In February, we launched VCU’s first Startup Accelerator to fast-track university-borne companies. Those eight-plus weeks of intensive consulting concluded in May with a Shark Tank-style Pitch Day competition for the five participating startups.

The competition was held at the HQ of our partners at Activation Capital, where a panel of judges awarded first place to a virtual-reality surgical training platform and second place going to an electromagnetic shielding technology to protect devices from cyber criminals. Yet Pitch Day was more than a competition —  it’s one of many initiatives designed to support faculty-founded startups to ensure their technologies are known, grown, and eventually turned into products, devices, and therapies to improve society and human health.

Since we began supporting startups in 2021 with coaching and advising from our lineup of entrepreneurs-in-residence,  each year we eclipse the previous number of invention disclosures, filed patents, and licenses to startups — and we are on track again in 2024.
VCU is a part of an ecosystem of organizations transforming the Richmond region and Virginia at large into an innovation destination. In May, I had the honor of joining a dozen companies (including several VCU startups, see below) for the launch of a new statewide initiative to accelerate startup capital deployment. Virginia Invests, led by our partners at the Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation (VIPC), is engaging seven investment funds to attract $250 million into over 100 high-growth Virginia startups. For our VCU entrepreneurial faculty, this is a huge opportunity to attract capital and bring your ideas to life over the next several years.

So here is my call to you:

• If you are VCU faculty and have entrepreneurial dreams, I encourage you to reach out to our team to learn how we can support your goals.

• If you are a partner or investor with interests in university IP and startups, contact me directly.

We hope you enjoy this edition of Launchpad and some of the stories of innovation taking shape at VCU.

Ivelina Metcheva, Ph.D., MBA
Assistant Vice President for Innovation
VCU TechTransfer and Ventures
Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation