A sustainable cosmetics brand, a nanomaterials cleantech company and a producer of the 2D inorganic compound MXenes were selected this year to receive $150,000 investments from the Drexel Innovation Fund, the University’s seed fund.
The fund was launched in 2023 to provide early-stage support to Drexel problem-solvers tackling entrepreneurial opportunities. As an evergreen reserve, the fund’s returns will be re-invested in future Drexel startups.
AER Cosmetics, a company Paige DeAngelo, BA ’23, founded as a student, produces water-soluble, vegan, cruelty-free mascara tablets that go into a refillable tube. Both the mascara wand and tube come clean in the dishwasher. DeAngelo has won prizes in numerous contests including the Drexel Startups Fund, the Draper Competition and Global Student Entrepreneur Awards.
1DNano commercializes one-dimensional nanofilaments called hydroxides-derived nanostructures (HDNs), which were discovered in 2021 by Distinguished Professor Michel Barsoum and his then-doctoral researcher Hussein Badr. The nanomaterials react with sunlight to convert hydrogen from water over long durations, which has the potential to slash the cost of producing hydrogen fuel.
The third seed fund recipient, MXene Inc., is establishing itself as the leading supplier of MXenes, a nanomaterial discovered in 2011 by two groups of Drexel researchers, led by Barsoum and Distinguished University and Bach Professor Yury Gogotsi in the College of Engineering. MXenes are a class of two-dimensional inorganic compounds that consist of atomically thin layers of transition metal carbides, nitrides or carbonitrides. Their versatility in composition, arrangement, surface chemistry and tunability creates potential benefits in applications that advance energy, electronics, optics, catalysis, biomedicine and the environment.
“The Innovation Fund plays a crucial role in Drexel’s innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem,” says Shintaro Kaido, former vice provost for innovation and executive director of Drexel Applied Innovation. “I am very proud of the startup founders who went through a very competitive process and wish them well in their journeys to make our world a better place.”