Corporate Partners

The altafiber (Cincinnati Bell) Innovation Hub fosters collaboration between employees and UC students and faculty, resulting in innovative applications and products that leverage the company's deep fiber network and expertise in the region. With more than $800 million invested in its local fiber network — which delivers high-speed internet service to consumers and businesses across the region — altafiber is increasing its focus on developing new products to help customers maximize their connections.

Read more about altafiber.

Read more about BTS.

Read more about CincyTech.

Inside Fifth Third Bank's evolving creative space within the 1819 Innovation Hub, team members are prototyping, learning and collaborating with other businesses. Members of Fifth Third’s innovation team remain headquartered at ONE67, the bank’s innovation center at its downtown campus, but they regularly utilize the 1819 innovation space to work with UC students, faculty and industry partners. 

Read more about Fifth Third Bank.

Fireroad is the brainchild of Tim Metzner and Ry Walker, who emerged in 2023 as a formidable platform of companies dedicated to fostering innovation at every stage:

• The Fireroad Foundry collaborates with founders during their emergent stages, guiding the swift testing of ideas, developing minimum viable products (MVPs) and pursuing product-market fit.
• Fireroad HoldCo invests in existing businesses, actively implementing technology, automation, and proven processes to catalyze growth.
• Fireroad Ventures focuses on early-stage tech companies led by visionary founders.

Read more about Fireroad.

FIS is a leading payments provider with a unique capability to power global integrated omni-commerce, any payment, anywhere. With industry-leading scale and an unmatched integrated technology platform, FIS offers customers a comprehensive suite of products and services globally, delivered through a single provider. FIS processes over 40 billion transactions annually, supporting more than 300 payment types across 146 countries and 126 currencies. The company is focused on expanding into high-growth markets and customer segments including global eCommerce, integrated payments and B2B.

Read more about FIS.

• Coffee hours: Join us for casual conversations on matters that affect academia and industry.
  
• Innovation forums: Gain industry insights through panel discussions.
  
• Collaborations​: Work with other partners on areas of common interest​.

With a presence spanning across Ohio, Indiana and North Carolina, HEAPY is a leading provider of comprehensive engineering solutions. The firm's expertise encompasses mechanical, electrical, plumbing and technology engineering design, along with top-notch design-build construction management and commissioning services. Notably, the company boasts a substantial portfolio that includes the successful oversight of over 450 LEED projects, as well as the execution of net-zero and WELL certified projects.

Read more about HEAPY. 

Kao USA Inc. is a leading manufacturer of premium beauty care brands that are recognized around the world for their innovation and quality. The Kao USA Inc. portfolio includes Jergens® and Curel® hand and body lotions; Biore® facial care; John Frieda® hair care; Ban® antiperspirants; Goldwell, KMS and Oribe professional hair care; and Molton Brown products for body and home. Kao USA uses its 1819 innovation space to highlight top innovation initiatives and recruit prospective employees. Kao USA also works with UC’s Venture Lab — a leading technology accelerator and business incubator — to fast-track and test new ideas. 

Read more about KAO.

Read more about Kroger Technology.

Main Street Ventures, recipient of the 2023 Cincy Inno “Catalyst” Fire Award, is the greater Cincinnati region’s small business and entrepreneur support organization that provides financial capital in the form of grants and community connections to emerging businesses with the potential to create jobs and vibrant communities.

Read more about Main Street Ventures.

Microsoft enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. Together, Microsoft and the 1819 Innovation Hub are developing programs for skilling students, engaging faculty to solve core research and innovation initiatives, and enhance skilling programs for enterprise customers within the Cincinnati Innovation District.

Read more about Microsoft.

Read more about innovation at P&G.

Tembo is a commercial open-source database company based on the popular database, Postgres, focused on dramatically simplifying the developer experience of deploying, managing and scaling Postgres through a novel database-as-code approach. The company is building a modern, fully-managed Postgres service with an emphasis on extendability, empowering users to take full advantage of the entire Postgres extension ecosystem. The Tembo product uses any extension, even custom and private; provides UI for popular extensions; and offers a framework to include the community in those efforts. Solution kits make it easy to get started using Postgres for specific new use cases, and an intelligent advisor helps clients better use the features that they're already employing in Postgres.

Western & Southern was founded in 1888 as The Western and Southern Life Insurance Company in Cincinnati. Over the last 135 years, the company has grown from a door-to-door business to a $100+ billion parent company with multiple insurance and financial services subsidiaries. Along the way, Western & Southern has helped lead efforts to position Cincinnati as a fertile location for entrepreneurs and startups. In 2020, Western & Southern joined Cintrifuse, JobsOhio and Fifth Third Bank to launch FinTech Frontier, a Cincy-based collaboration to drive innovation in financial services.

Read more about the Village Life Outreach Project.