The University of Pennsylvania has picked its first three faculty-founded companies for a $250,000 investment. The Office of the Chief Innovation Officer announced the inaugural batch last week, The Daily Pennsylvanian reports. The $10 million StartUP Fund launched earlier this year to help Penn faculty members bring their inventions to market.
The three faculty-founded companies are Peptaris, OneFiltr and Vasowatch. Their fields range from maternal health to wireless telecommunications and artificial intelligence drug discovery. The announcement puts the University’s investment behind these three faculty-founded companies at an early stage.
How the Three Faculty-Founded Companies Are Funded
Chief Innovation Officer John Swartley called the initiative an “impact fund.” He contrasted it with a traditional for-profit venture capital fund that aims to “reap immediate financial benefits.” Swartley said the goal was “to make sure that the startup fund is relevant to the entire Penn community.”
Selected companies enter a “simple agreement for equity” with the University. That structure lets them fund early-stage development without the burden of cash repayments. Each of the three faculty-founded companies now holds that agreement, and the University describes the fund as relevant to the whole Penn community rather than one field.
Peptaris Turns Research Into Drug Discovery
Peptaris is a biotech startup that uses AI models to discover peptides for human drug development. It is one of the three faculty-founded companies in the first batch, and its field sits alongside maternal health and wireless telecommunications. Presidential Associate Professor César de la Fuente co-founded it. He said the fund is a way to “translate” the company’s initial research at Penn while expanding the biotech industry in the Philadelphia area.
Vasowatch Targets Postpartum Hemorrhage
Stefanie Modri, a clinical instructor at the School of Nursing, co-founded Vasowatch. The company “created the first software to predict a woman’s risk for postpartum hemorrhage.” Modri noticed a spike in postpartum hemorrhages during her career as a labor and delivery nurse, and that observation led her to build the software. She then teamed up with Jim Weimer, a former professor at the School of Engineering and Applied Science.
Together they developed biometric data software that could be integrated into existing wearable watches. It takes maternal heart rate data and analyzes the risk of hemorrhage. According to Modri, the team plans to use the funding to jumpstart a clinical trial.
The group has worked with the Penn Center of Innovation since its founding in 2021, amid changes to federal funding. “They’ve been instrumental in supporting us through the early stages,” said Christine Rohan, CEO of Vasowatch. She described the University as “seeing the need, and filling the gap.” Rohan added that the StartUP Fund will give the company “legitimacy” as it looks for other investors.
OneFiltr Builds Adjustable Radiofrequency Filters
OneFiltr designs adjustable radiofrequency filters that let wireless devices adapt to future upgrades. Electrical and systems engineering professors Troy Olsson, Firooz Aflatouni and Mark Allen founded it, along with Ph.D. student Xingyu Du. According to Olsson, the investment will allow the company to begin sampling with customers. Like the other two faculty-founded companies, OneFiltr grew out of research done by Penn faculty.
What Comes Next for the Three Faculty-Founded Companies
The announcement follows the University’s launch of the NextUP program in June. That program provides funds for pre-commercial projects to begin seeking investors and partners. The StartUP Fund, by contrast, has now invested in its first three faculty-founded companies.
“We’re big believers in companies starting here and staying here,” Swartley said. He added that the fund “supports good ideas, good opportunities across the entirety of Penn.”
Other universities are building similar pipelines. Readers can compare how Pitt plans lab space for early life sciences startups. Funding trends for young companies appear in a recent look at startups leading a funding ranking. Hardware founders can also see why chip startups need partners beyond design wins.