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Friday, July 18, 2025

Meta to Fund Promising Early-Stage CMU Startups

Meta will invest in the university’s Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship

The Swartz Center is proud to announce that Meta has committed to support promising early-stage, CMU-affiliated startups.

This initiative will provide funding to startups in advanced technologies, and cross-disciplinary innovation arising out of CMU’s work in AI, robotics and systems engineering. The partnership with Meta is projected to support high-potential startups in areas critical to the energy, infrastructure, health care or defense industries during its launch period.

Carnegie Mellon is known for its leadership in emerging technologies and supporting commercialization of resulting startups. Collectively, CMU-affiliated companies have created more than $658 billion in value and raised more than $40 billion in capital.

“Thanks to Meta’s partnership, we can expand our support for breakthrough companies at the earliest, highest risk stages,” says Swartz Center Interim Executive Director Meredith Meyer Grelli.

The Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship is the heart of the university’s innovation ecosystem. Named for CMU alumnus, entrepreneur and founding partner of Accel venture capital James R. Swartz, the center works to accelerate bringing research innovations and promising ideas from across CMU to the global marketplace.

Thursday, July 17, 2025

Pittsburgh Tech Leaders Showcase AI Prowess Ahead Energy and Innovation Summit

On the eve of Senator Dave McCormick's Energy and Innovation Summit, local economic development organizations partnered to showcase Pittsburgh's tech sector. The AI Horizons Preview Event featured panels with the CEOs of several local tech success stories from CMU, including recently minted unicorn companies Gecko Robotics and Abridge AI Inc. Abridge CEO Dr. Shiv Rao discussed how Abridge, which transcribes and contextualizes conversations between health care providers and patients, had begun before more mainstream investment in artificial intelligence was kicked off.

Abridge Partners with Allegheny Health Network to Bring AI Innovation

One of Pittsburgh’s tech unicorns, Abridge AI Inc., will soon be announcing a partnership with Allegheny Health Network and Highmark Health that will bring the generative AI company’s innovation into the hospital and health care system.

Carnegie Mellon University alumnus Shiv Rao, CEO and co-founder of Abridge, talked briefly about the work the company has been doing at AHN and parent company Highmark Health during a panel discussion Monday afternoon sponsored by AI Horizons Pittsburgh, part of the events accompanying the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit held at Carnegie Mellon University this week.

Bedrock Robotics Raises $80M in Funding for Autonomous Construction Technology

Bedrock Robotics, the company developing advanced autonomous systems for the $13 trillion global construction industry, emerged from stealth this week with $80M in Seed and Series A backing. Bedrock Robotics upgrades customers' existing heavy equipment fleets with reversible, same-day hardware and software installs to enable fully autonomous operations.

Bedrock Robotics is co-founded by CMU Robotics Institute alumnus and CEO Boris Sofman, Ph.D.

Gecko Robotics Partners with U.S. Steel to Explore AI-driven Infrastructure Analysis

North Shore-based unicorn company Gecko Robotics announced two partnerships with local companies alongside this week's Pennsylvania Energy & Innovation Summit. Gecko, which uses robotics and AI to perform infrastructure analysis, will "explore a new collaboration" with U.S. Steel, according to a joint statement from Gecko CEO Jake Loosararian and U.S. Steel CEO David Burritt.

Gecko is co-founded by Loosararian and CMU alumnus Troy Demmer, CPO. Loosararian was a prominent speaker and panelist at this weeks Pennsylvania Energy & Innovation Summit held at CMU.

Codeflash Named a Cool Vendor in 2025 Gartner's Cool Vendors in Software Quality and Testing

Codeflash, founded by CMU ECE '19 alumnus and CEO Saurabh Misra—also a James R. Swartz Entrepreneurial Fellow among other Swartz Center programs—has been named a 2025 Gartner® Cool Vendor in the “Software Quality and Testing” category. The company has also been recently recognized as the only Continuous Optimization tool in the market by GitHub.

Codeflash helps developers continuously improve the performance of their Python code while preserving correctness.

Meredith Grelli Appointed Interim Director of the CMU Swartz Center

In an announcement made by Carnegie Mellon University last week, Dave Mawhinney, founding Executive Director of the CMU Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship, has returned to faculty as of June 2025, after nearly a decade of visionary leadership shaping the Center's growth. The university has named Meredith Grelli as the Swartz Center’s interim director.

Meredith, who has worked closely with Dave and the CMU startup community over the years, will retain her other responsibilities as director of the Project Olympus Incubator Program, assistant dean for entrepreneurial initiatives within the School of Computer Science, and associate teaching professor of entrepreneurship at the Tepper School of Business. Dave will continue to serve as a teaching professor of Entrepreneurship in the Tepper School of Business.

The university is planning a celebration to honor Dave's legacy of impact to take place in the Fall of 2025.

Genesis AI Launches with $105M Seed Funding to Build AI Models for Robots

Genesis AI, a startup that aims to build a foundational model for powering all kinds of robots, has emerged from stealth with a giant $105M seed round co-led by Eclipse and Khosla Ventures.

Founded last December by Zhou Xian, who holds a PhD in robotics from Carnegie Mellon University, and Théophile Gervet, a former research scientist with the French AI lab Mistral, the startup aims to build a general-purpose model that will enable robots to automate a wide range of repetitive tasks, from lab work to housekeeping.

Toyz Electronics Selected as a 2025 Black Ambition Semi-Finalist

Toyz Electronics, co-founded by Damola Idowu and his son and CMU alumnus Wole, has been selected as a 2025 Black Ambition Semifinalist after a rigorous evaluation process where each application was reviewed by multiple business, investing and entrepreneurial experts.

Black Ambition, founded by Pharrell Williams, is working to close the wealth gap by investing in bold ideas and providing underrepresented founders with the resources, capital and community they need to thrive.

Monday, June 30, 2025

Dave Mawhinney

Carnegie Mellon University Announces Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship Leadership Transition

Dave Mawhinney, Founding Executive Director of the Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship at Carnegie Mellon University, will return to faculty on June 30, 2025, after nearly a decade of visionary leadership shaping the center’s growth and trajectory. The university will soon launch a national search for the Center’s next leader.

“Dave Mawhinney is an undeniable force who has shaped the Swartz Center’s trajectory in both small and significant ways,” said CMU President Farnam Jahanian. “Carnegie Mellon’s community is grateful for his decade of impact across the entrepreneurial landscape and his unyielding commitment to the center’s success.”

The Swartz Center launched in 2016 thanks to a transformative $31M gift from CMU alumnus and distinguished entrepreneur and venture capitalist James R. Swartz (MSIA 1966). Today, it is a nationally recognized engine for entrepreneurship education, supporting CMU startups through an array of programs including the Gebhardt Sandbox Fund, the McGinnis Venture competition, Venture Bridge pre-seed accelerator program, a robust EIR and mentor program, and the Tartans Entrepreneurs Fund. These programs have helped anchor Carnegie Mellon as a leading producer of startups among academic institutions and a primary driver of Pittsburgh’s growing dominance in emerging technologies and as an incubator for innovation.

“Dave’s enthusiasm for life is contagious and what he has done to elevate and expand entrepreneurship at CMU is remarkable,” said Jim Swartz, founder of the global venture capital firm Accel, whose transformational gift in 2015 brought the center into existence. “He built a center, and a community, that is vibrant, forward-looking, and committed to real impact. I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished together, and grateful to Dave for leading and shaping the center’s success over the years. Without question, Dave Mawhinney has personally changed the importance and trajectory of entrepreneurship at CMU forever.”

Mawhinney will continue to serve as a teaching professor of entrepreneurship in the Tepper School of Business. The university is planning a celebration to honor his legacy of impact to take place in Fall 2025. “Dave stood up a center that is now thriving — with programs, partnerships and a growing pipeline of entrepreneurs committed to making a difference,” said Theresa Mayer, CMU’s vice president for research. “We are grateful for Dave’s incredible leadership over the years and excited for the Swartz Center to continue accelerating its mission and growing its impact to benefit society and improve lives.”

The university has named Meredith Grelli as the Swartz Center’s interim director. Grelli, who has worked closely with Mawhinney and the CMU startup community over the years, will retain her other responsibilities as director of the Project Olympus Incubator Program, assistant dean for entrepreneurial initiatives within the School of Computer Science, and associate teaching professor of entrepreneurship at the Tepper School of Business.

About the Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship

Founded in 2016, the Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship at Carnegie Mellon University offers extensive support for student, faculty and alumni entrepreneurs, fostering hundreds of student- and faculty-led ventures each year. It has consistently supported around 85 startups at any given time and organized over 100 community and student events annually while mentoring more than 200 graduate fellows.

Special Thanks from the Swartz Center Team

The Swartz Center staff, students and alumni that Dave has so enrichly impacted over many years wishes to express our gratitude for Dave's unyielding leadership, mentorship, dedication and friendship. Dave's open door policy and '24-7 availability' has truly made a difference at the Swartz Center, as well as his commitment to the entrepreneurship ecosystem at Carnegie Mellon University and the
Pittsburgh region.

Over the years, Dave has been a huge inspiration to the many students and alumni entrepreneurs who have and continue to use his guidance to become successful founders.

"May the Swartz Be With You!", Dave Mawhinney.

Thursday, June 26, 2025

Abridge AI

Abridge AI Raises $300M, Doubles Valuation to $5.3B

Abridge AI Inc. has closed on a $300 million Series E funding round, bringing the company's total valuation to approximately $5.3 billion.

Abridge's artificial intelligence transcribes conversations between clinicians and their patients to reduce the cognitive load on doctors and nurses. Founded in 2018 by CMU alumnus, cardiologist and CEO Shiv Rao, the Pittsburgh-based tech unicorn has raised considerable amounts of cash.

Wednesday, June 25, 2025

Carnegie Mellon Software Startup InceptEV Acquired by Motive

Motive, the AI-powered Integrated Operations Platform, has announced it has acquired InceptEV, a software startup from Carnegie Mellon University that uses advanced battery intelligence with machine learning to help companies make smarter electric vehicle (EV) investment decisions. Venkat Viswanathan, a co-founder of InceptEV and leading expert in EVs, joins the company as a strategic advisor. Viswanathan is also a former CMU Associate Professor and Faculty Fellow at the CMU Scott Institute for Energy Innovation.

CMU's Tepper School of Business Spotlights Alumni From the Class of 2025: Featuring an Innovation Scholar and James R. Swartz Entrepreneurial Fellow

Recent Tepper School of Business graduates Kaitlyn Chow, Innovation Scholar and founder of BAM! and Ruben Antonio Quesada, James R. Swartz Entrepreneurial Fellow and founder of Sabana, were featured in a recent story highlighting recent Tepper School of Business graduates who have and continue to impact innovation in the region.

Friday, June 20, 2025

Inroducing the VentureBridge '25 Startups! .jpg

Introducing the VentureBridge '25 Startups!

The CMU VentureBridge (VB) program is back again and excited to announce its investment in 14 startups as a part of the CMU VB ’25 funding cycle. The CMU-alumni-founders span across the country and hail from the School of Computer Science, College of Engineering and the Tepper School of Business, where they are building solutions across AI infrastructure, intelligent agents, robotics, healthtech, cleantech and industrial automation.

Congratulations to these incredible startups!

April, Blume, Clear Solar Corporation, Edulis Therapeutics, Flaflow, Fort, Kaavio, Kashikoi, Mesh, OctaPulse, Quivl AI, Sabana, Solstis and Wood Wide AI.

VentureBridge '25 Cohort Spotlight: Derek Gregg, Kaavio

Co-founded by CMU alumnus, CEO and James R. Swartz Entrepreneurial Fellow Derek Gregg and Northwestern University alumnus Samuel Bobb, Kaavio is building the agentic future of how factories, labs and job sites buy $8.5T in technical products.

In this spotlight series, we take a behind the scenes look at an interview with Derek at the beginning of the VentureBridge program in May.

Read the spotlight.

Thursday, June 19, 2025

Y Combinator Announces Launch of CMU Alumni Founded Boost Robotics.jpg

Y Combinator Announces Launch of CMU Alumni Founded Boost Robotics

Y Combinator has announced the launch of Boost Robotics, a company building mobile robots capable of dexterous manipulation to perform routine tasks inside data centers. Beyond maintenance, their robots will provide 24/7 monitoring and inventory management at these highly secure facilities.

Boost Robotics is co-founded by CMU alumni Hans Kumar (MSR '21, CIT '19) and Hardik Singh (MRSD '23, CIT '19), who is also a 2021-23 James R. Swartz Entrepreneurial Fellow. Before this venture, Hans was a Staff Software Engineer at Boston Dynamics, where he worked on productizing computer vision algorithms for the Spot robot. Hardik was Robotics Team Lead at an agtech startup developing cross-platform autonomy as a package for drones, rovers, and tractors. They’ve been friends since their freshman year at CMU, where they met after joining the CMU Bhangra team. They both went on to earn Master’s degrees from the CMU Robotics Institute, and kickstarted their careers in Pittsburgh's robotics ecosystem.

EKTO VR Launches Equity Crowdfunding Campaign with Honeycomb Credit

EKTO VR, 2020 VentureBridge participant and developer of immersion-enhancing products for the 170 million users in the $6B virtual reality market—founded by CMU MRSD alumnus and CEO Brad Factor—will be launching an equity crowdfunding campaign with Honeycomb Credit on Monday.

Participants can sign up to be notified when the campaign goes live. The team will be pitching and answering questions at Honeycomb's birthday celebration next Tuesday evening, and Honeycomb will waive their fees on Monday and Tuesday as a gift to investors who get in early!

Tuesday, June 17, 2025

Benetech

Benetech Named to Forbes Accessibility 100 List

Benetech, developer of inclusive technology that empowers all learners, has been named to the Forbes Accessibility 100 List—a global honor spotlighting the top 100 organizations revolutionizing accessibility worldwide. Carnegie Mellon University alumnus Ayan Kishore is CEO of Benetech.

The Birth of the University as Innovation Incubator: Carnegie Mellon Received One of the First University Incubators

Back in the 70's, Carnegie Mellon had all the components that experts believed were necessary for innovation: strong engineering, a world-class business school, novel approaches to urban planning with a focus on community needs and a tradition of industrial design and the practical arts. CMU leaders claimed that the school was smaller, younger, more interdisciplinary and more agile than MIT.

The main reason that CMU received an NSF Innovation Center, however, was its director, Dwight Baumann. Baumann exemplified a new kind of educator-entrepreneur.

Director of Carnegie Mellon’s Center for Entrepreneurial Development, Baumann believed that a modern university should provide entrepreneurial education. Baumann’s goal was to establish entrepreneurship education as a core function of a modern technological university.

Gecko Robotics Reaches Unicorn Status Doubling Valuation to Over $1B

Gecko Robotics announced this week that it has raised an additional $125M in Series D funding, raising its valuation to $1.25B, which means the Pittsburgh-based company has reached unicorn status. Co-founded by CMU alumni Jake Loosararian and CPO Troy Demmer, Gecko uses robots and AI to help organizations including the U.S. military inspect and monitor critical infrastructure.

Tepper School of Business Alumni Receive 2025 Tepper Alumni Awards

The Tepper School Alumni Awards recognize excellence in the alumni community for outstanding career accomplishments or achievements and for impressive service to the school and alumni community. At a special ceremony held on May 3, three Tepper School alumni—two founders and an accomplished product marketing lead, received alumni awards.

Lifetime Achievement Award

John Levinson, Founder and President, Westway Capital (McGinnis Venture Competition judge, funder of the Moonshot Boardroom, mentor and investor for the CMU Swartz Center

Recent Masters Alumni Award

Anna Fuller, Founder of Halo (VentureBridge company)
Stephen Feyer, Senior Product Marketing Manager - Competitive Intelligence, WalkMe - (James R. Swartz Entrepreneurial Fellow and mentor, CMU Swartz Center)

Congratulations to all of the awardees!

Friday, June 6, 2025

Announcing the Five Startups to Receive $100K From the Tartan Entrepreneurs Fund

We're excited to announce the five companies that will be a part of the 2025 inaugural cohort of the Tartan Entrepreneurs Fund. The Tartan Entrepreneurs Fund is focused on empowering Pittsburgh based CMU alumni startups with unicorn potential with funding of $100K over two years, as well as mentorship and guidance. The five companies that will be a part of the cohort are:

HeadStrait Labs - Alyssa Theroux and Mary Squire
Delivering a head and neck immobilization device that monitors patient motion in real time and generates post-event analysis to reduce secondary injuries during emergency transportation.

Journey Robotics - Keith Gunnett, Re g Allen, David Lee, and Kyle Solomon
Journey Robotics helps airports and airlines easily modernize their baggage handling operations using advanced technologies without having to change existing processes or upgrade the entire infrastructure. Journey Robotics' drop-in automated Baggage Handler platform enables continuous, consistent and fast baggage handling, resulting in reduced wait times, fewer delays and an improved passenger experience.

Shelfmark - Pat O'Donell and Craig Markovitz
Shelfmark is the AI visual inspection automation platform that saves manufacturers on waste and labor and improves quality and consistency in line-based production.

Singularity Polymers - Hunaid Nulwala, Ph.D., Prof. Carlos Diaz-Acosta, and William (Bill) Belias. Singularity Polymers was founded to transform the packaging industry through the development of single-material polymeric films. By eliminating multilayer complexity, the company enables simpler, more sustainable, and cost-effective packaging solutions and a spin-off from RoCo.

Stealth - The final company is still in stealth, however we are excited to announce them at a later date.

Learn more about the cohort.

Friday, June 6, 2025

VentureBridge Demo Day NYC

CMU's VentureBridge Demo Day Makes a Hit in the Big Apple!

Several investors, along with tons of Carnegie Mellon University alumni packed the Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman Law office in New York on Monday, June 2 for another successful VentureBridge Demo Day, which was a part of New York TechWeek. The new VentureBridge cohort, another inspiring group of CMU alumni founders, pitched in front of over 100 investors and founders that included hardware and software demos and pitches from companies that are changing gaming, AI training, drug delivery, nutrition, fitness training and more.

Led by Venture Bridge Sr. Director Namrata Banerjee and assisted by Program Manager Steven Guo, the Demo Day was followed by a networking reception featuring the new cohort and select VentureBridge alumni in the portfolio.

Carnegie Mellon University’s VentureBridge (VB) program is a pre-seed fund and an accelerator program, part of the Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship, focused on supporting Carnegie Mellon founders working on their startups full-time. Since 2018, the VB program has supported dozens of startups collectively valued at over half a billion dollars.

The CMU Swartz Center would like to thank Matt Kirmayer of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman for being an amazing champion of CMU founders—welcoming our alumni to their New York office and continually supporting the CMU founder community.

Thursday, June 5, 2025

Mitchell Fogelson

Beyond Reach Labs Awarded $50K at Keystone Space Collaborative Innovation Challenge

The Keystone Space Collaborative and early-stage investor Innovation Works has awarded five local aerospace startups with $200K in funding as part of an innovation challenge. Beyond Reach Labs, founded by CMU Mechanical Engineering Ph.D Mitchell Fogelson, received $50K. The company is developing a pop-up shelter system for space and military uses.

Fogelson also won second place and $20K at this year's McGinnis Venture Competition.

Wednesday, June 4, 2025

CMU VentureBridge Film Production Startup Erosion Accepting Investments

Erosion (VentureBridge 2023), an independent film production company dedicated to creating conservation and climate comedy film and TV, is now accepting investments for its first feature film "Hiking Buddies" on the WeFunder securities platform. Horror films are traditionally the most profitable film genre and Erosion co-founders Megan Morrison and Tracy Held are leveraging their 20+ years in the entertainment industry, as well as their expertise of conservation and comedy storytelling to engage untapped film audiences.

Find out more.

Tuesday, June 3, 2025

Rising AI & Art Startup SeeMuseums is Hiring!

SeeMuseums, a CMU Swartz Center startup co-founded by Tepper School of Business alumna Yifan Wang, is an AI + Art company developing the world’s first agentive museum tour guide—a mobile app that enhances museum visits with personalized, contextual insights. The company's mission is to make art appreciation accessible to everyone.

SeeMuseums officially launched on the App Store and Product Hunt on May 10th and within just two days, soared to the #1 Product of the Day, as well as earning the #1 Product of the Week in both the Education and User Experience categories. At SeeMuseums, every artwork tells a story—and that story should speak to all, not just experts.

The founders are currently hiring for roles in Full Stack Development, UI/UX Design, Marketing. If you are interested in their mission, learn more and apply here. If you or anyone else in the museum industry is interested in the mission at SeeMuseums, reach out to admin@seemuseums.art.