Purdue startups join MassChallenge accelerator, opportunity to secure additional funding

BOSTON and WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Two Purdue University student startups will participate in the entry second round of 2018’s MassChallenge Boston, a commercialization accelerator active from June to October, thanks to a partnership between Purdue’s Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship and MassChallenge.

The partnership between Purdue and MassChallenge allowed the Burton D. Morgan Business Model Competition’s Open Track and Social Entrepreneurship Track winners to bypass MassChallenge’s first round. Spiro Therapeutics, LLC and Incas Diagnostics, LLC have now entered MassChallenge’s second round and will present their business pitches in Boston during May.

"Entrepreneurs are the value creators of society, creating new jobs, driving economic growth, and addressing some of the world's biggest issues across industries," said Kiki Mills Johnston, managing director of MassChallenge Boston. “MassChallenge was created to support entrepreneurs and ensure they have everything they need to create widespread impact with no strings attached.”

With no required costs or equity, cohort members receive two corporate innovation teams, expert mentorship, free office space and an international network of resources and support. Top cohort startups will compete for a share from the $1.5 million cash prizes and up to $100,000 in scholarships.

Spiro Therapeutics provides a first-in-kind therapeutic treatment that restores lung function in acute respiratory distress syndrome patients. The startup’s co-founders include You-Yeon Won, a professor of chemical engineering; Kyle Kim, a recent Ph.D. graduate; and Davis Arick, a senior from Purdue’s Davidson School of Chemical Engineering.

“During MassChallenge we hope to connect with industry and healthcare stakeholders,” Arick said. “To catalyze success, we need key partnerships and resources in manufacturing, clinical trials and regulatory strategy.”

Spiro Therapeutics is developing a Nano-polymer surfactant aiming to improve the survival rate of ARDS patients and to restore their lung function.

“MassChallenge has both the geographic location and resources to connect us with experts in the drug development industry and to offer us to strengthen our core team,” Arick said.

At the end of MassChallenge in October, Arick said, he hopes Spiro Therapeutics will have completed feasibility testing studies. The feedback from this testing will allow the startup to assess its treatment’s potential in patients.

Incas Diagnostics aims to provide routine and specialized medical service for public and private health environments. This startup is developing a point-of-care, diagnostic kit that detects multiple sexually transmitted diseases for women, particularly those in the sub-Saharan West Africa region. Laud Basing, a graduate research assistant in Purdue’s Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering is the founder of Incas.

Incas Diagnostics’ kit provides a urine-based, low-cost solution that links to a mobile platform allowing greater convenience and privacy to users. This startup promotes better diagnosis and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases in efforts to decrease general discomfort, preventable infertility and complications during pregnancy.

“MassChallenge connects entrepreneurs to powerful resources both in Boston and around the world,” Mills Johnston of MassChallenge Boston said. “This engaged and supportive community helps fuel startup growth during the four-month accelerator program and beyond. We're excited to work with Purdue University, a global innovation leader, to support promising student ventures across industries.”

About MassChallenge

MassChallenge is the most startup-friendly accelerator on the planet. No equity and not-for-profit, we are obsessed with helping entrepreneurs across any industry. We also reward the highest-impact startups through a competition to win a portion of several million dollars in equity-free cash awards. Through our global network of accelerators in Boston, the UK, Israel, Switzerland, and Mexico, and unrivaled access to our corporate partners, we can have a massive impact—driving growth and creating value the world over. To date, 1,495 MassChallenge alumni have raised over $3 billion in funding, generated approximately $2 billion in revenue, and created over 80,000 jobs.

About Spiro Therapeutics

Spiro Therapeutics is a pharmaceutical company that intends to provide the first therapeutic treatment for acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), a high mortality condition affecting roughly 200,000 patients in the U.S. each year. Our therapeutic is a Nano-polymer surfactant that restores lung function in these patients to significantly improve their chance of survival.

About Incas Diagnostics

Incas Diagnostics is a social enterprise that seeks to save lives through the design and production of low-cost, easy-to-use, point-of-care diagnostic test kits designed specifically for Africa as well as provide high-quality routine and specialized medical and industrial laboratory services in both the public and private health environments.

About Purdue Office of Technology Commercialization

The Purdue Office of Technology Commercialization operates one of the most comprehensive technology transfer programs among leading research universities in the U.S. Services provided by this office support the economic development initiatives of Purdue University and benefit the university's academic activities. The office is managed by the Purdue Research Foundation, which received the 2016 Innovation and Economic Prosperity Universities Award for Innovation from the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities. For more information about funding and investment opportunities in startups based on a Purdue innovation, contact the Purdue Foundry at foundry@prf.org. For more information on licensing a Purdue innovation, contact the Office of Technology Commercialization at innovation@prf.org.

Writer: Kelsey Henry, 765-588-3342, kehenry@prf.org

Purdue Research Foundation Contact: Cynthia Sequin, 765-558-3340, casequin@prf.org

Sources: Davis Arick, dqarick@purdue.edu

Laud Basing, lbasing@purdue.edu

Kiki Mills Johnston, MassChallenge Boston’s managing director

Arnold Chen, Burton D. Morgan Center’s managing director