By

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 ¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉä Boulder

¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉä Boulder deep tech companies—thoseÌýbased on science and engineering—recently setÌýrecords for raising capital, acquisitions and goingÌýpublic, even during the COVID-19 pandemic.

These companies were founded on universityÌýresearch innovations or were founded byÌýuniversity researchers. Collectively, theÌýcompanies raised $2 billion in funding in theÌýpast fiscal year and saw exits—events in whichÌýcompanies are acquired or go public—of $18Ìýbillion. The amount raised and total number ofÌýexits are both annual records for ¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉä Boulder’sÌýdeep tech companies.

By working with Venture Partners at ¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉä Boulder, theÌýuniversity’s commercialization arm, campusÌýinnovators-turned-startup-founders engage inÌýprograms to translate their research into newÌý, businesses and partnerships thatÌýaddress the world’s greatest challenges.

One of these standout companies, Solid Power,Ìýis an industry-leading all-solid-state batteryÌýproducer for electric vehicles. Last year, SolidÌýPower raised $135 million from investors thatÌýincluded Ford and BMW, as well as anotherÌý$515 million through a popular way of goingÌýpublic called a special purpose acquisitionÌýcompany, or SPAC. Solid Power is set to beginÌýtrading on the NASDAQ stock exchange thisÌýyear and was valued at $1.8 billion at the time ofÌýthe SPAC. The company’s technology originatedÌýfrom the labs of Se-Hee Lee and Conrad Stoldt,Ìýprofessors in the Paul M. Rady Department ofÌýMechanical Engineering.

Other notable deep tech startups thatÌýcontributed to the $2 billion in funding raisedÌýinclude Somalogic (Larry Gold, molecular, cellularÌýand developmental biology), Inscripta (Ryan Gill,Ìýchemical and biological engineering), EdgewiseÌýTherapeutics (Leslie Leinwand, molecular,Ìýcellular and developmental biology), OnKureÌýTherapeutics (Xuedong Liu, biochemistry) andÌýColdQuanta (Dana Anderson, physics).

Among the FY21 startup exits, MyokardiaÌý(Leinwand) led the way with a $13.1 billionÌýacquisition by pharmaceutical company BristolÌýMyers Squibb. Myokardia makes targetedÌýtherapies for serious cardiovascular diseasesÌýand, following Gilead’s purchase of Myogen forÌý$2.6 billion in 2006, is the second companyÌýco-founded by Leinwand to be acquired in aÌýmajor transaction.