ISU Startup Factory Companies See Success at the Iowa SBIR Showcase

Iowa Innovation Corporation President and CEO Kirk Bjorland, SAFI-Tech Co-founder and CTO Ian Tevis and Statewide SBIR/STTR Program Coordinator Jordan Hobfoll at the Iowa SBIR Showcase. Photo courtesy IICORP.

Two ISU Startup Factory companies from the program’s inaugural cohort of graduates took away prizes during the Iowa Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Showcase held on September 6 in Iowa City. The event was hosted by Iowa Innovation Corporation (IICorp) and sponsored by McKee, Voorhees & Sease.

In the Iowa portion of the Phase I Pitch Competition, SAFI-Tech competed against seven other startup companies and earned first place and the $5,000 prize. This was the inaugural event for the Iowa SBIR Showcases’ SBIR Phase I and Phase II Pitch Competitions with $5,000 and $10,000 prizes being awarded.

SAFI-Tech is developing Liquital™, a patent-pending technology that solders without using heat. The technology consists of water-balloon-like microparticles of liquid metal solders in a metastable supercooled state. These particles can be mechanically broken or chemically triggered to release the liquid metal, which then rapidly solidifies. The SAFI-Tech team is currently working on two manufacturing applications of the product: no-heat soldering for flexible electronics and 3-D metal printing for multi-material additive manufacturing.

“It was a real boost for SAFI-Tech to win the Phase I Pitch Competition because we are currently raising capital,” Co-founder and Chief Technical Officer Dr. Ian Tevis said. “Without the support of the ISU Startup Factory and IICorp we wouldn't be in the position to raise capital.”

As a member of the ISU Startup Factory, Tevis said he learned a lot about getting the technology to market.

“The commercialization of a product like this is challenging, but we have been aided in every step of the startup process,” Tevis explained. “The Startup Factory helped us gain insight on the business side—guiding us from customer discovery and developing a strong investor pitch to simply understanding the various steps involved in moving from working primarily in the lab and actually running the day-to-day operations of a business. They helped us to narrow down the path that is most likely to lead to success and commercialization.”

Tevis credits IICORP for their assistance through every stage of his company’s business life cycle.

“IICorp helped us to prepare the grant applications we built our technology on—for example, the SBIR award from the NSF for $225,000 we won in 2016. That grant allowed us to hire people and further develop our business,” Tevis said. “In addition, the $25,000 grant match from IICorp gave us the opportunity to interact with potential partners and customers at far-away conferences.”

According to Tevis, the win at the Showcase will help prepare SAFI-Tech for the next stage in their businesses’ growth continuum. “We are very appreciative of receiving the award and plan to leverage these funds to raise additional funds.”

Tevis said the money will help fund a trip to attend the NEPCON JAPAN trade show, touted as Asia’s Largest Exhibition for Electronics Design, R&D and Manufacturing Technology, slated for January 2018.

“Attending this renowned trade show where the latest technologies for electronics are showcased will be invaluable. It will allow our company to gain a great deal of exposure and an opportunity to showcase our innovative technology to an international audience.”

The other ISU Startup Factory member to be presented a large check at the event was Gross-Wen Technologies (GWT). GWT was one of three companies awarded $25,000 in matching financial assistance from IICorp and the Iowa Economic Development Authority to match recently won Phase I SBIR awards. GWT is commercializing an algal wastewater treatment technology developed at Iowa State called the Revolving Algal Biofilm (RAB) Treatment System. The RAB system recovers nutrients from wastewater, such as phosphorus and nitrogen. As an additional benefit, the algae biomass that is produced can then be harvested, pelletized and used as a slow-release algal fertilizer.

In addition to the pitch competitions, the event featured Phase I and Phase II proposal workshops and sessions on Raising Private Capital, Protecting Your IP, and Phase I and Phase II SBIR proposal preparation. The one hundred participants who attended also had the opportunity to schedule one-on-one virtual meetings with Federal Agency Program managers from National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, Department of Defense, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Department of Education to discuss their business ideas and to network with entrepreneurs who have received SBIR funding.

The Iowa SBIR Showcase is part of the SBIR Road Tour, a national outreach effort led by the SBA’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs. Each year, the SBIR/STTR programs provide $2.5 billion in funding to small advanced technology firms to spur new technological discoveries and facilitate the commercialization of innovations. This year’s SBIR Road Tour, “Seeding America’s Future Innovations,” aims to target advanced technology communities.