Despite national headwinds, 2025 was a successful year for tech commercialization and advancement throughout UConn's enterprise.
Laron Burrows of Andros Innovations, a startup building a demonstration plasma reactor for sustainable fertilizer production. Contributed photo.
2025 brought challenges to the nation's innovation landscape, yet despite those headwinds, UConn startup companies and entrepreneurs managed to set records and notch milestones.
UConn's Technology Commercialization Services (TCS) reported 117 invention disclosures in FY 2025, a 30% increase over the previous year. Its Technology Incubation Program (TIP) achieved record-setting fiscal growth, with a doubling of revenues over the past two years.
"We've achieved remarkable growth at a time when financial markets have been unpredictable and we've had to really rethink our approach to innovation at UConn," says Pamir Alpay, UConn interim provost. "Our TCS team has done incredible work to booster intellectual property and build our tech incubator. It speaks well to the present and future of invention at UConn, with positive impact on research and workforce development."
Additionally, the TCS licensing team executed 27 option or licensing agreements, including 16 with startups, helping transition groundbreaking discoveries from the labs of UConn toward real-world impact and underscoring TCS strong support for entrepreneurship across the state of Connecticut. UConn now holds equity positions in 50% more companies, increasing from 24 to 36, indicative of the University's innovation footprint and long-term economic impact.
"This year's results highlight the unique strength of UConn's innovation ecosystem," Abhijit Banerjee says, associate vice president for research, innovation, and entrepreneurship. "TIP is where faculty, students, and entrepreneurs come together to turn bold ideas into thriving companies - and the impact we're seeing across jobs, funding, and research translation is a direct reflection of that collaborative spirit."
Tech Incubator Launches Several New Startups
Commercialization success stories this year included companies at TIP Storrs such as Andros Innovations, a startup building a demonstration plasma reactor for sustainable fertilizer production; and Particle-N, a firm advancing its nano-coating technology through client contracts and investor outreach. Others include SingleTime Micro Needle, which has expanded its painless drug delivery platform across labs at Storrs and Farmington, and Therapeutic Bandage, a bioactive wound care solutions company that has added new funding and team members this year.
Another 2025 standout is PiezoBioMembrane, a startup developing wearables and sensors using produpiezoelectric membranes technology. In addition to welcoming a new CEO, Linh Le, the company expanded into newly renovated lab space. The addition of PiezoBioMembrane, along with several other startups, brought the incubator to full capacity. Other companies joining the TIP roster: Sea Solutions, a company doing business as Atlas, a start-up developing seaweed-based food coatings; MembraneX, an advanced filtration membrane company; FemtoInnovations, an ultrafast laser developer, and Marc-Antoni Racing, an EV motorsport technology start-up. As the year ends, TIP has a waiting list and is actively discussing future expansion sites on campus.
Overall, TIP companies raised $97.8 million in new funding, an increase of 39% from FY2024. They also reported $9.9 million in revenue, doubling figures from FY2023 and rising 40% from last year.
Advancing Quantum Technology
Six Quantum-related companies are among the established startups at TIP. They include Access Quantum, which uses quantum principles to develop alloys and materials with more desirable properties, particularly those used in the aerospace industry where extreme environments demand new and better fatigue-resistant materials. Others include Plasmonic Reactor Systems, a company disrupting the nuclear power industry with a pioneering technology for small and micro nuclear reactors, and We-Sensing, which focuses on the development of next-generation AI and quantum-powered monitoring sensors supporting sustainable management of water, soil, and industrial systems.
QuaSIM is a startup developing breakthrough classical and quantum algorithms that drastically accelerate the simulation of granular and molecular-scale materials offering improved insight into complex biological and pharmaceutical systems.
UConn's robust Quantum enterprise, formally reorganized about two years ago as the UConn Quantum Alliance, spans the disciplinary spectrum and encompasses about 90 faculty researchers. In addition to the School of Engineering, TIP's quantum-related startups - which also include QueHOT and AlgorithmicPro AI - are driven by researchers from UConn's physics, chemistry and pharmacy departments, School of Business, and UConn Health.
The momentum in quantum aligns UConn's growth as a national player in quantum entrepreneurship, a recognition of the institutional infrastructure, partnerships, and startup activity UConn has in place to support that role. UConn, in partnership with Yale University and QuantumCT - a nonprofit quantum technology accelerator – is one of 10 finalists under consideration for a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) that would bring up to $160 million in research funding to the state over the next ten years.
Bringing Together Industry Leaders
In September, UConn hosted its debut Tech Showcase, drawing hundreds of people representing critical sectors of the state's economy and innovation. The event celebrated Connecticut's industrial history, economic recovery from recession, and promising trends for a state amid a technological renaissance in areas such as quantum technology and artificial intelligence.
"It's because we have this incredible hundred plus-year legacy of making incredibly complicated things here. That is where we have a true comparative edge," said Daniel O'Keefe, the state Commissioner of the Economic Development and Chief Innovation Officer.
TCS hosted several other important events over the calendar year, including hackathons and a seminar on successfully partnering with industry.
