Moving research breakthroughs from the lab into a successful startup company, where they can benefit all corners of society, is a Herculean task.
Refinement. Regulations. Competition. And at every step, formidable funding concerns.
Innovation at Michigan
- From the start of an academic journey to the culmination of commercial success, innovation at U-M takes many forms. See more of the story:
But over the last decade, the University of Michigan has outpaced institutions across the country in turning ideas into successful business ventures, thanks to a focused investment in removing obstacles that lead to quicker commercial applications of academic discoveries.
U-M’s Innovation Partnerships has built a cradle of research support, leveraging partnerships to create programs and funding opportunities that have translated lab work into significant economic and community impacts.
The numbers from fiscal year 2025 alone show record U-M commercialization activity:
- 31 new startup companies
- 673 new invention reports
- $31.4 million in licensing revenue
Based on recent national surveys, U-M now ranks second nationally among universities for both startups launched and invention reports. The growth is especially remarkable considering Ann Arbor’s location — centrally located in the United States, but far from the coastal startup and entrepreneurial hubs of Seattle, San Francisco, New York and Boston.
To grab the attention of venture capitalists and major corporations, U-M had to create its own innovation ecosystem in the Midwest. A commercialization center that attracts and retains talent by providing opportunities to grow research from concepts into tangible benefits for the public good.
“We believe that public investments in university research are essential to improving our nation’s health and economic prosperity and to addressing the huge challenges facing our society and our shared planet,” said Kelly Sexton, associate vice president for research – innovation partnerships and economic impact.
The surge in economic output isn’t new at U-M. But the methodical layering of commercial support has supercharged the pipeline, similar to a dose of investment capital in a fledgling business.
“We stand on a remarkable legacy of positive impact through commercialization,” Sexton said. “From the bladeless Intralase Lasik eye procedure that has given the gift of improved vision to millions of people around the world, to the OLED displays woven into our daily lives, Michigan intellectual property and innovations have moved and improved our world.”
The blueprint
Innovation Partnerships has built a dynamic platform that pairs entrepreneurial talent and funding with promising research discoveries, helping U-M research move out of the lab and into high-growth startup companies.
By collaborating with U-M schools and colleges and outside expertise, Innovation Partnerships supports commercialization across three main service areas: corporate and foundation research alliances, licensing and ventures.
The corporate and foundation research alliances team helps faculty diversify their research funding by building pathways to companies and foundations. Teams also provide alliance management support for ongoing large research collaborations, working to broaden these relationships across the research enterprise.
The licensing team stewards one of the largest university intellectual property portfolios in the country. Partners guide faculty through the nuances of licensing, including patent and intellectual property protection, non-disclosure agreements, funding opportunities and commercialization strategies.
And the ventures team supports the launch of world-changing startups based on U-M intellectual property. By providing translational funding and hands-on business mentorship, the team guides research teams from early validation through startup company formation. It then connects founders with experienced entrepreneurial leaders and investment capital to strengthen early momentum.
“Innovation Partnerships represents a cornerstone of our research ecosystem,” said Arthur Lupia, vice president for research and innovation. “By empowering our researchers to translate groundbreaking discoveries into real-world solutions, this incredible resource accelerates our mission to transform ideas into impact. Through expert guidance, collaboration and support, Innovation Partnerships ensures that our campus community has the tools and opportunities needed to move innovation forward locally, nationally and globally.”
Keeping entrepreneurs here
Attracting talent is a competitive process — keeping it in Michigan is a separate objective. By partnering with investors, industry leaders and the state, Innovation Partnerships has developed an attractive toolbox of resources that supports an ecosystem where startups increasingly choose to launch, grow and scale in Michigan.
One example is mentorship and entrepreneurial talent. The Technology Transfer Talent Network (T3N) was created in 2012 thanks to funding support from the Michigan Economic Development Corp., the economic development organization for the state of Michigan.
Through T3N, the MEDC supports a statewide mentors-in-residence program enabling research commercialization and startup support across all public universities in the state. U-M’s mentors-in-residence pairs experienced entrepreneurs and business professionals with research teams to assist with commercialization planning throughout every step of the process.
“This investment makes sure we keep our top talent at the early stage. Once you start building a team, you want it to stick around,” said Ben Marchionna, MEDC chief innovation ecosystem officer.
“That’s a really great opportunity for us to stop talent from going somewhere else. If we can keep them in the early stages, that’s better for the state,” he said.
Funding the future
Successfully launching a startup based on new research or discoveries takes as much money as it does time.
Even extreme success stories have lengthy origins. HistoSonics, a U-M startup that has an FDA-cleared treatment for the destruction of liver tumors and has treated thousands of patients, was acquired in 2025 for $2.25 billion by a consortium of top-tier investors. But the startup was founded in 2009, based on research that began before that.
Those journeys take funding to stay alive, funding that traditionally was more difficult to attract in Michigan. One novel solution is U-M’s Accelerate Blue Fund, established in 2019 as an early-stage venture fund dedicated to investing in UM-licensed startups.
“Accelerate Blue operates as an evergreen fund, recycling returns back into the fund for investment in future U-M companies,” Sexton said. “It is already having a catalytic impact. For every $1 we invest, our companies raise $42 in outside funding. $11 million has helped unlock more than $460 million in capital for our startups. This is how we maximize impact per unit of effort.”
Since 2019, the fund has grown to have over $29 million in assets under management, primarily from private donors, U-M funding and support from the state’s Michigan Innovation Fund.
Another MEDC-supported program is the Michigan Translational Research and Commercialization, which provides translational funding for projects with commercial potential at major Michigan research universities and hospital systems.
U-M is second in the country for invention reports, behind only MIT, and is increasingly ranked among the top universities for startups, thanks to these investments in creating a robust commercialization ecosystem.
“Academia is known for lots of inventions, but less well known for commercialization of those ideas into the market,” Marchionna said. “Very few universities in the world do that well. Innovation Partnerships is the tip of the spear. That is what matters to economic development. Making sure there is a durable economic impact.”
Seeding new success
Researchers and faculty embark on the challenging task of research commercialization because they want to have a positive influence on people, including helping patients with varying needs, and communities. The support from U-M makes that process achievable.
Startup GripFusion illustrates that drive. GripFusion began in 2023 and has created an instrumented baseball that can measure and provide analytics on the pressure that is applied to the baseball and its flight performance.
GripFusion was co-founded by Mason Ferlic, Ph.D. candidate in statistics at U-M, aerospace engineer and former Olympic track athlete; and Michael Freehill, associate professor of orthopaedic surgery and chief of the shoulder and elbow service at Stanford University Sports Medicine, former associate professor of orthopaedic surgery at U-M and former professional baseball player with the Los Angeles Angels and Texas Rangers.
“It’s very personal to me, I’ve always been extremely passionate about being a creator and innovator,” Ferlic said. “Credit to Michigan, the amazing part is they were believers from day 1 in the technology, the team and the company we’re building.”
After several years of finalizing technology and rounding up investments, GripFusion in 2026 is delivering its baseball technology to elite clients in Major League Baseball and the NCAA (including U-M). U-M is a financial supporter of the technology, Ferlic said, but that’s just a layer of assistance it provided.
“I leaned into the tangible resources provided beyond a capital investment,” Ferlic said. “They have a great mentors-in-residence program. Former entrepreneurs who understand business dynamics, licensing, business deals, manufacturing. If I can learn from really smart people, it’ll only help me.”
Innovation Partnership’s palate of programs had a similar impact on General Orbit, a U-M startup founded by Mark Moldwin, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, and professor of climate and space sciences and engineering; Lauro Ojeda, a U-M research scientist in mechanical engineering; and Stephen M. Ross School of Business graduate Parker Boundy.
Using magnetometers, General Orbit provides advanced positioning hardware and intelligent sensor fusion required to navigate where traditional signals are unavailable or unreliable. Moldwin and Ojeda used Innovation Partnerships’ Accelerate Blue Foundry to find Boundy, their CEO.
“Innovation Partnerships has been great to work with, from helping us set up the company to making sure we are on a good footing for being successful,” Boundy said.
In October 2025, General Orbit competed in the Detroit regional PitchMI startup competition, focused on mobility, defense and advanced manufacturing. It won the competition, taking home $375,000 in prize money and earning a spot to compete with the other three regional winners for an additional $1 million in funding at the statewide championship in April.
“The biggest challenge in research commercialization is turning the research into a product. Innovation Partnerships starts with coaching and mentoring, and then, provides tools to be able to do it,” Boundy said.
Benefiting all residents of Michigan
For Michigan residents, startups directly impact quality of life and the economy. For the state, stable long-term job growth matters for population growth, investments in infrastructure and thriving cities.
“Over the long run, research shows the younger companies are responsible for the net new jobs in an economy,” Marchionna said. “Big, established companies can add big numbers of jobs in good times; but in bad times they also shed lots of jobs.”
U-M’s startup companies have created over 8,000 jobs, of which more than 2,500 are in the state.
“The return on investment in university-based innovation programs, particularly Innovation Partnerships, are arguably among the highest returns of any state-based investments,” Marchionna said.
