High impact science and technology flourishes at New Jersey Institute for Technology (NJIT) in our academic community yet often does not fulfill its commercial potential. While NJIT certainly has success with traditional lab-to-market strategies – IP licensing and faculty startups – the challenges to these pathways are well known and perennial. University IP is rarely developed with market needs in mind and, as such, potential corporate partners struggle to connect their business applications with our technologies. And NJIT faculty and researchers rarely find the balance needed for a successful university spinout and a career in higher education.

Recognizing these impediments, the NJII Entrepreneurship Division has created a third pathway to deploy the NJIT ecosystem of technologies, capabilities, and entrepreneurs: a Venture Studio. Unlike a venture fund or traditional venture investing – which invest in other people’s companies – the NJII Venture Studio creates its own high-growth companies as vehicles for NJIT assets. The NJII Venture Studio is the dividend of a 10-year track record of successful new venture investment and acceleration at NJII. While the NJII team utilizes this unique ability to support our homegrown start-ups, the Entrepreneurship Division also offers new venture Acceleration Services to support the needs of our corporate, state and community partners. We surround startups in a network of seasoned entrepreneurs, investors, and technical advisors as well as provide experiential learning opportunities for our companies to accelerate their path to profitability and return for their investors. And many of these wraparound resources are housed at the NJIT Technology Hub.

NJII hosts the university’s business and technology incubator – a 110,000 sq. ft. facility comprised of wet labs, private offices, and co-working. NJII cultivates an active entrepreneurial ecosystem in the heart of University Heights to enable the impactful connections and relationships founders need to succeed.