Innovate Indiana Fund closes investments in three IU high-tech startups

The Innovate Indiana Fund, IU’s $10 million seed stage fund, recently closed its initial series of investments.  Three Indianapolis-based companies, each affiliated with leading research at the IU School of Medicine or the university’s exploration of digital delivery of educational resources, form the foundation of the Innovate Indiana Fund portfolio.  These companies include: Aarden Pharmaceuticals, ApeX Therapeutics, and Courseload.

Aarden Pharmaceuticals, located in IU’s Emerging Technology Center in Indianapolis, is a small molecule drug discovery and development company that uses novel technology developed in the labs of IU School of Medicine researchers.  Aarden’s cutting-edge technology will enable the company to make drugs for a previously unaddressed set of intracellular phosphatase (PTP) disease targets.  Aarden’s initial programs are focused on infectious disease, cancer, metabolic and autoimmune conditions.

ApeX Therapeutics, a joint startup between cancer researchers at IU and Purdue University, is a biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of novel pharmaceuticals for the treatment of pancreatic and brain cancers in addition to age-related macular degeneration.

Courseload, co-founded by an IU professor from the Kelley School of Business, is located in the Emerging Technology Center. This high-tech electronic media delivery company specializes in providing higher educational learning resources including textbooks, lectures and other forms of rich media through innovative collaborative Web and stand-alone software platforms.

Funded solely from university and private donor sources, the Innovate Indiana Fund was created to serve as a vital source of seed capital for IU-affiliated companies and entrepreneurs, helping address the critical capital gap often facing early stage startups along the path to technology commercialization.  The Innovate Indiana Fund also connects portfolio companies to the business planning, development resources, and commercialization expertise of the IU Research and Technology Corporation.