Media Contacts:
Kevin Burgoyne kevin@flventure.org
Pat Schneider pat@flventure.org
Sara Shell sshell@spaceflorida.gov
Exploration Park, Tampa and Miami, FL –May 12, 2020– The Florida Venture Forum has selected 20 companies to present at the Aerospace Innovation & Tech Forum via webinar series on May 22, 2020 and May 29, 2020 with prize money award announcements on June 5, 2020. This will be the third annual aerospace-focused event the Forum has hosted in partnership with Space Florida.
Ben Patz, Florida Venture Forum board member, head of the event selection committee and managing partner of DeepWork Capital stated, “The Florida Venture Forum and Space Florida have provided a unique opportunity for companies with innovative technical solutions to showcase those solutions virtually. The number of applicants for this event from all around the world has been humbling. This has allowed the selection of a truly diverse mix of companies with innovative and inspirational technologies.”
In addition to virtual company presentations and other informational content, the Aerospace Innovation & Tech Forum will provide a total of $100,000 in cash awards presented to three winning companies, courtesy of Space Florida. The series will take place in three segments: company presentations will be featured on May 22 and May 29, and a final event will take place on June 5 to announce the winning companies. Each session is free to attend.
Presenting companies were selected by a committee of active venture investors and will present via webinar to an audience of investors, other deal professionals and aerospace industry leaders. The 20 selected presenting companies are listed below:
CENTRAL/ CENTRAL EAST/CENTRAL WEST
Agriculture Intelligence, Inc., Gainesville, is dedicated to making agriculture smarter. From citrus to corn, from lumber to livestock, from field to water management—they are bringing artificial intelligence, deep learning, and expert systems combined with UAV-collected aerial imagery help reduce cost, eliminate waste, increase yields, and improve sustainability. Their flagship product is a powerful AI-based software engine called Agroview that changes how growers view their fields.
Arralis Technologies, LLC, Daytona Beach (www.arralis.com), is a millimeter wave company and designs and manufactures products for aerospace, defense, satellite and telecommunications. Originally founded by Barry Lunn and Mike Gleaves in 2013, it has rapidly grown to earn key contracts from the likes of the European Space Agency, Boeing, Airbus, UK MoD and General Motors.
BrandXR, Orlando (www.brandxr.io), the BrandXR Studio is a SaaS-based no-code platform that allows anyone to create Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), and Mixed Reality (MR) apps. With no prior experience or training required. Their no code platform makes creating an XR experience easy to create for existing marketing and technology staff. With existing popular XR use cases and drag and drop functionality, no prior game engine experience is needed and a full XR experience can be created and launched successfully in days. And they give businesses dashboards to measure the performance of the XR experiences with unique metrics like heat-maps.
Capacitech Energy, Orlando (www.capacitechenergy.com/), is commercializing patent protected, advanced energy storage technology from University of Central Florida. The company was formed in 2016, won several competitions, secured grant funding to mitigate technical risk, and recently closed the first tranche of its Series A. It now has working technology, significant traction for sustainable revenue, and recently made their first sale. The CBC will be used to complement batteries in the solar & IT markets to reduce cost of ownership and installation costs. It can also help miniaturize electronics by offsetting large, traditional capacitors on circuit boards to connected wiring infrastructure.
Miles Space, Inc., Tampa (www.miles-space.com), is an Aerospace company that specializes in Signal Processing using our patented technology in a no moving-parts aperture array, Drone Detection technology, Military Passive Radar, and their Water Vapor-Based thruster for satellites and space probes.
SegAna, Orlando, is a medical device company that has developed a cloud-based software platform utilizing artificial Intelligence and proprietary algorithms measuring changes in patient specific tissue elasticity for enhancing radiation treatment of cancer. The company’s patented technology, licensed from UCLA and UCF, enhances the treatment of cancer by providing Radiation Oncologists with the ability to accurately define the margin of the tumor on the day of treatment and predict an abnormal treatment up to 4 days in the future. The Radiation Oncologist utilizes this knowledge to develop a new patient treatment plan which will ultimately reduce radiation damage to the healthy tissue surrounding the tumor and improve a patient’s outcome.
SpacePharma Inc., Exploration Park (www.space4p.com), is an active player in the commercial space sector with experience placing scientific research platforms aboard the ISS, in orbit within nanosatellite laboratories, and aboard parabolic flights. SpacePharma’s Advanced Labs are already being used to study a wide range of topics in microgravity including investigations of human organ-on-a-chip systems, protein crystallization, cancer, and cell senescence, and aging. The company offers its miniaturized, automated, and remotely operated Advanced Microgravity Laboratory as the building block of the pharmaceutical and biological microgravity space factory of the future.
SOUTHEAST
Aerosens, Hollywood (www.aerosens.com/), the Aerosens Cabin Management Solution is a cloud based platform able to maximize aircraft cabin security and increase efficiency for airlines while reducing costs; using Bluetooth Low Energy sensors and the everyday smartphone or tablet.
BetaBlocks, Miami (www.betablocks.co), is a technology company customizing, building & deploying permissioned blockchain networks for enterprises. In addition to their blockchain labs, Betablocks created Chambray: a web-based, cloud-agnostic, and turnkey BaaS (Blockchain as a Service) solution to customize, build, deploy & manage permissioned blockchain networks for enterprises.
Coflow Jet, LLC., Cutler Bay (www.coflowjet.com), the company is committed to develop vertical takeoff/landing (VTOL) and short takeoff/landing (STOL) aircraft for urban air transportation, short haul cargo, thin haul passenger airliners, and Martian aerial vehicle power with nuclear fission . CFJ airfoil is a fundamental technology for all aircraft. Their aim is to transform the aviation industry to benefit the society.
Flying Robot Corporation, Plantation (www.flyingrobotcorp.com/ ), is developing a software/hardware platform that uses drones to inspect aircraft. Their proprietary platform can perform inspections at 10 times the speed at 1/10 the cost compared to traditional methods.
InfraSite Solutions, West Palm Beach (www.infrasite.com), is a HAAS (hardware-as-a-service) and SAAS (software-as-a-service) technology company that has developed a unique patented underground enclosure. Originally made for telecom infrastructure, the enclosure is gaining traction in other industries: – 4G / 5G Telecommunications, Edge Cloud Compute Infrastructure –Public Safety and Smart Traffic – Digital Transformation, Smart City – Renewable Energy, Industrial and Military.
PQSecure Technologies, Boca Raton (www.pqsecurity.com/ ), develops cryptographic solutions to make widely used embedded devices such as connected Internet of Things (IoT) secure against attacks today and the future, when large scale quantum computers are available. Founded in 2017, PQSecure™ has won an NSF SBIR Phase I&II grant which has led to two patents and a successful prototype.
Xennial Digital, Miami (www.xennialdigital.com/), the company designs, develops and implements Virtual
Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) solutions for education and enterprise training. Their products include: Virtual Reality Training Platform for Aircraft Technicians, including: – Secure Content Delivery Portal, Six Aircraft Technician Training Programs and Real-Time User Performance Tracking Portal.
OUT OF STATE:
International Metal Source, California (www.imetalsource.com ), is an AS9100/ISO Certified, Women and Minority Owned Small Business specializing in research, analysis, processing, and delivery of hard to find exotic metals and materials to Aerospace, Space, Satellite, Defense, Oil & Gas, Medical, Automotive and Commercial Industries. The IMS team’s goal is to change how materials are procured and processed throughout the world by increasing client productivity and operational efficiency. IMS strives to be the primary source of all metal products for Aerospace, Defense and Satellite companies by offering quality, excellence, and continuous improvement while maintaining loyalty and integrity for all.
Spintech Holdings, Inc., Ohio (www.smarttooling.com/ ), the company’s patented Smart Tooling technology allows composite manufacturers to make complex and trapped geometry composite parts with improved quality, reduced cost, and faster throughput. In other words, to make composites Better, Cheaper, & Faster! Smart Tooling’s promise to customers is “Ensuring Success in the Manufacturing of Complex Composites” and with this promise they offer a manufacturing solution that includes manufacturing a pre-production composite part to show that the solution works.
Vital Vio, New York, the company’s antimicrobial light illuminates & protects surfaces and meets international standards for continuous and unrestricted use around people. Their planet-friendly antimicrobial LED lights combat the growth of bacteria, fungi, yeast, mold and mildew at home, in public places, and in every industry. Unlike harmful chemicals and dangerous ultraviolet light, which clean intermittently, Vital Vio antimicrobial lights are at work 24/7, delivering continuous protection and creating an inhospitable environment for microbes.
INTERNATIONAL:
Archangel Lightworks, United Kingdom (www.archangel.works), is an optical communications company. We build products and services employing laser (optical) communications for the aerospace sector. These products and services include space terminals that can be mounted on satellites, air terminals that are mounted on drones or manned aircraft and ground communications terminals. Using their proprietary laser technology, they integrate air, space and ground assets into hybrid architectures, accelerating the development of major aerospace market segments.
CATEC Advanced Center for Aerospace Technologies, Spain (www.catec.aero/ ), is a technological center that develops its activity based on the following strategic lines: 1. New materials, their production processes. Automation of production, assembly, inspection and testing. 2. Unmanned Aerial Systems, its applications and associated technologies. Special attention to commercial, civil and security applications. Using UAS as a flight test platform. For all these reasons, CATEC is a development tool that bases its work on technical excellence and responsiveness to its customers and intends to become, in the coming years, one of the R & D centers of national and international reference for the development of aerospace technology. CATEC supports companies for developing high tech products and solutions, focusing in technology transfer actions.
Clutch Space Systems Limited, United Kingdom (www.clutchspace.com/), is a systems business, specializing in satellite communications, with capability across full satellite build and operational services. They enable their customers to gain greater utility, flexibility and commercial gain from their satellites and communications
infrastructure. They have developed and operate a software suite which replaces the need for bespoke hardware for satellite communications, this enables operating and capital cost reduction, increased flexibility and greater capacity from existing infrastructure as well exploitation of new antenna technology. They have developed a critical component in the development of lower-cost satellite terminals.
About the Florida Venture Forum
The Florida Venture Forum is Florida’s largest statewide support and networking organization for venture capitalists and entrepreneurs, helping startup and growth companies connect with the capital sources and business services they need to grow and scale. To date, companies presenting at Forum conferences have gone on to raise over $7 billion in equity capital, and a third party economic impact study concluded that the Forum has contributed nearly $9 Billion in overall economic value to the State of Florida. The Forum hosts networking and educational programs throughout the year in addition to producing the annual Florida Venture Capital Conference, Florida Statewide Collegiate Business Plan Competition and Florida Early Stage and Angel Capital Conference. For more information, visit http://www.flventure.org or mail pat@flventure.org or kevin@flventure.org .
About Space Florida: Space Florida was created to strengthen Florida’s position as the global leader in aerospace research, investment, exploration and commerce. As Florida’s aerospace and spaceport development authority, we are committed to attracting and expanding the next generation of space industry businesses. With its highly trained workforce, proven infrastructure and unparalleled record of achievement, Florida is the ideal location for aerospace businesses to thrive – and Space Florida is the perfect partner to help them succeed. www.spaceflorida.gov.
# # #
