Advanced Energy partners with Innosphere on innovation pipeline

FORT COLLINS -- Advanced Energy Industries, Inc. (Nasdaq: AEIS), a global leader in precision power conversion, announced it is now collaborating with Innosphere, a Fort Collins-based high-tech incubator supporting entrepreneurs building high-impact science and technology companies.

Advanced Energy said it has joined Innosphere’s Corporate Partners Program, which will unite Advanced Energy with innovative startups and university-sponsored technology development in Colorado.

Headquartered in Fort Collins, with sales, service and manufacturing facilities located throughout North America, Europe and Asia, Advanced Energy is a technology leader that enables design breakthroughs and drives growth for leading semiconductor, thin-film and industrial customers.

For more than three decades, the company has identified high-tech challenges, formulated patent inventions and launched successful power, control and service solutions. As an industry-leading enterprise, Advanced Energy said it can help Innosphere startup businesses remove common obstacles, offer technical assistance and financial resources and bring to market new power electronics or related technologies that boost local ingenuity and entrepreneurs.

Innosphere’s incubation program focuses on ensuring companies are investor-ready, connecting them with experienced advisors and making introductions to corporate partners.

“Our ability to fuel local innovation is good for our business and good for the community,” said Yuval Wasserman, Advanced Energy president and CEO.

“Advanced Energy was a startup business 36 years ago. Although we’ve grown into a global enterprise, we’ve maintained our Fort Collins presence and entrepreneurial spirit. To advance technology, to advance that inexhaustible IP and to tap into the local talent pool is a unique opportunity that we approach with responsibility and foresight. It will serve us all well in the end.”

Wasserman detailed some aspects of the partnership at an "Innovation After Hours" networking event on Thursday.

"We need talent, we rely on talent," he said. "Our most critical strategic asset is brains.

"We're looking forward to partnering with Innosphere to see how that partnership advances our innovation. At the end of the day, our key asset is people."

“Through our Corporate Partners Program, we hope to encourage more innovation and inspire more entrepreneurs,” said Scott Sampl, Innosphere's director of operations.

“Advanced Energy’s success is rooted in innovation, and the company has a wide-reaching impact, including the ability to take innovations developed here in Colorado around the globe. Our hope is that more companies like Advanced Energy will model this approach to accelerate economic development and advance technology.”

Advanced Energy introduced its first product in May 1981, a high-performance power supply that revolutionized the semiconductor industry. As the company’s IP, product lines and global presence have grown, AE said its objective has remained fundamentally the same: to provide leading technologies that enable end-user and OEM customers to innovate.

The company has licensed and acquired several technologies and businesses over the years and continues to diversify its product portfolio, most recently with thermal and high-voltage acquisitions. AE said it continually reviews opportunities to augment its innovation product pipeline.