October 4, 2011
HADDAD’S HI-TECH BUSINESS BILL PAYING DIVIDENDS
Start-up company founded at UConn earns state financing
Legislation introduced by State Representative Gregory Haddad (D-Mansfield, Chaplin), Vice-chair of the Commerce Committee, designed to help spur economic growth in high technology industries became law this July, but has already resulted in a new Connecticut medical device company originally founded in Storrs receiving $40,000 in state financing to help it move a new product closer to market.
LamdaVision Inc. of Farmington was able to take advantage of the state’s “Pre-Seed” economic assistance program which provides start-up companies with critical resources to turn new technology into products. Haddad’s bill (SB 1173) expanded the program this year by permitting companies started from university research to count early expenses such as patent and prototype development provided by universities in the outside match required when seeking Pre-Seed funding from Connecticut Innovations (CI), a state economic development arm which runs the program.
“The idea of this legislation is to help develop and encourage new hi-tech start-up companies created from research conducted at UConn, and I’m glad to see it is already paying dividends,” said Haddad, who also announced plans this spring for the state to fund a multi-million dollar technology park on the University of Connecticut campus. “This is all about encouraging more working partnerships between business and the University which is important for sustaining future economic growth in the region.”
LambdaVision, created by the University of Connecticut Research and Development Corporation, is developing a protein-based retinal implant intended to restore sight to patients blinded by degeneration in the outer retina. The core technology was developed by Robert Birge, Ph.D., a University of Connecticut professor of biological and physical chemistry, who, along with students in his lab, founded LambdaVision in 2009.
“Without the successful legislation introduced by Representative Haddad amending the CI Preseed Program, the investment by CI would not have been possible,” said Rita Zangari, Director of the UConn Technology Incubation Program. “LambdaVision actually provides a great example of how University and State partnerships fuel new technology companies. The company was first formed by the UConn R&D Corp; its initial funding came from the University’s Prototype Fund which helps with product development; a student was tapped as the CEO of this faculty startup by R&D Corp; and the Business School’s Innovation Accelerator – which was developed with state funds just five years ago—provided a team of MBA students to flesh out the business plan for the company.”
“We are grateful to be awarded this pre-seed funding from Connecticut Innovations. These funds will allow LambdaVision to begin critical proof-of-concept studies in collaboration with the Center for Innovative Visual Rehabilitation at the Boston VA Medical Center,” stated Nicole Wagner, CEO of LambdaVision.
The Pre-Seed fund provides loans of up to $150,000 to Connecticut-based start-ups and early-stage technology companies. Funding may be used for a wide range of startup expenses such as accounting, legal, intellectual property development, technology and prototype development, business plan development, technology assessments, market analyses, market entry strategy development, and hiring of advisors and employees.