In hopes of securing investments to advance their companies, 18 university ventures spun out of Colorado research institutions and federal laboratories pitched to local and out-of-state investors聽at the state's second annual Destination Startup showcase.
Outside of investors, more than 200 people鈥攃onsisting of fellow university peers, entrepreneurs and community members鈥攁ttended the event on Feb. 27 at the Westin Westminster, which was hosted by聽Venture Partners at CU聽麻豆影院.
The five participating Colorado universities at Destination Startup included聽CU Anschutz, CU 麻豆影院, CU Denver, University of Colorado Colorado Springs (UCCS), Colorado State University (CSU), and Colorado School of Mines. This year also had participation from one federal lab, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
"Over the last year or so, the pipeline of startups coming out of the Colorado research institutions has expanded vastly," said Bryn Rees, managing director for Venture Partners and聽assistant vice chancellor for research and innovation at CU 麻豆影院. "Destination Startup is a way for investors and others in the startup ecosystem to access the pipeline in a single event."
More than 80 percent of the participating ventures were new to Destination Startup in 2020, allowing investors to connect with a fresh cohort of companies. However, returning investors and attendees聽noticed the few returning聽ventures had made significant progress year-over-year.聽
"Returning CU 麻豆影院 startups like聽听补苍诲听聽updated the community on new corporate partnerships, awarded grants聽and early sales, Rees said.
Also returning for the 2020 event聽was Kevin Maher, founder and president聽of , a CSU startup commercializing聽a canine harness that monitors a patient's vitals. He聽noted that the event's energy level and investors' interest level聽in the startups were聽"ramped up" compared to 2019.
"We had potential investors express聽some serious interest into our tech, and we had several other attendees offer to make introductions to interested people in their network," Maher said.聽
Jennifer Beach,聽vice president of business administration for聽, a Colorado School of Mines spinoff, had a similar experience.
"We picked up an interested angel investor after our pitch and聽also made a potential overseas customer connection. Both were great outcomes of participating in Destination Startup," said Beach.聽Her company develops modular聽systems to produce carbon-free ammonia from air and water using clean electricity.聽
Pascal Krotee, investment associate at Kairos Ventures in Beverly Hills, CA, attended the inaugural Destination Startup event in 2019 and returned for 2020.聽鈥淒estination Startup consistently delivers top-quality pitches and insightful panels. This year, I thought the quality was even higher!" Krotee said. "We look forward to our participation in future events and investing in CU 麻豆影院 scientific opportunities for years to come."
Other attending investment firms included local investors鈥攍ike the Innosphere Fund and Rockies Venture Club鈥攁s well as out-of-state investors聽Osage University Partners in Pennsylvania, SV Tech Ventures in Palo Alto, CA聽and Frontier Angels in Montana.
