University of Minnesota’s Tech Comm Sets Startup Record and Unveils Initiative for Greater Impact

The University of Minnesota launched 25 startup companies in fiscal 2024, surpassing its previous record for the fourth year in a row. The announcement coincides with the launch of a new initiative to scale up the University’s commercialization work called Discover, Advance, Impact.

Since the 2006 founding of the Venture Center, which is a division of University of Minnesota Technology Commercialization, the University has launched more than 260 startup companies, with a long term success rate of 68%. Additionally, 73% of these companies have located in Minnesota. In fiscal 2024, a record 88% of new University startups — 22 out of 25 — located in-state. The 25 startups also meet the University’s goal to spin out “25 by 2025” under MPact 2025, the University’s systemwide strategic plan.

“Over the last five years, only a handful of universities nationally have been creating 20 or more startups per year,” said Rick Huebsch, associate vice president for research and innovation. “Today, our Venture Center has 45-50 potential startup companies in our startup pipeline, which is striking when we consider the 15-20 we had only a few years ago — it indicates a strong bench of untapped potential. With the vast majority of startup capital based in and flowing to places like Silicon Valley and Boston, we simply don’t have the startup capital available to our companies that can bring these amazing ideas to market, so we want to help our companies and help our broader startup ecosystem in Minnesota.”

Within overall measures of technology transfer, the University has been named “No. 1  in the Heartland” and ranks among the top 15 U.S. public universities for key technology commercialization metrics, including deals, disclosures and startups in the most recent trade associations survey. The University also typically ranks in the top 20 U.S. universities for U.S. utility patents issued.

“As one of the nation’s leading public research universities, we have a unique responsibility to ensure our innovations and discoveries are translated in ways that positively benefit people and the communities in which they live,” said President Rebecca Cunningham. “Our researchers across the University of Minnesota System have cultivated an ecosystem for innovation, and as a result, we continue to create new products and solutions that transform, improve and enhance the world around us.”

New initiatives to support future innovation

The University seeks to amplify its proven process for getting opportunities to innovators and innovations to market under its Discover, Advance, Impact fundraising initiative. The initiative seeks to raise $40 million to add more capital to its proven end-to-end tech transfer model that is currently undersized relative to the innovation pipeline.

“The University fully believes in this vision and we’re demonstrating it by providing our own $20 million matching investment,” said Vice President for Research and Innovation Shashank Priya. “Discover, Advance, Impact will help position the State of Minnesota to become a stronger player in attracting private investment. This program is unique because of its self-sustaining model, how it will address funding gaps between research and capital, and because it offers entrepreneurial opportunities for every student to address today’s societal challenges.

Priya noted several high potential University startups, including Niron Magnetics, which is producing the world’s first high performance sustainable magnet with many EV and clean energy applications; Jord BioScience, which is harnessing microbes to improve crop production and reduce chemical use; Stimdia Medical, which is developing a neurostimulation therapy to support independent breathing and wean patients more quickly from mechanical ventilation; Reflection Sciences, which helps teachers to measure student’s executive function to help with academic success; and Objective Biotechnology, which has constructed a robot that uses machine learning to fully automate a complicated microinjection process used in genetic research, and which won the Top Founder of Color prize at the 2024 MN Cup last week.

In earlier stages of technology development, Huebsch said, University faculty have research ideas that they can’t advance towards commercialization because of time and other resource constraints, so we seek to provide them with gap funding to allow them to hire additional scientists to specifically develop those ideas to a more commercially viable point.

At the later development stage where an invention may be part of a startup company, the University worked with an outside entity to launch DiscoveryMN Angels, a network of angel investors who seek to invest in promising startups led by students, alumni, faculty and supporters of the University of Minnesota. The University is also working on a new opportunity to help successful U of M entrepreneurs “pay it forward” through a Founder’s Pledge, a non-binding pledge of support to the University that enabled their early growth.

“We’re proud of the tech transfer ecosystem we’ve built here at the U of M — it’s a reflection of the caliber of ideas coming out of the U of M research community and our experienced Technology Commercialization team,” said Huebsch. “We can demonstrate our proven success in helping the state’s innovation economy, and Discover, Advance, Impact aims to take this work to the next level with goals for local and national impact.”