Companies created in UF program generate jobs in challenging economy

October 18, 2010

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Despite the tough economy, a University of Florida program that fosters the creation of new start-up companies had a successful year, according to an annual report filed with the U.S. Department of Commerce.

The UF TechConnect program, which helps to bring research to the marketplace by creating tech-based companies, reported that during the fiscal year ending June 30 those start-up companies generated $221 million from private investments and created more than 273 jobs.

“We were pleasantly surprised to see such robust numbers during such an economically challenging year,” said Jane Muir, director of the program. “Even more encouraging is the fact that for every high-tech job created, there is a multiplier of several additional jobs that are created in other sectors.”

UF’s TechConnect is a partnership between UF and the U.S. Economic Development Administration, with headquarters in UF’s Office of Technology Licensing. It matches up faculty, based on their research discoveries, with entrepreneurs and helps them to create companies.

Examples of those companies include Applied Genetics Technologies Corp., which is developing gene therapy products for treating inherited and acquired diseases; AxoGen Inc., which is focusing on improving peripheral nerve repair; and WiPower, which has developed a wireless power technology that charges cell phones, MP3 players, digital cameras and other devices.

“A number of these companies that we’ve put into formation are reaching a maturity stage where they are actually having products on the market, and having second and third rounds of funding,” Muir said. “We’ve put so many of them into play, and a number of them are finally coming to fruition.”

The presence of the new companies creates demands for other kinds of businesses in the community, resulting in the multiplier effect, Muir said. “When you create a high-tech company and it starts to employ lots of people, those people then have other needs, such as for restaurants to have lunch in or dry cleaners to have their laundry done so they can go to work,” she said.

Besides working with faculty inventors and entrepreneurs, the UF TechConnect program helps investors identify start-up firms that are in a position to generate good returns on their investment and that are in need of funding, Muir said.

“One of the exciting things is that this is all part of the growth of the innovation economy that is occurring in Gainesville and North Central Florida,” she said.

A recent sign of this trend is that in his blog, Richard Florida, author of the best-selling books “The Rise of the Creative Class, Cities and the Creative Class,” and “The Flight of the Creative Class,” projects Gainesville will see the largest percentage growth of high-tech jobs of any city in the nation, she said.

“Unlike many cities that ‘talk the talk’ about being an innovation center, Gainesville actually has all the critical elements necessary to be a regional innovation cluster and is actually ‘walking the walk,’” Muir said. “Evidence of this can be seen by the number and diversity of start-up companies generated based on UF discoveries.”

For more information about UF TechConnect, visit http:///www.rgp.ufl.edu/otl/ or contact Chris Brown, program coordinator, at 352-846-1840.