The Insider: Investors Edition - Quarter 4: 2024
Startups in the News
CU Boulder spinout LongPath Technologies to expand methane detection with $162M DOE loan
CU Boulder Today—A small crowd, including representatives from the U.S. Department of Energy, gathered on a wide stretch of lawn on the CU Boulder campus to witness a one-of-kind technology demonstration—a laser device that could soon transform the oil and gas industry in the American West and keep potent greenhouse gasses out of the atmosphere.
GM Ventures invests $10M in Forge Nano’s game-changing EV battery technology
Electrek—Capital investment into Forge Nano, a CU Boulder spinout, now exceeds $100 million; GM joins Volkswagen, LG, Hanwha, and Mitsui Kinzoku as shareholders.
How carbon-storing hempcrete is revolutionizing sustainable construction
Leeds School of Business—CU Boulder alum Nick Manuzak is one of the 2024 Entrepreneurs in Residence in the Embark Deep Tech Startup Creator, leading an innovative venture focused on integrating carbon-storing hempcrete into modern construction to revolutionize sustainable building practices.
Thornton’s Solid Power gets $50 million from feds to expand, prove out EV battery technology
The Colorado Sun—Thornton-based Solid Power, a CU Boulder spinout, has a $50 million federal grant to ramp up development of the solid-state EV batteries it considers the technology of the near-future in automobiles, putting the company closer to its goal of developing a mass production facility in the eastern U.S. or Korea.
Polaris Electro-Optics demonstrates groundbreaking 102 Gbps PAM-4 silicon photonic modulator technology
Photonics Online—A new variant of liquid crystal is at the core of CU Boulder startup Polaris Electro-Opstics' technology. Designed as a seamless drop-in enhancer of silicon photonic chips, Polaris's modulator technology paves the way for the next generation of optical interconnects critical to the future of data center disaggregation.
Infleqtion secures $1M grant to advance quantum software
BizWest—Infleqtion, a quantum information company that began at CU Boulder as Coldquanta, recently received a $1.15 million Small Business Innovation Research, or SBIR, grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop software for quantum computing.
Silvis Materials awarded $1 million NSF SBIR Phase II grant to reduce emissions in packaging and building industries
EIN Presswire—Female-founded Boulder-based Silvis Materials, a CU Boulder startup, has been awarded a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to continue its work making sustainable and recyclable binders and adhesives.
OnKure, a CU Boulder spinout, and Reneo Pharmaceuticals complete merger
Yahoo Finance—OnKure has announced the successful completion of its merger with Reneo Pharmaceuticals, with the combined entity set to operate under the OnKure Therapeutics name.
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$1.25M awarded to University of Colorado innovators to advance their discoveries
Fourteen teams of University of Colorado faculty, researchers and graduate student innovators competed for a combined $1.25 million in startup funding grants in this year’s Lab Venture Challenge (LVC).
CU Boulder research funding more than doubled in the last decade
Daily Camera—Research funding at the University of Colorado Boulder has more than doubled in the last decade, increasing by about $391 million. There were 35 CU Boulder-affiliated startup companies this last fiscal year compared to 10 the year before.
Be bolder: What leaders can learn from CU Boulder’s successes in research, innovation, and football
Fast Company—The University of Colorado system was recently ranked fifth in the nation in startup creation, launching more than 20 companies in a year. And the National Academy of Inventors also ranked CU 14th in the country for patent activity, reflecting “the strength of CU-led discoveries and their potential to be translated into society-benefiting technologies with the support of CU’s robust entrepreneurial ecosystem.”
We went to a startup symposium at the University of Colorado. We saw these nine cool startups. We said “wow” a lot.
Colorado Public Radio—The pace of innovation and spin-off companies at the four-campus system is accelerating, particularly in the fields of health and bioscience, quantum, cybersecurity, aerospace, climate innovation, the outdoors and the food and beverage industries. The university system has 80 innovation and business accelerator programs that give patent legal, and financial support to budding entrepreneurs.
Colorado is on track to becoming the nation’s climate tech hub
CU Boulder Leeds School of Business—It’s common to think climate tech is synonymous with the Bay Area, however, Colorado is rapidly becoming a new hot spot. Why Colorado? Home to 24 federally funded scientific labs, like NOAA, NREL and NCAR, and major research institutions like CU, CSU and Colorado School of Mines, Colorado is a ‘hub of climate research and technical expertise.’