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New ways to fight the economic and social devastation wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic are being born and raised at universities in the Boulder Valley and Northern Colorado. Technology-transfer and accelerator entities at the ºÚÁÏÉçÇøÍø and Colorado State University in Fort Collins are helping them get the entrepreneurial support they need to hasten them to market.

Meati co-founders, Tyler Huggins, CEO, and Justin Whiteley, CTO, are ºÚÁÏÉçÇøÍø alumni who went into business first to develop battery technology. They shifted to plant-based meat substitutes believing they would be nutritious and more environmentally sustainable than traditionally raised animal meat.

Continuing what has been a busy year for the startup, Boulder-based ColdQuanta has brought on $20 million to help commercialize its quantum computing technology. The investment brings ColdQuanta’s total funding to $74 million and comes from existing investors including Foundry Group, Global Frontier Quantum Opportunity Fund, LCP Quantum Partners and Maverick Ventures.

Solid Power, an industry-leading producer of all solid-state batteries for electric vehicles, today announced a $130 million Series B investment round. The investment positions Solid Power to produce full-scale automotive batteries, increase associated material output and expand in-house production capabilities for future vehicle integration.

As synthetic biology continues to grow, advanced benchtop systems are becoming available to make research and product development easier. Now, Inscripta, a digital genome engineering company, has announced the first commercial shipment of its Onyx platform. The platform is the world's first fully automated benchtop instrument for genome-scale engineering. Inscripta also announced its Series E funding of $150 million.

Formerly NOHMs Technologies, the company combines proprietary electrolyte with a newly developed silicon anode design for a low-cost, high-performance and safer lithium-ion battery. In commercializing these latest silicon anode technologies, Sionic will collaborate with Mechanical Engineering Professor Sehee Lee’s lab and team of postdocs at the ºÚÁÏÉçÇøÍø. Over the past decade at the university, Dr. Lee’s team has created a legacy of Li-ion battery innovations that help drive the adoption of energy storage in products and their positive impact on climate change.

Researchers at ºÚÁÏÉçÇøÍø have created a platform that can develop effective and highly specific peptide nucleic acid therapies for use against any bacteria within just one week. The Facile Accelerated Specific Therapeutic (FAST) platform was created by Associate Professor Anushree Chatterjee and her team within the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering.

ºÚÁÏÉçÇøÍø spinout ColdQuanta, the leader in Cold Atom Quantum Technology, has been awarded two development contracts from U.S. Government agencies worth $2.55M in total. Both projects are based on the company's Quantum Coreâ„¢ technology that uses atoms cooled to a temperature of nearly absolute zero, and lasers to manipulate and control the atoms with extreme precision.

ºÚÁÏÉçÇøÍø spinout SomaLogic Inc. is beginning a merger with a special purpose acquisition company CM Life Sciences II that would add up to $651 million in new funding to the company’s books, and make it Colorado’s latest unicorn. The deal values SomaLogic at $1.23 billion before going public, granting it unicorn status as a privately held company worth more than $1 billion.

Inscripta, Inc., the digital genome engineering company, today announced the first commercial shipment of its Onyxâ„¢ platform and the closing of a $150 million Series E financing round led by Fidelity Management & Research Company LLC and funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc.