Innovative Therapeutix Inc. co-founder Michael Detmer (center) poses after winning the 2018 Venture Sharks business pitch competition, along with University of Louisville staff from the Office of Technology Transfer, ExCITE and the NSF Innovation Corps site program.
Innovative Therapeutix Inc. co-founder Michael Detmer (center) poses after winning the 2018 Venture Sharks business pitch competition, along with University of Louisville staff from the Office of Technology Transfer, ExCITE and the NSF Innovation Corps site program.

Three startups with University of Louisville ties recently brought in a combined $1.4 million in funding, according to Greater Louisville Inc., the Louisville chamber of commerce.

Those startups are:

Meta Construction LLC ($350,000). Nick McRae and Max Kommor founded Meta Construction, a construction technology company, as students in the UofL Entrepreneurship MBA program. They recently launched their first product, BlackTop, a software platform that lets asphalt contractors locate dump trucks and get the right number to construction sites. They also previously participated in UofL’s Innovation Corps (I-Corps) site program. 

Innovative Therapeutix ($250,000). Innovative Therapeutix is collaborating with UofL to develop LullaFeed, a musical baby bottle that helps reinforce infant feeding. The company was founded by Michael Detmer, a UofL adjunct professor of music therapy, and Rebekah Gossom, a Norton Healthcare speech-language pathologist. They worked with the UofL Office of Technology Transfer (OTT) to protect and commercialize the technology, and also participated in the I-Corps site and ExCITE programs at UofL.

Vivorte ($800,000). Vivorte produces a substitute bone graft material invented by UofL associate professor of bioengineering, Dr. Michael Voor. Voor worked with the OTT to protect the intellectual property and come up with a commercialization strategy, resulting in licensing to the UofL start-up company, Vivorte.  Vivorte has received FDA clearance to market and sell the material for use in patients.