Illinois Ventures’ mission is to make the world a better, healthier and more accessible place through return-focused seed and early investment in healthcare and technology. We work with others to create a thriving entrepreneurial community in the University of Illinois system, University alumni networks, the Midwest, and the national venture capital market.

Illinois Ventures is committed to helping entrepreneurs and technical founders build world-changing businesses with the potential to create new market opportunities or significantly expand existing footholds. The vision for Illinois Ventures is to go beyond just providing capital by making Illinois a better and more vibrant place to do business.

Illinois Ventures

Miracle in the works…

Our portfolio company PSYONIC has announced that it has launched a fundraising round through its crowdfunding campaign! Anyone can join the quest to transform lives with PSYONIC for as low as $250. 

The bionic limb market is expected to grow to almost $3 billion in the next eight years. In addition to helping individuals in need around the globe, PSYONIC's Ability Hand is in high demand among robotics researchers. NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Facebook Meta, and Apptronik are clients. We’re excited to see what lies ahead!!

University of Illinois Research Park Technology Entrepreneur Center World Business Chicago Gies College of Business - University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign The University of Texas at Austin Aadeel Akhtar, PhD

#crowdfund #investing #startups

Just in time for winter!!

Our portfolio company Tiesta Tea Company has released their Tea-Osk, loose leaf tea kiosk in all seventy-one Fresh Thyme Market stores across ten states. The Tea-Osk contains a selection of bulk loose leaf teas that can be purchased by the ounce

Tea is the 2nd most consumed beverage in the world next to water and can be found in almost 80% of all U.S. households. Fresh Thyme Market is the Midwest's grocery leader in natural product assortment.

Read more on - https://lnkd.in/d7VUx3DW

#tiktok #tea #education

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign University of Illinois Research Park Technology Entrepreneur Center World Business Chicago University of Illinois Chicago Patrick Tannous

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s Office of Technology Management is bridging the gap between university innovations and the marketplace by opening a new round of funding through the Illinois Proof-of-Concept program (IPOC).

The Illinois Proof-of-Concept program (IPOC) funds projects that facilitate the transformation of University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign research innovations into products and services that benefit society. Proposals are welcome from all disciplines. Awards up to $50,000. 

If you are interested, please apply by January 6, 2023. More information: https://lnkd.in/dirXUvYv 

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign University of Illinois Research Park Technology Entrepreneur Center World Business Chicago Gies College of Business - University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

#innovation #research #poc

Our portfolio company Network Perception is integrating their solutions that protect mission-critical assets with Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. to provide a solution that ensures that OT firewall environments are properly configured and continuously verified for the protection of critical assets.

The solution helps reduce manual audits on dozens or hundreds of firewalls can take days or weeks of time - and one error or omission can expose your network to security vulnerabilities and risks. The solution is also a fully consolidated cyber security architecture that protects business and OT infrastructure against sophisticated cyber-attacks across networks, endpoints, cloud, and mobile.

Congrats to the Network Perception and Robin Berthier team for their integration with Check Point Software Technologies Ltd for better support cybersecurity compliance and enabling greater cyber resiliency.

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign University of Illinois Research Park Technology Entrepreneur Center  Mouna B.

#cybersecurity #network #cyberresiliency

Farm of the future!

Our portfolio company EarthSense, Inc.’s co-founder Girish Chowdhary was one of the three speakers at National Science Foundation headquarters in Virginia. Girish addressed a special audience that included India’s Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs, Nirmala Sitharaman.

The first thing minister Sitharaman shared about EarthSense was that it could be helpful with Indian famers who are trying to focus more acutely on traditional crops native to the area. EarthSense can make an impact on small breeding programs by sharing critical data about the crop, the land, and the climate. Secondly, the AI and data capturing impact of EarthSense is appealing to a country like India, because the agriculture is so highly diverse.

Kudos to Girish Chowdhary and EarthSense, Inc.

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign University of Illinois Research Park World Business Chicago Technology Entrepreneur Center Chinmay Soman

#robotics #India #farming

Advancing the war against cancer..

Our biopharmaceutical portfolio company Actuate Therapeutics, Inc. recently raised $11.2 million in equity financing from 30 investors. 

Actuate Therapeutics, Inc. is developing a therapy that has shown impressive potential in the treatment of many different cancers, as well as hard-to-treat cancers, when used alone or in combination with other types of cancer therapies.

We are proud to be backing Actuate Therapeutics, Inc. and Dan Schmitt in this war against cancer!

#cancer #biopharmaceutical #therapy #research

Northwestern University University of Illinois Chicago University of Chicago Chicago Innovation Mentors World Business Chicago University of Illinois Alumni Association

Hot Tea! Just in time for winter!

Our portfolio company Tiesta Tea Company’s president Patrick Tannous has launched a new tea education series called “The Tea Teacher” on TikTok. 

Check out the link below for authentic and valuable information on Tea. Patrick Tannous is also answering tea questions posted on the videos. Do check them out!

https://lnkd.in/eZVX8NZ6 - You can watch the video with this link. 

#tiktok #tea #education

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign University of Illinois Research Park Technology Entrepreneur Center World Business Chicago Gies College of Business - University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign University of Illinois Chicago

Two of our portfolio company founders, Paul Couston Founder and CEO, Ascent Integrated Tech and Alex Kosyakov Co-founder of Natrion Inc., have been recognized by Chicago Inno in their Inno Under 25 list.

We are thrilled to be backing young founders, investors and community builders like Paul and Alex! Future looks bright!

#innovation #award #chicago

University of Illinois Research Park Technology Entrepreneur Center World Business Chicago Gies College of Business - University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign University of Illinois Alumni Association The Grainger College of Engineering

Join us in welcoming Annie Yifan He, our Fall Venture Fellow! Illinois Ventures has had more than thirty Fellows participate in the program since fall 2016. Many of these past Fellows have since moved on to careers in venture capital, private equity, consulting, and early-stage technology.

Annie is a junior Economics and Statistics major who is also pursuing a minor in Psychology at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Annie previously interned with a Chinese VC firm, Fortune Ventures. She runs her own business trading LEGO minifigures and accessories on the resale market (which we think is very cool!). Annie is also an LAS100 intern, a member of the iRisk project, the Economics Club, and the Illinois Business Consulting, and has a research assistant position in the field of consumer psychology.

Patrick Casey who overlooks the Fellows had a few words to say about them - "Working with the Venture Fellows is one of my favorite parts of my job. Our Fellows are tenacious about doing great work, and they all chose this challenging on-campus job because they want to learn by doing. We're very lucky to have such talented and ambitious students on our team."

Gies College of Business - University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign ILLINOIS Gies College of Business Alumni Technology Entrepreneur Center University of Illinois Alumni Association 

 #VentureCapital #Investing #PrivateEquity

Join us in welcoming Ricardo I., our Fall Venture Fellow! The Illinois Ventures Fellowship Program aims to help #Fellows determine whether and how they would like to pursue careers in entrepreneurial finance. It also gives Fellows an opportunity to develop skills relevant to investing and to learn how a venture capital firm function.

Ricardo is joining us from Professor Robert Metzger's class, "Private Equity and Venture Capital" (FIN 425). Ricardo is a senior pursuing a B.S. in Finance at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He is the President of the Investment Portfolio Organization and a Portfolio Manager in the UIUC Investment Management Academy and an Illinois Venture Capital Association (IVCA) Scholar. He won 1st place, along with his team, in the 2021 Deloitte Consulting Case Competition. 

Ricardo worked at Frontenac as a private equity intern this past summer. He will be joining the investment management firm Adams Street Partners full time after his expected graduation in spring 2023.

Gies College of Business - University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign ILLINOIS Gies College of Business Alumni Technology Entrepreneur Center University of Illinois Alumni Association 

 #VentureCapital #Investing #PrivateEquity

Illinois Ventures is a venture capital firm focused on supporting and financing early-stage technology companies emerging from the University of Illinois and the Midwest. The firm leverages its deep ties to the University of Illinois to invest in promising startups with high growth potential.

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