ISU Startup Factory

04/15/2026

Congrats to Ama Ai (SUF Cohort 14 and Iowa G2M Cohort 9) on winning 3rd place out of 500 applicants at the inaugural ASU Spark Center for Innovation in Learning (SCIL) Global AI Challenge! Read more: https://go.iastate.edu/BPLBYI

04/03/2026

Attention Founders and Startup Supporters:

We’re excited to announce Iowa Startup Week: a statewide celebration of founders, builders, investors, creatives, and everyone helping shape the future of entrepreneurship in Iowa.

Don't miss a week of events designed to connect ideas with opportunity: founder stories, workshops, networking, panels, and conversations that bring our startup ecosystem together.

Whether you’re launching your first idea, scaling a company, supporting startups, or just curious about innovation, there’s a place for you here. Save your spot today.

📍 Des Moines, Iowa

📅 Sep 28-Oct 1

🔗 www.iowastartupweek.com

03/24/2026

We are thrilled to share that Rise Energy has been selected for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Embedded Entrepreneur Initiative, securing $340,000 in funding to advance its Autothermal Pyrolysis technology!

This milestone brings a decade of research at Iowa State University one step closer to commercial impact—turning waste into low-carbon energy solutions. Congratulations to Jordan Funkhouser, COO, Tannon Daugaard, CTO, and Ryan Smith, CEO on this achievement!

Read the Full Story: https://go.iastate.edu/EIKTAU

03/13/2026

Check out Startup Factory Program Manager Hannah Kirkendall on the Iowa Tech Podcast! Hannah shares with host Kaylee Williams all about the Startup Factory continuum and all the programs that can help founders create commercialized plans! Listen and watch here:

ISU Startup Factory helps founders create a commercialization plan anchored by a milestone chart—clarifying the next objectives to get off the ground.

02/24/2026

The ISU Startup Factory is proud to celebrate 10 years of dedication to helping breakthrough research leave the lab and enter the marketplace. Startup Factory is excited to announce its next cohort of founders and companies. Meet Cohort 19:

Dr. Jessica Kustas, Dr. Andrew Kustas, Dr. Frank Kustas, and Mrs. Gretchen Kustas with Precision Materials Engineering LLC (PRIME)
Saeed B. Nia and Dr. Behrouz Shafei with BioCrete
Dr. Sree Nilakanta, Dr. Srini Reddy, and Mr. Hari Sarma with Big Data in a Box, Inc.
Fahima Noor with Ecolash Duo
Avnish Poonia, Kunal Suresh, Sahil Jain, and Chaitanya Landge with FlowtingAi
David Okoronkwo with LunarSync
Dr. Pete Collins, Thomas Ales, Erin Cleary-Clark, and Levi Nusz with AIQA
Dr. Pranav Shrotriya and Sabyasachi Paul with GraphiLaserLab

“Cohort 19 participants are bringing deep technology inventions led by several faculty and graduate student teams,” said Startup Factory Director Peter Hong. “As with many deep research innovations, the challenge for the startup founders is to learn to think like business leaders and not scientists. The curiosity that drove their invention is now being channeled by the Startup Factory teaching team into making sure the founders understand the needs of the markets and customers they hope to sell to.”

To read more about our founders and their companies, check out the full story here:
https://www.isupjcenter.org/2026/02/iowa-state-university-announces-cohort-19-entrepreneurs/

12/19/2025

We are proud to see our alumni featured in Business Record’s Innovation Iowa! Ama AI is making waves in the innovation space! Ama AI is both a Startup Factory and G2M alumni. Read more about their journey and impact in the full article:

One day, Karri Haen Whitmer took her son Ethan, who has autism, to school in Ames. He was crying. He didn’t want to go. And then she saw something that turned into a “lightbulb moment.” “There was a parent taking a wheelchair out of a car for their child,” Haen... Continue reading

12/12/2025

Read about Startup Factory Cohort 10 and G2M Cohort 3's Nigel Reuel and Scott Nelson and their company Zymosense! Nigel Scott and Nigel are doing amazing things with enzyme studies here at Iowa State University! Read here: https://go.iastate.edu/KEHAKU

12/09/2025

Today is the day! Demo Day for Startup Factory Cohort 18 begins tonight at 5:30 with refreshments and socializing to follow! Stop by and support the great businesses who have put forth incredible efforts the past few months!

Register: https://go.iastate.edu/1UAYVK
Learn more about Cohort 18: https://go.iastate.edu/EQC1MW

12/08/2025

The ISU Startup Factory invites you to celebrate innovation and entrepreneurship at Cohort 18 Demo Day TOMORROW! Experience inspiring founder presentations and connect with the startup community during a networking reception featuring drinks and appetizers. Register and learn more: https://go.iastate.edu/1UAYVK

📅 Tuesday, Dec. 9 | 5:30–8:00 PM
📍 ISU Research Park Core Facility Atrium

12/03/2025

Our new “AI in IA” series highlights startups coming through the ISU Startup Continuum that are building AI into the core of their businesses—turning cutting-edge tech into practical and impactful solutions.

In our first feature, check out Ama AI, founded by ISU Startup Factory and Iowa Go-To-Market alum Karri Haen Whitmer. Inspired by her son Ethan’s experience navigating multiple therapy and education systems after being diagnosed with autism, Karri created Ama AI to unify classroom data, therapy strategies, and individualized learning plans into a hyper-personalized digital advocate. Using AI, the platform adapts in real time to each child’s needs, offering support that educators and therapists alone could never coordinate manually.

Ama AI is actively piloting its technology in schools and therapy organizations, with the goal of making personalized, inclusive education accessible to more children across the state.

Read the full story on Ama AI and learn how ISU Startup Factory alumni are shaping Iowa’s AI ecosystem -> https://go.iastate.edu/0O3H2W

12/01/2025

Demo Day is just around the corner! Celebrate and learn about the great businesses from Cohort 18! Catch a sneak peek on our News page: https://go.iastate.edu/EQC1MW

Presentations begin at 5:30 PM with socializing and refreshments following immediately!

Demo Day will be held in the ISU Research Park Core Facility Atrium on Tuesday, December 9. Learn more and register: https://go.iastate.edu/1UAYVK