13 WNY-based startups ‘graduate’ from UB’s Cultivator

An AI-driven hiring tool. Cooling apparel to prevent heat injury. A platform to help colleges and universities increase student retention.

These are just a few of the products being developed by the 13 — and counting — Western New York-based companies that have graduated from Cultivator, a startup program powered by UB.

Managed by UB’s Business & Entrepreneur Partnerships team, Cultivator builds new companies in the Western New York region by supporting medium- to high-growth startups in their earliest stages. Funding at this juncture is critical for companies to succeed, yet traditionally difficult to obtain, organizers say.

“For startups in their earliest, riskiest stages, funding often comes from wealthy friends and family, but not all founders have these relationships,” says Richard Kim, director of startup ventures at UB. “We believe there are talented entrepreneurs in every corner of Western New York. Cultivator democratizes access to funding and provides more founders with opportunities to successfully build and scale business.”

Cultivator also provides a steady funnel of homegrown, high-growth, risk-reduced startups for community partners in the local startup ecosystem, such as Launch NY, 43North, the Buffalo Angels and the Western New York Impact Investment Fund.

To participate in Cultivator, startups are not required to have any prior affiliation with UB, but they must come from one of the five counties of Western New York: Erie, Niagara, Chautauqua, Cattaraugus or Allegany.

After joining Cultivator, startups work with dedicated mentors for the first few months of the program.

“We pair founders with experienced entrepreneurs who have walked in their shoes and can help them answer critical questions about the problem their business solves and the market it serves,” says Peter Burakowski, associate director of startup ventures at UB, who leads Cultivator.

If accepted to the next phase of the program, the startup receives a $100,000 investment from UB and an additional six months of mentorship until their “graduation” from the program.

To date, 50 startups have participated in Cultivator and 13 have graduated. Graduate companies include:

• Arbol, a financial wellness platform that helps colleges and universities reduce student dropout.
  
• Big Daddy Garden Caddy, an ergonomically designed versatile garden cart that helps ease knee and back pain associated with gardening.
• Digital House Call, which works to provide technology to patients and physicians for better, lower cost, remote patient care by enabling vital sign monitoring and reporting, combining patients’ desire for real-time care with improved outcomes at lower costs, and recognizing physician/practice revenue enhancement.
• Immunaeon, a biotech company that helps people store their healthy immune cells to leverage in the future, should they face cancer or other diseases.
• JECA Natural Foods Corporation, makers of clean, artisanal, plant-based nutrition bars featuring globally inspired flavors.
• Laila, an AI-powered platform that aims to revolutionize the tech recruitment space by blending the expertise of seasoned tech recruiters with proprietary AI called HireGPT™ to offer personalized, efficient recruitment solutions.
  
• Latte, a talent development platform that allows employers to discover and showcase internal talent for future projects, provide mentoring opportunities based on goal setting and address drivers of attrition, all while delivering the right data at the right time.
• Lemma Labs, a lab and data services provider for the beauty industry.
  
• Oro Sports USA, innovators of high-impact cooling apparel designed to improve human endurance while preventing heat injuries when exerting energy in warm environments.
  
• Redprint, a technology company that augments existing spaces — starting with college recreation facilities — to make them interactive, creating a new way for hosts to engage further with their audiences.
  
• Team Real Talk, an educational technology platform that helps organizations quantify and scale diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.
  
• Unapologetic Coffee, a minority woman-owned coffee roaster — started as a means to celebrate BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) culture both as consumers and producer — that supplies direct trade and sustainably roasted coffee from around the world.
  
• Yamacoo makes PropFly, a tool that can help people research and find homes 10 times faster than traditional methods.
  

Four more companies — Offerwell, Sadie’s Foods, V-Markings and ArmHug — will graduate from Cultivator next week.

One of the goals of Cultivator is to help prepare companies for future investment from other funding sources postgraduation.

This recently came to fruition for Arbol, which announced in June that it closed a $350,000 pre-seed funding round led by the Western New York Impact Investment Fund.

“Cultivator was a game-changer for us. We came into the program with an idea and, a few months later, launched the company with funding,” says Favio Osorio, co-founder of Arbol. “Through our affiliation with Cultivator, we have developed a network of friends, mentors, investors and advisers who have given us incredible guidance, support and introductions. This network has played a crucial role in the development of Arbol.”

Cultivator is open on a rolling basis. Interested companies are encouraged to apply at buffalo.edu/cultivator.