee company that's developing software-as-a-service products to help with early diagnosis of brain aneurysms and help surgeons simulate procedures in advance, are among 11 Wisconsin startups that recently earned grant funding to commercialize their technology.
COnovate is receiving a $100,000 phase 2 state matching grant, while VasoGnosis is receiving a $75,000 phase 1 grant.
Wisconsin companies are annually competing for funding from the $2.5 billion in Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer grants issued by the U.S. government, which were designed to help small, emerging companies fund their research and development.
The Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. matches grants won by Wisconsin companies through the SBIR Advance program.
“Supporting innovation is one way to ensure our long-term economic well-being and recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic," said Aaron Hagar, vice president of entrepreneurship and innovation at WEDC. "SBIR Advance leverages highly competitive federal funding and provides Wisconsin’s advanced technology companies the business development resources needed to get to the next level.”
Other phase 1 grant winners are:
- AIQ Solutions Inc. (Madison): developed a software technology platform that generates quantitative intelligence to deliver actionable intelligence that enhances the understanding of treatment response for complex diseases.
- RPRD Diagnostics LLC (Milwaukee): specializes in providing innovative pharmacogenetics (PGx) solutions, including diagnostic, analysis and support services to clinicians, researchers and drug developers.
- Scienss Biotechnology LLC (Verona): makes recombinant proteins for use as therapeutics in the livestock industry.
Other phase 2 grant winners are:
- Calimetrix LLC (Madison): manufactures and sells test objects (“phantoms”) for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). These phantoms enable users to monitor the accuracy of their MRI measurements in research and development, clinical trials and clinical quality assurance.
- GoDx (Madison): developing and commercializing low-cost, rapid diagnostics for infectious diseases. The company has developed a paper strip test that can detect the bugs that cause diarrheal diseases from stool, which will help treat the second leading cause of death in children under age 5.
- Imagen Energy LLC (Mequon): produces compact, low-cost and modular power converters. The application for these converters focuses primarily on stationary energy storage and electrical vehicle (EV) battery chargers.
- OnLume (Madison): develops technology that is redefining surgery by color-coding tissue to allow surgeons to delineate tissue function and type intraoperatively in real time.
- Pyran of Madison uses renewable agricultural resources such as corn cobs and wood chips to make key ingredients for paints and coatings. Their technology enables replacement of petroleum-based ingredients at lower prices.
- Voximetry LLC (Madison): an early-stage health tech software company specializing in commercialization of complex algorithms on high-speed Graphic Processing Units (GPUs). Currently focused on radiation transport science, Voximetry is advancing patient-specific treatment planning in advanced-stage cancer patients.
