Ascent Deep Tech Accelerator
An accelerator for research teams building deep tech startups coming out of the University of Colorado campuses in Boulder, Colorado Springs and Denver.
Deep tech startups, or new companies based on technological innovation in science or engineering, face unique challenges because of their disruptive nature, intensive research and development, and significant capital requirements. Ascent understands the needs and pathways for deep tech startups to find early success.
Leveraging ecosystem experts, a robust mentor network and Venture Partners at CU Boulder staff, early-stage companies will accelerate their viability and traction over four months. Teams will work toward milestones focused on company formation, paths to market, entrepreneurial finance and fundraising, ultimately preparing them for a final pitch to a community of investors, entrepreneurs and industry experts at the Ascent Investor Showcase.
The 2025 CEAS Innovation & Entrepreneurship Fellowship Program provides funding for CU Boulder College of Engineering and Applied Sciences (CEAS) faculty, postdoctoral researchers and graduate students to engage in entrepreneurship training through the Ascent Deep Tech Accelerator related to a disclosed invention.
Accelerator Details
Dates
Feb.-June, 2025
Commitment
We expect this program to take 3-5 hours a week of your time.
- At least one team member is expected to attend every session
- Weekly check-ins with your Ascent mentor
- Monthly completion of in-program deliverables
Eligibility
- Teams are working to commercialize technologies based on engineering innovation or scientific discoveries
- Teams have disclosed an innovation to Venture Partners
- Teams have completed significant customer discovery in their target market, ideally through Venture Partners' NSF I-Corps鈩 Hub: West Region programs.
Application
The application deadline for the 2025 cohort is closed. Join our newsletter to be notified about future Ascent opportunities. Sign Up for Updates
Ascent Showcase
Attend the Ascent Deep Tech Investor Showcase
Save the date for Wednesday, June 25! Sign up for updates
Accelerator Benefits
Ascent teams will receive coaching toward milestones in four key areas:
Company Formation
Incorporate your company, understand legal issues to watch for, build a successful team, and form a board.
Path to Market
Create a communications strategy for talking to partners and investors, start forming a pilot program or industry partnership to take tech to market, and understand how to approach a product development partner.
Entrepreneurial Finance
Learn about basic entrepreneurial finance and accounting, including basic financial statements and proformas.
Fundraising
Understand legal details of outside investment, meet funders supporting startups through grants and equity investments, and perfect your pitch to investors.
2024 Ascent Cohort
Canndoers' Hemp-Derived Cannabinoid library offers a revolutionary approach to wellness, providing natural relief from chronic pain, anxiety and sleep disturbances. Harnessing the healing power of cannabinoids, their meticulously crafted products target inflammation, epilepsy and addiction with unparalleled efficacy. With a diverse range of applications, from skincare innovations to neurological support, their offerings stand at the forefront of wellness innovation, providing tangible solutions to pervasive health challenges. By embracing the science-backed benefits of hemp-derived cannabinoids, individuals can embark on a journey towards vitality and fulfillment, elevating their well-being with Canndoers' premium formulations.
Industries: Pharmaceuticals, Health Supplement Companies, Cannabinoid Suppliers
Team: , Imma Ferrer and Michael Thurman
Contact: randall.shearer@colorado.edu
An innovative mobile application that uses native digital sensors and machine learning strategies to build personalized digital mental health models for users鈥攖heir mental health fingerprint. Personalized models guide app functions that monitor daily mental health, generate wellness notifications to users and members of their community and provide evidence-based digital therapeutics that are customized for users, improving mental health at scale.
Industries: Digital Health, Neuroscience, Mental Health, Artificial Intelligence
Contact: , CEO, roselinde.kaiser@colorado.edu
EndoGuard is a coating around stents that uses a combination of nano and bioactive materials to help mitigate conditions that re-narrow blood vessels. Coaterra's technology augments existing products in the market by minimizing damage to blood vessels on deployment and maximizing surface-to-surface contact of the stent to blood vessels to induce natural healing. Further, the coating is tuneable, opening the platform up for use in many applications.
Industries: Life Sciences, Advanced Materials
罢别补尘:鈥&苍产蝉辫;, CEO; , COO; Wei Tan, Principal Investigator; , Advisor
Contact: info@coaterra.com
Entangl3d is developing strong bioadhesive hydrogels that can seal off wet tissues and mechanically support them after surgical procedures. The platform technology improves the strength of 3D -rinted hydrogels to the level of casted materials and enables energy-free curing at room temperature. The team is pursuing applications in the spine, heart and defense sectors.
Industries: Hydrogels, Medical Devices, Tissue Adhesives, Additive Manufacturing
Team and Contacts: Matt Davidson, Co-Founder, CEO, Matthew.Davidson-1@colorado.edu; Jason Burdick, Co-Founder, Jason.Burdick@colorado.edu
Green Steel Environmental provides patented and patent-pending products for wastewater treatment plants to clean wastewater and renewable natural gas in an economical and environmentally positive way. They upcycle an industrial by-product, use it to sequester important nutrients from renewable natural gas and wastewater and recycle those nutrients as fertilizer.
Industries: Wastewater Treatment, Biogas Treatment
Team: , CEO; , COO, Mark Hernandez, Scientific Advisor
Mach Electric produces carbon fibers through a process that directly sequesters waste gas CO2 from industrial sources. As Mach Electric鈥檚 proprietary process is 30% more thermally efficient than the current state-of-the-art process for producing carbon fiber, their end product promises to be both cost-competitive and carbon-negative.
Industries: Aerospace, Automotive, Carbon Sequestration, Outdoor Recreation.
Team and Contacts:鈥 , Co-Founder, CEO, spencer.dansereau@colorado.edu; , Co-Founder, CFO, wesley.whitaker@colorado.edu
Sodium-based batteries have the potential to displace lithium-ion batteries in a variety of applications based on their promised low costs and abundant supply chain, but have been limited to date by insufficient cycle lifetimes and energy density. Formed in October 2023 by experienced energy storage technologists and entrepreneurs, Mana addresses these issues and delivers on the promise of the sodium-ion battery with a proprietary low-cost, self-extinguishing liquid electrolyte material and battery cell design platform.
Industries: Energy Storage, Grid ESS, Electric Vehicles
Team and Contacts: Tyler Evans, Co-Founder, CEO, tyler@manabattery.us; Nicholas Singstock, Co-Founder, CTO, nick@manabattery.us; Heather A.S. Platt, Director of Materials Engineering and R&D, heather@manabattery.us; Chunmei Ban, Co-Founder, Chief Scientific Advisor, chunmei.ban@colorado.edu
MicroG Stem Cell Technologies harnesses cutting-edge microgravity environments to revolutionize stem cell expansion, enhancing therapeutic outcomes in regenerative medicine.
Industries: Healthcare Infrastructure, Regenerative Medicine, Biotechnology Research, Aerospace Medicine, Pharmaceutical Research
Team and Contacts: Fathi Karouia, CEO, fathi.karouia@colorado.edu; Louis Stodieck, CTO, stodieck@colorado.edu; Tobias Niederwieser, Deputy CTO, Tobias.Niederwieser@colorado.edu; Stefanie Countryman, COO, countrym@colorado.edu
Ultrathin Endomicroscope (UTE) for real-time, high-resolution imaging inside volumetric scattering samples, particularly in neuroscience labs using animal models.
Industries: Neuroscience, Neurophotonics, Medical Devices, Optical Imaging
Team and Contacts: , Senior Neuroscience Engineer, laurie.s.lambot@gmail.com; , Senior Neuroscience Engineer, PI, sarah.montgomery@modendo-inc.com
PAGE Technologies is developing high-tech chemical sensors for agricultural crop management that can be deployed directly into the environment at a >10x lower cost than competing products. They have developed a suite of sensors at the lab scale that can detect key parameters in aqueous media, including pH, electrical conductivity, moisture, temperature and nutrient content (e.g., nitrogen, potassium). These sensors are adaptable to many different use cases (such as handheld probes or deployable in-situ IoT sensors), and their low cost allows them to be easily replaced, eliminating the need for regular maintenance and recalibration. PAGE Technologies saves growers time and money and relieves the stress surrounding fertilizer management.
Industries: Agriculture, ClimateTech/CleanTech, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, Hardware
Team: , Co-Founder, CEO; , Co-Founder, CTO
RayChill is committed to offering a zero-energy cooling solution by harnessing the natural coldness from the sky to improve energy efficiency, environmental sustainability, and thermal resilience on Earth. Their goal is to innovate radiative cooling materials and systems to reduce the energy consumption of cooling and refrigeration systems in every sector of society.
Industries: Thermal management, HVAC, Energy, Buildings, Transportation, Data Centers, Agriculture
Contact: , Founder, zhaiyao.tj@gmail.com
Science is under attack. Every year, millions of scientific papers are published, and a large portion contain figure manipulation, statistical inconsistencies and nonsensical or missing citations. ReviewerZero.ai is a technology that automatically scans and detects a range of issues with images, text and citations. It gives peace of mind to scientific publishers, journals, authors, funders and universities. ReviewerZero.ai is in the online digital trust market, which is becoming increasingly important due to GenAI. According to a , this market will reach $190 billion by 2030.
Industries: Scientific Publishing, Digital Media
Team and Contacts: , Founder, daniel.acuna@colorado.edu; Elizabeth Novoa, Software Developer,
Terra Cognita helps farmers boost crop growth and health sustainably by harnessing the power of beneficial microbes in the soil. Their software tool uses advanced data analysis to recommend the best microbial products for each farmer's unique field conditions, soil type and crops. By making it easier for farmers to select and use these natural alternatives to synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, Terra Cognita promotes eco-friendly farming practices while helping growers increase yields and profitability.
Industries: Agriculture, Cleantech and Sustainability, Artificial Intelligence
Team: , CEO; , Technical Lead; , Scientific Advisor, PI
WHISPER Energy lowers building energy consumption by 30%+ with battery-free wireless sensors. Their sensors wirelessly communicate human occupancy and environmental attributes like air quality in commercial buildings. Using machine learning (ML), WHISPER Energy, unlike other sensor solutions, allows situation-specific controls targeted at personalized "smart" buildings and electric grid modernization opportunities. Savings are obtained by communicating occupancy and environmental levels with the building's heating, ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC) or building automation system (BAS) to apply energy only when and where needed.
Industries: Climate Tech, Energy Efficiency, Building Automation Systems, 鈥淪mart Buildings鈥, Manufacturing
Team and Contacts: , Co-Founder, CEO; galen@whisperenergy.io; Gregor Henze, Co-Founder, PI gregor.henze@colorado.edu
Zero Gap Energy enables ultra-long duration energy storage for future renewable US grid at lower cost than current electrochemical solutions.
Industries: Clean Electricity Generation, Grid Energy Storage System, Heavy-Emission Industries (using high temperature heat such as cement, steel and glass making)
Team and Contacts: Longji Cui, longji.cui@colorado.edu; Mohammad Habibi, mohammad.habibi@colorado.edu
