Venture Partners News

“Rather than just focusing on intellectual property and IP transactions, we are putting our effort and our resources toward developing entrepreneurs and helping them build businesses," says Brynmor Rees, assistant vice chancellor for innovation at CU Boulder and managing director for Venture Partners.

Startup company founders who commercialize CU Boulder’s research innovations will be getting a boost in 2022. Ascent, a startup accelerator specifically created for CU Boulder innovators, will help founders launch their companies, raise investment capital, and gain market and partnership traction.

With a new, $15 million dollar award announced by the National Science Foundation (NSF) on August 25, engineers and scientists from top research universities across the Western United States—including CU Boulder—will form a new consortium, the I-Corps Hub West Region, to help advance new technologies and incubate emergent companies that can move breakthrough discoveries from the lab to the marketplace.

A detailed article on Venture Partners' “hyper-accelerator” program—Pandemic Hyper-Accelerator for Science and Technology (PHAST)—appears in the July issue of Technology Transfer Tactics. PHAST leverages Economic Development Administration (EDA) funding while also rapidly bringing innovative solutions to market. That program is now beginning to bear fruit, with a first cohort of startups preparing for an inaugural Demo Day scheduled for January 2022.

SBIR and STTR grants are highly competitive programs that encourage research by small U.S. businesses with the aim of putting innovative, profitable products on the market. The STTR program also requires small businesses to collaborate with nonprofit research institutions such as CU Boulder.

The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) today named the University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder) as one of six university finalists for its ninth annual Innovation & Economic Prosperity (IEP) University Awards.

Venture Partners at CU Boulder—the university's commercialization arm—has launched the Pandemic Hyper Accelerator for Science and Technology (PHAST) to support the translation of CU-developed, COVID-19 innovations into new businesses. Crucial to PHAST's programming is the partnership formed with local angel investing group Rockies Venture Club (RVC), as the program requires participants to complete RVC's 1-week HyperAccelerator. PHAST is taking applications through May 21.

Register now to attend the biggest Destination Startup® yet, from February 16-18, 2021. Twenty-five startups from 10 different universities across six states in the Rocky Mountain region will showcase their technologies, drawing investors from around the world.

Dipika Singh got her first taste of commercialization in 2012–13 when she and her supervisor at the University of Nebraska Medical Center developed a proprietary medium for freezing neurons. At the time of her invention, Singh was 25 and deciding whether to pursue a PhD or explore the business side of biotech. She earned an MBA at the University of Colorado Boulder. While there, she did an internship at the university’s tech transfer office. Seven years later she is a senior licensing officer at the university.

As we wind down for the holidays, the Venture Partners team wants to celebrate the accomplishments of our resilient community of world-class innovators, business partners and dedicated mentors. We’re excited to share our highlights of this year.