DENVER – The Advanced Industries Accelerator (AIA) Program announced today that 22 Colorado companies and five researchers were approved to receive Proof of Concept and Early Stage Capital and Retention grants for a total of $6,350,918 million in funding.
Proof-of-Concept grants are open to certified Colorado research universities and federal labs located in Colorado for pre-commercialization research and commercialization preparation. Early Stage Capital and Retention grants fund early stage companies commercializing innovative technologies to create viable products that meet a market need and can be created or manufactured in Colorado and exported globally.
The AIA Program received 106 applications this grant cycle. Applications were reviewed in a multi-stage review process by committees of business, technical and financial experts in the seven advanced industries. Final recommendations were approved by the Economic Development Commission on November 18, 2021.
The next application cycle for Proof-of-Concept and Early Stage Capital and Retention Grants will open on January 3, 2022 and applications will be due March 3, 2022.
The AIA Program was created in 2013 to promote growth and sustainability in Colorado’s advanced industries by driving innovation, accelerating commercialization, encouraging public-private partnerships, increasing access to early stage capital and creating a strong infrastructure that increases the state’s capacity to be globally competitive. AIA encompasses five distinct grant programs: Proof of Concept, Early Stage Capital and Retention, Collaborative Infrastructure, Export Accelerator, and Global Consultant Network.
Proof-of-Concept Grant Recipients:
- Colorado School of Mines, Researcher Susanta Sarkar - Golden, CO $150,000: Commercializing inexpensive recombinant alpha-synuclein and amyloid-beta peptide and aggregates for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases research.
- Colorado State University, Researcher David Prawel - Fort Collins, CO $150,000: Validating a new, commercially viable biomaterial for bone healing.
- Colorado State University, Researcher Sybil Sharvelle - Fort Collins, CO $150,000: Reducing cost for recovery of water and energy from flush dairy manure via a novel membrane dewatering system.
- University of Colorado Boulder, Researcher Corrella Detweiler - Boulder, CO $150,000: Combating multi-drug resistant Gram-negative healthcare-associated infections.
- University of Colorado Denver, Researcher Moatassem Abdallah - Denver, CO $147,525: Developing an innovative mobility solution for employers to reduce commuting and parking costs.
Early Stage Capital and Retention Grant Recipients:
6-D Laser, LLC - Boulder, CO $250,000: 6-D Laser is simplifying laser micromachining by making it more reliable, repeatable, less costly, and easier to use. By integrating a novel optical feedback mechanism into their ultrafast laser micromachining platform, 6-D laser will eliminate the costly process development time for new applications.
Aurora Oncology, Inc. - Aurora, CO $250,000: Aurora Oncology is an early clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing targeted therapeutics to image and treat non-muscle invasive bladder cancer, the most common and insidious form of bladder cancer. These therapeutics are highly efficacious and have low toxicity compared to the two other therapies that are currently approved by the FDA.
Challenger Finance, Inc. - Denver, CO $226,000: Challenger Finance is a software company on a mission to prepare America’s workforce for a financial emergency. Challenger partners with businesses to help employees save a $1,000 emergency fund and beyond through their proprietary financial ledger and mobile app.
Cloud Agronomics Inc. - Boulder, CO $202,393: Cloud Agronomics’ vision is to help agriculture heal the planet. Cloud Agronomics uses AI and remote sensing to quantify carbon sequestration and enable regenerative agriculture at scale.
Colorado Griffin Energy LLC - Evergreen, CO $250,000: Colorado Griffin Energy has developed the first hydrogen-based indoor power generator. This generator produces electricity using a plug in cartridge, ensuring 450W continuous power on demand anywhere and at any time.
Demand IQ - Denver, CO $250,000: Demand IQ’s patent-pending AI technology instantly determines the solar potential of any home in America using satellite imagery and delivers a personalized solar savings estimate within seconds. Clients see up to 3x more leads, faster sales cycles, and reduced customer acquisition costs.
FieldLine Inc. - Boulder, CO $250,000: FieldLine is developing a new brain imaging device called HEDscan using quantum sensors. HEDscan is a compact wearable device with better performance but at a fraction of the cost. HEDscan can transform MEG from a powerful yet obscure imaging modality to a mobile and versatile tool that is found in nearly every hospital or clinic around the world.
Fluorofinder, LLC - Broomfield, CO $250,000: FluoroFinder seeks to revolutionize the experiment design process for flow cytometry and other critical biotechnology research applications. FluoroFinder is an intelligent antibody search and experiment design platform that brings innovative solutions to cancer biologists, immunologists and other researchers around the world who use fluorescently conjugated antibody-based experiments.
Fortius Metals, Inc. - Louisville, CO $250,000: Fortius Metals is a large format additive manufacturing company that specializes in new materials, helping customers develop solutions previously not possible by robotic 3D printing parts with groundbreaking high-performance metal alloys. Their patented technology will enable new metal alloys to meet the demands of OEMs and existing 3D fabricators all over the world.
GelSana Therapeutics, Inc. - Aurora, CO $250,000: GelSana Therapeutics’ novel hydrogels accelerate wound healing, particularly in chronic wounds where inflammation is a problem. The hydrogels accelerate wound closure with a moist, protected, anti-inflammatory environment. They are easy to apply and remain stable in the wound for an extended period.
IONA Tech - Telluride, CO $250,000: IONA Tech produces an innovative wireless electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection solution that affords complete mobility to its users, while providing novel in situ electrostatic monitoring that enables quality control managers to finally close the loop on ESD within their manufacturing facility.
KadyLuxe, LLC - Denver, CO $250,000: KadyLuxe is activewear and athleisure brand redefining the protective sports market with cutting edge protective sports apparel powered with patented impact mitigation technology.
Maybell Quantum Industries - Denver, CO $500,000: Maybell Quantum Industries is building the hardware to enable the quantum revolution. Quantum computing will help cure diseases, reverse the clock on climate change, and create millions of new jobs.
MBC Pharma Inc. - Aurora, CO $250,000: MBC Pharma is an early clinical stage pharmaceutical company developing bone-targeted therapeutics to treat cancer induced bone disease. They have demonstrated the first human proof of concept efficacy in patients with breast or prostate cancer induced bone lesions.
Point Designs, LLC - Lafayette, CO $250,000: Point Designs’ mission is to restore independence to people with limb difference by providing intuitive, durable, and reliable prosthetic devices. Point Designs leverages advanced 3D-printing technology to manufacture high-strength titanium components for patented mechanisms within novel prosthetic devices.
Resilient Entanglement LLC - Denver, CO $250,000: Resilient Entanglement is developing a SaaS product to support the deployment of renewable energy generation and responsive demand strategies using quantum models and quantum mechanical phenomena.
Shopbotix - Lakewood, CO $225,000: Shopbotix is a provider of a high quality, easy to use family of advanced manufacturing equipment that afford professional creators and large corporations alike the ability to quickly prototype concept designs at greater speed and scales of economy than ever before.
SnapDNA Corporation - Lafayette, CO $250,000: SnapDNA has developed a transformative molecular detection technology for food safety. This rapid, automated system enables onsite detection of critical foodborne pathogens such as Listeria, E. coli & Salmonella in as little as 20 minutes, saving millions of dollars for food companies and enabling fresher, safer food for consumers.
Snoasis Medical LLC - Golden, CO $250,000: Snoasis Medical is the country’s leading seller of placental allograft tissues for use in dental and maxillofacial surgeries. Placental membranes are tough but flexible and serve as natural tissue barriers, making them ideally suited for dental regenerative procedures.
Solvent Herba LLC - Durango, CO $250,000: Solvent Herba is a FinTech company with a passion to solve compliance and payment processing issues for cannabis retail businesses. Solvent Herba has developed a state-of-the-art monitoring infrastructure and point-of-sale system, enabling the most compliant network in the nation.
SurgiReal Products, Inc. - Loveland, CO $200,000: SurgiReal Products has developed a lifelike suture pad that responds the way real tissue does, providing realistic suturing experience for healthcare students. This suture pad is a six-layer simulated body-wall that mimics the first six layers of the abdominal tissue of the human body. It is reusable and built for sustained use over time.
Xairos Systems, Inc. - Lone Tree, CO $250,000: Xairos Systems is building a global timing system to replace timing from GPS using a proprietary quantum clock-synchronization technology. Once launched on a network or satellite, it will provide timing synchronization that is 1,000 times more accurate and infinitely more secure than timing from GPS.