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VCU student company to compete for up to $2M

November 21, 2019

Joshna Seelam giving a presentation at the Luminate cohort
Kilo Medical Solutions was chosen as one of 10 finalists for New York State’s Luminate Accelerator.

By VCU da Vinci Center

Kilo Medical Solutions was chosen as one of 10 finalists for New York State’s Luminate Accelerator. Each finalist receives an initial investment of $100,000 and a chance to receive $2 million in follow-on funding.

Kilo joins Luminate’s third cohort, which is designed to help companies speed up commercialization of their technologies and business. Their final Demo Day will take place in June 2020.

“The VCU MPI Program has been instrumental to Kilo’s success thus far,” said Joshna Seelam (B.S.’18), chief executive officer, co-founder and a biomedical engineering alumna.

“I have applied a variety of entrepreneurship principles ranging from product development and startup operations to leadership management and raising capital. We wouldn’t be at our current stage without VCU College of Engineering and the da Vinci Center’s continued support.”

“The VCU College of Engineering’s collaborative, creative and entrepreneurial culture sets students on a path for successes like this. We are extremely proud of these young innovators.”
— Barbara D. Boyan, Ph.D., the Alice T. and William H. Goodwin, Jr. Dean of the VCU College of Engineering

The Kilo team is comprised of three VCU Engineering alumni and current da Vinci Master of Product Innovation students. They began their journey into the startup world through a capstone project with VCU Engineering in 2018. During their final semester they took their idea through VCU’s Pre-Accelerator program, sponsored by the VCU da Vinci Center for Innovation, and later all three applied to VCU’s Master of Product Innovation Program.

Garret Westlake, Ph.D., executive director of VCU da Vinci Center, said, “Under the leadership of Dean Boyan, the College of Engineering has excelled at producing innovative talent that is capable not only of joining leading companies as employees but of also launching their own companies. The Kilo team is a great example of cross-disciplinary collaboration at VCU and the opportunities afforded to students with drive to pursue their dreams.”