CMU VentureBridge '26: Backing Exceptional CMU Founders and Launching the Inaugural VentureBridge Fellows Program

The Carnegie Mellon University Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship is proud to announce the CMU VentureBridge (VB) '26 cohort — our most ambitious and comprehensive effort yet to support technical founders emerging from one of the world's leading research universities.

This year, VentureBridge selected an exceptional group of CMU-founded startups spanning artificial intelligence, robotics, life sciences, energy, advanced manufacturing, enterprise software, fintech, cybersecurity, and healthcare.

The cohort includes:

• 5 startups by CMU faculty and PhD students
• 9 startups led by CMU alumni
• 14 Fellows and Research Fellows selected through the same rigorous process and fully integrated into the program

Together, these companies represent the extraordinary breadth of innovation taking place across Carnegie Mellon University. Founders include faculty commercializing breakthrough research, PhD students translating years of scientific work into companies, alumni tackling large industrial and societal challenges, and current students taking leave to build full-time. The selected companies draw from the School of Computer Science, College of Engineering, Mellon College of Science, Tepper School of Business, Dietrich College, Heinz College, and the College of Fine Arts.

Today, VentureBridge portfolio companies collectively represent more than $1 billion in collective value, underscoring Carnegie Mellon's growing role as a leading source of deep-tech entrepreneurship.

VentureBridge '26 Portfolio Companies

The funded portfolio includes 9 non-research startups led by alumni building full-time, alongside 5 research-affiliated companies commercializing technologies.

AI, Robotics, and Industrial Technology

A Stealth startup in telecommunications and defense.

Analogical Engines, founded by Aniket Kittur, Vikram Mohanty, and Nikolas Martelaro, applies over a decade of CMU research to help R&D teams discover breakthrough innovations using computational analogies.

Avronna, founded by Rumi Naik, is designing custom AI chips that allow companies to optimize computing infrastructure for specialized workloads.

Basics, founded by Akeil Smith, Arav Bhardwaj, and team, is creating an open-source operating system template that helps organizations rapidly build and deploy internal tools.

Fordje, co-founded by Gillian Sowray, uses AI to turn fragmented codes, zoning, and interconnection requirements across 30,000+ U.S. jurisdictions into structured regulatory data, helping construction and clean tech operators avoid bottlenecks and get to revenue faster.

Oryn AI, founded by Mosam Dabhi, is building a "Large Physics Model." 

SeaLion Energy, led by CMU faculty member Reeja Jayan, is commercializing battery technologies that extend the operational life of robotic and industrial systems.

Sooth Labs, founded by CMU faculty members Yaser Sheikh and Russ Salakhutdinov, is developing foundation models for long-horizon institutional forecasting, helping organizations make better decisions over extended time horizons.

Life Sciences and Healthcare

Acalia, founded by Michael Das, is using AI to improve revenue cycle management for independent physician practices.

Carob, founded by Alia Friedman, captures and structures clinical reasoning data to train next-generation healthcare AI systems.

Pierogi Therapeutics, founded by Benjamin Koby and Filipp Gusev, combines AI and physics to accelerate radiopharmaceutical drug discovery.

Synapse Symphony, founded by Vishal Jain, is developing a non-invasive neuromodulation platform for chronic pain management.

Enterprise Software and Applied AI

Nth AI, founded by Connie Yang, builds Nexus, a self-improving vertical AI agent platform that helps enterprises turn fragmented data and manual reporting workflows into production-ready AI systems.

Support Vector, founded by Nalini Jain, uses vision-language models to guide manufacturing technicians through complex maintenance tasks.

Launching the Inaugural VentureBridge Fellows Program

For the first time, VentureBridge has launched the VentureBridge Fellows Program — a selective track designed for a small number of high-potential teams that are earlier in their entrepreneurial journey.

While Fellows do not receive an initial investment, they are fully integrated into the VentureBridge platform and receive:

• Full access to VentureBridge programming
• One-on-one mentorship from experienced operators and investors
• Inclusion in investor communications and Demo Day
• A travel stipend of approximately $1,200 per team
• Membership in a highly curated community of CMU founders

Fellows are selected through the same rigorous process as VentureBridge portfolio companies.

The Fellows Program reflects our belief that some of the strongest companies benefit most from early access to the right network, context, and support.

VentureBridge Research Fellows

The inaugural VB Research Fellows are high-potential ventures emerging from CMU faculty and PhDs.

Aayush Bansal, PhD, Robotics, School of Computer Science, is working on an idea in stealth.

Kevin Dai, PhD, Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, is creating biocompatible 3D printing technologies for medtech prototyping.

Laszlo Jeni, CMU faculty member, Robotics, School of Computer Science, is developing AI-optimized biorefineries that convert food waste into protein, fertilizer, and carbon credits.

Michael Rudow, PhD, School of Computer Science, is developing resilient real-time data delivery systems for robots and drones operating in contested or interference-prone environments.

Ron Sarma, PhD, Chemistry, Mellon College of Science,  is building an AI-driven molecular energy prediction engine for computational chemistry and drug discovery.

VentureBridge Fellows

The inaugural VB Fellows include high-potential student and alumni-led startups selected through the same competitive process.

Apoorv Singh, Robotics, School of Computer Science, is building an AI-first software platform that helps home inspectors streamline report generation and automate administrative tasks.

Eshan Chordia, School of Computer Science, is creating an autonomous machine learning engineer that converts business problems into production-ready models and APIs in under an hour.

Grant Wilkinson, College of Engineering, is developing drone-based intelligence to precisely manage weeds and invasive species in any terrain.

Shiv Panjwani, Tepper School of Business, is building an engineering project management platform for leaders in healthtech & robotics companies to make faster, data-backed decisions on scheduling, feature prioritization, and innovation management.

Shyam Sai, School of Computer Science, is using AI to help K–12 teachers grade and analyze handwritten math assignments, transforming student work into actionable insights and formative feedback.

Siddhartha Vanjari, Electrical and Computer Engineering, College of Engineering, is building an AI incident response engine for regulated industries.

Stephen Wu, School of Computer Science, is building an AI-driven hedge fund using machine learning for equity signal generation and portfolio optimization.

Taranveer Singh, School of Computer Science, and a visiting research fellow at Berkeley AI Research Lab, is developing a human behavior simulation platform that allows product and marketing teams to get feedback from thousands of diverse simulated users in minutes as they build, launch, and iterate on their products.

One of the Strongest Startup Benefits Package

All VentureBridge companies and Fellows gain access to an extensive package of startup benefits assembled through partnerships with leading technology, legal, and financial organizations.

Key partners include:

Cloud and AI Infrastructure

• Amazon Web Services
• Cloudexe
• Google for Startups Cloud 
• Microsoft for Startups
• NVIDIA Inception
• Nebius
• OpenAI
• Snowflake

Software and Productivity

• Notion for Startups
• HubSpot for Startups
• Framer
• DocSend
• Braintrust
• Puzzle
• Rippling
• Vanta
• Roboflow

Legal, Finance, and Banking

• Carta
• Dentons
• Fidelity Private Shares
• FinStrat Management
• JP Morgan Startup Banking
• Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman
• PwC
• Rho
• Vouch

VB Alumni Startups

A number of alumni-founded companies are also part of the startup benefits package, including ApertureData (VB ‘20), Passionfruit (VB ‘22), Reveal AI (VB ‘23), and Trainwell (VB ‘19).

Building the Next Generation of Deep-Tech Companies

VentureBridge is designed to help exceptional technical founders move faster. The 2026 cohort illustrates the extraordinary entrepreneurial potential across Carnegie Mellon University. 

We are excited to support this remarkable group of builders and look forward to the companies they will create in the years ahead.