News Release: Indiana Startups Secure Funding in Second Elevate Nexus Regional Pitch Competitions

Apr 21, 2020

It’s always pleasant to hear good news about past clients, particularly now when successful business news is scarce. Just today I read about oil contracts going negative.  And the negative news goes on and on. Well, Sintact Medical Systems, founded by Erik Robinson in 2013, is a successful recipient of the Second Elevate Nexus Regional Pitch Competition, which was announced by Elevate Ventures today (04—20-2020). Sinctact produces a film that is a polymer substitute composed of an inert biodegradable polymer.  This Sinctact Film provides critical soft tissue support to protect the patient from post-operative complications months and even years after surgery. Excessive internal tissue attachment can often occur following surgery and causes adjacent tissues to attach to one another. This is exceeding common and is a very pervasive problem in upwards of 90 % of some types of surgery.  Sintact achieves an 86%  rate of efficacy in preventing tissue attachment.

Indiana Startups Secure Funding in Second Elevate Nexus Regional Pitch Competitions 

INDIANAPOLIS (April 20, 2020) — Sixteen startup businesses from around Indiana have been awarded a total of $680,000 in pre-seed and seed funding by Elevate Ventures to spur growth.

The 16 were chosen from 58 finalists that competed Feb. 25-27 in the second regional Elevate Nexus Pitch Competitions, which were held at Innovation Park at the University of Notre Dame, Flagship Enterprise Center at Anderson University and Ivy Tech Community College in Bloomington.

The competition was established to invest in early-stage Indiana startups with an emphasis on those taking advantage of support resources from higher education institutions in the state. Each company had 10 minutes to pitch to a judging panel in northern, central or southern Indiana.

Regional winners and affiliated higher-education institutions, if applicable, include:

Northern Indiana

  • Pre-Seed ($20,000 investment)
    • Allervent; Upland; Taylor University
    • Rabbit Tractors; Cedar Lake; Purdue University
    • Lumen Bio; South Bend; University of Notre Dame
  • Seed ($80,000 investment)
    • Blaire Biomedical; Angola; Trine University
    • CODEinCLASS; South Bend; University of Notre Dame

Central Indiana

  • Pre-Seed ($20,000 investment)
    • Gen3Bio; West Lafayette; Purdue University
    • Multiscale Integrated Technology Solutions; Indianapolis; Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis
    • Probari; Indianapolis; Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis
    • TBB Quality Solutions d/b/a Documentor; Indianapolis
  • Seed ($80,000 investment)
    • BestQuote; Zionsville; Purdue University
    • Spirrow Therapeutics; West Lafayette; Purdue University

Southern Indiana

  • Pre-Seed ($20,000 investment)
    • Endless Eyewear; Evansville; Purdue University
    • My Gaming Career d/b/a Gamerized; Jasper; Ivy Tech Community College
    • Nature Greens; Indianapolis; University of Southern Indiana
  • Seed ($80,000 investment)
    • The Learning Alliance; Bloomington; Indiana University-Bloomington
    • Sintact Medical Systems; Bloomington; Purdue University

In addition to receiving funding, each company is considered an Elevate Ventures’ portfolio business and gains access to Elevate’s network of advisors and resources.

Each company also earns the opportunity to pitch during the statewide competition where an additional $320,000 will be awarded. The statewide competition will be held virtually on May 19.