Polsky Center at the University of Chicago

🎉 The Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation is proud to announce the 2025 Polsky Founders’ Fund Fellowship (PF3) recipients! This year, eight outstanding UChicago students and their startups were selected to receive up to $24,000 in SAFE funding and quarterly coaching as they commit full time to growing their ventures after graduation. 👏 Join us in congratulating the 2025 fellows: Mai Vu, AB ’25 and Laurel Alpaugh, AB ’24, MA ’25 // Coclo Michael Gustafson, MBA ’25 // Three Pillars Sudhanshu Kaushik, MBA ’25 (expected) // Exalt Data Randel Bennett, Executive MBA ’25 // Qixent Ritu Sreenivasan, MBA ’25 // MOOJ Foods Shikhar Pandey, MBA ’25 // Grid CoOperator Alice Zhang, MBA ’25 // Nutracare The PF3 program supports graduating UChicago students with incorporated ventures and real traction who are ready to launch full time. Funding is distributed over one year in $6,000 quarterly intervals and includes mentorship from Polsky Center staff. Read more >> https://xmrrwallet.com/cmx.plnkd.in/gWhk2viX

Welcome, Exactics! The startup won both the 2025 College New Venture Challenge and the John Edwardson, ’72, Social New Venture Challenge! Read more here >> https://xmrrwallet.com/cmx.plnkd.in/gmcuuwrd And here >> https://xmrrwallet.com/cmx.plnkd.in/gwdzDSYK

👏 Congratulations to the University of Chicago inventors (current and former) who were recently awarded patents! Bernhard Adams Evan Angelico Gregory Bird Juan J. de Pablo Kepler Domurat-Sousa Rachel E. Andrey Elagin Tadej Emeršič, Ph.D. Henry Frisch Chuan He Jeffrey Hubbell Ako Ishihara JUN ISHIHARA James LaBelle Patrick La Riviere Aslan Mansurov Laurens Mets Sandeep Nathan, MD, MSc Koichi Sasaki João Francisco Shida Allison Squires Eric Spieglan Melody Swartz Gustavo Andrés Vásquez Montoya Loren Walensky Qiancheng You 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘗𝘰𝘭𝘴𝘬𝘺 𝘊𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘐𝘗 𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘧𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘰 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘜𝘯𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘊𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘨𝘰 𝘪𝘯𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘩𝘯𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘭𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘴𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘴, 𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘳𝘴, 𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘣𝘺 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘴 𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘢𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘺 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘴. Have an idea? Connect with us at polskylicensing@uchicago.edu.

The I-Corps program is designed to empower scientists, researchers, and students to test the commercial potential and impact of their research and ideas. Through highly-experiential learning at the local and national levels, I-Corps teams learn how to assess “technology-problem fit,” the first critical step in the commercialization process. Apply today >> https://xmrrwallet.com/cmx.plnkd.in/gGVADWmA // The Polsky Center’s I-Corps program is offered through partnership with the Great Lakes I-Corps Hub.

“Think of it like this: If you’re baking a pizza, you care about the ingredients and how it tastes, not how the oven’s vacuum tubes work.” That simple truth, that scientists spend too much time fixing machines instead of doing research, led Sakshi Nag and Divyanshu Sharma to cofound Rayni, an AI platform that helps scientists operate and troubleshoot complex lab instruments. Both came to The University of Chicago Booth School of Business with a clear goal: to build a business that mattered. Their early startup attempts didn’t stick. From custom controls to hydroponic plants, each venture brought lessons that pushed them closer to the right idea. Eventually, they circled back to Sakshi’s early interviews with scientists and uncovered a repeated pain points of emotional frustration, lost time, and no effective solution. “That was the moment Rayni was born.” With support from the Polsky Center’s Build Accelerator, Booth classes, and advice from past New Venture Challenge participants, they refined their idea and pitch. Their hard work paid off when Rayni won first place at the 2025 Edward L. Kaplan, ’71, New Venture Challenge, winning the Rattan L. Khosa First-Place Prize of $895,000, the largest share of a record-breaking $2.2 million in total awards. Now, they’re focused on scaling. The team is closing a fundraising round, growing their engineering team, and preparing for expanded deployment in labs. “Rayni is the third time, and it’s the charm.” Read more >> https://xmrrwallet.com/cmx.plnkd.in/gxaFZJRn

An early-stage biotechnology company, Epinoma, has licensed a DNA methylation analysis technology from the University of Chicago as part of its work developing novel tools for early cancer detection and disease monitoring. “It is very gratifying to see this invention from our laboratory being commercialized. Epinoma has done an excellent job transforming a lab method into a robust kit that can benefit a broad community of researchers — and, hopefully, physicians in the near future,” said Chuan He, John T. Wilson Distinguished Service Professor in the University of Chicago Department of Chemistry. Read more >> https://xmrrwallet.com/cmx.plnkd.in/gPpVrBVr // Epinoma licensed the IP through the Polsky Center, which manages the IP portfolio for all University of Chicago innovations and technologies.

📢 Tomorrow!! Join us to learn about Alchemist Chicago, a new global accelerator designed to transform scientific breakthroughs into market-ready ventures. Register now >> https://xmrrwallet.com/cmx.plnkd.in/gXTJiyBp A collaboration between Alchemist Accelerator and the University of Chicago’s Polsky Center, this program is now accepting applications for deep tech startups. 🤚 Who Should Attend? This program is ideal for pre-seed or seed-stage founders building transformative technology – especially those with strong technical co-founders. We’re looking for teams working in quantum (with Duality Accelerator), AI/data Science, robotics, cleantech, agtech, advanced materials, spacetech, and other deep tech sectors.

BIG news in quantum innovation! The University of Chicago is partnering with IBM to strengthen the quantum startup ecosystem in Illinois through the Duality Accelerator, the nation’s first accelerator dedicated to quantum technologies. As Nadya Mason, interim vice president for Science, Innovation, and Partnerships at UChicago and dean of the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago, shared: “Partnering with IBM reflects the kind of cross-sector collaboration that makes Chicago’s quantum ecosystem so strong. Together, we’re not just accelerating innovation—we’re helping secure the nation’s technological future.” Read more about this exciting development >> https://xmrrwallet.com/cmx.plnkd.in/g5jsMdPG // Duality is now part of Alchemist Chicago and is operated by Alchemist Accelerator and the Polsky Center.

Big news for Chicago’s startup and innovation ecosystem: The Polsky Center at the University of Chicago and Silicon Valley’s Alchemist Accelerator have launched Alchemist Chicago: a new deep tech accelerator designed to turn breakthrough research into high-growth startups. This first-of-its-kind partnership brings together: 🔹 Alchemist’s global network of B2B startup expertise 🔹 UChicago’s unmatched research & commercialization power 🔹 A focus on frontier tech: quantum, AI, cleantech, robotics, and more Open to global founders (no university affiliation required), this initiative cements Chicago’s South Side as a launchpad for transformative innovation. Applications are now open through September 5, 2025. 👉 Read more via the Polsky Center: https://xmrrwallet.com/cmx.plnkd.in/gRk2SBPT

We're proud to continue #TechChicagoWeek with University of Chicago Tech Ventures Demo Day at Google Chicago! This event brought together deep tech startups, investors, and ecosystem leaders to explore groundbreaking work in quantum, cleantech, AI, and data science. Thank you to the founders who pitched, the partners who supported, and everyone who showed up to champion innovation across the Midwest. // Thank you to our Sponsors: Unicorn Sponsors: Caruso Ventures, McAndrews, Held & Malloy, Ltd., True Blue Partners Series A Sponsors: Cooley LLP, Databricks, MBHB (McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff LLP),World Business Chicago Seed Sponsors: J.P. Morgan, MFV Partners Reception Sponsor: Draper University Ventures Event Host: Google Cloud