O2 RegenTech receives funding to support pre-clinical development

By Lisa Craig,  lmc91@uakron.edu

O2 RegenTech, a startup spun out of The University of Akron and originally founded by Dr. Nic Leipzig, has received $100,000 in funding from the Innovation Fund Northeast Ohio.

Leipzig, an associate professor in chemical and biomolecular engineering, was joined by Dr. Andreas Inmann, an experienced medical device entrepreneur to commercialize cost-effective, easy-to-use wound care solutions based on technology originally developed at Leipzig’s UA lab. The proprietary technology is used by O2 RegenTech in an initial product offering, OXAID™, as an oxygen-releasing, moist, antimicrobial dressing to promote chronic wound healing.

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“This funding will be instrumental in moving our technology closer to regulatory submission and commercialization,” says Inmann, O2 RegenTech’s president and CEO. “It will help the company to run the necessary tests on its technology to prepare for FDA approval.” 

Innovation Fund Northeast Ohio, the area’s most active pre-seed fund for technology-based startups, has awarded a combined $225,000 to six companies in its latest round, one of which was O2 RegenTech. The Innovation Fund has awarded nearly $12 million to 183 companies since it launched in 2007.

“After a decade, we are still impressed by the companies launching in Northeast Ohio that have really big ideas,” said Dennis Cocco, director of the Innovation Fund and co-director of GLIDE, the Lorain County Community College technology incubator that administers the Innovation Fund. “These startups have business ideas that could change their respective industries in very creative ways.”

O2 RegenTech has also received funding from the Great Lakes Innovation and Development Enterprise, JumpStart, Ohio Third Frontier, National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health.