Three wind turbines in a field


Skysong Innovations launches 120 startups

The ability to diagnose dozens of diseases from one drop of blood. Programs that perform hypothetical surgeries without penetrating a single cell in a patient’s body. Solar panels that create water out of thin air, at rates able sustain a Syrian refugee village.

These aren’t plot elements from the newest science fiction series. They’re just a few of the over 300 real-life, world-changing initiatives powered by Arizona State University’s Skysong Innovations initiative.  

Since its inception in 2003, Skysong Innovations has helped develop and launch more than 120 companies in the health, life sciences, engineering and analytics sectors. By taking advantage of the comprehensive resources and biotechnological expertise unique to ASU, these companies and their sub-licensees have created over 1,100 jobs, brought $114 million to the Arizona economy and acquired more than $999 million in venture funding. 

EndoVantage

Among Skysong’s most impactful startups are EndoVantage, a software platform that merges digital entrepreneurship with medical innovation by simulating endovascular device implantation in patients contemplating stent surgery. By allowing doctors to predict post-treatment blood flow in advance of risky and often ineffective surgeries, EndoVantage markedly improves these procedures’ likelihoods of success.

HealthTell

Then there’s the biotechnology initiative HealthTell, which permits physicians to detect the presence or absence of over 30 diseases, even in early or latent stages, from a single drop of blood. Last year HealthTell, whose manufacturing hub is in Chandler, joined the Digital Life Alliance, a consortium of life science superstar companies backed by $400 million in investments. 

Breezing

Another venture is Breezing, the first portable device that tracks users’ resting energy expenditure via respiratory output and generates personalized diet and exercise recommendations in response. With lab-verified accuracy rates on par with the Douglas-Bag Method (the litmus test for calorimeters) and the ability to sync its data with users’ cell phones, tablets and iOS devices, Breezing has the potential to become a major disruptor in the wearable medical device market.

Sustainable solutions in agriculture, engineering, and infrastructure

Heliae

But Skysong’s startups and the industries they reach extend far beyond the medical sector. Take Heliae, for instance, whose cross-industry footprint is reducing corporate carbon footprints around the globe. Since its genesis, Heliae has garnered over $131 million in private capital investments, and the innovations born in its Gilbert-based labs promise both an environmentally and economically lucrative impact. By utilizing revolutionary technology developed and pioneered at ASU, Heliae identifies and harnesses the power of various “biological platforms”—environmentally sustainable resources like algae and other biofuels—to generate energy solutions for the food, fertilizer, pharmaceutical, fuel, chemical and cosmetic industries. Like the energy produced there, Heliae’s three labs remain close to their roots in Phoenix, Arizona, where the company has created jobs for over 100 local employees. 

Zero Mass Water

Another Arizona-strong startup is Zero Mass Water, an eco-friendly enterprise with the power to create water out of thin air—literally. The company manufactures solar panels that produce potable water from the air’s moisture, with a single panel capable of generating enough water to sustain a family of four. Headquartered in South Scottsdale, Zero Mass Water has laid groundwork for global outreach initiatives: in 2017, the company finalized plans to provide water to 100,000 Jordanian and Syrian refugee homes. 

Explore the Skysong Innovations
startup listing

In the last decade and a half, Skysong Innovations has helped ASU faculty and researchers launch over 180 startups and attract over $999 million in total investment funding.

Explore our Startup Listing to find out more about these companies, the revolutionary research behind them and how they plan to continue reshaping industries and transforming lives.

$999

MILLION DOLLARS
RAISED IN
EXTERNAL FUNDING

620+

INDIVIDUALS ARE
NOW EMPLOYED
AT ASU–LINKED STARTUPS

#1

most innovative
school in
2016 – 2023

#1 ASU      
#2 STANFORD      
#3 MIT

Prior to establishing its technology transfer office, ASU’s research and technologies had only acquired enough publicity, resources and funding to get four of its enterprises off the ground.

Today — after 4.4 thousand invention disclosures and nearly 1268 licenses and options — Skysong Innovations has developed into one of the nation’s top-performing technology transfer offices across a range of industry metrics.  

Technology transfer enables ASU to share innovations, resources and licensing agreements with external agencies and remote partners like the ASU Startup Mill and California Center in Santa Monica. This operational model emphasizes speed to market, flexibility and deal flow, and provides training, partnership, dedicated investment and expert leadership to ASU’s invention and research teams.