New UTP Website Launched
The University Technology Park at IIT (UTP) website has been completely rebuilt to reflect significant construction and leasing progress. UTP has 16 tenants located within the park’s four buildings (i.e., UTP Incubator, Technology Business Center (TBC), IITRI - Life Sciences Research, and the IIT Tower). The new UTP brochure can be downloaded from the website, and complete floor plans are provided for the UTP Incubator – North & South, TBC, as well as the new 9,000 sq. ft. built-out wet-lab which will be ready in August of 2007 within the TBC.
Please visit the new site at www.universitytechnologypark.com
IIT is the Strategic University Partner for the New $10MM i2A VC Fund
The Illinois Innovation Accelerator (i2A) Fund, a $10 million seed-stage, for-profit investment fund, was launched in February of 2007 with $6.4 million in capital commitment in its first closing. Seed-stage investing has decreased since the start of the new millennium as investors have moved "up-market," leaving a "capital gap" in their wake. The i2A steps up to the plate as the state's most innovative for-profit, early-stage investment fund. The i2A Fund (www.i2Afund.com) will be administered by the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center (CEC), a non-profit affiliate of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, with a strong track record in early-stage financing.
The i2A Fund will create a vehicle to support an innovation-based economy. The primary goal of the fund is to provide the first external capital raised by companies headquartered in Illinois, allowing them to expand, as well as provide fund members the opportunity to capitalize on these high-growth opportunities.
Each year, the i2A Investment and Advisory Committees expect to evaluate between 150-200 investment opportunities and invest in four to six companies that are headquartered in Illinois and the surrounding region.
IIT’s David Baker VP for External Affairs & UTP Executive Director raised $1.125 million for this fund and will be the strategic university partner for the i2A Fund. UTP representatives will serve on the investment committee, advisory board, and CEC board. The fund will review existing UTP companies for investment and will encourage other companies to locate within UTP.
New Arrivals and Expansions at UTP
UTP at IIT welcomes IITRI-Drug Discovery Division, Comarch, and Carbon Solutions Group to the University Technology Park. Also, congratulations to Liquid Talk, Cleversafe, and Predictek on their recent expansions within UTP!
UTP Tenants on the Move – Cleversafe and Liquid Talk
Awards were given out by the Illinois Technology Association’s (www.illinoistech.org/) annual CityLIGHTS dinner on April 19, 2007. Grid-based data storage solutions company Cleversafe, which is funded by OCA Ventures and includes the NEA and Stuart Alsop as investors, took home the "Newcomer Award" for most promising start-up. Liquid Talk was also one of five nominees. Both Liquid Talk and Cleversafe are tenants at the University Technology Park at IIT and are tapping both UTP’s services and IIT’s talented pool of student workers.
Wexford & UTP Host White Sox Outing
Wexford Science + Technology and UTP hosted 60 clients/guests in a skybox at US Cellular Field as the Chicago White Sox played the Texas Rangers on April 17, 2007. Photos can be viewed at: www.universitytechnologypark.com/mediaroom/gallery/white_sox07.html
Leasing Contacts
For
information about leasing space in the TBC, please contact:
Chad Freese
First Vice President
CB Richard Ellis
312-935-1451
chad.freese@cbre.com
For information about leasing space in the adjacent UTP Incubator or IIT Tower, please contact:
Daniel F. Marselle
Associate Director for Technology & Business Services
University Technology Park at IIT
10 West 35th Street, Suite 10F3 -1
Chicago, IL 60616
312-567-3900
marselle@utp.iit.edu