Innosphere, OSU partner to commercialize tech, foster startups, create $ impact

Monday March 1, 2021 Tags: Fort Collins, Innosphere, Mike Freeman, OSU, Innosphere Ventures, Zachary Miles

FORT COLLINS -- Oklahoma State University is joining Innosphere Ventures’ University Partner Program where the two will collaborate to foster innovation, support startup companies and create economic impact in Oklahoma. 

In the partnership, Innosphere will work directly with OSU's Technology Development Center to extend their successful programs to OSU startup ventures. Specifically, these services include connecting inventors with business drivers, facilitating introductions to corporate partners, advancing technologies to commercialization, and helping founders and CEOs to achieve their business milestones.

“Innosphere will be a value-added extension of our OSU commercialization process and enhance our technology transfer capabilities,” said Zachary Miles, senior VP for Technology and Economic Development at OSU.

OSU has robust business support programs, such as the OSU Research Foundation which supports Cowboy Technologies, to help researchers develop go-to-market plans, provide sponsored research funding for technology development, prepare startups to raise capital and more.

“Working with Innosphere will enhance our overall impact and metrics – from capital raised, to jobs created, to the number of licenses and startups,” Miles said.

“Partnering with Innosphere is a great addition to our technology transfer services because they don’t just stop when a technology is turned into a startup — they continue working to turn those startups into high-growth businesses.”

“We’re excited to be a part of OSU’s mission to foster innovative technologies,” said Mike Freeman, CEO of Innosphere Ventures.

“This partnership provides our commercialization program with high-quality deal-flow and the opportunity to work with OSU’s outstanding faculty entrepreneurs and licensing managers.

Innosphere has longtime partnerships with Colorado’s research universities and their technology transfer offices at Colorado State University, the University of Colorado and the Colorado School of Mines.

“Formalizing relationships with technology transfer offices outside of Colorado is a win-win situation to support university research, ongoing innovation efforts, and all of our economic development goals,” Freeman said.