Purdue Touts Big Startup, Commercialization Numbers in FY 2020

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Purdue University says Fiscal Year 2020 was a record breaking year for its startup and commercialization efforts. The university says it generated a record 56 startups in FY20, including 22 based on university-licensed intellectual property. Additionally, Purdue says it received a record 408 new invention disclosures, resulting in nearly 150 license agreements that contained more than 225 technologies.

“These researchers at Purdue have not slowed down during this pandemic time,” said Brooke Beier, vice president of Purdue’s Office of Commercialization. “They are producing research that’s not only got commercial applications, but they’re also being issued patents by the U.S. PTO (Patent and Trademark Office).”

Purdue also says it has reached a significant milestone, working with its 300^th startup since 2013, companies that helped attract more than $400 million in venture and grant funding and created more than 400 jobs.

Beier and Purdue Foundry Chief Entrepreneurial Officer Wade Lange talked about the numbers and the school’s tech ecosystem on this weekend’s edition of Inside INdiana Business with Gerry Dick.

While there were concerns about the impact the COVID-19 pandemic might have on research and commercialization efforts, Beier says faculty and students actually pivoted their research projects to attack the crisis and that kept the Purdue innovation machine humming. “They’ve disclosed new inventions related to diagnostics, being able to detect the COVID-19 virus in saliva, working on therapeutics, personal protective equipment, sterilization and disinfection techniques, it really hasn’t slowed down at all.”

Lange says the startup and commercialization efforts benefit the university and the state of Indiana. “We employ a lot of engineers, a lot of scientists, a number of people with very deep technical training and these are high compensation jobs as well,” said Lange.