Ascent Deep Tech Accelerator

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 networkÌýand 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, entrepreneursÌýand industry experts at the Ascent Investor Showcase.

Emily Vogt

Emily Vogt
Director of Venture Development

°ä´Ç²Ô³Ù²¹³¦³ÙÌý

The Ascent Impact


35

Companies graduated

$15M

Non-dilutive funding raised by Ascent companies

$21M

Seed funding raised from prominent venture capitalists

Companies have also advanced to notable accelerator and incubator startup programs such as NREL West Gate, Creative Destruction Lab, Techstars and Activate.

Ascent Deep Tech Community Showcase

Wednesday, June 25, 4:30-7:30 p.m.
Byron R. White Stadium Club, Folsom Field,

Add to Calendar: ÌýÌý ÌýÌý ÌýÌý ÌýÌý Ìý

The Ascent Deep Tech Community Showcase brings together researchers, investors and community supporters to highlight innovative deep tech startups spinning out of the University of Colorado. Attendees will have a chance to see pitches from each of the Ascent 2025 cohort startups, followed by a networking happy hour to learn more.

ÌýÌýÌýShare this Event

2025 Ascent Cohort

Please check back soon for the announcement of additional teams

AtomTCAD

Team: Ìý(CU Boulder Ann and H.J. Smead Aerospace Engineering Sciences), Founder, Principal Investigator; Ìý(CU Boulder Materials Science & Engineering Program), Research Engineer; Ìý(CU Boulder Chemistry), Research Engineer; Ìý(CU Boulder Chemistry), Research Engineer

Industry Applications: Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning, Environment and Sustainability, Aerospace, Sensors, Software, and Research and Exploration.

Colexible Technologies LLC

Colexible Technologies develops cutting-edge flexible electronics. Our devices replace traditional rigid circuit boards and solid metallic wires with flexible polymers and liquid metal, offering unparalleled stretching, bending, and durability.Ìý

Team: , CEO, Founder (fmr. CU Boulder Embark Entrepreneur in Residence); , VP of Product; Ìý(CU Boulder Paul M. Rady Mechanical Engineering), Principal Investigator, Lead Advisor

Industry Applications: Advanced Materials, Hardware and Instrumentation, Robotics, Sensors, Medical Devices, Manufacturing

EerDx Inc.

EerDx uses earbud sleep diagnostics to transform the diagnosis and treatment of the 100 Million Americans with sleep disorders, starting with drug and cognitive behavioral therapy for chronic insomnia.

Team: , CEO, Co-Founder; , CTO, Co-Founder; Jianliang Xiao, Principal Investigator, Advisor (CU Boulder Paul M. Rady Mechanical Engineering)

Industry Applications: Advanced Materials, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning, Sensors, Health and Wellness, Medical Devices, Diagnostics

IntraLumenus

IntraLumenusÌýis revolutionizing interventional endoscopy with its single-use flexibleÌýrobotic endoscope. Offering unparalleled precision, stability and control,Ìýour device reduces technical complexity and procedure times, enabling more endoscopists to perform advanced procedures, all while improving patient outcomes.

Team: Ìý(Alum: , CU Boulder Business), CEO, Co-Founder; Mark Rentschler (CU Boulder Paul M. Rady Mechanical Engineering), Principal Investigator

Industry Applications: Biotech, Health and Wellness, Robotics, Medical Devices, Hardware and Instrumentation

Kitsune Biotherapeutics Inc.

Kitsune Bio develops shape-shifting cyclic peptides that penetrate cells and adhere to targets more effectively. Our platform creates therapeutics that go beyond antibodies and small molecules, offering new treatment options for difficult diseases and improving the standard of care.

Industry Applications: Health and Wellness, Biotech, Therapeutics

Team: Ìý(Alum: CU Boulder Biochemistry), CEO; , COO; Michael Stowell (CU Boulder Molecular Cellular & Developmental Biology), CTO; Thomas Fallon, Advisor

WindSenseAI Inc.

WindSenseAI optimizes wind farm performance through AI-driven wake steering control (WSC). Our deep learning models predict how turbine yawing impacts power output, adapting in real-time to site-specific wind conditions to maximize efficiency and asset performance.

Industries: Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, Environment and Sustainability, Cleantech

Team: , CEO, Co-Founder (CU Boulder Electrical, Computer & Energy Engineering)

Past Ascent Cohorts

Canndoers

Canndoers'ÌýHemp-Derived Cannabinoid library offers a revolutionary approach to wellness, providing natural relief from chronic pain, anxietyÌýand sleep disturbances. Harnessing the healing power of cannabinoids, their meticulously crafted products target inflammation, epilepsyÌýand 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.

Cingo Health

An innovative mobile application that uses native digital sensors and machine learning strategies to build personalized digital mental health models for users—their mental health fingerprint. Personalized models guide app functions that monitor daily mental health, generate wellness notifications to users and members of their communityÌýand provide evidence-based digital therapeutics that are customized for users, improving mental health at scale.

Coaterra

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

Entangl3d

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 isÌýpursuing applications in the spine, heartÌýand defense sectors.

Green Steel Environmental

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. TheyÌýupcycle an industrial by-product, use it to sequester important nutrients from renewable natural gas and wastewaterÌýand recycle those nutrients as fertilizer.

Mach Electric

Mach Electric produces carbon fibers through a process that directly sequesters waste gas CO2 from industrial sources. As Mach Electric’s 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.

Mana Battery

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.

MicroG Stem Cell Technologies

MicroG Stem Cell Technologies harnesses cutting-edge microgravity environments to revolutionize stem cell expansion, enhancing therapeutic outcomes in regenerative medicine.

Modendo Inc.

Ultrathin Endomicroscope (UTE) for real-time, high-resolution imaging inside volumetric scattering samples, particularly in neuroscience labs using animal models.

Page Technologies

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, temperatureÌýand 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 moneyÌýand relieves the stress surrounding fertilizer management.

RayChill

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. TheirÌýgoal is to innovate radiative cooling materials and systems to reduce the energy consumption of cooling and refrigeration systems in every sector of society.

ReviewerZero.ai

Science is under attack. Every year, millions of scientific papers are published, and a large portion contain figure manipulation, statistical inconsistenciesÌýand 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, fundersÌýand universities.ÌýReviewerZero.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.

Terra Cognita Labs

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 typeÌýand 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.

WHISPER Energy Inc.

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)Ìýor building automation system (BAS) to apply energy only when and where needed.

Zero Gap Energy

Zero Gap Energy enables ultra-long duration energy storage for future renewable US grid at lower cost than current electrochemical solutions.

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'ÌýNSF I-Corpsâ„¢ Hub: West Region programs.

ApplicationÌýÌý

The application deadline for the 2025 cohort is closed. Join our newsletter to be notified about future Ascent opportunities. Sign Up for Updates

Accelerator Benefits

Ascent teams will receive coaching toward milestones in four key areas:

Ìý

Company Formation

Incorporate your company, understand legal issues to watch for, build a successful team, and form a board.

Ìý

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.

Ìý

Entrepreneurial Finance

Learn about basic entrepreneurial finance and accounting, including basic financial statements and proformas.

Ìý

Fundraising

Understand legal details of outside investment, meet funders supporting startups through grants and equity investments, and perfect your pitch to investors.

Ascent is a partnership between:

Ascent Team