Colorado Awards $8.6M in Grants to Startups, featuring Orbit Genomics
Thirty-six Colorado startups secured almost $8.6 million in grants as part of the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade’s Advanced Industries Accelerator Program.
The AI Accelerator Grant program received 119 applications for the current grant cycle, with applications reviewed by committees of business, technical and financial experts, as well as an industry-specific reviewer. A pitch session with 22 companies occurred in May with the full AI committee. Final recommendations were approved by the Colorado Economic Development Commission on Thursday.
“As Colorado begins its recovery from the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, support of the economic engines that are the advanced industries is more important than ever,” Katie Woslager, senior manager, Advanced Industries, said in a statement. “These projects expand the Colorado innovation ecosystem, creating jobs, expanding industries and driving investment into the state.”
The program provides proof-of-concept grants to Colorado research universities, federal laboratories within the state and other labs with technology-transfer offices seeking to commercialize research. Early-stage capital and retention grants fund companies that are “commercializing innovative technologies to create viable products that meet a market need and can be created or manufactured in Colorado and exported globally.”
Two Colorado companies — Local News Network and Serenity App Inc. — met performance milestones and were approved for a second round or “transition” funding for a total of $250,000.
Area grants included:
FinGoal Inc., Lafayette — $250,000. FinGoal builds infrastructure and analytics for financial brands to better understand individual users on a human level — what they value and what is motivating them.
Hippo Health, Boulder —$125,000. Hippo Health’s platform enables patients to see doctors on demand.
CardioScout Innovations Inc., Boulder — $250,000. CardioScout is a minimally invasive platform for the visually directed treatment of life-threatening conditions on the surface of the beating heart, allowing for cardiac interventions designed to be safer, faster and more effective than current techniques
Mosaic Biosciences Inc., Boulder — $242,257. Mosaic provides experienced biopharma teams to advance challenging protein therapeutic programs from discovery through preclinical development.
SunPath, Louisville — $250,000. SunPath, a clean-tech startup funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, develops a technology to advance efficient buildings, including commercial, residential and indoor (controlled environment) agriculture.
Phase IV Engineering Inc., Boulder — $381,000. Phase IV Engineering produces wireless industrial sensors that reduce expensive unexpected downtime and increase process efficiency.
Boulder Sterilization Services, Boulder — $250,000. Boulder Sterilization Services develops equipment to provide “Quick Turn” sterilization services for medical-device companies.
Contour Printworks LLC, Longmont — $250,000. Contour Printworks enables brewers and other beverage companies to create and can thousands of products for the first time, and create thousands of new production and sales options for their current canned products.
Orbit Genomics Inc., Boulder — $250,000. Orbit Genomics’ technology platform analyzes novel genomic markers, repetitive DNA called microsatellites, that uniquely reflect not only inherited disease risk, but also risk acquired from lifestyle and environmental exposures.
The next application cycle for proof-of-concept and early-stage capital and retention grants will open on July 1 and applications will be due Sept. 1.
