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Friday, July 26, 2024
Cold Shipping Might be the Next Industry that Batteries Disrupt
Hannah Sieber, co-founder of 2022 VentureBridge company, Artyc, had noticed that utilities were spending more on generators and microgrids in wealthier communities, leaving smaller, poorer communities in the lurch. She started digging deeper into refrigeration, probing for places where battery-powered cooling might make a difference, and quickly zeroed in on shipping after reading up on its climate impacts. Artyc is her answer to that question. The company has quietly raised $14M to date, and it has a product on the market, Medstow Micro, that helps hospitals, clinical trials and medical laboratories ship temperature-sensitive specimens.
Thursday, July 25, 2024
Galen Health Is a 2024 UpPrize Semi-Finalist
Founded by CMU Master of Science student Logan Nye, MD, a 2023-25 James R. Swartz Entrepreneurial Fellow, Galen Health is a semi-finalist in the 2024 UpPrize Social Innovation Challenge. The company harnesses the power of artificial intelligence to pioneer breakthroughs in the early detection and prevention of pancreatic cancer.
Wednesday, July 24, 2024
The Endgame Entrepreneurship™ Masterclass launched by Laurie Barkman, The Business Transition Sherpa
We are excited to share that Laurie Barkman, CMU Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship and CEO of The Business Transition Sherpa, has just launched a new Endgame Entrepreneurship Masterclass. This online course is for business owners, entrepreneurs, and family business leaders in the lower middle market who want to increase enterprise value and sell on their terms in the future.
Friday, July 19, 2024
4moms Acquired by Global Baby Product Producer
UPPAbaby, a global baby products company, has closed on an asset purchase agreement with the parent company of 4moms, a local robotics company specializing in products for infants.
4moms was founded in 2005 by Carnegie Mellon University alumnus Henry Thorne and Robert Daley. The company's initial product was a folding stroller. It then received larger recognition for a robotic baby rocker, which has sold millions of units. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
Thursday, July 18, 2024
NAVAIR Selects Near Earth Autonomy for USMC Aerial Logistics Connector Program
Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) has selected Near Earth Autonomy, co-founded by Carnegie Mellon University alumnus and CEO Sanjiv Singh, to spearhead one of the teams for the United States Marine Corps’ Aerial Logistics Connector program.
Friday, July 12, 2024
TalkMeUp Wins Top 20 In AI Training Award
Training Industry has announced its selections for the 2024 Top Training Companies™ lists for the AI in Training sector of the corporate learning and development (L&D) market. Among the winners is TalkMeUp, founded by Carnegie Mellon University alumna and James R. Swartz Entrepreneurial Fellow JJ Xu.
Thursday, July 11, 2024
Skild AI Closes $300M Series A Round Backed In Part By Jeff Bezos
Pittsburgh-based robotics company Skild AI Inc., a company "building a scalable foundation model for robotics," announced the closing of a $300M series A funding round, one of the most sizable publicly disclosed investments the Pittsburgh tech sector has received this fiscal year.
CEO Deepak Pathak co-founded the company with Abhinav Gupta, who, together, have worked a combined 25 years at Carnegie Mellon University with robotics and AI.
Wednesday, July 10, 2024
Gather AI Holds Annual Staff Gathering at the Swartz Center
Gather AI, co-founded by Carnegie Mellon alumnus Sankalp Arora, brought all of its teams together for their 2024 Great Gathering. The US-based team convened in Pittsburgh at the CMU Swartz Center on July 1-3, 2024 and the India team traveled to Udaipur for three days of team-bonding, strategy and fun.
The maker of computer vision and AI-powered warehouse inventory monitoring solutions recently announced a $17M Series A-1, which marks a total of $34M raised to date. The funding will be invested in scaling operations as Gather AI continues to attract customers by solving supply chain issues with richer data and AI.
Tuesday, July 9, 2024
CMU, Meta Announce Collaboration to Research Wearable Sensing Technologies
Carnegie Mellon University and Meta Platforms Inc. announced a collaborative project today to make computer-based tasks accessible to individuals with different motor abilities.
Friday, June 28, 2024
EY Announces Bharani Rajakumar of Transfr as an Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2024 New York Award Winner
Ernst & Young LLP (EY US) has announced that CMU Tepper School of Business alumnus Bharani Rajakumar, founder and CEO of Transfr, was named an Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2024 New York Award winner. Entrepreneur Of The Year is the preeminent competitive awards program for entrepreneurs and leaders of high-growth companies.
Thursday, June 27, 2024
Mehmet Deniz Birlikci Named One of the Top 25 Turkish Graduates in the US for 2024
Mehmet Deniz Birlikci, a recent Carnegie Mellon University graduate and Innovation Scholar with the CMU Swartz Center, was recently named one of the top 25 Turkish graduates in the U.S. in 2024.
Deniz has always had a passion for learning, nurtured by his grandparents who were all teachers. He spent his final year at CMU combining his passion for entrepreneurship and artificial intelligence to co-found ObviousAI, which developed multimodal search for fashion e-commerce companies, and was also selected as a Neo Scholar in 2024 for his high entrepreneurship potential and technical excellence, becoming one of only a handful of Turkish students to ever receive this honor.
Wednesday, June 26, 2024
CyLab Venture Network Connects Researchers, Domain Experts to Support Cybersecurity Startups
Carnegie Mellon University is launching the CyLab Venture Network to provide a substantive program for startups looking to disrupt the security and privacy industry by connecting founders with venture investors, corporate partners, academics and government officials. As part of this dynamic ecosystem, partners will receive exclusive invitations to participate in CyLab’s annual partners conference and engage in innovative programming developed in collaboration with CMU’s Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship.
Tuesday, June 25, 2024
Aurora Forms Long-Term Partnership with Uber Freight Through 2030
Self-driving truck company Aurora Innovation Inc. has solidified a long-term partnership with Uber Freight through 2030. Aurora Innovation was started by Sterling Anderson, the former director of Autopilot; Chris Urmson, the former CTO of Google’s self-driving car efforts and Drew Bagnell, who headed autonomy and perception at Uber’s Advanced Technology Center in Pittsburgh. Urmson and Bagnell pioneered work on autonomous vehicles at Carnegie Mellon University.
Friday, June 21, 2024
Abridge Continues Expanding, Partners with Texas-based Health Service Provider
Abridge recently announced an enterprise-wide agreement with CHRISTUS Health, an international, not-for-profit health system based in Texas with 15,000 physicians and more than 600 care centers. With Abridge’s generative AI solution for clinical documentation in use over the last few months, CHRISTUS clinicians have already experienced a significant reduction in burnout and now give more undivided attention to patients. Abridge is co-founded by Carnegie Mellon University alumnus Shiv Rao, CEO and Zachary Lipton, CTO and Raj Reddy Associate Professor of Machine Learning.
Thursday, June 20, 2024
Duolingo Celebrates First Refugee Learners At 'We Rise Together' Gala
Duolingo, known for its fun approach to language education, recently celebrated a more profound kind of education: one offered for the first time to refugees around the world. Dozens of university leaders from across the U.S. recently gathered at Hotel Monaco in Pittsburgh to honor educators who are expanding access and equity. The fourth annual “We Rise Together” awards celebrated 25 refugee students who recently completed their first year in universities, thanks to a program Duolingo launched in 2022 to provide mentorship and support.
Friday, June 14, 2024
CMU VentureBridge (VB) Announces Investments in Eleven Startups
As part of the VB '24 funding cycle, CMU VB, an initiative of the Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship, is excited to invest in eleven-CMU-alumni-founded startups located in Pittsburgh, San Francisco and New York. These alumni founders represent the School of Computer Science, Robotics Institute, College of Engineering Material Sciences, Information Networking Institute, Integrated Innovation Institute, College of Fine Arts School of Design Industrial Design and the Tepper School of Business.
Congratulations Founders!
Thursday, June 13, 2024
Gather AI CEO Sankalp Arora Interviewed on Bloomberg Discussing How The Company is Taking Drone Tech to New Heights
Gather AI CEO Sankalp Arora was recently interviewed on Bloomberg discussing multiple topics including: how, with e-commerce, inventory has to be accurate to ensure that goods arrive on time, how robotics now enables you to use off-the-shelf hardware and make that hardware autonomous, how Gather AI customers have a 66% reduction in inventory errors with their solution being 15X faster than manual inventory counting and how Gather has turned facilities from reactive to proactive.
Wednesday, June 12, 2024
TA3 SWIM Partners With Nimble to Scale Operations
TA3 SWIM announced last week its partnership to leverage Nimble's fully autonomous 3PL fulfillment. The e-commerce fashion brand can now access Nimble’s network of next-gen robotic fulfillment centers that use intelligent general-purpose warehouse robots to pick, pack and ship orders without any CapEx investment. TA3 was featured on Shark Tank and in People, Forbes, and Business Insider, TA3 is the leader in women’s swimwear and apparel with built-in shapewear.
Nimble is founded by Simon Kalouche, who is also a 2015 James R. Swartz Entrepreneurial Fellow.
Tuesday, June 11, 2024
Artyc Named Technology Pioneer by The World Economic Forum
Artyc, the company that designs and manufacturers IoT battery-powered coolers for healthcare, life sciences and premium food cold chains, has recently been named Technology Pioneer by The World Economic Forum. A 2022 VentureBridge company, Artyc is co-founded by Hannah Sieber, CEO. Carnegie Mellon University alumnus Mark Langer is CTO.
Tuesday, June 11, 2024
Interpretable AI: A Night of Discovery at PyData Pittsburgh
This past Tuesday, over 60 data scientists, ML engineers and Python enthusiasts from across the region gathered at CMU's Swartz Center for an evening dedicated to unraveling the complexities of neural networks and their interpretability. Patrick Harrison and Dr. Rory Brenner led the discussions, providing unique insights into the current and future state of AI.
Tuesday, June 11, 2024
Carnegie Mellon University Startups Among Ten Pittsburgh Startups to Watch in 2024
When the Pittsburgh Business Times selected this year’s list of ten Startups to Watch in 2024, it consulted with industry experts and looked at a variety of factors including size, scalability, investments, team background and, most importantly, one basic question — how is the company pushing us toward the future? On the list are startups founded by Carnegie Mellon University alumni including: D. Sole, Edulis Therapeutics, Core Power Magnetics, Efficient Computer Corp and Stack AV.
All ten companies will be recognized at a Startups to Watch 2024 event on Thursday, June 27 at Workscape on the South Side.
Friday, June 7, 2024
The CMU Swartz Center Hosts 'Swartz in the City Series' at the Allegheny HYP Club in Downtown Pittsburgh
As part of a continuing series, the Carnegie Mellon Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship has hosted 'Swartz in the City Series' events at the Allegheny HYP (AHYP) Club in Pittsburgh's downtown. Co-hosted and moderated by Executive Director Dave Mawhinney, approximately seven events have been held since November of 2022 with audience attendance between fifty and sixty persons.
Last Thursday, the Swartz Center held another event at the AHYP, inviting three winners of the 2024 McGinnis Venture Competition to present their startups. The presenting founders were: Ram Potham, SiteWiz (with Drake Som and Rohit Malhotra); Logan Nye, MD, Galen Health (with Kushagra Agarwal); and Howie Choset, Kavčić-Moura Computer Science Professor of Robotics, JP Robotics (with Tina Tian, Lu Li and Mike Macedonia). The event was moderated by Meredith Grelli, Tepper School of Business Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation and Swartz Center EIR.
Organized by Donald Bonk, Heinz MPM CMU alumnus and long serving President of the University of Pennsylvania Alumni Club of Western PA, the invitees of these events are the members of the eight local Ivy League Plus Alumni Clubs, also cross referencing invitees with the Allegheny Harvard, Yale, Princeton Club and its affiliate members.
Thursday, June 6, 2024
EKTO VR Receives Patent Approval
In a June 4, 2024 post on LinkedIn, EKTO VR, founded by CEO Brad Factor, has announced that it has received patent approval by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The 2020 VentureBridge company and maker of virtual reality boots just celebrated its sixth year anniversary.
Friday, May 31, 2024
VentureBridge Company Bolster Announces $14M Series B Led By Microsoft's Venture Fund
Bolster, a leader in multi-channel phishing protection co-founded by CEO Abhishek Dubey, announced a $14 M Series B financing round led by new investor M12, Microsoft's venture fund.
A participant in the 2018 VentureBridge cohort, the financing brings Bolster's total funding to over $40M.
Friday, May 31, 2024
CoPilot Rebrands as Trainwell
CoPilot, co-founded by CEO Matt Spettel, has officially rebranded to Trainwell.
In a recent post via LinkedIn, Matt said, "We are doubling down on building the best personal training experience in the world and offering the best jobs and benefits to the outstanding humans who make it all possible. We are using technology not to replace our trainers, but to make them 10x better than they have ever been before. With this in mind, I am extremely proud and excited to unveil a new name to clearly separate our amazing trainers from the world of chatbot "copilots".
Thursday, May 30, 2024
Gecko Robotics Co-founder Testifies Before Congress on AI
Gecko Robotics co-founder Troy Demmer testified before the House Committee on Homeland Security last week as part of a hearing on how the government can better utilize artificial intelligence. The company has been named to the 2024 CNBC Disruptor 50 List.
Wednesday, May 29, 2024
VentureBridge Company Addy AI Accepted Into 2024 GitHub Accelerator For LangDrive
Addy AI, a 2023 VentureBridge startup founded by CEO Michael Vandi, has been accepted into the 2024 GitHub Accelerator for the teams work on LangDrive, an open-source AI library that serves as a simple framework to train and deploy production-grade, fine-tuned language models via an API and configuration files.
Friday, May 24, 2024
The Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship and Corporate Startup Lab Host Aviation & Robotics Summit
Last week, the Carnegie Mellon Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship and Corporate Startup Lab (CSL) hosted the Aviation & Robotics Summit, which was held at the Pittsburgh International Airport and the Tepper School of Business, Simmons Auditorium on May14-16. The theme for the Summit was 'Solving Aviation Challenges with Robotics Solutions'. Jim Jen, CSL Director and Distinguished Service Professor of Entrepreneurship, gave the opening remarks.
Thursday, May 23, 2024
Tepper School of Business Alumnus Nicholas Swaminathan Receives Entrepreneur of the Year Award
Nicholas Swaminathan, a recent Tepper School of Business alumnus and 2022-24 James R. Swartz Entrepreneurial Fellow, has been awarded the 'Entrepreneur of the Year' Award from the Tepper School of Business. His company TurnUp, co-founded by 2023-25 Innovation Scholar Adam Bournes and AI Ventures classmate Suriya Ganesh, was a finalist in the 2024 McGinnis Venture Competition and predicts turnover with its unique ML-models that identify an employee's intention to leave with 90% accuracy up to six months in advance.
Wednesday, May 22, 2024
Isaiah Rodgers Plans to Continue Working on His Startup, Clutch Post Graduation
A first-generation college student from North Jersey, Tepper School of Business alumnus and Innovation Scholar Isaiah Rodgers took a leave of absence from Carnegie Mellon University after dealing with the pandemic, loneliness and the feeling of “not belonging” during his freshman year. However, on the cusp of dropping out, he decided to give CMU another try—enrolling at the Tepper School—of which he is now a proud graduate.
His startup Clutch, a roadside assistance and mobile mechanic app that he created with his older brother, landed him first place at the 2024 McGinnis Venture Competition. Now that he has graduated, he plans to dedicate more time to his startup.
Tuesday, May 21, 2024
Software of Excellence Partners with Pearl to Become One of the First Practice Management System Providers to Deliver Dental Artificial Intelligence to the UK and Asia-Pacific Markets
Pearl, founded by Carnegie Mellon University alumnus and CEO Ophir Tanz, a global leader in dental AI solutions, has announced that Software of Excellence, a leader in dental software, has selected Pearl as its new, exclusive dental artificial intelligence (AI) provider. Through the partnership, Software of Excellence will distribute Pearl’s Second Opinion® as a standalone software to its customer base across Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, and the UK markets.
Friday, May 17, 2024
Transfr Named 2024 "Best World-Changing Idea, North America" by Fast Company
Founded by Carnegie Mellon Tepper School of Business alumnus and CEO Bharani Rajakumar, Transfr has been named 2024 'Best World-Changing Idea', North America, by Fast Company. Working with everything from employers to high schools to two-year colleges, Transfr provides virtual-reality training for in-demand professions, including manufacturing, aviation and construction.
Thursday, May 16, 2024
Gather AI Included in the Tech Lead's 100 Cutting-edge Startups Reinventing D2C
Warehouse automation company Gather AI, co-founded by Carnegie Mellon University alumnus and CEO Sankalp Arora, has been included in the Tech Lead's 100 cutting-edge startups reinventing D2C. Now in its third year, the list recognizes innovators that are breathing new life into multiple areas of brand-to-consumer retail.
Friday, May 10, 2024
Innovation Meets Investment: Highlights from MS AI Venture Studio Investor Day
Last Wednesday, Carnegie Mellon University hosted the MS AI Venture Studio - Investor Day, designed to connect the dots between AI innovation and investment. Orchestrated by MS AI Venture Studio Professors Adam Paulisick, Sean Ammirati, and SkillBuilder.io Cofounder Kit Mueller, the event showcased the burgeoning potential within Pittsburgh's growing AI community, drawing hundreds of founders, investors, researchers, faculty and community leaders.
That evening, attendees gathered for a reception at the CMU Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship, which allowed for further networking and reflection on the day’s events. Sean Ammirati, another lead organizer, commented on the day's impact: "The energy today was palpable for both investors and entrepreneurs. It's clear that when brilliant minds converge with impactful ideas, the potential for innovation is limitless. Today was not just about hosting an event; it was a preview of the interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary future using AI to make the world a better and more interesting place."
Thursday, May 9, 2024
CMU Tech & Entrepreneurship President Steven Guo Named to Technical.ly's RealLIST Connectors 2024
Steven Guo is a health tech consultant who dedicates much of his time to social impact. As president of Carnegie Mellon University alumni organization CMU Tech & Entrepreneurship with the CMU Swartz Center, he helps grads connect with training, opportunity, capital and mentorship. Steven helped design an accelerator and develops programming to further a stronger CMU alumni entrepreneurship ecosystem.
Wednesday, May 8, 2024
Blue Belt Co-founder Dr. Anthony Digoia Launches JointIQ To Help Diagnose Hip and Knee Arthritis
Dr. Anthony DiGioia (M.S. 1982), who co-founded Blue Belt Technologies along with CMU Swartz Center EIR and Carnegie Mellon University Distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurship Craig Markovitz, is launching JointIQ, a free educational platform created by orthopedic surgeons to help non-experts learn how to diagnose hip and knee arthritis. JointIQ offers gamified courses and quizzes that teach users how to recognize hip and knee arthritis.
Friday, May 3, 2024
Setex (formerly nanoGriptechnologies) Sells Business Unit
Setex Technologies, the global leader in the commercialization of gecko-inspired adhesive and gripping products, has announced that it has sold its industrial tape and gripping technology business unit to Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd., Inc., a publicly traded Japanese manufacturer of chemicals, semiconductor silicon, and electronics and specialty materials.
Setex Technologies, a spin out of Carnegie Mellon University founded by former faculty and distinguished service professor Metin Sitti, is the first commercial manufacturer of micro-fibrillar polymer-based dry adhesive materials for a wide range of product applications.
Thursday, May 2, 2024
Gecko Robotics Partners with UAE Oil Company
Gecko Robotics Inc.,co-founded by Tepper School of Business alumnus and COO Troy Demmer and CEO Jake Loosararian, has announced a contract with the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company Gas, based in the United Arab Emirates. Gecko's robots will be deployed across ADNOC Gas sites to perform predictive maintenance, improve efficiency, reduce CO2 emissions and maintain safety. The contract has an estimated ceiling of $30M.
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