The entrepreneurial ecosystem at the University of Cincinnati is yielding tangible dividends with two of its startups, TapIn and Saturn Sports, each scoring $200K from state grants. This financial infusion from the Ohio Third Frontier is a nod of confidence toward further commercializing their early-stage technologies.
Both startups emerged from the 1819 Innovation Hub's Venture Lab, a UC business accelerator that provides nascent ventures the essentials they need to transition from idea to market, it's a space where seasoned founders and industry veterans engage with the startup teams providing them a leg up in a game where the rules are often as complex as the plays drawn in the sand by children who conceive sport as a microcosm of dreams. TapIn and Saturn Sports have both cited their stint at the Venture Lab as a significant catalyst for their rapid development, enabling them to refine both their business models and technologies, according to information from the Cincinnati Business Courier via UC News.
TapIn, alternatively known as Carbon Copy Assets, was brought to life by UC professors Michael Jones and Jordan Tate, with roots set deep into a system aimed to serve scholarship students initially; the technology demonstrates how the educational soil can foster wider applications that burgeon into solutions for broader societal issues such as digital fraud and verify a tangible human presence behind online actions. The startup's state-of-the-art technology facilitates identity verification via a simple phone tap at a physical checkpoint, its application diversity ranges from universities to restaurants, and nonprofits to event organizers—who are all in search of reliable alternatives to antiquated QR codes and cumbersome paperwork.
With the user base reportedly climbing by 50% month over month, TapIn's trajectory seems to mirror the ascendancy of innovation itself, the startup recently secured a promising $200,000 Ohio Third Frontier grant to bolster its teams across engineering and sales, as well as to deepen product development and explore yet broader applications in the space they occupy—a space as vast as the digital frontier itself. "the company is preparing to raise an additional $1.5 to $2 million in seed funding to support its goal of reaching unicorn status," Michael Jones indicated in a statement obtained by the University of Cincinnati.
Meanwhile, details regarding Saturn Sports' plans post-funding remain relatively closer to the vest; however, the commitment from the Ohio Third Frontier suggests that the state recognizes both startups as significant players in the Cincinnati Innovation District's burgeoning status as a center for tech and sporting development alike.
