The university has helped launch 223 businesses, including 130 based on its IP, since an overhaul of its commercialisation strategy in 2013.
Purdue University has launched a total of 223 university-linked businesses since 2013, more than half which were based on intellectual property (IP) licensed through Purdue Research Foundation’s office of technology commercialisation (OTC).
The university has generated 130 business based on university IP, with the remaining 93 companies classified as Purdue-affiliated startups.
Together, the 223 companies have raised $352m of funding and generated more than 300 new jobs. Approximately 210 remain active today, 128 of which are spinouts.
Nine Purdue-linked companies have been acquired by corporates since 2013 for more than $2.3bn in total, including biopharmaceutical company Endocyte, bought for by drug developer Novartis for $2.1bn in October 2018, and industrial connectivity technology supplier Dattus, purchased by automation software provider Plex Systems for an undisclosed sum three months earlier.
The 223 figure includes 60 startups founded by Purdue students who exercised the right to own intellectual property conceived during their time at the university, a policy first introduced by Purdue in a reworking of its tech transfer strategy in 2013.
Purdue’s approach helped its commercialisation operation become ranked 17th worldwide among institutions granted US utility patents in 2017, according to a report released by professional bodies National Academy of Inventors and Intellectual Property Owners Association.
The setup includes the Purdue Foundry startup accelerator, which has assisted almost 500 entrepreneurs over the past five years, as well as funding programs such as Ag-celerator, Elevate Purdue Foundry Fund, Foundry Investment Fund, Purdue Startup Fund and Trask Innovation Fund.
Purdue’s tech transfer operation is administered by the OTC, which reported 128 US patents issued for Purdue innovations during the 2018 fiscal year, in addition to 126 licence and option agreements, 25 of which were signed with spinouts.
Brooke Beier, vice-president of the OTC, said: “The entire Purdue team is working in unison to achieve real-world changes, and we can see those results in these numbers and in the positive energy around the campus.
“We anticipate that 2019 will culminate in similar record-breaking activities as we celebrate Purdue’s 150th [anniversary].”
