Innovation Showcase

The Angel Capital Association will hold its seventh annual Innovation Showcase as a special segment of the 2019 ACA Summit on April 24-26. The companies below will present their innovations to the full audience of angel investors in Chicago. The Innovation Showcase is by invitation only. It is not open to the general public and participating startup companies must be nominated in advance by a qualified ACA member angel group, fund, accelerator, university, government entity, or trade commission. 

2019 Innovation Showcase Companies

Redwood City, CA
Underwriting Organization: Keiretsu Forum Northwest
 
By utilizing blockchain technology, 9th Gear increases transparency for regulators while ensuring availability of funds and reducing capital requirements to better serve traders and lenders.
 
Kigali, Rwanda
Underwriting Organization: Feed the Future Rwanda Nguriza Nshore
 
ARED has developed a "Business in a Box" solar kiosk platform to bring last mile distribution of prepaid services and digital connectivity to people using a micro franchisee business model.
New Orleans, LA
Underwriting Organization: NIH 
 
Animal testing is yesterday's gold standard. AxoSim's Nerve-on-a-Chip® delivers human data, faster to save you hundreds of millions of dollars and years of wasted patent life, while allowing you to develop more effective drugs.
 
Albuquerque, NM
Underwriting Organization: Keiretsu Forum Northwest
 

Busy parents don't have time for traditional scrapbooks. BabyPage makes it easy with prompts, pulling in your photos, and automatically generating content for your BabyPages. Your private dashboard helps you capture your child's milestones in an organized way. Build a beautiful baby book and follow on with more books that document all the seasons of your little one’s childhood.

 

Philadelphia, PA
Underwriting Organization: Keiretsu Forum
 
In partnership with Thomas Jefferson University, BrachyThermix is developing a novel technology to significantly enhance the therapeutic benefit of radiation treatment following surgical resection of difficult to treat brain tumors such as glioblastoma.
 
Kigali, Rwanda
Underwriting Organization: Feed the Future Rwanda Nguriza Nshore
 
Brioche contributes to the rising Africa, bringing happiness and inspiration simply, tastefully. Brioche is a café-bistros chain and the first manufacturing unit of frozen bakery goods in East Africa.
Chicago, IL
Underwriting Organization: TMC Venture Fund
 
Briteseed is a forward-thinking company committed to making minimally invasive surgery safer and more efficient. Our team is developing Briteseed Smart Tools, the next generation of laparoscopic and robotic surgical tools that provide real-time detection and visualization of hidden blood vessels, ureters, and other sensitive structures using advanced optics and artificial intelligence.
 
Kigali, Rwana
Underwriting Organization: Feed the Future Rwanda Nguriza Nshore

We are a manufacturer of steel casting and steel fabricated goods. Our main products are currently stone crusher parts and wheelbarrows. As a local manufacturer, we are able to better respond the local needs. Taking advantage of this, we are seeking to expand both geographically and to add to our product portfolio.
Houston, TX
Underwriting Organization: TMC Venture Fund
 
With a lead investment from Wellcome Trust, CorInnova is developing a minimally invasive, soft robotic cardiac device in order to create a new paradigm for heart failure treatment.  The device is intended to treat the large number of patients who are contra-indicated for the state-of-the-art left ventricular assist devices (LVADs), thereby reaching three to four times as many eligible patients. The device may also reverse the progression of heart failure or even prevent its development in post-heart attack patients. 
 
Austin, TX
Underwriting Organization: Keiretsu Capital
 
Most homes waste more than 20% of the electricity you pay for. CURB uncovers home energy trends, pinpoints power hogs, and gives you control over your home and your electric bill.
Melbourne, FL 
Underwriting Organization: NIH (National Institutes of Health)
 
Cylerus is a innovative drug delivery systems company, dedicated to discovering and developing new therapeutic options and solutions through its novel, patented, localized micro-dosing delivery system. 
 
Los Angeles, CA
Underwriting Organization: NIH (National Institutes of Health)
 
The company has developed a series of nanotechnology-enabled rare-cell sorting platforms, the Cytolumina CytoTrapNano (also known as NanoVelcro chip in the scientific literature) that can be used to detect and characterize circulating tumor cells (CTCs), paving the way for the implementation of precision medicine in cancer.
 
Lawrence, KS
Underwriting Organization: NIH (National Institutes of Health)
 
Our mission is to research & develop osteoinductive piezoelectric biomaterials in order to improve patient outcomes, reduce healthcare costs, and streamline the clinical episode of care with the singular goal of improving humanity’s quality of life
 
Philadelphia, PA
Underwriting Organization: Keiretsu Forum Mid Atlantic
 
Our first product line is designed to help researchers visualize proteins and organelles inside the cell. By inserting genes that produce bioluminescent and fluorescent proteins, ExpessCells provides insight that enhances researchers' work.
 
Seattle, WA
Underwriting Organization: Keiretsu Capital
 
Healionics is addressing the critical need for improved means of dialysis access in patients with kidney failure. Our STARgraft vascular graft (artificial blood vessel) resists the problems of occlusion and infection suffered by current devices.  We also have an exciting product pipeline based on our platform STAR® biomaterial, which has a unique ability to prevent both scarring and infection in a wide variety of other implantable device applications.
 
Houston, TX
Underwriting Organization: TMC Venture Fund
 
At Ictero Medical, we are dedicated to developing the CholeSafe System, the first minimally invasive treatment option that helps decrease complications and costs while providing definitive therapy to high risk surgical patients with gallstone disease. Unlike laparoscopic cholecystectomy, the CholeSafe System can be used in the interventional radiology suite with only minimal local anesthesia to defunctionalize the gallbladder without having to remove it. This allows providers to give their patients the benefits of surgery, without the risk.
 
Houston, TX
Underwriting Organization: TMC Venture Fund

Intelligent Implants is at the forefront of electrotherapeutic devices to treat disease and aid recovery in bone and other tissues. We pioneer the use of data, engineering, and medicine to bring novel, active and connected medical devices to healthcare. Our integrated devices facilitate treatment for the patient, as well as, decision making for the healthcare professional.

 
Kigali, Rwanda
Underwriting Organization: Feed the Future Rwanda Nguriza Nshore
 
RIBA dreams of a world where everyone has access to clean water. A world where women and children don’t bear the burden of traveling long distances to bring clean water home and where schools and companies can afford to provide clean water for their employees and students. And we believe that private sector solutions are needed to make this dream a reality.
 
Montreal, CN
Underwriting Organization: Keiretsu Forum Mid Atlantic
 
Laurent Pharmaceuticals is a Montréal-based private biopharmaceutical company. Laurent has a clinical stage lead program focusing on LAU-7b, a once-a-day oral therapy addressing the persistent unresolved inflammation, a leading cause of lung tissue destruction in patients with Cystic Fibrosis (CF).The underlying technology was developed at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) and received an Orphan Drug Designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
 
nanoMAG
Livonia, MI
Underwriting Organization: NIH (National Institutes of Health)
 
nanoMAG is a medical device company innovating the way craniomaxillofacial surgeries are performed through its proprietary bioabsorbable implant technology, BioMg. With development of this novel metal alloy, nanoMAG aims to shorten procedure times, improve outcomes, and reduce secondary removal surgeries to bring value to patients and the healthcare system.
 
Texas
Underwriting Organization: TMC Venture Fund
 
Inadequate oxygen supply is a major cause of death and permanent disability in newborns. With Noninvasix's enhanced brain monitoring system, doctors can intervene before brain function is permanently compromised
 
Evanston, IL
Underwriting Organization: VentureWell
 
NUMiX Materials manufactures and supplies sorbents to remove dissolved heavy metals from aqueous streams. For our customers, our materials enhance water treatment and provide value by minimizing treatment additives, simplifying operations, and reducing hazardous waste disposal costs.
 
Portland, OR
Underwriting Organization: Portland Seed Fund
 
Plover develops its own algorithms that make it possible to eliminate chemicals and wash a car in 1 minute. Our modular system can wash vehicles of any shape and size and can increase its intelligence with each wash. By standardizing and integrating all of our parts, we're able to install, maintain and operate more efficiently.

 

PneumoNIX
Englewood, CO
Underwriting Organization: VentureWell
 
PneumoNIX has developed PreVENTTM — a medical device for interventional radiologists to prevent pneumothorax (lung collapse) during transthoracic lung biopsy to reduce cost and morbidity associated with PTX and improve patient outcomes.
 
Redwood City, CA
Underwriting Organization: Keiretsu Forum
 
SageMedic has developed a proprietary, genome-free SAGE Direct Platform to quickly and accurately predict the most effective therapy for the millions of cancer patients where the conventional genomic testing-based precision medicine approach doesn't yield actionable information.
 
Salt Lake CIty, UT
Underwriting Organization: NIH (National Institutes of Health)
 
Stream Dx has developed an inexpensive, clinically accurate at-home flowmeter that collects patient voiding data for health care professionals that treat the more than 16.5 million men suffering from LUTS.
 
Boulder, Colorado
Underwriting Organization: Red Idea
 
TalkBox sells phone booths to companies that have open-office environments, or public venues that have noisy environments, but people need privacy. TalkBoxes provide physical space for people to do their work and do their thing.
 
Cascade Locks, OR
Underwriting Organization: Portland Seed Fund
 
The Renewal Workshop is the leading provider of circular business model solutions for the apparel industry, partnering with brands to recover the value in their damaged and unsellable returns so they can be sold again.
 
Nashville, Tennessee
Underwriting Organization: NIH (National Institutes of Health)
 
Our surgical robotic system delivers dexterous, accurate needle-sized manipulators for minimally invasive surgery. We give surgeons two tiny hands in areas of the body that current surgical robots cannot reach.
 
Albany, NY
Underwriting Organization: NIH (National Institutes of Health)
 
We deliver game-changing technology for respiratory therapy using video games to drive real behavior changes for those with COPD, asthma and pneumonia.