Led · Seed · Mar 2018

Circular Wave Drive manufactures compact speed-reducing gears for robotics and a variety of other applications. Its technology enables a full product line of low-cost, compact, highly-efficient speed-reducing gearing systems; the technology was developed by Dr. Yuanfang Zheng, a Winbiger Endowed Chair professor at The Ohio State University. Led by Dr. Robert Lee, the Columbus, Ohio-based company plans to use new funding to further invest in research and development, talent acquisition and international growth. As part of its expansion plans, the company is opening offices in China. The company raised $900K in this seed round, capping off a $2M total seed investment. The round was led by Ikove Venture Partners.

Led · Seed · Jan 2018

Cognovi Labs develops a SaaS platform that leverages emotion-based artificial intelligence to make predictions for businesses, investors, advertising agencies and political events in real time. The platform’s use cases include forecasting product sales to inform inventory management, selecting stocks based on consumer intent and shopping behavior, predicting political outcomes or influencing messaging, and continuously optimizing ad targeting to strengthen brands and generate leads. The company plans to use recent funding to scale client engagement, expand its core team and refine its commercial product. Cognovi’s AI technology was developed by Dr. Amit Sheth at the Kno.e.sis Center at Wright State University. Beni Gradwohl, Ph.D. is CEO and co-founder. The company raised $2.3M in a seed round to support these efforts.

Led · Seed · Dec 2017

ParaGen Technologies is the Columbus, OH-based parent company of four medical device companies: RenovoDerm, Atreon Orthopedics, Vascular Genesis and Tarian Medical. Its portfolio companies are developing product lines for wound care (RenovoDerm), orthopedics (Atreon), peripheral vascular (Vascular Genesis) and hernia (Tarian). The company plans to commercialize RenovoDerm’s proprietary Phoenix Wound Matrix, pursue FDA pre-testing for Tarian Medical’s Tarian AbS, and begin final animal testing for Vascular Genesis’ vascular access graft. ParaGen is a joint venture between Nanofiber Solutions, which developed the core technology, and the Ikove Startup Nursery, which provided funding and go-to-market strategy. In November 2018 it closed a $3m bridge funding round led by CEO Ross Kayuha and plans to raise a Series A with Ikove in mid-2019. ParaGen leverages a platform scaffold technology developed to promote healing and commercializes it through multiple clinical verticals via a portfolio approach. The company is the parent of four portfolio companies—RenovoDerm, Atreon Orthopedics, Vascular Genesis and Tarian Medical—each tailoring the material to build product lines for wound care, orthopedics, peripheral vascular and hernia markets. ParaGen provides its portfolio companies access to manufacturing space, regulatory and development expertise. The company holds a strong intellectual property position with over 33 patent filings. ParaGen is a joint venture between Nanofiber Solutions, which developed the core technology, and the Ikove Startup Nursery, which provided funding and go-to-market strategy. In August 2017 ParaGen raised $4.1M in seed funding led by Ikove Venture Partners, which the company says validates its multi-vertical commercialization model.