TEDCO’s Maryland Innovation Initiative Accelerates Technologies from Bench to Market

$900K invested in six companies and $1.75M in fifteen project grants

COLUMBIA, Md. (August 13, 2020)— TEDCO, Maryland’s economic engine for technology companies, announced its recent round of investments in six (6) start-up companies and funding to  fifteen (15) university projects through the Maryland Innovation Initiative (MII).

MII LogoEstablished in 2012, the MII program was created as a partnership between the State of Maryland and five Maryland academic research institutions: Johns Hopkins University; Morgan State University; University of Maryland, Baltimore; University of Maryland, Baltimore County; and University of Maryland, College Park. The program’s mission is to accelerate promising technologies with significant commercial potential to market while leveraging each partner University’s strengths.

“MII is focused on our mission to accelerate promising technologies from the lab to the market – be it in health or other consumer markets,” stated Dr. Arti Santhanam, MII executive director. “To this end we are committed to creating start-ups that have a solid technological basis, address a pressing commercial or health need and can create a robust technical ecosystem supporting jobs and economic growth in Maryland.”

The fund created and invested $150,000 each in the following six companies through the Company Formation Phase of the program:

  • EpiWatch, Inc., located in Baltimore, is a Johns Hopkins University spinout that has developed a mobile disease management (DM) software application for people with epilepsy (PWE) that runs on a smartwatch and its companion phone.
  • NuMoon Technologies LLC., located in Columbia, is a University of Maryland, Baltimore County spinout, commercializing innovative detection solutions that enhance the safety and security of military and civilian lives.
  • AliquantumRx, Inc., located in Baltimore, is a Johns Hopkins University spinout developing antibiotic, Cethromycin, for the treatment of dormant malaria.
  • Softhread, Inc., located in Catonsville, is a University of Maryland, Baltimore County spinout building a scalable and intrusion tolerant permissioned blockchain system.
  • Astek Diagnostics LLC., located in Baltimore, is a University of Maryland, Baltimore County spinout developing an automated system that determines the existence of bacteria in a blood sample and performs antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST) in less than one hour.
  • Vectech LLC., located in Baltimore, is a Johns Hopkins University spinout developing an AI-driven computer vision system, to empower public health organizations in the global fight against mosquito borne disease.

Earlier in the year the fund invested in the following three companies: Neurologic Solutions, Inc, Halocytech LLC, and Prebeo, Inc.

A full list of funded companies can be viewed on the MII website.

The program also completed its final round of grant funding for technology assessment projects, a total of 33 grants for FY20. These projects reflect the technological excellence and diversity in our Maryland partner universities, including:

  • From Johns Hopkins University, naturally derived and easily synthesizable PET tracer for specific diagnosis of bacterial infections
  • From University of Maryland, College Park, a scalable high power narrow linewidth semiconductor laser technology for self-driving car using FMCW LiDAR
  • From University of Maryland, Baltimore, a development of the POD-Vis cloud-based platform which generates actionable insights from complex clinical datasets

A full list of the grant awardees can be viewed on the MII website.

As start-up companies join TEDCO’s MII portfolio, they also have access to a range of our TEDCO resources—from mentors and CEO roundtables to loaned executives. They receive the assistance and support they need as they move through team building, balancing the funding elements, and negotiating deals.

“We at the MII Board are continuously impressed by the companies and projects in the MII portfolio,” said Robert Hallenbeck, MII board chairman. “The ingenuity of the scientists at our Maryland universities and the state of the art technologies are impacting lives of consumers and patients everywhere.”

In the eight years since its launch, MII has disbursed $39M, de-risked 252 unique technologies and created 102 start-ups. MII’s portfolio of start-ups have gone on to raise over $476M in follow-on funding and resulted in seven exits thus far. In addition to being a vital part of the Maryland start-up ecosystem, these companies have created economic value by creating full-time employment for highly skilled tech employees with an average salary of $103,000.

For more details on eligibility and application requirements and to view MII’s 2019 Annual Report please visit www.tedcomd.com/MII.

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