Five more companies added to START-UP NY at UB

Five more companies will set up shop on or near the UB campuses under START-UP NY, the innovative tax-incentive program created by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.

The companies, which will relocate to, start up or expand in Buffalo through their affiliation with UB, expect to create 123 jobs, invest $3.17 million in the region and collaborate with UB faculty researchers and students. Each of the companies has strong ties to the university’s academic and research strengths, and each will offer opportunities to students in the form of internships, scholarships and jobs.

The five companies include:

• A biotech startup that accelerates drug discovery through structural biology.
• A startup that develops industrial injury management software.
• A startup that is developing an innovative surgical sponge.
• An existing company that commercializes life sciences technologies.
• An existing business that develops products for the infectious disease diagnostic market.

“We are delighted to welcome these five new companies and very pleased to be continuing UB’s leadership role as part of the governor’s START-UP NY program,” said President Satish K. Tripathi. “This program is an innovative and very effective way of leveraging all the strengths that a major research university brings to our region. And it has substantial benefit to our academic enterprise — from new internship and entrepreneurship opportunities for our students to more jobs that attract global talent to our region and create new professional avenues for our graduates and new pathways for our faculty to lend their expertise to industrial research and development.”

START-UP NY stands for SUNY Tax-free Areas to Revitalize and Transform Upstate NY.  The statewide program aims to spur economic development by enabling universities to identify areas where new and expanding businesses can operate for 10 years without paying New York State business, corporate, income, sales or property taxes, or franchise fees.

Since Cuomo announced the program earlier this year, 20 companies have pledged to move or expand in the Buffalo-Niagara region and work with UB to further their respective business. In all, the companies are projected to create 1,178 jobs and are investing more than $23 million in improvements to facilities over the next five years.

Two-thirds of the companies participating in START-UP NY throughout the state are UB-sponsored companies.

That includes Aesku.NY, a subsidiary of Germany-based life sciences firm Aesku.Diagnostics, which will work with the New York Genome Center and UB to advance new ways to treat, prevent and manage serious disease, as well as Bak USA, which will assemble affordable electronic tablets at Compass East, the former Sheehan Memorial Hospital at 425 Michigan Ave. on Buffalo’s East Side.

The five newest companies to join START-UP NY via UB are:

• HarkerBio — a startup company that provides an X-ray crystallography-based technology platform to rapidly and cost-effectively advance drug development. The company, which expects to create 10 jobs and invest $500,000, will collaborate with UB’s Center for Computational Research. It will open an office at Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus.

• Mitigate Injury Management — The startup will develop software and provide injury-management consultation services to industries nationwide. The company will offer internships to UB students and work with UB’s Center for Advanced Biomedical and Bioengineering Technology. It plans to invest $115,000 and employ 81 people at UB’s Gateway Building downtown.

• Robb Surgical Devices — This startup company has secured the rights to manufacture a novel laparoscopic surgical sponge. The company, which expects to employ 15 and invest $1.87 million, will operate from UB’s New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus.

• You First Services — This existing company acquires and commercializes life sciences technologies. It will relocate to UB’s Baird Research Park in Amherst and expects to invest $110,000 and hire seven new employees, including UB dental school students.

• ZeptoMetrix Corp. — This existing biotech company specializes in developing products for the global infectious disease diagnostic market. The company, which works with UB’s Center for Advanced Biomedical and Bioengineering Technology, will move into the Innovation Center Annex on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus. It expects to create 10 jobs and invest $575,000.