Skysong Innovations launches competition to support faculty entrepreneurship

In 2018, Skysong Innovations, formerly AzTE, launched a new accelerator and competition for ASU startups. The winners of the inaugural competition were announced in December.

Hanqing Jiang, creator of Vantronics, won the grand prize of $50,000. Vantronics develops vanishing electronics for biological monitoring and treatment. The other finalists, Ashfaque Shafique and Josh LaBaer, each received $25,000. Shafique's company, GreyDyne, develops systems for seizure detection and prediction. LaBaer's company, Ordinatrix, provides customers with screening of the complete human proteome (comprised of 15,000 unique proteins), or selected target proteins of their choosing. The judging panel was comprised of four Skysong Innovations board members.

All founders who went through the program continue to receive ongoing support through ASU Entrepreneurship and Innovation's Venture Devils and the ASU Startup Mill, a collection of experienced entrepreneurs and executives who provide mentoring and go-to-market, executive-level leadership.

The 2019 contest is open now. Every ASU startup with a completed license agreement before June 30, 2019 (also the application deadline) is eligible to apply. Up to six winners may be selected for seed investments from a total prize pool of up to $150,000.

This is an incredible opportunity for entrepreneurial faculty and postdocs. ASU’s track record of successful startups now extends more than a decade. These startups, and their sublicensees, have attracted more than $720 million in venture capital and other funding.

Apply to the faculty startup competition.

For more information, please contact Charlie Lewis at clewis@skysonginnovations.com.