Stories & Updates

University of Delaware students showed their passion for the environment on Monday, May 8, at the 3rd Annual Ratcliffe Eco Entrepreneurship Fellows Pitch Day, hosted by Horn Entrepreneurship at the Venture Development Center. This year’s six teams of eco-entrepreneurs pitched their innovative and creative business ideas persuasively, addressing unique environmental issues to a panel of expert judges for a prize pool of $6,000. 

This year’s Startup302 competition attracted 125 startups from Delaware, the Philadelphia region, the United States and countries including Canada, Brazil, Colombia, Italy, Nigeria, Uganda and Bangladesh. These teams competed for a prize pool totaling $170,000. 

Horn began its summer in April with Diamond Challenge Summit semifinalists and Ice cream. UDairy' Moo Mobile was founded in partnership with Horn Entrepreneurship in 2013.

Horn Entrepreneurship and eClub will host the 2022 Spring Pitch Party. A hybrid format will take place, with the event as in-person for those registering as presenters.  The larger audience of spectators will remain virtual. It all takes place on March 23, from 6 - 8 p.m.

This article is part of a series describing how UD Horn Entrepreneurship assists teams in moving their inventions and innovations into the marketplace, a process known as commercialization. Each team receives a customized blend of resources, including training, mentorship, and funding, through the Blue Hen Proof of Concept Program.  Mentorship and support is also provided by Horn Entrepreneurship partners, including the Office of Economic, Innovations and Partnerships and Delaware’s Small Business Development Center.

Lan Wang was a UD graduate student and postdoc, now Versogen’s Director of New Chemistry and Cofounder, who led the effort to scale the world’s leading polymer membrane technologies for converting water into green hydrogen.

The last six months flew by! But our community was anything but quiet. Check out all of the accomplishments - and give kudos to your friends. Smile knowing that you are part of a community making an impact on the world. 

Meet Glen Gaddy joining the Horn Entrepreneurship Team in a new role as Managing Director of the University Launch Fund. Gaddy plans to utilize his extensive experiences as an entrepreneur and innovator from both his corporate and academic roles. He comes to Horn as the Managing Member of long standing angel investor group, Robin Hood Ventures, and serves as chair of Mid Atlantic Diamond Ventures, the leading quarterly early stage pitch forum in the Mid Atlantic.

Article by Adam Thomas Photos by Evan Krape and iStock December 02, 2021

Seventeen research teams will participate in the National Science Foundation Innovation Corps (NSF I-Corps) Sites program to assess the commercial viability of their academic research, university intellectual property, or any STEM-related technology. The 20th cohort to enter the program at Horn Entrepreneurship started their five-week series of workshops and market research on October 5.

The Blue Hen Proof of Concept program (POC), Horn’s startup incubator, was awarded $50,000 from the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Growth Accelerator Fund Competition (GAFC).