91��Ƭ��

Fourteen teams of University of Colorado entrepreneurs, faculty researchers and graduate student innovators will compete for a combined $1.25 million in startup funding grants in this year’s Lab Venture Challenge (LVC) Showcases on Oct. 23–24.

By translating breakthrough research into new businesses, CU creates economic opportunities while addressing many of the world’s greatest challenges. In the past year, CU Boulder has burned especially bright through Venture Partners’ record-setting performance.

“The first cohort of entrepreneurs have been in high gear since they were selected by the Venture Partners team last year and have risen to each challenge,” said Marta Zgagacz, senior director at Venture Partners and co-leader of Embark. “It’s an all-hands-on-deck approach, how we support our startups.”

Companies at the conference, which will be held in Breckenridge on September 12 and 13, represent the future of life-saving health innovation from the Rocky Mountain West. They will pitch to angel investors, venture capitalists and strategic partners from major financial hubs.

Now in its second year, the Embark Deep Tech Startup Creator, offered by Venture Partners at CU Boulder, matches business minds outside the university with breakthrough inventions created within its walls and provides funding for those ventures. The application for entrepreneurs is now open for the 2024 cohort.

Campus researchers and inventors created a strong crop of 162 breakthrough technologies this past year. These spanned the breadth of CU Boulder’s research expertise, with innovations in climate tech, biotechnology, quantum science, optics and aerospace.

The Intermountain West innovation ecosystem came together at the sixth annual Destination Startup Investor Showcase hosted by Venture Partners at CU Boulder. In a highly competitive field, twenty-three select ventures from the region’s research institutions presented at the showcase.

The New Venture Challenge (NVC) and Venture Partners at CU Boulder teamed up to present the NVC Deep Tech competition, awarding $53K to groundbreaking new ventures from CU Boulder, including innovative approaches to wastewater treatment, novel battery technology and dynamic pricing for hotels.

CU Boulder researchers, venture capitalists, companies and entrepreneurs, federal lab researchers and local government leaders took part in a day of networking and discussions to inform impactful, commercially-relevant energy research at CU Boulder and introduce external partners to innovative university efforts.

Spencer Dansereau, a CU Boulder aerospace PhD student, aims to take carbon dioxide emissions from power plants and extract the carbon molecules to create 3D printed carbon fiber, which can be used for everything from bicycles to aerospace components—turning air pollution into a useable product.