News

RIT Venture Creations client company Circle Optics was awarded a $500,000 investment from the GENIUS NY accelerator competition. The year-long GENIUS NY program is the world’s largest business competition focused on unmanned systems, cross-connected platforms and other technology-based sectors.

Owl AI, an RIT Venture Creations member company, earned an Honorable Achievement designation at $200,000 in the Luminate NY accelerator competition.

RIT Venture Creations client companies Crystal Creek Organics and Agri-Trac have been named to the Top 20 in the GROW-NY Food and Agriculture Competition.

Entrepreneurship expert Johan Klarin comes to Venture Creations from Columbia University, where he served as manager of the NYSERDA-funded Entrepreneur-in-Residence program, assisting clean-tech startups in New York state. Prior to that, he was managing director of Viaduct Inc., a consulting company focused on Western New York startups.

Circle Optics was one among 600 applicants that rose to the top five for the program, which will come with an investment of $500,000 to $1 million to help advance the enterprise. Circle Optics is a deep-tech R&D company specializing in wide field-of-view imaging systems, also known as 360-degree cameras. 

Spectrum News features Kurtis Kracke ’15 (industrial design) and Brad Dunn ’15 (industrial design), co-founders of ThermApparel,

Accelerate Wind, a client company in RIT’s Venture Creations business incubator, has been awarded a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation to help develop solutions for low-cost wind energy generation.

Saunders College of Business has been awarded a grant of up to $500,000 to establish an online life sciences Executive MBA entrepreneurship program. The new degree will be formed in partnership with RIT’s Kate Gleason College of Engineering, College of Science, and Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences. 

OWL AI, a client company in RIT’s Venture Creations incubator, was a winner in the New York state-funded Luminate NY accelerator program. OWL AI was among 126 applicants from 22 countries that rose to the top, winning a $100,000 prize and entry into Cohort 4 of the program.

A new addition to the heart of Rochester’s Downtown Innovation Zone—RIT’s Venture Creations technology business incubator—is designed to enhance the synergy between the vibrancy and resources of the city and the region’s newest start-up companies.

Council Rock, a graduate company from RIT’s Venture Creations business incubator, has received $7 million Series A funding, led by Grand Oaks Capital, the investment firm founded by businessman and philanthropist B. Thomas Golisano. Motorola Solutions, and other private investors, also participated in the investment round.

The move, expected to be complete in December, will allow the incubators’ client companies to work in space designed for positive member “collisions” resulting in close and fruitful collaborations. In addition, the move further advances the commitment from RIT leadership to have a presence in downtown Rochester.