Independence Equity I, LP launched in December 2010. We plan to invest in 10-12 companies over a five year period. Following is a brief overview of our portfolio companies.
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Tagnetics, based in Dayton, Ohio, develops and manufactures electronic shelf label systems for the retail industry.
Tagnetics’ ESL solutions enable retailers to maintain superior pricing accuracy and vital product data; change pricing and other data instantaneously on thousands of items in-store; and reduce labor and other costs and inefficiencies associated with conventional printed and manually-placed plastic tags. |
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Libertyville, Illinois-based 10x Technology, LLC develops and manufactures micro- and nano-structured polymer substrates that have applications in the Energy, Medical, Electronics, Transportation and Military sectors.
10x’s products range from micro-needle arrays for transdermal drug delivery to Fresnel lenses for solar concentrator systems. The founder of 10x Technology, Mr. Robert Pricone, is the inventor behind the first micro-prismatic retro-reflective sheeting for high brightness traffic signs which are now found worldwide. EVONIK Industries, a world leading manufacturer of acrylic sheet and molding compounds and bulk and performance monomers, is a strategic alliance partner of 10x. |
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Champaign, Illinois-based Autonomic Materials, Inc. (AMI) provides innovative self-healing polymeric systems that are capable of autonomically repairing themselves after damage (coating systems such as paints that self-repair when scratched or damaged).
AMI’s products are based on extensive research from the Autonomous Materials Systems (AMS) Group at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The Group developed and patented technologies for the production of self-healing polymer systems. AMI’s technology adds protection to high-value structures which are exposed to environmental stresses. Their systems are engineered to lengthen coating lifetimes, thereby reducing the costs (principally labor) and disruption associated with the recoating of surfaces.AMI is currently working with more than a dozen potential customers and product specifiers, which include major coatings producers and end-users. |
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Galesburg, Illinois-based Intellihot Green Technologies (Intellihot) is commercializing tankless water heaters that reduce water and energy waste and reduce installation and operating costs.
With conventional water heaters, a substantial amount of water is wasted after a user opens the tap and awaits the arrival of hot water; the Intellihot design can provide instant hot water, reducing water wasted when people run their faucets excessively before use. Intellihot units can be installed in both retrofits and new construction. The company has demonstrated 40% lower natural gas consumption with its unit and a capital investment up to 50% lower than the boiler/tank system that it replaces in commercial applications. The Intellihot unit also provides a more consistent heat profile than systems in the market today, a common complaint from users of existing tankless water heaters. Novel features include a self-learning software system, de-scaling techniques, remote monitoring, and master-less cascading that eliminates over-designs commonly used to ensure peak period hot water availability. It serves both residential and commercial markets and has several large scale deployments including the federal penitentiary in Pekin, IL. |
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Columbus, Ohio based Nanostatics, Inc.’s patented technology allows inline production of nanofibers as part of a manufacturing process at speeds 10-100 times that of competitive solutions.
Nanostatics has a proprietary platform technology that supports numerous applications – Air & Filter, Paper, Hygiene and Medical. Specific applications include: nanomaterials to enhance traditional fiber materials used in mechanical filters and specialty papers for ink-jet printers and “non-stick” paper for pan liners in the food industry. The NanoStatics system can be placed inline in a manufacturing process and the nanofibers created thereby are deposited on a more traditional substrate (e.g. a filtration fabric or a paper manufactured by traditional methods). The addition of the nano-fiber greatly enhances the characteristics of the material and/or allows a reduction of cost in its manufacture while preserving desired attributes. The fibers formed by this process are typically 200 nanometers in diameter which is 1000 times smaller than human hair. Key advantages that the NanoStatics process offers include: a small footprint device, lower capital cost compared to that of other solutions, and the ability to go to production speed with limited degradation in the nano-fiber structure.
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