CU Boulder shines with record-breaking year for startups

Innovation at CU Boulder reached an unprecedented milestone in fiscal year 2024 with the creation of 35 companies based on university innovations. This shattered CU Boulder’s previous record of 20 startups in FY21, and placed it among the most prolific single-campus institutions in the country.

Venture Partners at CU Boulder is at the heart of transforming new inventions and discoveries into real-world impact by empowering university innovators to build new companies and industry partnerships. Considering CU’s location outside traditional venture capital hubs like Silicon Valley and Boston, its rise as a startup powerhouse highlights a unique ecosystem that drives extraordinary results.

Ranked #2 for all-time startups launched

According to data from the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM), the leading association for university “technology transfer,” only one single-campus institution has launched more startups in a single year than CU Boulder’s 35 startups in FY24: Stanford, with 38 startups in FY22. Beyond startup volume, CU Boulder also leads in startup efficiency relative to research investment.

“Universities spinning out similar numbers of startups have significantly larger research budgets feeding their innovation pipeline,” said Bryn Rees, associate vice chancellor for innovation and partnerships. “Among institutions with the highest output of startups up to and including FY23, Columbia University tops that indicator with 3.5 startups launched in FY18 per $100 million in research funding. With 35 startups out of CU Boulder in FY24, that’s 4.7 startups per $100 million of funding—a top result and a real credit to our approach.”

Accelerating toward impact

The 35 startups represent a diverse array of industries, from clean energy to biotech.

Mana Battery was founded on research from Chunmei Ban’s laboratory (mechanical engineering), a winner of the 2023 Lab Venture Challenge (LVC). LVC awards proof-of-concept grants of $125,000 in partnership with the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade. Mana Battery is developing sodium-based batteries as a safer, more sustainable alternative to lithium-ion technology, addressing critical challenges in energy storage.

Flari Tech is developing technology created by Jun Ye (physics, JILA, NIST) and Qizhong Liang (JILA) to detect diseases via the breath, built upon the Nobel Prize-winning frequency comb developed at CU Boulder and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The company was founded by Eva Yao in the first cohort of the new Embark Deep Tech Startup Creator, which matches experienced entrepreneurs with CU Boulder innovations.

Mesa Quantum began when Venture Partners helped match a motivated graduate student, Sristy Agrawal (NIST, mathematical physics), with a novel atomic clock invented in Svenja Knappe’s lab (mechanical engineering). Mesa Quantum was first conceived in the National Science Foundation I-Corps™ Hub West Region programming at Venture Partners, which provides startup training to researchers in and outside of the university. 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.

Looking ahead

CU Boulder’s dramatic rise as a leader in university-driven entrepreneurship has illuminated its role in the broader U.S. innovation ecosystem.

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

By prioritizing founders, embracing Colorado’s unique strengths and continually evolving its approach, Venture Partners is building a model that positions CU Boulder not just as a prolific source of startups, but as a catalyst for solving real-world challenges.