IQ Motion Control Returns to Pennovation Roots to Bring Motor Module to the Masses
Following stint at hardware accelerator in China, company returns to Pennovation to build up drone motor business.
Media Contact: Jennifer Rizzi, Director, Communications, Facilities & Real Estate Services, 215.573.6107, rizzi@upenn.edu
May 15, 2018
The University of Pennsylvania’s Division of Facilities and Real Estate Services announced today that IQ Motion Control (previously IQinetics) has chosen to build on their early success at the Pennovation Center in 2017 and launch their first large-scale production run from a larger space in the Office Building within the Pennovation Works development.
IQ Motion Control is a hardware startup offering the first drone motor with position sensing. Armed with a single prototype, a PhD in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, and a concentration in robotics from the University of Pennsylvania’s Schools of Engineering Program, CEO Matt Piccoli initially sought space in the Pennovation Center to jumpstart the journey between intellectual inventiveness and viable venture in 2017. Today, fresh off the heels of a four-month accelerator program for hardware startups (called HAX) in China, Piccoli and co-founder Jon Broome have returned to Pennovation’s cost-competitive location and uniquely supportive atmosphere to bring IQ Motor Module to market.
As one of 30 companies awarded a 100+ day stay in “the Silicon Valley for Hardware,” the duo leveraged their previous experience making the most of a collaborative, resource-rich, entrepreneurial environment to expedite the prototyping process and optimize the manufacturing method for a scaled product run in Shenzhen, China. Now back on their home turf in Philadelphia, Piccoli and Broome are hard at work sending pre-production motors to various robotics companies for testing. The two have already crowdfunded over $20,000 using a Crowd Supply campaign, expect to raise an additional $10,000 in the coming weeks, and hope to close their first large deal by this spring.
Why choose to re-establish themselves on campus at Pennovation? It may have something to do with the power and backing of the University of Pennsylvania and the extent of allies in the innovator community in the city of Philadelphia and beyond. “The connection to the Penn community has been instrumental. Our friends in the GRASP lab, site operator 1776, and fellow companies have been an extremely positive influence on our growth as a company,” says Broome. “Operating out of the Pennovation Center was a great start for us. Money was very tight during our first six months, so to meet our budgetary needs, we were initially located in a converted mailroom space. Then four months later, we moved up into a small office. The Pennovation Center really understands the needs of minimally-funded startups and will do everything they can to help us succeed.”
In addition to the palpable sense of community, myriad opportunities for mentorship, and readily supplied sources of engineering, design, and business support, IQ Motion Control will continue to benefit from the diverse, flexible, and affordable options available at the Pennovation site.
“The entrepreneurial ecosystem that has been created at Pennovation is enabling the kind of growth in technology and space that IQ Motion Control has experienced,” says Anne Papageorge, Vice President, Facilities & Real Estate Services at Penn. “We are more than pleased to welcome back IQ Motion Control for the next steps in their development.”
About The Pennovation Works
The Pennovation Works is a 23-acre development adjacent to the University campus on the southern bank of the Schuylkill River providing facilities and amenities to bridge intellectual and entrepreneurial initiatives among University researchers, private sector innovators, and start-ups. Owned by the University, and operated by its Division of Facilities and Real Estate Services, Pennovation Works houses research labs from Penn’s schools of Arts & Sciences, Dental Medicine, Design, Engineering & Applied Sciences, and Veterinary Medicine, and companies such as Qualcomm Philadelphia Research Lab, Netronix, and Novapeutics.
Visit pennovation.upenn.edu and follow Pennovation Works on Facebook, @Pennovation on Twitter, and @pennovationworks on Instagram.
Learn more about IQ Motion Control at http://iq-control.com/ and follow them on Twitter @iqmotioncontrol.
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