Private equity fund helps CSU bring auto battery technology to market.

• Author: Reuteman, Rob
• Position: [TECHNOLOGY] - Colorado State University

A new private equity fund is boosting Colorado State University's foray into the worldwide search for a battery powerful and cheap enough to make all-electric autos a preferred alternative for the driving public.

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Set up to help the university bring its faculty's research to the marketplace, CSU Fund I made its first investment in Prieto Battery Inc., a startup based on the research of chemistry professor Amy Prieto.

Prieto has developed a nano-technology that university researchers and private investors believe could revolutionize the field. She has developed technology that can be used to produce batteries more powerful, longer-lasting and cheaper than lithium-ion rechargeable batteries now available, said Mark Wdowik, executive director of the new equity fund.

"We're looking for game-changers, and this is one," Wdowik said. "We look at a technology in its early stages and see if it can be connected to the marketplace."

Wdowik also is president and CEO of the CSU Management Corp., a private, nonprofit that helps the university to commercialize its research. He came to CSU in 2006 from the University of North Carolina, where he served as executive director of technology transfer and worked with a similar private equity fund that helped advance early-stage companies. He began working with tech transfer in 1993 at University of Kansas.

"We work with companies every step of the way, helping them to hire the right executives and bring the right team together, get the necessary funding and get to the end goal," Wdowik said.

CSU Fund I was closed to investors in March, capped at $3 million. So far, alt the money is from private investors. Prieto Battery got a cash infusion...