Principals
Dana Anderson; Ryan Gill; Larry Gold; Se-Hee Lee; Leslie Leinwand; Xuedong Liu; Conrad Stoldt
Collaboration + support
Spinouts ColdQuanta, Edgewise Therapeutics, Inscripta, Myokardia, OnKure Therapeutics, Solid Power and Somalogic; Venture Partners at CU Boulder
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CU Boulder deep tech companies鈥攖hose听based on science and engineering鈥攔ecently set听records for raising capital, acquisitions and going听public, even during the COVID-19 pandemic.
These companies were founded on university听research innovations or were founded by听university researchers. Collectively, the听companies raised $2 billion in funding in the听past fiscal year and saw exits鈥攅vents in which听companies are acquired or go public鈥攐f $18听billion. The amount raised and total number of听exits are both annual records for CU Boulder鈥檚听deep tech companies.
By working with Venture Partners at CU Boulder, the听university鈥檚 commercialization arm, campus听innovators-turned-startup-founders engage in听programs to translate their research into new听, businesses and partnerships that听address the world鈥檚 greatest challenges.
One of these standout companies, Solid Power,听is an industry-leading all-solid-state battery听producer for electric vehicles. Last year, Solid听Power raised $135 million from investors that听included Ford and BMW, as well as another听$515 million through a popular way of going听public called a special purpose acquisition听company, or SPAC. Solid Power is set to begin听trading on the NASDAQ stock exchange this听year and was valued at $1.8 billion at the time of听the SPAC. The company鈥檚 technology originated听from the labs of Se-Hee Lee and Conrad Stoldt,听professors in the Paul M. Rady Department of听Mechanical Engineering.
Other notable deep tech startups that听contributed to the $2 billion in funding raised听include Somalogic (Larry Gold, molecular, cellular听and developmental biology), Inscripta (Ryan Gill,听chemical and biological engineering), Edgewise听Therapeutics (Leslie Leinwand, molecular,听cellular and developmental biology), OnKure听Therapeutics (Xuedong Liu, biochemistry) and听ColdQuanta (Dana Anderson, physics).
Among the FY21 startup exits, Myokardia听(Leinwand) led the way with a $13.1 billion听acquisition by pharmaceutical company Bristol听Myers Squibb. Myokardia makes targeted听therapies for serious cardiovascular diseases听and, following Gilead鈥檚 purchase of Myogen for听$2.6 billion in 2006, is the second company听co-founded by Leinwand to be acquired in a听major transaction.