Innovation Like No Other

Tulane continues to foster innovation through initiatives like the Tulane Ventures startup fund, successful spinouts like Fluence Analytics, and student-driven ventures.

Kimberly Gramm

Advancing Entrepreneurs

At just over a year old, the Tulane University Innovation Institute has already achieved great things, including the launching of Tulane Ventures, a startup fund dedicated to creating opportunities for women- and minority-led ventures in Louisiana who have traditionally faced barriers in growing their businesses. Tulane Ventures is funded by a $5 million grant from the state of Louisiana and $5 million in matching funds from Tulane. President Michael A. Fitts said the initiative is “critical in bringing life-changing advancements and discoveries to the world, while also transforming the economy of New Orleans and the region.”

Tulane President Michael A. Fitts, second from right, celebrates the recent acquisition of Fluence Analytics by Japanese industrial giant Yokogawa.

Successful Spinout Born on Campus

When Japanese industrial giant Yokogawa Electric bought Fluence Analytics, a polymer production company born in a Tulane lab in 1997, it became one of Tulane’s most successful spinouts ever. Co-founded by a team of Tulane graduates, Fluence Analytics is the brainchild of Wayne Reed, PhD, the Murchison-Mallory Professor of Physics in the School of Science and Engineering, whose technology, Automatic Continuous Online Monitoring of Polymerization, aims to make polymer production greener and more efficient. Tulane officials lauded the acquisition, calling it a “spectacular story about excellence and perseverance.”

Tulane MBA student Rich Simmerman (MBA ’24), left, and Branson Morgan are the founders of Ceres Plant Protein Cereal, which is one of 13 national finalists in the AWS University Startup Competition.

MBA Student Bowls Over the Competition

More than 1,000 faculty and student entrepreneurs signed up for the annual 2022 Amazon Web Services University Startup Competition. One of those applicants, Tulane MBA student Rich Simmerman — along with business partner Branson Morgan — took home the top prize for Top Physical Consumer Products Startup. That startup is Enjoy Ceres, a plant protein cereal that is vegan, keto, non-GMO and gluten-free. The team won $10,000 in cash and up to $10,000 in marketing support from Amazon Launchpad, a program that supports entrepreneurs by providing resources, expertise and global support to help showcase and deliver unique products to Amazon customers.

Graduate student Ferris Munyonho works in a lab at the School of Medicine.

Innovation Fund Supports New Ideas

The Tulane University Innovation Institute, in collaboration with Provost Robin Forman, launched the Provost’s Proof of Concept Fund to provide competitive grants of up to $50,000 to help university faculty, graduate students or staff get promising ideas and technologies ready for market. Funds may be used for early-stage development to determine the most actionable market application and the most viable business model and and develop proof-of-concept. Funds can cover a variety of development tasks such as market studies, validation studies, detailed IP analysis and prototype design.

On the Leadership Stage at Gallier Hall during New Orleans Entrepreneur Week, Tulane professor Walter Isaacson, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards and tech pioneer Steve Case discuss the "third wave" of the internet.

Future of Biotech

One of the highlights of this year’s New Orleans Entrepreneur Week was a biotech mini-summit presented by the Tulane Innovation Institute and LCMC Health. AOL co-founder and tech pioneer Steve Case joined Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards and Walter Isaacson, Tulane’s Leonard A. Lauder Professor of American History and Values at the School of Liberal Arts, in an afternoon of thought-provoking discourse on biotech and entrepreneurship.