Startup Teams Announced for Next AFRL Commercialization Academy Cohort
Ten Teams will take AFRL Intellectual Property and Utilize it Within Their Companies
One team will win $200,000 for their Startup
ROME, NY — Griffiss Institute is pleased to announce the ten startup teams of the next AFRL Commercialization Academy cohort. The companies, which are developing innovations in the cyber security, big data analytics, information systems, and unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) industry, were selected from an ambitious pool of applicant submissions.
The startup teams are:
CampusPro
Cyber Defense Network Adapter
DAX
E-Health Now
Go Figure
Griffiss Cyberspace & Drone
Let’s Chat About It LLC
SkyTubeLive
Stonewall Defense
Tooling Intel Corporation
During the cohort, the teams will be incubated while building their startups around Department of Defense Intellectual Property (IP) from the Air Force Research Laboratory Information Directorate (AFRL/RI) in Rome, New York.
“I am excited to see how this diverse group of founders will transfer AFRL intellectual property into their commercial companies to continue growing the Mohawk Valley economic ecosystem,” says AFRL Commercialization Academy program manager Dan Fayette. “I am always amazed, from my years of experience working with the Commercialization Academy, on how innovative the founders are in taking technology focused on solving a military need and re-using it in a new and novel way in their product offerings.”
Beginning in December 2018, the startups will enter the Commercialization Academy cohort, go through a down-select process in January 2019, with the remaining selected teams competing live by pitching their tech businesses to a panel of judges at a Demo Day for $300,000 in prize seed funding from IDEA NY.
For the first time, a grand prize of $200,000 will go to the overall winner and $100,000 will go to the runner-up!
After Demo Day, eligible teams will participate in the IDEA NY accelerator program that will incentivize promising entrepreneurs to create and grow viable commercial businesses in the Mohawk Valley, by requiring that the company’s primary office be located in the Mohawk Valley region for a 12-month period.
The AFRL Commercialization Academy is a Griffiss Institute entrepreneurial education program sponsored by the Air Force Research Laboratory Information Directorate (AFRL/RI), and run by Wasabi Ventures Academy. The Commercialization Academy pairs high-caliber founders with high-potential AFRL technologies with the goals of developing entrepreneurial leaders and launching new technology ventures.
