News

In taking its technology from the lab to the streets, Solid Power is changing how electric vehicles run with less expensive, more efficient and safer battery technology.

Say “hello” to the robots of the future: They’re soft and flexible enough to bounce off walls or squeeze into tight spaces. And when you’re done with them, you can toss these machines into a compost bin to decompose.

Chemical Engineering—The partnership with New Iridium focuses on CO2 conversion via photocatalysis, the startup’s expertise, which is an innovative solution based on the use of light sources (for example, LEDs) and CO2 from industrial emissions in combination with low-cost raw materials.

What if improving one’s athletic performance through supplements was simpler and more affordable? What if, instead of producing emissions, airplanes could take carbon out of the air? These ideas and more are realities in the making, thanks to many aspiring entrepreneurs who pitched their products at the 16th annual New Venture Challenge (NVC) finals.

Scientists from CU Boulder and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) made an important leap forward in the quest to diagnose disease using exhaled breath, reporting that a new laser-based breathalyzer—born of Nobel Prize-winning technology from CU—powered by artificial intelligence (AI) can detect COVID-19 in real-time with excellent accuracy.

Endpoints News—OnKure Therapeutics has lined up $60 million in a new private funding round, adding to the CU Boulder spinout’s bank account as it works through a Phase II trial. The startup is attempting to create an inhibitor of histone deacetylases, or HDACs, which are DNA-manipulating enzymes that alter how genes get expressed.

Company Week—"This whole thing started with a project with the Department of Defense, between the Department of Defense and four University of Colorado professors," says Burnett of the genesis of CU Boulder startup Prometheus Materials.

US Department of Energy—OMC Hydrogen, a CU Boulder spinout from Professor Alan W. Weimer's lab, won first place at the US Department of Energy's (DOE) Most Epic Cleantech Pitch Competition. The company is developing green hydrogen technology that eliminates the significant carbon emissions found in other hydrogen production methods.

Five promising startups spun out of CU Boulder comprise the first cohort of companies to receive investment from the Buff Venture Fund. The fund is the newest opportunity for CU Boulder startups to access critical funding on the path to success. The Buff Venture Fund is administered by Buff Gold Ventures, which has a formal partnership with Venture Partners at CU Boulder.

On two exciting nights of pitches and prizes, ten startups brought a broad range of ideas to the stage, including how to live and garden more sustainably, how to deal with the downsides of social media, how to offer practical prosthetics for kids—and sustainable water filters and hydroponic produce for all. Across the two events, eight teams took home a total of $20,000 to develop their ideas further.