It has been a banner few years for Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana as the school helped create more than 200 startups and raised more than $350 million in investments between 2013 and 2018. School officials said that it set a milestone goal for the school in terms of startup creation and entrepreneurship.
“Purdue has a 150-year history of producing world-class research. Five years ago we set out to establish an equally strong commercialization ecosystem to ramp up the translation of this research into the market and into real-world solutions,” Purdue University President Mitch Daniels said. “These efforts are clearly beginning to bear fruit, and to encourage us that these gains are just a beginning.”
Since 2013, the school has had a hand in creating 223 startups, whether it be directly licensing startups or helping with funding. Almost all of them (210) are still active, 186 of which are based in Indiana, and have raised $352 in funding.
According to a press release from the university, the startups are represented by the following schools on campus: Agriculture, Education, Engineering, Health and Human Sciences, Liberal Arts, Science, Veterinary Medicine
Major stars include drug startup Endocyte Inc., which was acquired by Novartis AG last year for $2.1 billion.
“West Lafayette truly is ‘Startup City,’” West Lafayette Mayor John Dennis said. “The strong pipeline of innovation and entrepreneurial support from Purdue along with the economic environment climate here and across the Greater Lafayette area equate to new technologies, new companies and new jobs across the board.”
