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Photo: Associate Professor and co-founder of Mana Battery, a startup developing sodium-based batteries for sustainable energy storage, Chunmei Ban, is working with chemical engineering student Kangmin Kim in the CU Boulder College of Engineering and Applied Science lab. Source: Jesse Morgan Petersen

Innovation at the University of Colorado Boulder reached an unprecedented milestone in fiscal year 2023-24 by launching 35 startup companies based on university innovations. This achievement shattered CU Boulder’s previous record of 20 startups in FY 2021 and placed it among the most prolific single-campus institutions in the country.

As the commercialization arm for CU Boulder—as well as CU Denver’s physical sciences which launched one startup in the same year and UCCS—Venture Partners at CU Boulder is at the heart of transforming new inventions and discoveries into real-world impact by empowering university innovators to build new companies and industry partnerships.

This leap from launching just four to six startups annually a decade ago is a testament to years of strategy and investment in entrepreneurship. Considering CU’s location outside traditional venture capital hubs like Silicon Valley and Boston, its rise as a startup powerhouse showcases a unique ecosystem driving extraordinary results.

Journey to the Top

In data collected and published by AUTM (the leading association for university “technology transfer,” which tracks the number of startups launched by universities to commercialize university-owned intellectual property) from FYs 1990-2023, the standing leaders of startups launched in a year by a single-campus are Stanford with 38 startups in 2022 and MIT with 32 startups most recently in 2020. Full university data from FY 2024 is expected from AUTM in late 2025.

“Universities spinning out similar numbers of startups have significantly larger research budgets feeding their innovation pipeline,” says Bryn Rees, associate vice chancellor for innovation and partnerships, “But this is actually where CU Boulder really shines, when we look at our efficiency: the number of startups we’re launching per dollar of funding.”

“Among institutions with the highest output of startups, Columbia University tops that indicator with 3.5 startups launched in FY 2018 per $100 million in research funding. With 34 startups out of CU Boulder in FY 2024, that’s 4.7 startups per $100 million of funding. That is a top result among leading universities and a real credit to our approach,” says Rees.

Strategic Pillars of Success

Through experimentation and entrepreneurial thinking, the Venture Partners team has redefined how academic research translates into impactful businesses. “Our journey reflects years of careful planning, experimentation and a relentless commitment to supporting our startup founders,” says Rees. “We’ve embraced Boulder’s collaborative ethos and created a model that aligns with our community’s values while delivering national impact.”

Founder-First Philosophy

Venture Partners prioritizes the experience and development of its founders—primarily faculty, postdoctoral researchers and graduate students. Innovations like Licensing with EASE^® simplify the startup process with pre-negotiated intellectual property licensing terms, reducing administrative friction and allowing founders to focus on building their ventures. This philosophy extends to providing tailored mentorship and long-term support, creating an environment where new founders thrive.

Holistic Support for Founders

Recognizing the distinct challenges academic founders face, Venture Partners offers a comprehensive suite of resources from idea to launch. From entrepreneurial training to funding, academic founders receive support tailored to their unique needs, even as the fundamentals of entrepreneurship are constant. For example, Venture Partners’ Center for Translational Research (CTR) helps bridge the “valley of death” between early-stage research and commercialization with comprehensive support for researchers applying for grants that cater to startups.

Integration and Collaboration

To ensure a seamless startup pipeline, Venture Partners integrates resources across the university and community. In federal partnership, the National Science Foundation I-Corps^TM Hub: West Region programming at Venture Partners provides startup training to researchers in and outside of the university, while the Lab Venture Challenge (LVC) awards over $1.25 million in proof-of-concept grants annually in partnership with the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT).

Experimentation and Adaptation

Venture Partners’ willingness to experiment and learn from failure has been critical to its success. “Have you heard of the ‘i-Teams’ program?” Rees jokes. “Of course not! It was a failure. We wanted to match lab innovations with business students. It was a fun experience and great learning for the students, but we didn’t start any new companies.” However, it provided insights that led to the creation of the highly successful Embark Deep Tech Startup Creator, which launched 10 of the 35 companies in 2024 by matching experienced entrepreneurs with cutting-edge CU Boulder innovations. New partnerships through the New Venture Launch class at the CU Boulder Leeds School of Business are also proving to be a successful approach to the original idea. Venture Partners has also adapted lessons learned from Columbia University’s leveraging of state economic development grants, MIT’s mentorship strategy and the University of Utah’s end-to-end solution for startups to fill gaps in the local ecosystem to inspire similar initiatives to suit Colorado’s ecosystem.

Startups Accelerating Toward Impact

 

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The 35 startups launched in FY 2024 represent a diverse array of industries, from clean energy to biotech. Among them is Mana Battery, founded on research from Chunmei Ban’s laboratory (CU Boulder Paul M. Rady Mechanical Engineering), winner of a 2023 LVC grant. Mana Battery is developing sodium-based batteries as a safer, more sustainable alternative to lithium-ion technology, addressing critical challenges in energy storage. Over the past decade, CU Boulder has spun out several battery-focused startups, collectively creating hundreds of jobs and attracting over $1 billion in investment to Colorado. These startups exemplify CU Boulder’s ability to address pressing global challenges while driving economic growth in the state.

CU is a growing international leader in both quantum and healthcare research and technologies, both found in the new startup Flari Tech. The company is developing technology created by Jun Ye (CU Boulder Physics, , ) and Qizhong Liang (JILA) to detect diseases via the breath, all built upon the Nobel Prize-winning frequency comb developed at CU Boulder and NIST. The company was founded by Eva Yao in the first cohort of Embark.

Another shooting star is Mesa Quantum. Venture Partners helped match a motivated grad student, Sristy Agrawal (, CU Boulder Mathematical Physics), with a novel atomic clock invented in Svenja Knappe’s lab (CU Boulder Paul M. Rady Mechanical Engineering). Mesa Quantum was first conceived in the I-Corps Hub West programming offered at Venture Partners. Mesa Quantum is ushering in the next generation of chip-scale atomic clocks and quantum sensors, powering the industries of tomorrow in fields like autonomous vehicles and advanced deep-water oil exploration.

CU Boulder’s success is bolstered by recent ecosystem wins like the NSF Colorado-Wyoming Climate Resilience Engine and the Elevate Quantum Tech Hub designations. These initiatives enhance CU Boulder’s capacity to attract top talent, secure funding and support high-impact startups.

“These programs bring together the resources and expertise we need to address global challenges,” says Rees. “They’re amplifying our impact and positioning CU as a leader in innovation.”

Looking ahead

As Venture Partners celebrates its record-breaking year, the team is focused on the future. Plans include expanding incubator spaces, enhancing funding opportunities and increasing diversity within the entrepreneurial mentor network. The university is also working to refine programs like Embark and explore new collaborations with other institutions.

“Our goal is to create ventures with lasting impact,” Rees emphasizes. “We measure success not only by the number of companies we create but by the societal and economic benefits they deliver.”

CU Boulder’s dramatic rise as a leader in university-driven entrepreneurship has illuminated its role in the broader U.S. innovation ecosystem. By prioritizing founders, embracing Colorado’s unique strengths and continually evolving its approach, Venture Partners offers a model for other institutions seeking to foster innovation.