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The University of Colorado's Ascent Deep Tech Accelerator has announced its 2026 startup teams. The selected companies span a wide range of disciplines, reflecting the depth and breadth of innovation emerging from CU’s research enterprise.

Destination Startup brings groundbreaking startups built on novel discoveries from top national labs and universities together with investors from throughout North America to catalyze real-world impact. This showcase demonstrates a powerful way to invest in and get funding for innovative research and translate it into impactful business ventures.

CU Â鶹ӰԺ Today—The University of Colorado (CU) and Medtronic, a global leader in health care technology, have entered into a strategic research agreement to accelerate the development of transformative health technologies. CU was selected from a nationwide search for its strength in advancing disruptive innovation.

Colorado BioScience Association (CBSA)—The state’s life sciences ecosystem raised $3.2 billion in 2025, a record driven by significant mergers and acquisitions. The results demonstrate the durability of Colorado’s life sciences community as companies, investors, and research institutions operate amid economic, regulatory, and policy uncertainty.

The Embark Deep Tech Startup Creator pairs seasoned entrepreneurs with Â鶹ӰԺ technologies to bring those breakthroughs to market to address urgent societal needs. Embark has launched its third cohort of Embark Startup Founders and will provide intellectual property rights, funding for the founders and their companies, startup accelerator programming support and investor introductions to launch startups with real-world impact.

In an ongoing effort to bridge a pervasive investment gap in innovation funding, the Â鶹ӰԺ has awarded pre-seed funding to Illumen Therapeutics, developing cancer treatments based on discoveries from startup co-founder Roy Parker’s lab at CU Â鶹ӰԺ.

The Â鶹ӰԺ actively incubates and supports nonprofit and for-profit ventures with broad societal impact, from far-reaching educational and wellness tools to vaccine accessibility and water security.

CU Â鶹ӰԺ Today—More than ever, CU Â鶹ӰԺ is a destination for faculty, students and staff who want to change the world through innovative research, scholarship and creative work.

A new program providing funding, support and community for faculty teams in the arts, humanities and social sciences to transform their ideas and creative works into real-world impact.

Whether you're developing new technologies, pioneering creative works or advancing scientific discoveries, Venture Partners at CU Â鶹ӰԺ provides support to help transform your ideas into real-world solutions—while securing funding to advance your work.