Illinois Ventures

GrayKea aims to reduce financial stress experienced by college students through sustainable alumni giving. GrayKea was founded in 2020 and is based in San Fransisco, California, United States.

Lightform, Inc., a VC-backed computer vision and hardware company, develops computers for projected augmented reality. The company develops a desktop app to create animated content for various scenes, and update content and control projector wirelessly from laptop or phone. It also offers 3D scanning options. The company was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

Natrion is a developer of large-scale batteries used to generate efficient renewable energy. Its batteries are ceramic solid-electrolyte and source energy from solar and wind to manage power deployment for renewable energy storage that enable businesses to make solar power cost-effective for homes, farms, and the military. It was founded in 2018 and is headquartered in Binghamton, New York.

EarthSense, Inc. develops robots for providing management advice for farmers and ranchers. Its product TerraSentia, an ultracompact, autonomous, teachable robot that uses low-cost sensor on-board computation with multiple sensors, embedded data collection, and analytics software for plant phenotyping. The company is based in Champaign, Illinois.

INI Power Systems, Inc. engages in designing, developing, manufacturing, and licensing portable power components and systems to augment or replace batteries and generators. It develops and commercializes direct methanol laminar flow fuel cell products. The company's products include power systems and platforms for on-board power, communications, and emergency lighting. It serves consumer electronic, industrial, recreation, safety, and security markets. The company was founded in 2001 and is based in Morrisville, North Carolina.

Cystetic Medicines develops a treatment that potentially could help people with cystic fibrosis (CF), regardless of genetic mutation.

Chromatin is a biotech company developing and marketing innovative technologies and products that benefit the agricultural, energy, chemical, nutritional, and pharmaceutical sectors. Chromatin is unlocking the potential of plants to produce greater value and meaningful products for consumers, growers, seed producers, and bioprocessors. Chromatin is commercializing solutions that proactively address key societal challenges such as improving agricultural productivity and increasing renewable energy resources.

RiverGlass is the Internet information solution from people who actually helped create the Internet RiverGlass was founded in 2003, by some of the original pioneers of the World Wide Web and originators of Web data analytics. The University of Illinois' National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) played a key role in the birth and growth of the Internet and NCSA Mosaic was the first widely used graphical search engine whose offspring include both Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator. Michael Welge, head of NCSA's automated learning group, recognized the tremendous benefit of offering more specialized, highly selective data analytics solutions to help businesses and governments gather, organize, merge and analyze data from disparate sources throughout the Internet. He then transformed the D2K (data-to-knowledge) software environment when he co-founded the company that is RiverGlass today. To launch the business, the company partnered with IllinoisVENTURES, a service firm that works with University of Illinois researchers to turn university research projects into viable commercial ventures. With their help, a software solution for a select group of researchers was transformed into a dynamic startup with tremendous business growth opportunity. Today, RiverGlass delivers software solutions to a prestigious list of Fortune 1000 companies and governmental agencies for which access to accurate, concise and oftentimes obscure information is essential.

Network Perception is providing a pioneering network device configuration analysis software to visualize and manage their network. The company delivers a pioneering solution that enables corporate compliance and cybersecurity managers to gain a complete view of their network security and to immediately determine if its configuration is in alignment with best practices and regulatory standards Network Perception was launched in 2014 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Research Park.

NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes LLC (northstarnm.com) was founded in 2006 to address the needs of the nuclear medicine market in the United States. A wholly owned subsidiary of NorthStar Medical Technologies LLC, the company is committed to resolving industry-wide supply challenges that have caused shortages of vital medical isotopes, negatively impacting patient care and stalling clinical research. Its patented technologies include innovative non-uranium based molybdenum-99 production methods, a novel separation chemistry system and tools for the nuclear medicine market.

Ocient is a startup building a near-real-time database and data analytics platform for petabyte- to exabyte-scale data sets. Ocient was founded by the talent behind the largest software startup exit in Chicago’s history. Ocient is a well-funded company, with an engineering team comprised of brilliant computer scientists hailing from the world’s top universities and organizations.

Chromatin is a biotech company developing and marketing innovative technologies and products that benefit the agricultural, energy, chemical, nutritional, and pharmaceutical sectors. Chromatin is unlocking the potential of plants to produce greater value and meaningful products for consumers, growers, seed producers, and bioprocessors. Chromatin is commercializing solutions that proactively address key societal challenges such as improving agricultural productivity and increasing renewable energy resources.

ShareThis transforms authentic human sharing behavior into actionable data outputs at scale for marketers and publishers. It has been collecting and synthesizing social share data since 2007.

Diagnostic Photonics is developing advanced imaging technology to assist physicians in the real-time evaluation of tissue microstructure. The company's breakthrough medical imaging technology originated in the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois, a leading interdisciplinary research institute.

As of September 18, 2006, MOBITRAC, Inc. was acquired by Fluensee, Inc. MOBITRAC, Inc. designs and develops software for delivery services. The company offers a database engine and industry standard APIs that enable the creation and deployment of location and time based mobile resource management services for fleet, mobile workforce, and mobile commerce applications. MOBITRAC also provides a graphical interface for dispatch and drivers. Its clients include trucking companies, package and delivery services, service fleets, and third-party logistics providers. The company was founded in 2001 and is based in Chicago, Illinois.

Persio’s multi-channel marketing and decision platform put the power of personalization into marketers’ hands. Built to meet the needs of retailers, Persio connects marketers’ existing data sources, technology solutions, deployment channels, and identity resolution services into a single, interoperable interface so that marketers can deploy data-driven and personalized campaigns across web, email, SMS, mobile apps and other sales channels to reach customers with relevant offers at their most responsive point.

Radio One Llama is a hub and search engine for online radio stations.

Diagnostic Photonics is developing advanced imaging technology to assist physicians in the real-time evaluation of tissue microstructure. The company's breakthrough medical imaging technology originated in the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois, a leading interdisciplinary research institute.

Revenew is a through-channel marketing automation (TCMA) platform that brings control, transparency, and a holistic view of localized marketing. With Revenew, enterprise brands are able to market to, through, and for their partners at scale; empowering partners to market, compete, and grow in their local area.

Caterva, a development stage company, intends to develop a real-time social-marketing platform. The company was formerly known as Yottaclick, Inc. and changed its name to Caterva, Inc. in September, 2010. Caterva, Inc. was incorporated in 2008 and is based in Champaign, Illinois.

Semprius, Inc. engages in the design, development, manufacture, and supply of high concentration photovoltaic (HCPV) solar modules. The company offers its HCPV solar modules to generate solar energy. Its HCPV solar modules serve utility, commercial/industrial, and government/military applications in sunny and dry locations worldwide. The company delivers its products through integrators and EPCs. Semprius, Inc. was formerly known as pSi-tech, Inc. The company was founded in 2005 and is based in Durham, North Carolina.

Personify specializes in the fields of presentations, software, and videos. Personify uses technologies in computer vision to develop fresh and immersive video experiences. These experiences facilitate real and meaningful connections with everyone, everywhere. It was founded in 2009 and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.

Amber Agriculture, Inc. develops Internet of things-based sensor and analytics solutions to automate farmer’s grain storage monitoring and management. Its technology is used to manage, protect, and market grain. Amber Agriculture, Inc. was founded in 2016 and is based in Chicago, Illinois.

Buzz Referrals enables companies to have their own referral programs that integrate with both social media and their company websites. The company is specialized in e-mail, mobile, and native advertising.

Semprius, Inc. engages in the design, development, manufacture, and supply of high concentration photovoltaic (HCPV) solar modules. The company offers its HCPV solar modules to generate solar energy. Its HCPV solar modules serve utility, commercial/industrial, and government/military applications in sunny and dry locations worldwide. The company delivers its products through integrators and EPCs. Semprius, Inc. was formerly known as pSi-tech, Inc. The company was founded in 2005 and is based in Durham, North Carolina.

TetraVitae Bioscience is developing biobased chemicals, plastics, and fuels. Their proprietary technology and expertise in the fields of industrial fermentations, process engineering, microbiology, and cellulosic feedstocks will dramatically lower the costs of production, allowing them to compete with and replace petroleum-derived products.

Advanced Diamond Technologies, Inc. engages in developing and applying diamond films for industrial, electronic, and medical applications. It offers AFM probes, ultrananocrystalline diamond seals, and ultrananocrystalline diamond wafers for MEMS development and UNCD product prototyping. The company also provides MEMS, applications development, and coating services. In addition, it offers UNCD Electrodes for advanced electrochemical water treatment applications. Further, the company operates as a licensee to the Argonne portfolio of application and process patents for using, synthesizing, and micromachining ultrananocrystalline diamond films. It offers its products through its Website, as well as through distributors in the United States and internationally. Advanced Diamond Technologies, Inc. was incorporated in 2002 and is based in Romeoville, Illinois.

Advanced Diamond Technologies, Inc. engages in developing and applying diamond films for industrial, electronic, and medical applications. It offers AFM probes, ultrananocrystalline diamond seals, and ultrananocrystalline diamond wafers for MEMS development and UNCD product prototyping. The company also provides MEMS, applications development, and coating services. In addition, it offers UNCD Electrodes for advanced electrochemical water treatment applications. Further, the company operates as a licensee to the Argonne portfolio of application and process patents for using, synthesizing, and micromachining ultrananocrystalline diamond films. It offers its products through its Website, as well as through distributors in the United States and internationally. Advanced Diamond Technologies, Inc. was incorporated in 2002 and is based in Romeoville, Illinois.

Phi Optics Inc. develops optical imaging systems for life sciences, medical diagnostics, nanotechnology, and semiconductor testing applications. It offers Quantitative Phase Imaging, a label-free, non-contact, and non-invasive imaging method for measuring nanoscale structures and dynamics via interferometry. The company was founded in 2009 and is based in Champaign, Illinois.

Rithmio, Inc. provides a gesture recognition platform. The company’s software platform helps product teams create accurate and personalized gesture-based products. Its software platform integrates with motion-sensing devices, such as wearables, smartphones, or connected sports equipment at sensor, OS, or application-level to learn, track, and analyze motion. Rithmio, Inc. was formerly known as Neurogito, Inc. and changed its name to Rithmio, Inc. in May 2014. The company was incorporated in 2011 and is based in Chicago, Illinois.

RiverGlass is the Internet information solution from people who actually helped create the Internet RiverGlass was founded in 2003, by some of the original pioneers of the World Wide Web and originators of Web data analytics. The University of Illinois' National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) played a key role in the birth and growth of the Internet and NCSA Mosaic was the first widely used graphical search engine whose offspring include both Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator. Michael Welge, head of NCSA's automated learning group, recognized the tremendous benefit of offering more specialized, highly selective data analytics solutions to help businesses and governments gather, organize, merge and analyze data from disparate sources throughout the Internet. He then transformed the D2K (data-to-knowledge) software environment when he co-founded the company that is RiverGlass today. To launch the business, the company partnered with IllinoisVENTURES, a service firm that works with University of Illinois researchers to turn university research projects into viable commercial ventures. With their help, a software solution for a select group of researchers was transformed into a dynamic startup with tremendous business growth opportunity. Today, RiverGlass delivers software solutions to a prestigious list of Fortune 1000 companies and governmental agencies for which access to accurate, concise and oftentimes obscure information is essential.

Semprius, Inc. engages in the design, development, manufacture, and supply of high concentration photovoltaic (HCPV) solar modules. The company offers its HCPV solar modules to generate solar energy. Its HCPV solar modules serve utility, commercial/industrial, and government/military applications in sunny and dry locations worldwide. The company delivers its products through integrators and EPCs. Semprius, Inc. was formerly known as pSi-tech, Inc. The company was founded in 2005 and is based in Durham, North Carolina.

Mesh++ is a solar-powered routers developer. Mesh++ uses mobile processing power to deliver a high-speed WiFi connection to outdoors and public places.

VITRIX HEALTH, INC. designs, develops, manufactures, and markets its screening tool for healthcare industry. Its screening tool is an oral cancer screening device along with its paired application for its device which allows for cancer screenings. VITRIX HEALTH, INC. was founded in 2018 and is headquartered in Champaign, Illinois.

Revenew is a through-channel marketing automation (TCMA) platform that brings control, transparency, and a holistic view of localized marketing. With Revenew, enterprise brands are able to market to, through, and for their partners at scale; empowering partners to market, compete, and grow in their local area.

Chromatin is a biotech company developing and marketing innovative technologies and products that benefit the agricultural, energy, chemical, nutritional, and pharmaceutical sectors. Chromatin is unlocking the potential of plants to produce greater value and meaningful products for consumers, growers, seed producers, and bioprocessors. Chromatin is commercializing solutions that proactively address key societal challenges such as improving agricultural productivity and increasing renewable energy resources.

Semprius, Inc. engages in the design, development, manufacture, and supply of high concentration photovoltaic (HCPV) solar modules. The company offers its HCPV solar modules to generate solar energy. Its HCPV solar modules serve utility, commercial/industrial, and government/military applications in sunny and dry locations worldwide. The company delivers its products through integrators and EPCs. Semprius, Inc. was formerly known as pSi-tech, Inc. The company was founded in 2005 and is based in Durham, North Carolina.

PhotoniCare, Inc., a medical device company, develops a handheld diagnostic tool that enables physicians to diagnose middle ear infections. It offers TOMi Scope, a device that uses near-infrared light waves to provide 3D views beyond the eardrum into the middle ear, and studies the accuracy and validity of optical coherence tomography imaging. The company’s device uses an advanced light-based technology to see through the eardrum. PhotoniCare, Inc. was founded in 2013 and is based in Champaign, Illinois.

Local Offer Network connects data sources to present the right content for visitors

Serionix, Inc. develops air and water purification solutions using fibrous activated carbon and ion-exchange materials. The company offers filters for air purifiers and furnace units. Its filters remove toxic chemicals and odors from air; and kill viruses, bacteria, and mold. Serionix, Inc. was founded in 2011 and is based in Champaign, Illinois.

Cast21 has designed a light-weight, lattice-structure cast that is breathable and waterproof, eliminating many of the disadvantages of traditional casts. Its design also allows for the integration of electronic therapies to decrease healing time.

Aptimmune is a biotechnology company that focuses on developing a muscoal vaccine against viral diseases swine. It focuses on swine vaccines and the prevention of two major diseases, Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome virus (PRRSV) and influenza. It utilizes novel technologies to create effective nasal delivery vaccines against PRRSV such as the proprietary pig alveolar macrophage cell line ZMAC. The company was founded in 2010 and headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri.

Adrenaline mobility provides secure backend services for mobile apps. For security, Adrenaline uses military-grade end-to-end encryption to protect user’s data before storing it on a mobile device and before sending it to cloud servers. Despite this unparalleled level of security, Adrenaline is still easy to use. Adrenaline provides a library that developers put in their apps. This library has simple APIs for enabling developers to store encrypted data seamlessly in Amazon, Google, or Dropbox’s systems, obviating the need for developers to deal with complex security issues like key management, encrypted query processing, or secure message passing.

Reconstruct’s platform provides a ‘virtual command center’ of project replicas that enables project executives to more proactively and precisely manage construction progress including detecting current, past, and future performance issues. The platform’s 3D timelines enable near real-time coordination among general contractors, subs, owners, and lenders.

SolarBridge Technologies, formerly SmartSpark Energy Systems, was founded in 2004 to commercialize power electronics technologies created at the University of Illinois. In early 2009, they launched a new corporate strategy to focus exclusively on the solar industry with microinverter and monitoring solutions. The company has a major research and development site in Champaign, Illinois and has recently expanded to include a new corporate headquarters in Austin, Texas. Led by industry veterans and academic professionals, their mission is to reduce the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) for solar installations by dramatically improving reliability, increasing energy production, and simplifying installation.

Xaptum, Inc. develops messaging platform for the internet. It enables IoT device authentication, authorization, and auto-configuration for messaging over a single TCP connection. The company was incorporated in 2013 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.

Vanquish Oncology, Inc., a drug development company, focuses on targeting molecular defects in specific cancer cells to create personalized oncology therapeutics for unmet and underserved cancer markets. The company's product compounds target a cellular enzyme, procaspase-3, that when activated spurs reactions that kill the cancer cell. The company was incorporated in 2011 and is based in Champaign, Illinois.

Persio’s multi-channel marketing and decision platform put the power of personalization into marketers’ hands. Built to meet the needs of retailers, Persio connects marketers’ existing data sources, technology solutions, deployment channels, and identity resolution services into a single, interoperable interface so that marketers can deploy data-driven and personalized campaigns across web, email, SMS, mobile apps and other sales channels to reach customers with relevant offers at their most responsive point.

ShareThis transforms authentic human sharing behavior into actionable data outputs at scale for marketers and publishers. It has been collecting and synthesizing social share data since 2007.

Petronics develops and offers robotic pets for cats. It offers Mousr, a robotic toy that includes 360-degree vision, environmental sensing, and Bluetooth features. Petronics was founded in 2014 and is based in Champaign, Illinois, United States.