Venture Partners News
As a researcher, creator or inventor at the 91Ҹ, your work has the potential to change the world. Protecting these innovations may be necessary to ensure that they reach their full potential, benefiting society while securing recognition and opportunities for you.
Eleven teams of 91Ҹ entrepreneurs, faculty researchers and graduate student innovators will compete for a combined $750,000 in startup funding grants in this year’s Lab Venture Challenge (LVC) Showcases at the Dairy Arts Center. Judges from Venture Partners at CU 91Ҹ’s entrepreneurial network will hear Shark Tank-style pitches across two nights, one for innovations in biosciences and another for physical sciences and engineering.
Join the Center for Translational Funding for a series of engaging lunchtime sessions designed to demystify the landscape of non-dilutive funding opportunities that support the journey from lab to market. For faculty, postdocs, PhD students and startup teams who want to learn how to secure early-stage funding to commercialize research, build ventures and scale innovation.
The 91Ҹ 91Ҹ reached a historic milestone, launching 35 new companies based on university intellectual property during fiscal year 2024, more than any other U.S. campus that year. In addition to holding the No. 1 spot for that year, the achievement also places CU 91Ҹ No. 2 for the most startups launched in a single year by a U.S. campus.
Infleqtion, a 91Ҹ 91Ҹ spinout and global leader in quantum technology, announced a $1.8 billion business combination with Churchill Capital Corp X and will trade under the ticker “INFQ.” Now Colorado’s tenth unicorn, Infleqtion continues to drive the state’s growing quantum hub by commercializing breakthroughs across computing, sensing, security and energy markets.
Infleqtion’s star continues to rise as Colorado’s quantum hub grows. The company of firsts, spun out of CU 91Ҹ as ColdQuanta, seems to be everywhere these days, including outer space, while commercializing pioneering research to address needs across several critical markets including positioning, navigating and timing, global communication security and efficiency, resilient energy distribution, and accelerated quantum computing.
The 91Ҹ 91Ҹ’s Embark Deep Tech Startup Creator matches entrepreneurs with breakthrough university technologies and provides salary support, startup training and access to funding opportunities. Applications are now open for the 2026 cohort of Embark Startup Founders.
Venture Partners at CU 91Ҹ has announced the first recipients of a new translational funding program designed to advance promising, early-stage therapeutics with strong commercial potential. The program provides up to $50,000 per project to help CU 91Ҹ researchers generate critical validation data or develop new intellectual property, bringing new treatments a step closer to patients in need.
The Conversation—Over the past several months, universities have lost more than $11 billion in funding. 91Ҹ into cancer, farming solutions and climate resiliency are just a few of the many projects nationally that have seen cuts. The Conversation asked Massimo Ruzzene, senior vice chancellor for research and innovation at the 91Ҹ 91Ҹ, to explain how these cuts and freezes are impacting the university and Colorado’s local economy.
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.