RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) – Governor Ralph Northam has announced a $3.4 million grant to be distributed to 34 small tech businesses across a variety of industries, including agricultural and environmental technologies, autonomous systems, clean energy, cybersecurity, data analytics, life sciences and space and satellites.
The grant is part of the Commonwealth Commercialization Fund, a program launched in 2020 to promote innovation and commercialization for businesses in Virginia. The fund seeks technologies with a high potential for economic development and job creation to help elevate Virginia’s place among the top science and technology industries.
“Facilitating research breakthroughs and getting new technologies out of the lab and into the hands of consumers is key to driving economic growth and creating jobs in the Commonwealth,” said Governor Northam in a press release. “I am confident this first round of [Commonwealth Commercialization Fund] awards will produce far-reaching benefits and congratulate these innovators and entrepreneurs on their success in developing transformative solutions to improve lives and address some of the most pressing challenges we face.”
The following grants have been awarded:
3 Ridge Technologies Inc. | Mr. Bill Sareen | Agria™ – Truly Organic Scalable Organic Farm Factories, $100,000, Agricultural and Environmental Technologies, Lynchburg
Advaray | Dr. Timothy Showalter | Progress Toward Commercialization of a Novel Hydrogen-Based Product for Pelvic Brachytherapy, $100,000, Life and Health Sciences, Charlottesville
AgroSpheres, Inc. | Mr. Ameer Shakeel | Commercialization of Reliable, Sustainable Crop Protection Products, $100,000, Agricultural and Environmental Technologies, Charlottesville
AtWork Systems, Inc. | Mr. Jin Chun | Cybersecurity Assessment Tools for SaaS Platform, $100,000, Cybersecurity, Herndon
Babylon Micro-Farms Inc.| Mr. Graham Smith | Advancing Micro-Farm Technology – Developing Automated Quality Control to Improve the Producibility and Reliability of Babylon Micro-Farms’ IoT Platform, $98,250, Agricultural and Environmental Technologies, Richmond
BEAM Diagnostics, Inc | Dr. Sarah Snider | Commercialization of Beacon: A Digital Platform for Innovative Prediction Tools in Healthcare, $100,000, Life and Health Sciences, Roanoke
BlackBoiler, Inc.| Mr. Daniel Broderick | User Control of AI-Powered Contract Markup, $100,000, Data Science and Analytics, Arlington
Bonumose, Inc. | Mr. Edwin Rogers | Making Healthy Sugar Affordable for the Mass Market, $100,000, Life and Health Sciences, Charlottesville
Caza Health LLC | Ms. Peggy Robinson | Improving Women’s Health Outcomes – A New Diagnostic Research Tool, $99,898, Life and Health Sciences, Earlysville
Cerillo, Inc. | Mr. Kevin Seitter | Development of a Low-Cost, Miniaturized, Field-Deployable ELISA Reader, $100,000, Life and Health Sciences, Charlottesville
Contraline, Inc | Mr. Kevin Eisenfrats | Development of Market Access Strategy for a Novel Male Contraceptive, $99,998, Life and Health Sciences, Charlottesville
Federal Foundry LLC | Mr. Geoffrey Orazem | Government Contracting Capture Application, $100,000, Data Science and Analytics, Arlington
Fend Incorporated | Mr. Colin Dunn | Sales Acceleration: Fend Cellular Data Diode and Data Extraction Subscriptions, $100,000, Cybersecurity, Arlington
GPX LLC | Mr. Eric Berger | Reinvigorating Participatory Democracy with GPX, $100,000, Data Science and Analytics, Richmond
Humanitru | Mr. Alan Wei | Machine Learning and Marketing Automation to Improve Donor Retention and Acquisition, $100,000, Data Science and Analytics, Richmond
Icarus Medical LLC | Mr. Evan Eckersley | Determination of Clinical Outcomes for a Novel Multi-Compartment Unloader Brace, $99,989, Life and Health Sciences, Charlottesville
Itus Digital | Mr. Joe Nichols | Itus Go-To-Market, $100,000, Data Science and Analytics, Roanoke
Jeeva Informatics Solutions Inc | Mr. Harsha Rajasimha | Remote Touchless Patient Recruitment and Retention Platform for Clinical Research, $100,000, Life and Health Sciences, Vienna
Keshif, LLC | Dr. Adil Yalcin | Keshif/Exploratory Interactive Visual Data Analytics, $95,700, Data Science and Analytics, Alexandria
Laser Thermal Analysis, LLC | Dr. John Gaskins | Steady State Thermoreflectance in Fiber Optics: SSTR-F, $50,000, Data Science and Analytics, Charlottesville
Leading Edge Advanced Fibers, Inc. | Mr. Michael Duncan | Development of Ultra-Lightweight Materials for Use in Satellites, $100,000, Space and Satellites, Charlottesville
Li Industries, Inc. | Mr. Nolan Schmidt | Automatic Direct Recycling of End-of-Life Electric Vehicle Lithium-Ion Batteries, $100,000, Clean Energy, Blacksburg
Meru Biotechnologies | Dr. Daniel Rodenhaver | Development and Commercialization of TruBind Technology for Drug Discovery, $95,850, Life and Health Sciences, Richmond
Metaform | Mr. Jeff Gunther | System for Effectively Integrating Disparate Information Sources, $97,547, Data Science and Analytics, Charlottesville
MOVA Technologies, Inc. | Mr. Matthew Gulotta | Panel Bed Carbon Capture: Component Design, Integration, and IP Protection, $100,000, Clean Energy, Pulaski
NOVI LLC | Dr. Amit Mehra | Remote Imaging and AI-Based Flaw Detection for Pavement and Infrastructure Maintenance, $99,250, Data Science and Analytics, Arlington
Onclave Networks, Inc. | Ms. Marianne Meins | Zero Trust Remote Access for Smart Communities, $100,000, Cybersecurity, McLean
Psionic LLC | Mr. Philip Ma | Psionic Navigation Doppler Lidar, $100,000, Space and Satellites, Hampton
Rimstorm Inc. | Mr. Ben Gerenstein | CMMC GovCon Enclave, $100,000, Cybersecurity, Herndon
Service Robotics & Technologies | Dr. Gregory Scott | Optimizing Energy and HVAC Usage through Integrated, Automated Scheduling for Facilities in Higher Education, $99,999, Autonomous Systems, Springfield
SVT Robotics | Mr. Jim Hodson | Natural Language Processing and Interface for Robotic Integration Systems, $100,000, Autonomous Systems, Norfolk
TrueAlgae | Mr. Zachary Pogue | Revolutionizing Algae for Multi-Purpose Agribusiness in VA, $100,000, Agricultural and Environmental Technologies, Chantilly
Visual Workforce, Inc. | Mr. Bryan Bostic | Visual Workforce Skills Management and Workforce Visualizations Software, $100,000, Data Science and Analytics, Richmond
ZeoVation | Dr. Bo Wang | Additive Manufacturing of Antimicrobial/Antiviral Polymeric Devices, $100,000, Life and Health Sciences, Manassas
“The new Commonwealth Commercialization Fund signals Virginia’s commitment to increasing commercialization outcomes for small Virginia businesses across many industries,” said Secretary of Commerce and Trade Brian Ball. “Early funding is essential in bringing new products and innovations to market and we look forward to watching the awardees’ innovations thrive in the Commonwealth.”
To learn more about the Commonwealth Commercialization Fund, visit www.cit.org/ccf.
