Venture Partners Mid-Year Update
Photo: The 2026 cohort of the Ascent Deep Tech Accelerator at the June showcase.
Researchers, inventors and creators from the University of Colorado Boulder are creating and transforming industries, growing the economy and tackling many of our world's biggest problems. Venture Partners at CU Boulder is an engine helping convert their ideas and inventions into economic and social impact, with a long-term commitment to training, supporting and guiding those innovators.
This preview of our annual report, to be fully released in January 2027, highlights the success of our growing pipeline, from early discoveries to global results.
Last Year's Full Report
The complete 2027 annual report is published in January. In the meantime, our current report tells last year's full story: 188 innovations advanced and 23 startups launched based on university discoveries, spanning sustainability, biosciences, quantum science, optics and aerospace.
We are people-first at Venture Partners. We start with the entrepreneurial mindset to develop lifelong entrepreneurs and a culture of innovation. This is embodied in NSF I-CorpsTM Hub West, where we trained 152 teams in the lean startup methodology in FY 2026.
Many of the 29 new CU Boulder startups launched in FY 2026 — the second most ever at CU Boulder — originated from the third cohort of our Embark Deep Tech Startup Creator. This first-of-its-kind program forms and then accelerates companies by connecting breakthrough technologies, experienced entrepreneurs and our startup support programs.
Amid a recovering investment market, our startup portfolio raised $1.45 billion in FY 2026 and included one of the earliest quantum companies to go public — the global leader Infleqtion. We catalyze results like these with early and patient investments, including the Lab Venture Challenge (early funding for promising innovations), a pre-seed investment fund (first capital for new companies) and the new Creative Futures Fellowship (translational grants for innovators in the arts, humanities and social sciences).
We grew our ecosystem connections in FY 2026, entering new partnerships with Techstars Boulder and the new Women's Venture Challenge in Boulder, while deepening engagement with longstanding collaborators Activate, West Gate and Buff Gold Ventures. We believe the way forward for CU Boulder and for Colorado is through increased collaboration, and we are a driving force in building our community.
We are privileged to work with talented researchers and a deeply connected innovation ecosystem. Thank you to all our partners for an incredible year together.
Bryn Rees
Senior Associate Vice Chancellor for Innovation and Partnerships
First Look at Fiscal Year 2026
$1.45B
CAPITAL RAISED BY PORTFOLIO COMPANIES
100
LICENSE AND OPTION AGREEMENTS SIGNED
152
NSF I-CORPSTM TEAMS TRAINED
29
STARTUPS LAUNCHED
33 out of 56
NEW PATENTS COMMERCIALLY PARTNERED (59%)
CU Boulder Startups Launched Fiscal Year 2026
Venture Partners at CU Boulder has launched more than 270 startups based on university innovations. Here are the ones launched in FY 2026.
Many of these companies benefited from Venture Partners programming, including:
- Embark Deep Tech Startup Creator
- NSF I-CorpsTM Hub West
- Lab Venture Challenge
- Ascent Deep Tech Accelerator
Interested in partnering with a CU startup? Contact Amy Dodenhoff, director of venture development at amy.dodenhoff@colorado.edu to get started.
*Open to investor conversations about a pre-seed round, as of August 2026
Monolithic mode-locked lasers for use in radar and other applications
An AI-native startup providing advanced data services to faculty in higher education
Quantum-resistant security software for telecom
Oligonucleotide therapeutics for psoriasis and skin-inflammatory diseases
High-fidelity geomagnetic models, services and infrastructure
In-space manufacturing to enable scalable production of high-value materials and products in orbit
Creating hemocompatible, vascular-regenerative, drug-eluting coatings for cardiovascular implants
World’s first easily manufacturable atomic clocks for use in the burgeoning 6G marketplace
Regenerative cell therapies for neurodegenerative disease by engineering the cellular microenvironment
Static mixer crystallizer to lower the volume and cost of reject from reverse osmosis desalination
Developing micro-debris sensors and orbital tracking solutions for next-generation space applications
Delivering research-grade video tracking tools to help biologists protect wildlife around the world
A Brillouin laser and frequency comb for use in applications such as LIDAR, quantum computing and more
Blockchain-based software protocol for 100% verifiability and trust in information systems
For marketing and communication inquiries or news tips, contact Daniel Leonard, senior marketing and communications specialist for Venture Partners at CU Boulder.
For media inquiries, please visit colorado.edu/news/formedia.