CU Startup News

ReviewerZero and Karger Publishers partner to strengthen research integrity

Daniel Corbin Leonard — Thu, 25 Sep 2025 18:36:31 +0000

ReviewerZero and Karger Publishers partner to strengthen research integrity Daniel Corbin … Thu, 09/25/2025 - 12:36

A new partnership with Karger Publishers will accelerate their already strong research integrity strategy by giving the research integrity and publication ethics team access to the entire AI-powered suite by ReviewerZero.

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The University of Colorado Connection

ReviewerZero AI, founded by Daniel Acuña (��ɫ��Ƶ Computer Science) in 2023, is working with publishers to deploy an artificial intelligence technology suite, including tools to detect plagiarism and statistical inconsistencies, to ensure research integrity in scientific publications. The company won the 2023 Lab Venture Challenge (LVC), receiving a $125,000 grant from Venture Partners at ��ɫ��Ƶ and the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT) Advanced Industries Program.

View the ReviewerZero Profile

ReviewerZero—A new partnership with Karger Publishers will accelerate their already strong research integrity strategy by giving the research integrity and publication ethics team access to the entire AI-powered suite by ReviewerZero, a ��ɫ��Ƶ startup founded by Daniel Acuña (��ɫ��Ƶ Computer Science) in 2023.

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��ɫ��Ƶ ranked No. 1 for launching startups based on university discoveries

Daniel Corbin Leonard — Mon, 15 Sep 2025 18:31:49 +0000

��ɫ��Ƶ ranked No. 1 for launching startups based on university discoveries Daniel Corbin … Mon, 09/15/2025 - 12:31

Daniel Leonard

Photo: Associate Professor and co-founder of Mana Battery, a startup developing sodium-based batteries for sustainable energy storage, Chunmei Ban, is working with chemical engineering student Kangmin Kim in the ��ɫ��Ƶ College of Engineering and Applied Science lab. Source: Jesse Morgan Petersen

The ��ɫ��Ƶ reached a historic milestone, launching 35 new companies based on university intellectual property during fiscal year 2024, more than any other U.S. campus that year. In addition to holding the No. 1 spot for that year, the achievement also places ��ɫ��Ƶ No. 2 for the most startups launched in a single year by a U.S. campus.

Venture Partners at ��ɫ��Ƶ drives the transformation of research breakthroughs into real-world impact by empowering innovators at ��ɫ��Ƶ (as well as CU Denver and UCCS) to create companies and forge industry partnerships.

From steady growth to record-breaking results

A decade ago, ��ɫ��Ƶ launched an average of four to six startups based on university inventions annually. Today, it stands as a national leader, having launched more startups in FY 2024 than any other university campus, followed by the University of Michigan, the University of Minnesota and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), according to data released in July from AUTM (Association of University Technology Managers), the leading association tracking university technology transfer. AUTM counts startups that are founded with an agreement between the company and university to commercialize specific university intellectual property (IP).

In AUTM’s data going back to 1990, only Stanford University has exceeded ��ɫ��Ƶ in the total number of startups launched in a single year, with 38 startups in 2022.

What really sets ��ɫ��Ƶ apart is efficiency, mainly the number of startups per dollar of research funding, according to Bryn Rees, associate vice chancellor for innovation and partnerships at ��ɫ��Ƶ.

“Universities spinning out similar numbers of startups have significantly larger research budgets feeding their innovation pipeline,” says Rees. “Among institutions with the highest single-year outputs, ��ɫ��Ƶ tops that efficiency indicator with 5.1 startups launched in FY 2024 per $100 million in research funding. That’s more than double the next most efficient university campus among the top 10 startup generators in the same year—a fantastic result and a real credit to our approach.”

��ɫ��Ƶ’s rise—achieved outside traditional capital hubs like Silicon Valley and Boston—reflects a uniquely collaborative and highly effective innovation ecosystem.

A “relentless commitment to supporting founders”

What We Do For University Innovators

We help researchers, inventors and creators at CU take their groundbreaking discoveries every step from intellectual property (IP) management to market launch.

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Through experimentation and entrepreneurial thinking, the Venture Partners team has redefined how academic research translates into impactful businesses. “Our journey reflects years of careful planning, experimentation and a relentless commitment to supporting our startup founders,” says Rees. “We’ve embraced Boulder’s collaborative ethos and created a model that aligns with our community’s values while delivering national impact.”

Venture Partners prioritizes the experience and development of its founders—usually faculty, postdoctoral researchers and graduate students, but also entrepreneurs from outside the university. Their Licensing with EASE® simplifies the startup process with pre-negotiated intellectual property licensing terms, reducing administrative friction and allowing founders to focus on building their ventures. This philosophy extends to providing tailored mentorship and long-term support, creating an environment where new founders thrive.

From entrepreneurial training to funding, Venture Partners offers a comprehensive suite of resources for founders and startups. For example, Venture Partners’ Center for Translational Research (CTR) helps bridge the “valley of death” between early-stage research and commercialization with comprehensive support for researchers applying for grants that cater to startups. In federal partnership, the National Science Foundation I-Corps^TM Hub: West Region programming at Venture Partners provides startup training to researchers in and outside of the university, while the Lab Venture Challenge (LVC) awards over $1.25 million in proof-of-concept grants annually in partnership with the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT).

Venture Partners’ willingness to experiment and learn from failure has been critical to its success. “Have you heard of the ‘i-Teams’ program?” Rees jokes. “Of course not! It was a failure. We wanted to match lab innovations with business students. It was a fun experience and great learning for the students, but we didn’t start any new companies.” However, it provided insights that led to the creation of the highly successful Embark Deep Tech Startup Creator, which launched 10 of the 35 companies in 2024 by matching entrepreneurs, including from ��ɫ��Ƶ’s Leeds School of Business, with cutting-edge ��ɫ��Ƶ innovations.

35 startups accelerating toward impact

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We connect investors with high-potential ventures and facilitates collaborations with companies seeking to invest in research or license technologies from CU.

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The 35 startups launched in FY 2024 represent a diverse array of industries, from clean energy to biotech. Among them is Mana Battery, founded on research from Chunmei Ban’s laboratory (��ɫ��Ƶ Paul M. Rady Mechanical Engineering), winner of a 2023 LVC grant. Mana Battery is developing sodium-based batteries as a safer, more sustainable alternative to lithium-ion technology, addressing critical challenges in energy storage. Over the past decade, ��ɫ��Ƶ has spun out several battery-focused startups, collectively creating hundreds of jobs and attracting over $1 billion in investment to Colorado.

CU is a growing international leader in both quantum and healthcare research and technologies, both of which are found in the new startup Flari Tech. The company is developing technology created by Jun Ye (��ɫ��Ƶ Physics, JILA, NIST) and Qizhong Liang (JILA) to detect diseases via the breath, all built upon the Nobel Prize-winning frequency comb developed at ��ɫ��Ƶ and NIST. Eva Yao founded the company in the first cohort of Embark.

Another shooting star is Mesa Quantum. Venture Partners helped match a motivated grad student, Sristy Agrawal (NIST, ��ɫ��Ƶ Mathematical Physics), with a novel atomic clock invented in Svenja Knappe’s lab (��ɫ��Ƶ Paul M. Rady Mechanical Engineering). Mesa Quantum was first conceived in the I-Corps Hub West programming offered at Venture Partners. Mesa Quantum is ushering in the next generation of chip-scale atomic clocks and quantum sensors, powering the industries of tomorrow in fields like autonomous vehicles and advanced deep-water oil exploration.

��ɫ��Ƶ’s success is bolstered by recent ecosystem wins like the NSF ASCEND Engine in Colorado and Wyoming and the Elevate Quantum Tech Hub designations. These initiatives enhance ��ɫ��Ƶ’s capacity to attract top talent, secure funding and support high-impact startups.

“These programs bring together the resources and expertise we need to address global challenges,” says Rees. “They’re amplifying our impact and positioning CU as a leader in innovation.”

Looking ahead

Venture Partners Annual Report

Explore more about these startups and how Venture Partners achieved record-breaking success in transforming innovation into impact.

Explore Our Impact

As Venture Partners celebrates its record-breaking year, the team is focused on the future. Plans include expanding incubator spaces, enhancing funding opportunities and growing its investor network. The university is also working to refine programs like Embark and explore new collaborations with other institutions.

“Our goal is to create ventures with lasting impact,” Rees emphasizes. “We measure success not only by the number of companies we create but by the societal and economic benefits they deliver.”

Over the last five years, startups spinning out of ��ɫ��Ƶ have raised $3.9 billion in total financing. ��ɫ��Ƶ’s inventions and startups contributed $8 billion in national economic impact and $5.2 billion in Colorado from 2018-2022 alone, according to a 2022 report conducted by Leeds School of Business. Ten unicorns—companies valued at more than $1 billion—have spun out of the campus to date, including Infleqtion, which announced its initial public offering last week.

��ɫ��Ƶ’s dramatic rise as a leader in university-driven entrepreneurship has illuminated its role in the broader U.S. innovation ecosystem. By prioritizing founders, embracing Colorado’s unique strengths and continually evolving its approach, Venture Partners offers a model for other institutions seeking to foster innovation.

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Cascade Bio secures $6M to scale breakthrough biocatalysts

Daniel Corbin Leonard — Tue, 09 Sep 2025 18:35:21 +0000

Cascade Bio secures $6M to scale breakthrough biocatalysts Daniel Corbin … Tue, 09/09/2025 - 12:35

Cascade Bio, a ��ɫ��Ƶ spinout enabling enzyme-based processes, has secured $6 million to accelerate the shift from petrochemicals to biomanufacturing. The funding includes $3.2 million in non-dilutive funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). With this investment, Cascade will expand delivery of its breakthrough biocatalysts.

Business Wire: Cascade Bio Secures $6M

The funding includes a $2.8M seed round led by Endurance28 with participation from Stray Dog Capital, 1Flourish, Range Ventures, 10VC, and Amplify plus $3.2M in nondilutive funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) through the Advancing Cell-Free Systems Toward Increased Range of Use-Inspired Applications (NSF CFIRE) initiative and an SBIR Phase II award.

Read the Announcement

The University of Colorado Connection

Cascade Bio’s proprietary enzyme immobilization technology, dubbed “Body Armor,” acts as a cushion for the enzyme, enabling it to last longer, withstand more challenging conditions, and work across a wider operating window than other cell-free solutions. The technology was invented by co-founder James Weltz while a graduate student in the ��ɫ��Ƶ laboratories of Daniel K. Schwartz (��ɫ��Ƶ Chemical and Biological Engineering) and Joel Kaar (��ɫ��Ƶ Chemical and Biological Engineering).

View the Cascade Profile

Business Wire—Cascade Bio, a ��ɫ��Ƶ spinout enabling enzyme-based processes, has secured $6 million to accelerate the shift from petrochemicals to biomanufacturing. The funding includes $3.2 million in non-dilutive funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). With this investment, Cascade will expand delivery of its breakthrough biocatalysts.

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Infleqtion to go public with $1.8B valuation making it ��ɫ��Ƶ’s 10th unicorn spinout

Daniel Corbin Leonard — Mon, 08 Sep 2025 13:32:37 +0000

Infleqtion to go public with $1.8B valuation making it ��ɫ��Ƶ’s 10th unicorn spinout Daniel Corbin … Mon, 09/08/2025 - 07:32

Infleqtion, a global leader in neutral atom–based quantum technology, and Churchill Capital Corp X, a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company, announced that they have entered into a definitive business combination agreement to accelerate Infleqtion’s mission to commercialize quantum products that provide orders of magnitude improvements in computing and precision sensing applications. Upon closing, the combined company will operate as Infleqtion and is expected to be listed on a leading North American exchange under the ticker “INFQ.”

Valued at $1.8 billion, Infleqtion is now the tenth "unicorn" to spin out of ��ɫ��Ƶ. Others include Amgen, Ball Aerospace & Technologies, Solid Power and SomaLogic.

Infleqtion’s star continues to rise as Colorado’s quantum hub grows. The company of firsts, spun out of ��ɫ��Ƶ as ColdQuanta, seems to be everywhere these days, including outer space, while commercializing pioneering research to address needs across several critical markets, including positioning, navigating and timing, global communication security and efficiency, resilient energy distribution and accelerated quantum computing.

Infleqtion to go public through merger with Churchill Capital Corp X

“Churchill Capital is proud to partner with companies that are shaping the future of technology,” said Michael Klein, Chairman and CEO of Churchill Capital Corp X. “Infleqtion stands out with its breakthrough neutral atom platform and proven engineering capabilities, already delivering meaningful impact in quantum computing and sensing. We are excited to support Infleqtion’s leadership team as they advance the quantum era and create enduring value for shareholders.”

Read the Announcement

The coolest technology in the universe

It was decades ago but Dana Anderson (JILA, ��ɫ��Ƶ College of Arts and Sciences and College of Engineering and Applied Science) still recalls well the day his research took a major turn. “I started to do atoms instead of photons,” he said. While Anderson makes it sound like a subtle shift–focusing on atoms and subatomic particles instead of particles of light (lasers)–that move has contributed significantly to the present and future of quantum technologies worldwide.

Read Infleqtion's Origin Story

Infleqtion, a ��ɫ��Ƶ spinout and global leader in quantum technology, announced a $1.8 billion business combination with Churchill Capital Corp X and will trade under the ticker “INFQ.” Now Colorado’s tenth unicorn, Infleqtion continues to drive the state’s growing quantum hub by commercializing breakthroughs across computing, sensing, security and energy markets.

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The internal hardware of Infleqtion's neutral atom quantum computing platform. Photo: Infleqtion, 2025.

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The coolest technology in the universe

Daniel Corbin Leonard — Mon, 08 Sep 2025 12:24:08 +0000

The coolest technology in the universe Daniel Corbin … Mon, 09/08/2025 - 06:24

Heather Hansen

Updated Sept. 8, 2025: Infleqtion and Churchill Capital Corp X, a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company, announced that they have entered into a definitive business combination agreement to accelerate Infleqtion’s mission to commercialize quantum products. Upon closing, the combined company will operate as Infleqtion and is expected to be listed on a leading North American exchange under the ticker “INFQ.” Valued at $1.8 billion, Infleqtion is now the tenth "unicorn" to spin out of ��ɫ��Ƶ.

Infleqtion’s star continues to rise as Colorado’s quantum hub grows. The company of firsts, spun out of ��ɫ��Ƶ as ColdQuanta, seems to be everywhere these days, including outer space, while commercializing pioneering research to address needs across several critical markets including positioning, navigating and timing, global communication security and efficiency, resilient energy distribution, and accelerated quantum computing.

Dana Anderson, Glenn L. Murphy Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Professor of Physics and JILA Fellow, 2024

Anderson, now Infleqtion’s chief technology officer, then began focusing on cold atom inertial sensing, a process in which ultra-cold atoms (cooled to near absolute zero) are used to precisely measure forces like rotation and acceleration. That unprecedented accuracy is based on leveraging atoms’ wave-like nature in a controlled quantum state. It was groundbreaking work also built on a strong foundation of quantum innovation at ��ɫ��Ƶ spanning decades and (up to that point) two Nobel Prizes.

That was the mid-1990s and, around the same time, Anderson’s JILA colleagues, NIST fellow Eric Cornell and ��ɫ��Ƶ physicist Carl Wieman, created a never-before-seen state of matter called the Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC), in which ultracold atoms coalesce into a single “superatom” with uniform properties. They received the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physics for that work, shared with MIT physicist Wolfgang Ketterle and 70 years after Albert Einstein predicted BECs could exist based on the work of Satyenda Bose. “Boy, that’s going to be useful,” Anderson recalls thinking at the time, imagining BEC being used to dramatically boost the performance of various devices, including accelerometers, gyroscopes, gravimeters and magnetometers. “I felt that it would change the world,” he said.

Following the BEC breakthrough, the trio went on to guide cold atoms through hollow core optical fibers, leading to Anderson and Cornell’s “atom chip” work and Anderson’s group demonstrating the first ultracold atom chip “portable vacuum system” in 2004. Those innovative techniques created a controlled environment for Anderson and others to study and manipulate atoms, a critical step in developing technologies like atomic clocks, quantum sensors and quantum computers.

“Slowly building the technology”

Dana Anderson poses with a spectrum analyzer in a laboratory at JILA. Photo: JILA, 1980.

As a “born and raised physicist,” said Anderson, he’s always looking for practical applications for cutting-edge science. “I’m an applied physicist, so I like to do things that are useful,” he said. “They don’t have to happen tomorrow but be useful sooner or later.” In those earlier days of quantum research, making that transition meant landing grants from the U.S. Army and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). That funding, said Anderson, “allowed us to focus on developing the technology and getting it out into the world.” During that time, they solved many problems, said Anderson. “We were struggling and making mistakes like gangbusters and trying this and trying that, and slowly building the technology,” he said.

In 2007, Anderson made the first critical leap from lab to market when he founded ColdQuanta with the goal of streamlining devices for BEC experiments using the technology discovered at CU. After receiving a $100,000 proof of concept investment from what was then the CU Technology Transfer Office (now Venture Partners at ��ɫ��Ƶ), ColdQuanta earned contracts from the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, NASA and the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Josh Bennett, assistant director of licensing at Venture Partners, now manages much of the university’s portfolio of quantum technologies, and he sees Infleqtion’s success as key to both advancing quantum research worldwide and paving the way for new quantum spinouts from CU. “Since they were the first real quantum company out of Colorado to translate their research into a commercial entity, and they’ve become a leader globally in their research and in their work, I think it’s fair to say that without Infleqtion (or ColdQuanta), we wouldn’t be seeing all these other quantum spin-outs in the last two, three years,” he said.

Infleqtion laid the groundwork for several other ��ɫ��Ƶ quantum companies now working with Venture Partners, including Icarus Quantum, Flari Tech and Mesa Quantum. Today, through Venture Partners (the commercialization arm for ��ɫ��Ƶ, CU Denver’s physical sciences and UCCS), the entrepreneurs behind these startups have myriad programs to help get their ventures off the ground.

But what is "commercialization?"

The path to commercialization—also known as "research translation" or "tech transfer"—can be challenging, so Venture Partners unites industry partners, entrepreneurs and investors to help researchers, inventors and creators at the University of Colorado bring their groundbreaking discoveries into the marketplace.

Explore the Path to Commercialization

What distinguishes Infleqtion today, said Scott Sternberg, executive director of the CUbit Quantum Initiative, is their ability to combine the capabilities of quantum phenomenon with highly engineered platforms that focus on customer usability. “Infleqtion embodies the vibrant campus efforts to support the translation of fundamental discovery towards product realization and company growth,” said Sternberg. “We are fortunate to have such a great company, forged here in Boulder, that now leads the international quantum community.”

Beyond proving that quantum tech can lead to a compelling business entity, Infleqtion blazed the trail to Colorado becoming a national quantum hub, said Bryn Rees, associate vice chancellor for innovation and partnerships. He points to Anderson’s important role in boosting Elevate Quantum, a consortium of over 120 quantum-focused organizations in Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico. “[Infleqtion] has become an international quantum success and sensation,” he said. “They're now a big-time player.”

Inflection points

Anderson recalls well how most people responded when he first started pitching the concept of commercializing quantum tech. Looking back on his first quantum-related NSF proposal nearly 20 years ago, he said, “Now those [concepts] seem right in the thick of things but back then most people said, ‘This is too unrealistic’. That’s what it was like.” Anderson knew that he was on the fringe, especially at a time when most people still used flip phones. “We were crazy people that were really gung-ho, and yet, we certainly didn't have a good business ‘story’,” said Anderson. “But I just believed that quantum was going to be important.”

Now quantum technology promises to revolutionize industries from computing, healthcare, defense, energy, finance and beyond. Building on decades of research from Anderson and others, Infleqtion is driving advances in that burgeoning ecosystem. The company now offers quantum hardware and software products—from quantum clocks and sensors, positioning components and glass cells containing cold atoms to quantum computers and quantum-enabled, AI-driven software.

Several years ago, Anderson famously took ultracold atoms (around 10 million of them) out of the lab and onto his own plane, to test the robustness of his team’s magneto-optical trap. Not long after that, it was deployed by NASA for use on the International Space Station, making it what could be called the ‘coolest’ tech in the universe. “When we commercialized a Bose Einstein condensation machine… including making things very small,” said Anderson, “NASA noticed and said, ‘Let's put it up into space’. And that was terribly important for our growing up.”

Research labs and commercial entities worldwide are now using Infleqtion’s products to generate high-value information and improve reliability and performance in quantum computing. Customers and collaborators include the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, the Japanese Moonshot Program, the UK’s National Quantum Computing Centre and the Defense Cyber Marvel 3, a global cyber defense competition..

Infleqtion is also now participating in the first round of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) newly formed Quantum & Space Collaboration. The collaboration aims to use quantum tech to move the needle forward in national security, energy/sustainability and economic interests.

Infleqtion's cloud-based quantum matter machine, “Albert, named TIME's Best Inventions. Photo: TIME, 2022

In 2022, ColdQuanta adopted the trade name Infleqtion to mark the company’s transition from research and development of quantum technology to deploying it for commercial uses. The company has now been through two successful rounds of funding, most recently raising $110 million in its Series B round in 2022. TIME magazine also named the company’s cloud-based quantum matter machine, dubbed “Albert,” as one of its 2022 Best Inventions. Infleqtion’s software platform recently secured a $1.15 million DOE grant, paving the way for energy-efficient computing.

Of all its latest advances, Anderson is most enthusiastic about Oqtant, a first-of-its-kind quantum innovation platform launched last year that democratizes quantum discovery and invention by giving researchers, innovators and students access to quantum matter via BECs where they can create, manipulate and study quantum phenomena—and all they need is internet access. “I’m extremely excited about Oqtant,” said Anderson. “Everyone having the building blocks of our universe at their fingertips points us toward a new age of exploration and discovery.”

Anderson is gratified to see that he and his colleagues' own 'eureka' quantum moments of long ago are finally being realized on a larger scale. Infleqtion’s readiness to meet that new understanding and demand has meant quantum leaps in the company’s recent growth. “We knew that BEC was going to be big, and we’re seeing that now,” he said.

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Infleqtion’s star continues to rise as Colorado’s quantum hub grows. The company of firsts, spun out of ��ɫ��Ƶ as ColdQuanta, seems to be everywhere these days, including outer space, while commercializing pioneering research to address needs across several critical markets including positioning, navigating and timing, global communication security and efficiency, resilient energy distribution, and accelerated quantum computing.

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The internal hardware of Infleqtion's neutral atom quantum computing platform. Photo: Infleqtion, 2025.

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The internal hardware of Infleqtion's neutral atom quantum computing platform. Photo: Infleqtion, 2025.

Watch: A quantum-based breathalyzer for early disease detection

Daniel Corbin Leonard — Wed, 03 Sep 2025 16:16:15 +0000

Watch: A quantum-based breathalyzer for early disease detection Daniel Corbin … Wed, 09/03/2025 - 10:16

CUbit Quantum Initiative—Entrepreneur Eva Yao discusses how the Nobel Prize-winning frequency comb technology from the lab of Jun Ye (Physics, JILA, NIST) can rapidly detect very small molecules in human breath, potentially enabling early disease detection and improved patient outcomes.

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Solving the dilemma of space dust: LASP researchers win prestigious NASA prize for dust mitigation instrument

Daniel Corbin Leonard — Mon, 28 Jul 2025 21:47:44 +0000

Solving the dilemma of space dust: LASP researchers win prestigious NASA prize for dust mitigation instrument Daniel Corbin … Mon, 07/28/2025 - 15:47

LASP—Space Dust Research & Technologies, a ��ɫ��Ƶ startup co-founded by LASP researchers Xu Wang and Mihaly Horanyi, has been awarded one of ten NASA TechLeap Prizes in the Space Technology Payload Challenge for their Electron Beam Dust Mitigation (EBDM) system. It was selected from a record-breaking field of more than 200 applicants to receive up to $500,000 and the opportunity to launch on a test flight next summer.

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Point Designs to be acquired by Hanger

Daniel Corbin Leonard — Fri, 18 Jul 2025 18:19:46 +0000

Point Designs to be acquired by Hanger Daniel Corbin … Fri, 07/18/2025 - 12:19

Venture Partners Startup Portfolio

Venture Partners at ��ɫ��Ƶ has helped students, faculty, researchers and entrepreneurs build over 220 new ventures based on technology and innovation from ��ɫ��Ƶ, UCCS and CU Denver.

Explore Our Startup Portfolio

Nine years ago, a group of researchers from the ��ɫ��Ƶ Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering launched a pioneering medical device startup Point Designs to commercialize prosthetic technology. Today, those same researchers are announcing the company has entered an agreement of impending acquisition with Hanger, Inc.

Read the Announcement

Nine years ago, a group of researchers from the ��ɫ��Ƶ Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering launched a pioneering medical device startup Point Designs to commercialize prosthetic technology. Today, those same researchers are announcing the company has entered an agreement of impending acquisition with Hanger, Inc.

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How slashing university research grants impacts Colorado’s economy and national innovation—a ��ɫ��Ƶ administrator explains

Daniel Corbin Leonard — Tue, 08 Jul 2025 17:39:46 +0000

How slashing university research grants impacts Colorado’s economy and national innovation—a ��ɫ��Ƶ administrator explains Daniel Corbin … Tue, 07/08/2025 - 11:39

Supporting a Groundbreaking Innovation Pipeline

$8 billion in economic impact, a record-breaking 36 startups launched in a single year and $1.2 billion raised for CU startups and innovations: These are some of the results reported in the latest annual report from Venture Partners.

Read Our Annual Report

From The Conversation

Over the past several months, universities have lost more than $11 billion in funding. Research into cancer, farming solutions and climate resiliency are just a few of the many projects nationally that have seen cuts. The Conversation asked Massimo Ruzzene, senior vice chancellor for research and innovation at ��ɫ��Ƶ, to explain how these cuts and freezes are impacting the university and Colorado’s local economy.

Read on The Conversation Website

The Conversation—Over the past several months, universities have lost more than $11 billion in funding. Research into cancer, farming solutions and climate resiliency are just a few of the many projects nationally that have seen cuts. The Conversation asked Massimo Ruzzene, senior vice chancellor for research and innovation at ��ɫ��Ƶ, to explain how these cuts and freezes are impacting the university and Colorado’s local economy.

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Activate welcomes ��ɫ��Ƶ-based fellows to Cohort 2025

Daniel Corbin Leonard — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 15:09:24 +0000

Activate welcomes ��ɫ��Ƶ-based fellows to Cohort 2025 Daniel Corbin … Mon, 07/07/2025 - 09:09

Venture Partners Startup Portfolio

Explore Our Startup Portfolio

Activate announced the next cohort of 47 scientists and engineers who are joining the Activate Fellowship. The 39 companies of Cohort 2025 are developing technologies across 14 industries and represent 29 cities and nine states in the U.S., spanning Activate’s four hub communities—Berkeley, Boston, Houston and New York—as well as Activate Anywhere, the remote-based community that includes fellows across the U.S.

Three ��ɫ��Ƶ-based innovators have joined Cohort 2025.

Elliot Strand is the co-founder and CEO of PAGE Technologies, a ��ɫ��Ƶ startup building an affordable digital platform with printed, multi-signal sensors and advanced analytics to help agricultural operations optimize water and fertilizer use. Strand earned his BS from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he worked on several climate resilience-focused projects, and completed his PhD in materials science and engineering at ��ɫ��Ƶ, earning MDPI’s journal, Sensors, Best PhD Thesis Award in 2023.

Payton Goodrich is the co-founder and CTO of PAGE Technologies. Goodrich has had a lifelong interest in environmental conservation and enjoys technical challenges related to green technology development. Goodrich completed his BS. at Iowa State University and a MS and PhD in mechanical engineering at UC Berkeley.

Nadia Jorgenson is the co-founder and CTO of ��ɫ��Ƶ startup OsmoPure Technologies (recently part of ��ɫ��Ƶ's Lab Venture Challenge and Ascent Deep Tech Accelerator), which develops pressure-driven distillation membranes for spaceflight, ultrapure water, and wastewater reuse applications. Raised in the Middle East and North Africa, Jorgenson’s passion for water reuse began early. She earned her PhD in environmental engineering at the ��ɫ��Ƶ, where she researched advanced treatment systems and contaminant control for potable reuse. She specializes in the development and integration of next-generation water treatment technologies.

Activate—Three ��ɫ��Ƶ-based innovators and their startups have joined Activate's Cohort 2025. Elliot Strand and Payton Goodrich, co-founders of PAGE Technologies, and Nadia Jorgenson, co-founder of OsmoPure Technologies.

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