Exciting News From the Florida Institute

Governor Rick Scott announced the appointment of Drew Graham to the Florida Institute Board of Directors effective April 27, 2016. Mr. Graham is the Managing Partner at Ballast Point Ventures (BPV) and is responsible for overseeing the operations of the firm. In addition, he currently serves as Chairman of Watermark Medical Holdings and kSep Holdings, and serves on the board of Molecular MD. He previously represented BPV at KBI BioPharma (where he also served as Chairman), Innocutis, Lifestyle Family Fitness, Optical Experts Manufacturing, Knology, Inc. and QOL Medical. He also serves as Vice-Chair of the Tampa General Hospital Foundation.

The Institute has finalized a funding agreement with Admiral Adblock Publisher Solutions, a Gainesville-based company with technology developed at Florida State University. Admiral is the industry’s most advanced analytics and revenue recovery platform that helps publishers understand how adblock affects them and automatically recover lost revenue.

The Institute announced the one year anniversary of the Florida Patent Pro Bono (FloBono) Program. Launched in May of 2015 with the assistance of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the program links qualified inventors and small businesses with volunteer patent agents and attorneys who provide pro bono legal assistance on specific aspects of the patent process. The goals of the program are to promote entrepreneurship, job growth and economic development through innovation.

Beginning on June 1, 2016, BioFlorida will be accepting applications from seed stage companies seeking to present at BioFlorida's 2016 Annual Conferencetaking place October 9-11, 2016 at the Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront. The BioPitch Application will be available online and accepted companies will pitch to individual investors on the morning of Tuesday, October 11th.  Selected finalists will present to a panel of judges during the luncheon session where the winner will be announced. Companies that meet the following criteria are encouraged to apply, and those selected to participate will be notified in September:

Don’t miss this opportunity to network with seed and early stage investors! 

The Florida Venture Forum held its 9^th Annual Early Stage Capital Conferenceat the Hilton Carillon in St. Petersburg, Florida on Tuesday, May 17, 2016. Presenting companies were selected from a pool of approximately 100 applicants by a committee of active Florida venture capitalists and other investors, and presented to an audience of investors, other deal professionals and entrepreneurs.

Institute - funded companies selected to present included:

The conference provided excellent networking and connectivity between companies, investors, and members of the broader business and academic communities. 

GAINnet, in partnership with Gray Robinson P.A., held their monthly Tech Tuesday event at the Gainesville Technology Entrepreneurship Center on May 10, 2016. This month’s event “Getting from Idea/Lab to Market: A Roundtable on Licensing and Commercialization of Technology”, featured above Institute CEO, Dr. Jackson Streeter, B2B CFO, Jim Dietz , Institute Entrepreneur in Residence, Keith Lowe, and Assistant Vice President for Technology Transfer and Director for the Office of Technology Licensing for the University of Florida, David Day.

Gainesville-based NeXtGen Biologics is a medical device company developing a novel extracellular matrix (ECM) product with a pipeline of new technologies. Leveraging a world-class team with expertise in medical devices and breakthrough tissue technologies, the company will offer surgeons unique platform solutions that are transformative for patients and better manage a myriad of complex conditions seen in general surgery, trauma, cardiovascular diseases, neurosurgery, orthopedics and ophthalmology. The company was featured recently on WCJB/ABC News as “Local Startup Hopes to Lead the way in Regenerative Medicine” which can be viewed here.

The 18^th Annual HHS SBIR/STTR Conference will be held on November 15-17, 2016 at the DoubleTree by Hilton at SeaWorld in Orlando, FL.  The HHS/STTR Conference helps small businesses in the life science sector learn more about over $870 million dollars of annual HHS funding that is available to forge academic partnerships and build new businesses based on recently developed biotechnology. Attendees will discover how to successfully submit an application; gain tips for approaching partners and investors; discover the types of technical assistance programs HHS offers to awardees; and have the chance to discuss specific questions with HHS SBIR and STTR subject-matter experts. More details and event registration may be viewed here. 

Formed by the Florida Legislature in 2007, the Florida Institute for the Commercialization of Public Research is a non-profit organization that works collaboratively with the technology licensing and commercialization offices of Florida’s state universities and private research institutions to leverage a $2B+ research base and form investable companies that create clean jobs in new industries that are driving the global economy. The Institute provides company building services, and seed funding through the Florida Technology Seed Capital Fund, to promising Florida startups. Forty-nine companies have been funded to date, and the Institute’s economic impact through June 30, 2015 was $379 million, a return on investment of 14 times to the State of Florida.