Empire State Development (ESD) announced the 10 startups chosen for round nine of the New York State-supported Luminate NY accelerator, investment fund and competition—two are CU Boulder startups. 

Selected by a panel of industry experts for their transformative work in OPI-enabled technologies, these startups were identified from a pool of 138 applicants from 33 different countries. The 2026 cohort will begin their time in Rochester on April 13, utilizing an initial $100,000 investment to continue to scale their businesses, leveraging New York’s ecosystem. At the accelerator graduation on September 30, they will vie for up to $2 million in follow-on funding to help commercialize their next-generation manufacturing, medical, and sensing solutions.

Manifest Technologies is solving the problems holding advanced manufacturing back through Parallax Volumetric Additive Manufacturing, a breakthrough platform that fabricates complex parts in a single, continuous step.

Modendo offers ultrathin microscopes that comprise a single optical fiber and provide high-resolution imaging for industrial and medical applications.

  Read More from Luminate

 

 

Explore a record-breaking startup pipeline

Venture Partners at CU Boulder has helped faculty, students, researchers and entrepreneurs build over 220 new ventures based on technology and innovation from CU Boulder, UCCS and CU Denver. Explore some of our startups and investment opportunities.

View Startup Portfolio