Albuquerque, NM – August 14, 2014 UNM’s Bureau of Business & Economic Research (BBER) recently released its 2014 study on STC start-up companies and the impact on the state’s economy. “STC.UNM: The Impact of Start-up Companies on the New Mexico Economy,” was released in June and is an analysis of the economic impact in the state of new companies formed from technologies developed at the University of New Mexico. BBER also released similar studies in 2004 and 2011. See Karen Wentworth’s August 13th article, “Financial Impact of STC.UNM Supported Startup Companies Continues to Climb,” from UNM Newsroom, reprinted below, and Dan Mayfield’s August 13th article, “STC.UNM Economic Impact Report: 71 Companies Launched and Counting,” from Albuquerque Business First at http://www.bizjournals.com/albuquerque/news/2014/08/13/stc-unm-economic-impact-report-71-companies.html.
Financial impact of STC.UNM supported startup companies continues to climb
Companies bring more than $18 million a year into local economy
By Karen Wentworth – August 13, 2014
STC.UNM has released the latest study of its financial impact on the New Mexico economy. The study was conducted independently on contract by the Bureau of Business and Economic Research (BBER) at UNM. All numbers are from 2013.
The 26 companies that responded to the BBER survey report a payroll of $5,905,500, creating 83 jobs with average compensation for new employees of $71,065.
The companies surveyed report sales of $3.5 million, and have attracted more than $17 million in out-of-state venture capital.
Indirect impact in 2013 such as purchase of goods and supplies is about $3 million, which BBER calculates created 23 jobs and more than $1 million in payroll.
Induced impact – money spent on goods and services by employees of the startups – was calculated at $4.7 million, creating 41 full and part-time jobs in industries such as retail sales and restaurants.
The combined direct, indirect and induced economic impact on the New Mexico economy was more than $18 million, 147 jobs and more than $8.6 million in payroll. The study for 2014 and for previous years can be found at STC.UNM.
Although the study looked at more than 30 start-ups that STC.UNM has been actively providing service to since 2004, only 23 companies provided financial information for the survey. Some of the more mature start-ups declined participation due to confidentiality issues.
“We know the impact is significantly larger than the survey numbers show, nonetheless we are very pleased with steady progress the companies supported by STC.UNM have made in growing our local economy,” said UNM Chief Economic Development Officer Lisa Kuuttila.
STC.UNM is a nonprofit corporation wholly owned by the Board of Regents of the University of New Mexico and established to commercialize intellectual property of faculty, staff and students at the university.
The companies include:
AgilVax Inc. specializes in research and development of vaccines for infectious diseases and chronic conditions such as cancer, asthma, autoimmune disease, metabolic diseases and rare diseases.
Alpine Biosciences Inc. is developing a nanoscale therapeutic platform licensed from UNM and Sandia National Laboratories to address unmet medical needs in oncology and rare diseases. Alpine Biosciences anticipates conducting a variety of research activities in New Mexico, including clinical trials.
Avisa Pharma Inc. is a clinical stage company developing a proprietary, point-of-care breath test, AV-U13 and a portable laser spectrophotometer, AVISAR that rapidly detects lung bacteria in vivo. It enables “risk stratification” in early detection of bacteria and provides monitoring of response to treatment.
Bandojo LLC develops music creation software for the education market and general consumers.
Batterade LLC is engaged in researching, developing, testing and evaluating enzymatic biofuel cells.
Biophagy LLC is a pharmaceutical company developing drugs for autophagy modulation and treatment of diseases with high unmet medical needs.
CleanSpot Inc. is involved in the creation and development of antimicrobial coating technology.
Dynamic Photonics Inc. is a developer of high performance, inexpensive transceiver modules for high-speed light wave communications at rates of 40 gigabits or higher. The utilized concepts are detector agnostic, which makes them useful for a host of applications, beyond telecommunications, that demand high-speed detection.
Eta Diagnostics Inc. (ETAD) develops and commercializes high throughput massively parallel flow cytometry, targeting the unmet need for efficient analysis of rare Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs) in human blood. The company intends to design and produce massively parallel flow cytometry engines that will reduce the time required for CTC testing from days to less than an hour. The will improve the early diagnosis of many forms of cancer and reduce the cost of routine prognosis of cancer therapy.
Exagen Diagnostics is a patient focused, discovery driven, CLIA-certified, CAP-accredited laboratory with a growing menu of proprietary, internally developed tests focusing in the area of Rheumatology and Autoimmune diseases.
GLO has licensed technology to develop LED and LED-related equipment.
Intellicyt develops and markets innovative high throughput cell screening solutions using flow cytometry technology for drug discovery and life science research. Intellicyt offers innovative products, cell screening expertise, technological advances and services that make it possible for researchers to handle large scale cell-based assays faster than previously possible.
K&A Wireless LLC is an innovative driver of technology whose mission is to develop, manufacture and market advanced technology solutions to developing markets where there is an identifiable need to transfer video, data and voice over a wireless link. The company services the firefighting, security & surveillance, law enforcement and military markets.
Lotus Leaf Coatings commercializes environmentally friendly super hydrophobic (water-repellent) coating jointly developed at the University of New Mexico and Sandia National Laboratories. The coating may be applied using a variety of methods such as aerosol spraying, dip coating, spin coating or blade casting. It can be produced consistently with extremely low refractive indices as well as optical clarity. Unlike similar coatings, it may be used in biological applications.
MagnetoOrganics LLC has a mission to enable physicians to diagnose disease at an earlier stage and to make treatment decisions based on the best response to therapy by providing a companion diagnostic instrument line – from research discovery to clinical validation to point-of-care, along with assays which are accurate, rapid and cost effective.
NanoMR is developing a diagnostic medical device to detect bloodstream infections to replace blood culture. NanoMR’s technology detects and identifies pathogens in less than two hours directly from blood samples. Early detection allows appropriate treatment of infected patients, reducing mortality and healthcare costs.
Pajarito Powder LLC is a non-precious metal fuel cell catalyst manufacturer. The company mission is to be the world’s first commercial manufacturer of drop in replacement of non-platinum fuel cell catalysts.
Respira Therapeutics is developing a pipeline of inhaled prescription pharmaceutical products where the delivery of a single proprietary dry powder drug formulation of a soon to be off patent oral drug, is uniquely enabled by one of Respira’s dry powder inhaler (DPI) technologies.
SKINfrared LLC is a high technology company specializing in engineering medical solutions. The company has developed an Advanced Longwave Infrared-imaging and Analysis System (ALIAS) which can be used to test the temporal response of the tissue to a temperature stimulus. The system is currently being used in the UNM Dermatology clinic to obtain preliminary data for the early diagnosis of skin cancer, but has secondary applications in neurosurgery for the non-invasive detection of cerebral flow in shunts.
ThermoDynamic Films is engaged in the commercialization of energy and heat dissipation technologies.
VisionQuest Biomedical LLC has developed the first and only non-invasive functional imaging thermal infrared device “NeuroTherm™” for early detection of diabetic peripheral neuropathy. VisionQuest Biomedical had contracts with healthcare providers such as Molina, Blue Cross Blue shield and Presbyterian Health Plan of New Mexico, to screen their diabetic members for retinal disease. The company’s goal is to introduce efficient technologies to screen for other comorbidities of diabetes like DPN.
Wedge Communications LLC licenses and sells Way to Serve, an online responsible beverage service training program. Wedge is the only state approved online training provider in New Mexico.
Zocere Inc. is a pharmaceutical company developing injectable neuroprotectant drugs intended to combat stroke and other neurological diseases.
Source: STC.UNM
For more information, contact:
Denise Bissell
(505) 272-7310
dbissell@stc.unm.edu