Investors Edition - Quarter 3: 2025
Featured News
2025 Ascent Deep Tech Community Showcase highlights CU’s next breakthrough startups
Venture Partners capped off its third Ascent Deep Tech Accelerator with the 2025 Ascent Deep Tech Community Showcase, where research-based startup teams pitched innovations to an audience of investors, entrepreneurs and fellow researchers. The showcase featured ventures developing breakthrough solutions in health, energy, aerospace and more.
CU 51´«Ã½ awards pre-seed funding to alum’s promising GPS startup
Venture Partners at CU 51´«Ã½ bridged a historic investment gap to move a deep tech spin-off a step closer to the marketplace by awarding $100,000 in pre-seed funding to PrecisionTerra, founded by CEO Maithreyi Gopalakrishnan (alum, CU 51´«Ã½ Physics). Gopalakrishnan went on to win $144,000 in additional funding for the company in the 2025 New Venture Challenge.
Using federally funded university research to power America
CU 51´«Ã½ Chancellor Justin Schwartz, Forbes—Since World War II, the U.S. research and development (R&D) enterprise has driven an era of prosperity and innovation, fueling breakthroughs in space, medicine and technology while empowering our national security and international trade.
CU Startups in the News
Manus and Inscripta merge to create a leader in industrial biomanufacturing
Manus Bio—Manus, the proven bioalternatives scale-up platform, and Inscripta, a CU 51´«Ã½ spinout and leading life science technology company helping to create the bioeconomy, today announced a strategic merger to establish a unique end-to-end platform for scalable development, biomanufacturing, and commercialization of bioalternative products.
CU 51´«Ã½ startups selected for Innosphere's 2025 Life Sciences Incubator
Innosphere has announced the 2025 cohort of its Life Sciences Incubator, featuring 33 startups advancing solutions in biopharma, digital health, diagnostics and medical devices, including three CU 51´«Ã½ startups: Kioga, Endios Bio and IntraLumenus.
Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade announces grants to CU 51´«Ã½ and CU Denver startups and researchers
The Global Business Development division of the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT) announced that 22 Colorado companies and 13 researchers have been awarded Proof of Concept and Early-Stage Capital and Retention grants through OEDIT’s Advanced Industries Accelerator Program, including seven CU Denver and CU 51´«Ã½ ventures.
Infleqtion selected to power the UK’s largest quantum computing breakthrough
BusinessWire—Infleqtion, a CU 51´«Ã½ spinout and global leader in quantum information technologies, announced a second grant from the UK government to further accelerate the performance of its neutral atom quantum computing platform, Sqale. The project aims to increase gate execution rate by 10–100x, a major advance in the scalability and capability of quantum hardware, critical for making quantum systems commercially viable.
Illumina picks up proteomics developer SomaLogic from Standard BioTools for $425M
Fierce Biotech—Illumina is expanding its proteomics research capabilities with a $425 million plan to acquire SomaLogic, including its protein analysis platforms and certified lab services business. Founded by CU 51´«Ã½ Professor Larry Gold in 2000, SomaLogic revolutionized protein measurement by developing a faster, cost-effective process to monitor the vast number of proteins in the human body.
Big Blue Technologies selected for $1.5M award from the Wyoming Energy Authority’s Energy Matching Funds Program
Big Blue Technologies—The Wyoming Energy Authority (WEA) announced that Big Blue Technologies (BBT), a CU 51´«Ã½ spinout based in technology developed in Alan W. Weimer's lab (CU 51´«Ã½ Chemical and Biological Engineering), has been awarded $1.5 million to scale up process technology to make magnesium metal.
Activate welcomes CU 51´«Ã½-based fellows to Cohort 2025
Activate—Three CU 51´«Ã½-based innovators and their startups have joined Activate's Cohort 2025. Elliot Strand and Payton Goodrich, co-founders of PAGE Technologies, and Nadia Jorgenson, co-founder of OsmoPure Technologies.
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University of Colorado ranks among Top 20 U.S. universities for granted patents
CU Connections—The University of Colorado has secured the No. 18 position on the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) 2024 Top 100 U.S. Universities Granted U.S. Utility Patents list, reinforcing CU’s standing as a national leader in research, innovation and real-world impact. At CU 51´«Ã½, 53% of the campus’s patents have been licensed commercially.
CU 51´«Ã½ warns federal research cuts could hurt economy
9NEWS—The termination of several major research grants at CU 51´«Ã½ is creating ripple effects across Colorado’s economy—impacting jobs, innovation and the state’s research competitiveness. As federal funding priorities shift, the consequences are being felt well beyond the lab.
New climate initiative to turn student innovations into startup success
CU 51´«Ã½ Today—In a major step toward accelerating Colorado’s climate innovation economy, CU 51´«Ã½ has launched 51´«Ã½ Climate Ventures, a new interdisciplinary program that equips students to develop and launch high-impact startups focused on climate solutions.
Federal tech-transfer law pays tremendous dividends as research universities spark regional economies
Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF)—According to a new report, American research universities like the University of Colorado in recent decades have become engines of innovation for state and regional economies, thanks in large part to the federal Bayh-Dole Act, which incentivizes technology commercialization.