Purdue Foundry

Purdue Foundry is an initiative that fosters innovation and entrepreneurship within Purdue University by providing support to faculty, staff, and student innovators across various colleges and departments. It actively collaborates with external businesses and investors to promote research and the development of startups. Additionally, Purdue Foundry operates under Purdue Ventures, which consolidates all university startup funding entities, facilitating a more streamlined approach to venture capital. The focus includes investments in plant sciences, particularly in crop optimization, hybrid and seed development, and precision agriculture, reflecting a commitment to advancing agricultural innovation. Based in West Lafayette, Indiana, Purdue Foundry plays a vital role in nurturing early-stage firms and enhancing the university's entrepreneurial ecosystem.

John M. Hanak

MD

29 past transactions

Trio Pharmaceuticals

Seed Round in 2023
We are a cancer therapeutics company with a mission to improve efficacy, reduce toxicity and increase treatment affordability of cancer drugs. We are an experienced team in cancer drug discovery and development. Team members have invented and developed drugs that are approved for cancer treatment. Our approach to eradicating cancer is distinct from current standard of care. Current approaches involve single agent single action treatments that either inhibit cancer cell growth or inhibit immunosuppression, and hence, they are ineffective. These treatments are combined in a bid to improve efficacy. But combination leads to toxicity, poor efficacy, and high cost. We are developing single agent multi-action treatments inhibiting both cancer growth and immunosuppression. We are not targeting the immune-checkpoint axis. Our approach could effective for cancer patients that failed immune checkpoint treatments due to resistance or low expression of PD1, PDL1, CTLA4 etc..

Novilytic

Seed Round in 2022
Novilytic is a medical device manufacturing company that specializes in the fields of healthcare and blood collection. The company aims to reduce the cost, inconvenience, and pain of blood testing in both humans and animals and enable testing anytime and anywhere. Novilytic was founded in 2013 and headquartered in Indiana, United States.

Araqev

Pre Seed Round in 2022
Araqev creates software solutions for closed-loop, smart control in additive manufacturing and 3D printing based on machine learning (ML).

Kiri Innovation

Angel Round in 2022
KIRI Innovations Science manufacture and distributes phiz 3d scanners that applicable to smartphones and laptops.

EverTrue

Grant in 2021
EverTrue offers a faster, safer and more practical path back from COVID-19 and future pandemics through quick, accurate, affordable and convenient detection of the coronavirus.

American Evidence

Grant in 2021
GUI-based automation and evidence management with blockchain backing for courts and cops and everyone in between.

HemaChrome

Grant in 2021
HemaChrome is a mobile health technology that uses digital images of the eyelid to instantly and accurately provide blood hemoglobin levels.

Dencoda

Grant in 2021
Dencoda operates as a diagnostic company focused on solving unmet medical needs in cancer.

Araqev

Grant in 2021
Araqev creates software solutions for closed-loop, smart control in additive manufacturing and 3D printing based on machine learning (ML).

Helthi

Grant in 2021
Helthi develops proprietary digital health tool aims to reduce employer health care costs by enabling employees to prevent and manage chronic disease through better micronutrition.

Amplified Sciences

Seed Round in 2021
Amplified Sciences LLC is a molecular diagnostics company focused on developing a point-of-care system for the early detection and prevention of debilitating diseases, including kidney disease and pancreatic cancer. The company utilizes an ultra-sensitive molecular sensing technology, exclusively licensed from Purdue University, which allows for the detection of disease markers at the single molecule level. This innovative platform integrates sensing and assay methods with cost-effective biospecimen collection devices, facilitating scalability for point-of-care applications. Amplified Sciences' first application targets early detection of pancreatic cancer, addressing a significant unmet medical need and promising a favorable reimbursement pathway. Established in 2016 and based in West Lafayette, Indiana, the company has successfully created a working prototype and published proof of concept data, positioning itself as a leader in the diagnostics field.

ClearBlade

Venture Round in 2020
ClearBlade, Inc. is an Edge Computing software company that specializes in enabling enterprises to develop and operate secure, real-time, and scalable Internet of Things (IoT) applications. Founded in 2007 and headquartered in Austin, Texas, with an additional office in Raleigh, North Carolina, ClearBlade provides a comprehensive mobile Back-end-as-a-Service platform that supports various applications, including tools for managing work items, test case results, and job queues. The company's solutions facilitate data ingestion, analysis, and real-time decision-making across diverse industries such as rail, mining, healthcare, and smart cities. ClearBlade’s Edge technology operates independently of network connectivity, ensuring security and resiliency while integrating seamlessly with enterprise systems. The platform’s patented communication technology keeps environments up-to-date and fully extensible, allowing businesses to enhance their operations efficiently. Through its offerings, ClearBlade aims to empower organizations to achieve significant business outcomes by leveraging local computing and actionable insights.

GoGig

Venture Round in 2020
GoGig is an anonymous professional networking platform that helps currently employed, passively seeking individuals advance their careers confidentially through career desire and cultural ‘fit’ metrics using Artificial Intelligence. Hiring professionals can tap into a completely new group of passive candidates that they otherwise didn’t know existed through powerful algorithmic search. No job postings, no applying, no keyword crawlers, no 'tinder swiping' gimmicks. GoGig is absolutely free for all candidates to use.

Diagnotes

Venture Round in 2020
Diagnotes, Inc., a digital healthcare company, provides a platform to improve communication and collaboration for the healthcare industry. It offers Diagnotes, a clinical communication platform solution that is used for secure communication, provider scheduling, patient data, discussion documentation, patient engagement, and admin and reporting. The company's Diagnotes helps patients, physicians, care teams, hospitals, health systems, and physician practices to facilitate, track, and manage all patient-related communications. Diagnotes, Inc. was incorporated in 2010 and is based in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Amplified Sciences

Seed Round in 2020
Amplified Sciences LLC is a molecular diagnostics company focused on developing a point-of-care system for the early detection and prevention of debilitating diseases, including kidney disease and pancreatic cancer. The company utilizes an ultra-sensitive molecular sensing technology, exclusively licensed from Purdue University, which allows for the detection of disease markers at the single molecule level. This innovative platform integrates sensing and assay methods with cost-effective biospecimen collection devices, facilitating scalability for point-of-care applications. Amplified Sciences' first application targets early detection of pancreatic cancer, addressing a significant unmet medical need and promising a favorable reimbursement pathway. Established in 2016 and based in West Lafayette, Indiana, the company has successfully created a working prototype and published proof of concept data, positioning itself as a leader in the diagnostics field.

Leafspec

Pre Seed Round in 2020
Handheld device for evaluating plant phenology, nutrients and other vital characteristics.

Nanovis

Venture Round in 2018
Nanovis develops cervical and lumbar interbody fusion devices. The company offers FortiCore Scaffold, Cervical, and TLIF, which are three-dimensional scaffolds that assist in securing implants; cervical plates and percutaneous pedicle screws, which are spine surgeon-designed implants and refined instrument sets; posterior cervical thoracic, a simple system designed to help posterior cervical thoracic patients; surgeon-designed pedicle screws for lumbar patients; and PLIF, a variety of surgeon-created cervical and lumbar PEEK interbody systems. It was founded in 2006 and is based in Columbia City, Indiana.

SpeechVive

Seed Round in 2016
SpeechVive is a medical technology company that specializes in providing a communication solution for people with Parkinson's Disease. It also specializes in the fields of healthcare, medical, and medical device manufacturing. The company was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in Lafayette, Indiana.
Drug Free Therapeutix is a software company that provides software for medical device companies in the pain management device market. They offer personalized pain management solutions using electrical stimulation therapies.

Akanocure Pharmaceuticals

Seed Round in 2015
Akanocure's mission is to synthesize and develop biotargeted anti-cancer chemotherapeutic drugs derived from natural sources. Akanocure's pipeline will consist of analogs of fully validated, highly potent anti-cancer natural products that can only be produced on a large scale through Akanocure's proprietary CCC synthesis platform. The company has competitive edges on two fronts: the synthesis platform that gives Akanocure exclusive access to rare compounds and the potential pipeline of anti-cancer products that are far superior to existing therapies.

CommSense

Seed Round in 2015
Developer of sensor technology for smartphones. The company's technology improves smartphone battery life and service by monitoring and adjusting the phone's cellular antenna to automatically run efficiently.

Mobile Enerlytics

Convertible Note in 2015
Mobile Enerlytics develops the industry's first end-to-end AEM (App Energy Management) solution that help app vendors and handset vendors to catch energy glitches before each and every app release, which has been shown to increase user engagement and mobile revenue.

AccuPS

Convertible Note in 2015
AccuPS, LLC provides high definition 3D motion tracking technology products. It offers AeroWand that transforms smartphone and TV into a virtual reality entertainment system; AeroDynaPen, a 3D stylus pen that works on phone/tablet/computer screen, desk, palm, and air. The company was incorporated in 2014 and is headquartered in West Lafayette, Indiana.