Data, AI & Software in Action

The most powerful technology is often invisible. Behind faster diagnoses, safer emergency care, smarter homes, and more engaging classrooms are companies using data, AI, software, and automation to solve everyday challenges. Across Pennsylvania, Ben Franklin Technology Partners is helping innovators transform bold ideas into practical solutions that improve lives, strengthen industries, and create new opportunities for growth.

This month’s Statewide Story highlights four companies that demonstrate how technology is creating impact in very different ways, from education and healthcare to property technology and emergency medicine.

Saras-3D

Allentown | Lehigh County | Northeastern Pennsylvania
Sector: AI | Information Technology | Education
Founder: Bipin Dama, Founder & CTO

Learning science and engineering concepts is easier when students can interact with them rather than simply read about them. Saras-3D is using artificial intelligence to create immersive 3D learning experiences that help students visualize complex concepts and build confidence in STEM subjects.

As the company prepared to expand beyond product development and into commercialization, it sought support to strengthen its go-to-market strategy and business development efforts.

Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania provided investment that helped Saras-3D launch what it describes as the world’s first multimodal 3D AI education platform while continuing to support its growth strategy. That partnership is helping the company bring interactive, AI-powered learning experiences to more classrooms and students.

Biomeme

Philadelphia | Philadelphia County | Southeastern Pennsylvania
Sector: Life Sciences | Biotechnology | AI
Founder: Max Perelman, Co-Founder, President & CEO; Jesse vanWestrienen, Co-Founder, Executive VP of Products

Your body is constantly generating information. Biomeme’s goal is to help translate that information into meaningful insights that can improve healthcare and personalize treatment.

The company first gained attention by pioneering technology that transformed iPhones into handheld laboratories capable of analyzing DNA. Today, Biomeme is using AI to analyze large RNA sequencing datasets and automate the design of new laboratory tests, dramatically accelerating the development of personalized diagnostics.

Building confidence in decentralized molecular testing was an early challenge, particularly when many believed sophisticated diagnostics could only be performed in centralized laboratories.

Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania became a key early supporter, providing investment that helped move Biomeme from prototype toward product while lending credibility with investors, partners, customers, and advisors. During the COVID-19 pandemic, that support helped Biomeme secure critical materials needed to rapidly expand its decentralized CLIA laboratory testing network across the country, ultimately becoming the largest provider of onsite molecular diagnostics for the film and television industry.

Today, the company is applying AI to design new tests in weeks instead of years, bringing personalized medicine closer to everyday healthcare.

FIXED HHS

Erie | Erie County | Central & Northern Pennsylvania
Sector: Information Technology (Software, Hardware & Semiconductors) | Property Technology
Founders: Desiree Troutner, Owner and Co-Founder; Bob Troutner, Owner and Co-Founder

Most people think FIXED HHS is a handyman company. In reality, it’s building technology that could change how homeowners manage one of their largest investments.

Its proprietary INO (“I Know”) platform is being developed to digitally inventory home contents, estimate replacement values, track warranties, provide maintenance reminders, and help homeowners make informed repair-or-replace decisions. The technology also has applications for insurance providers, property managers, and the real estate industry.

As the company grew, it faced the challenges common to many technology-driven startups: scaling operations, securing growth capital, and introducing a new technology-enabled service model.

Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Central & Northern Pennsylvania provided investment, mentorship, strategic guidance, and business planning support that helped strengthen the company’s long-term vision. Through its partnership with Ben Franklin, FIXED expanded its workforce, established a new headquarters, broadened its service area, and continues advancing the INO platform as a scalable property technology solution.

HeadStrait Labs

Pittsburgh | Allegheny County | Southwestern Pennsylvania
Sector: Healthcare
Founders: Mary Squire, Co-founder & Co-CEO; Alyssa Theroux, Co-founder & Co-CEO

Emergency medicine has advanced dramatically over the past several decades, yet many methods used to immobilize head and neck injuries have changed very little. HeadStrait Labs is bringing data and technology into that process with a tech-enabled medical device designed specifically for emergency medical services.

Its EVAC-1 with SMARTmotion combines physical stabilization with sensor technology that captures real-time motion data and alerts EMS crews to potentially harmful patient movement during transport. The result is a smarter approach to patient care and valuable data that can inform future emergency medicine practices.

While the original prototype demonstrated the concept, it needed to become simpler, more affordable, and scalable for real-world use. After conducting more than 100 customer discovery interviews, the team redesigned the product around the needs of frontline EMS professionals.

Through Innovation Works’ Robotics Factory Accelerate Program, part of the Ben Franklin Technology Partners network, HeadStrait Labs received funding, technical mentorship, engineering support, and access to prototyping resources that helped transform the concept into a market-ready product. The company is now advancing clinical validation and preparing for commercialization while demonstrating how data-enabled technology can improve emergency care.

Innovation Across Pennsylvania

These four companies operate in different industries, but they share a common goal: transforming information into action. Whether improving STEM education, advancing personalized medicine, modernizing homeownership, or enhancing emergency care, they demonstrate how data, AI, software, and automation are driving innovation across the Commonwealth.

For more than 40 years, Ben Franklin Technology Partners has helped entrepreneurs turn promising ideas into growing companies through early-stage investment, strategic guidance, and hands-on expertise. Together, these stories illustrate not only the strength of Pennsylvania’s innovation economy, but also the impact of a statewide network committed to helping great ideas succeed.