Entrepreneurship

Building New Jersey's Innovation Economy


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Igniting Innovation Through New Ventures


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.

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How We Support Entrepreneurs


Acceleration Services

Tailored programs designed to propel entrepreneurs and their ventures forward at an accelerated pace. These services provide a structured framework, mentorship, resources, and networking opportunities to help startups grow rapidly and efficiently.

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Venture Studio

The NJII Venture Studio is the dividend of a 10-year track record of successful new venture investment and acceleration at NJII. Find out how you can engage with us to Partner, Lead or Submit a new company.

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Profeta Community Program

This free program has been developed by Paul Profeta to meet the underserved needs of budding entrepreneurs in the Newark, NJ area. This free workshop program includes 27 hours of instruction on key topics in entrepreneurship, delivered by Paul Profeta.

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Incubator Space and Programming

The Paul Profeta Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship is a 110,000 sq. ft. facility at 211 Warren Street Newark, NJ. This is the home to NJII's Incubation services.

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Startup Statistics in New Jersey


NJII Lifetime Revenues

51%



Of millionaires are entrepreneurs


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5.5M



Number of new start ups in New Jersey in 2023

NJII Registered Non-Profit

#1



Concentration of women-founded start ups in the world

Jersey City, Source: Tide, 2020


NJII Year Founded 2014

Top 3



Start up sectors: Energy, Finance, Technology


Merck Digital Sciences Studio


In 2023, Merck needed to develop an innovative drug development technology initiative powered by proprietary machine learning, giving scientists the tools to create and collaborate in an entrepreneurial environment. Thus, the collaboration between Merck and NJII was formed to curate a solution.  This is the MDS Studio.

A 10-month hands-on accelerator program providing mentorship, coaching, training, support, community, and investment to enable the next generation of innovative technologies for drug discovery and development.


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Meet The Team


Michael Van Ter Sluis

Vice President


Tom Villani, Ph.D.

Assistant Vice President of AI & Machine Learning


Mary Jane Durkin

Director, Entrepreneurship


Viraj Mane

Director, Venture Studio


Ahmet-Hamdi Cavusoglu

Program Director


Harleigh Jones

Manager, Programming and Operations



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