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Venture Acceleration Fund
 The Venture Acceleration Fund (VAF), launched by Los Alamos National Security LLC (LANS) in October 2006, provides investments of up to $100,000 for projects with regional entrepreneurs, companies, investors, or strategic partners to promote technology commercialization, new company formation, and business growth.
The VAF is designed to build on the success of LANL's internally focused Technology Maturation Fund by serving as an externally focused fund to support regional businesses with a Laboratory affiliation. Proposals must be for projects that facilitate the creation and growth of regional ventures based on LANL technology or expertise. For more information see flyer (pdf).
The Regional Economic Development Corporation is currently accepting ideas for projects the VAF could fund. This process precedes the formal submission of a proposal. Idea submitters should review the award criteria explained in the Call for Proposals. They will need to comply with these criteria should their idea be selected for proposal submission.
NNM Connect, sponsored by LANS and LANL in partnership with RDC, is growing an ecosystem for enterprise development and networking for long-term economic growth in Northern New Mexico.
The examples below describe a few of the New Mexico startups based on Los Alamos technologies that have received VAF awards in the past.
| Acoustic Cytometry Systems Inc. (ACS), based in Los Alamos, is a biotech startup commercializing a portable acoustic flow cytometer developed at LANL, expected to enhance medical diagnostics in third world countries.
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CIVA, the Company for Information Visualization and Analysis, is commercializing LANL’s epidemiological modeling and simulation system, EpiCast, which helps epidemiologists understand the spread and impact of an avian influenza (H5N1) pandemic. |
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APJeT Inc. is a small, Santa Fe startup that uses atmospheric-pressure plasma technology licensed by LANL for advanced textile finishing applications. The LANS investment has helped the company attract private equity financing. |
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Packet Analytics Corporation, a Santa Fe startup, provides a new security software system based on LANL technology that can collect
an enterprise’s network security information and efficiently analyze millions of network events daily. |
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Knowledge Reef Systems Inc., a LANL spin-off based in Santa Fe, has the developed kReef, an online service that accelerates and enhances the scientific research process. The kReef system replaces the tedious, trial-and-error information discovery process with a real-time solution that delivers superior recommendations mined from a large-scale database of scholarly resources. |
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CNT Technologies Inc. is using a LANLtechnology to produce yarns from carbon nanotubes that are the strongest materials ever produced on a strength-to-weight basis. The company plans to produce arrays of carbon nanotubes in its Los Alamos facility and spin them into yarn at speeds hundreds of times faster than any existing approach. |
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