Startups

These 16 startups founded by CMU alumni showed off their growth at VentureBridge Demo Day

The annual event featured presentations from members of the 2023 VentureBridge cohort who are working on their businesses full time.

Words by:
Atiya Irvin-Mitchell headshot
Atiya Irvin-Mitchell,  @AtiyaWrites
Edited by:
Julie Zeglen headshot
Julie Zeglen
Sep 21, 2023 3:20pm
Eroison cofounders present during 2023 VentureBridge Demo Day 2023. (Technical.ly/Atiya Irvin-Mitchell)

Over the years, Carnegie Mellon University has produced its fair share of startups, including more than a thousand that have raised venture capital in the past decade.

One way CMU supports its alumni founders is through its VentureBridge program, which is part of the Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship. Through the program’s summer accelerator, CMU alumni founders get to build on their bold ideas by receiving pre-seed funding, office space, and introductions to potential customers, investors and mentors.

Since 2018, the university has hosted a fall VentureBridge Demo Day to showcase the startups that come from CMU and give the community a chance to hear from alumni founders, who are full-time working on their businesses.

“It’s a celebration of innovation and the entrepreneurial spirit,” VentureBridge Senior Director  Namrata Banerjee told Technical.ly on Wednesday ahead of the 2023 program’s demo day. “It’s a celebration of tackling big problems. It requires a lot of grit and determination to solve problems that are very difficult. And we hope [when] the attendees tonight leave the event, we hope they are hopeful and excited for the future.”

Throughout the evening event, companies ranging from software businesses to robotics startups to entertainment studios presented for the crowd that filed into the Swartz Center.

Here’s a little more about the companies and their presentations, as tweeted by CMU Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship Adam Paulisick, a VentureBridge mentor:

Addy AI

Arieca

AugxLabs

BlastPoint

Conduit

Erosion

ESTAT actuation

Fluid Reality

Leaficient

Mach9 Robotics

Shift Robotics

OTL

Pendulum

Upview

Tacit

Velo AI

“CMU founders are the world’s best and … when we showcase them through VentureBridge, or when we fund them through VentureBridge, you know, we are funding the future breakthroughs and future innovations,” Banerjee said. “We are really proud that these founders that we’ve found through VentureBridge have put their full time into their startups and [are] choosing to embark on this difficult but exhilarating entrepreneurial journey.”

Atiya Irvin-Mitchell is a 2022-2024 corps member for Report for America, an initiative of The Groundtruth Project that pairs young journalists with local newsrooms. This position is supported by the Heinz Endowments.
Correction: All VentureBridge Demo Day presenters were alumni founders, not current students. The headline has been modified accordingly. (9/22/23, 9:20 a.m.)
Companies: Mach9 Robotics / BlastPoint / Carnegie Mellon University
Tags: Startups / Universities

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