Innovate Utah: NEW IDEAS, PRODUCTS AND SERVICES FROM UTAH COMPANIES

EVject, an electric vehicle (EV) accessory company in American Fork, has introduced its signature product, the Breakaway EV Charging Adapter.

The company said it has identified a major safety threat in the EV charging industry that has been overlooked by many EV and charging station manufacturers. While charging, electric vehicles cannot be driven away from the charging station without the driver leaving the vehicle to disconnect the cable from the charging port. This poses a significant safety risk, especially in emergency situations such as electric fires, burglaries, wildlife altercations and{mprestriction ids="1,3"} more.

“As more and more drivers switch to electric vehicles, it is critical we address the safety issues that come with this transition,” said Jeremy Carter, spokesperson for EVject. “The White House’s recent release regarding EV charging standards focused on convenience and reliability. But shouldn’t we primarily be concerned with safety and security when it comes to EV standards?”

EV manufacturers implemented a locking mechanism inside the charging port to avoid involuntary unplugging and promote electrical safety while an EV is charging. The EV software logic immobilizes the car by blocking its ability to shift out of park while charging, EVject said.

EVject warns that this problem is not specific to a single EV brand, and thus urges all EV and charging-station manufacturers to take immediate action to resolve these critical safety issues. The company said its device, which disconnects under pressure while allowing the car to start, is a step in the right direction for EV charging safety.

Aumni, a Salt Lake City investment data and analysis company, has released its first edition of the Aumni Venture Beacon, an annual retrospective report on the venture capital industry. The information in the report contains legal and financial terms buried in deal documents, the company said. “Aumni is in a unique position to anonymize, aggregate and query that information to provide benchmarking and trend analysis,” said Sebastian Quintero, Aumni’s data science director. ‍“It is a privilege we do not take lightly, and we’re delighted to support the ecosystem with a rare, aggregated view of the inner workings of venture capital.” “As a founder, I know first-hand how helpful the insights from our data were as we navigated the venture capital market,” said Kelsey Chase, Aumni’s co-founder and business development officer.

Salt Lake City-based Beanstalk LLC, a company that focuses on life enrichment and higher satisfaction from social media, has introduced its Life Experience Platform, a product designed to help clients attain higher levels of enrichment from social media activities, while retaining full control of the content received and personal information shared. Beanstalk said its paradigm is the return of personal choice and personal information’s power to the individual. Because of the glut of information that is difficult to navigate and can easily misuse online participants’ time and attention for marketing, manipulation of thinking or even improper use of personal data, “this new [product] and the technology that supports it is advancing in beta implementations as the company formalizes key partnerships in preparation to expand its scale during 2023,” the company’s announcement said.

Blendtec, a manufacturer of blenders and kitchen appliances based in Orem, has launched its new immersion blender. Designed to provide versatility and convenience, the new Blendtec Immersion Blender will enhance blending, mixing and pureeing for the home cook, the company said. The blender comes with several attachments, including a blending wand, a whisk and a chopper, making it an all-in-one tool for the home cook. The interchangeable attachments are easy to swap out and are dishwasher-safe. “We’re thrilled to bring the Blendtec Immersion Blender to market,” said Keith Titus, CEO of Blendtec. “We wanted to create a multi-functional tool that simplifies the blending process and enhances the overall cooking experience for our customers. With this new product, we’re confident that users will be able to bring their culinary favorites to life with ease.”

Qualtrics, a Provo-based experience management platform, has unveiled a set of new applications designed for the frontline — the intersection between a customer and a company, whether digital or physical. The company said the Qualtrics X4 puts the power of experience management in the hands of the people who have the greatest impact on the customer and employee experience — contact center agents, digital teams and all of the people managers in an organization — enabling them to act with empathy in real time. “The days of having to survey customers whenever we want to know about their experience are over,” said Qualtrics CEO Zig Serafin. “Qualtrics is innovating to empower every organization to understand what’s going on at every stage of the journey, at every frontline touchpoint, without ever having to ask.”

SocialClimb, a healthcare marketing platform based in Lehi, has launched a new postcard solution aimed at helping healthcare organizations reach prospective patients in a more targeted and cost-effective manner. Traditionally, healthcare organizations have used postcards to contact potential patients residing in entire ZIP codes. The new solution provides detailed data on potential patients that allows customers to create, customize, track and send postcard campaigns to individuals who are most likely to require the care provided by local physicians. “By identifying individuals who are most likely to need a specific treatment, healthcare organizations can increase the effectiveness of their campaigns while minimizing costs,” said Ty Allen, CEO of SocialClimb. “Our customers can customize their postcard campaigns based on specific patients to increase growth for a service line, procedure or an individual physician.”

West Bountiful-based medical cannabis supplier WholesomeCo has introduced two new products, a line of Cannabis Vape Cartridges along with an Indica Gummy Edible. The new products are available through the pharmacy’s delivery service. The vape cartridges come in a choice of five flavors and the edible gummy comes in a Berry Gummy flavor in a pack of 10, specially formulated for nighttime use with the sleep-promoting cannabinoid CBN. “We are pleased to roll out our very own WholesomeCo vape and gummy products and to offer a greater variety of trusted cannabis solutions to our loyal and future customers across Utah,” said Taylor Heyland, senior vice president of supply. “With 56 percent of our patients selecting edibles as their top choice for nighttime use, it was only fitting that we produce our own.”

Pain Relief Technologies LLC of Sandy has released the latest version of its Kailo Pain Patch, the Kailo Flex. The company said that the original design of its pain-relieving patch lacked flexibility. The new drug-free product is a combination of conducting and semi-conducting materials that form a uniquely arranged sheet of tiny capacitors. These capacitors are uniquely suited to interact with the body’s electrical signals in the nervous system. The conducting materials in the Kailo technology are common elements that are non-toxic and natural. Kailo products are backed by crowd funding campaigns. Back in 2019, the firm launched an Indiegogo campaign for its first pain patch. With over 13,000 backers, Kailo raised over $2 million. In April 2022, the company raised over $231,000 with 3,100 backers to develop the flexible patch.{/mprestriction}