$2M Third Frontier grant helps fund startups based on Cincinnati Children's technology

Biomedical innovation in the Cincinnati area has gotten a boost with a $2 million grant from Ohio Third Frontier that will go toward creating startup companies based on technology developed at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.

The hospital matched that $2 million dollar-for-dollar, for a total of $4 million in its Tomorrow Fund, which helps create companies based on physician and research science discoveries at its Center For Technology Commercialization.

This is the second round of funding for the initiative, which was kick-started with and an initial $1.5 million Third Frontier grant that the hospital matched with about a million of its own, said Nicole Robinson, executive director for the Center for Technology. So far, Cincinnati Children’s technology has gone into starting six new, autonomous biomedical companies.

“Until we received the Third Frontier money, we hadn’t started a single company,” Robinson said.

The Center of Technology manages commercialization for the hospital and Cincinnati Children’s Research foundation by collaborating with commercial partners.

The center identifies commercially viable discoveries, secures intellectual property protection and licenses the technology to startups.

“A lot of these technologies aren’t right for existing companies because the markets can be too small. We do this to get these products out to market in the fastest possible way,” Robinson said.

CincyTech helped Cincinnati Children’s secure the grant. CincyTech, which develops and invests in local high tech companies, also recently received $2 million from Third Frontier for its CincyTech II fund. CincyTech matched the Third Frontier grant with $2 million raised from local corporations, foundations and institutions.

“It’s really amazing. We have been ramping up our effects and this (grant) is fantastic,” Robinson said of the award to Cincinnati Children’s.” Two million is a huge catalyst; we can move much more quickly than if we hadn’t gotten the money.”