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Softbank in Talks with Pittsburgh Robotics Startup
Skild AI to lead $500M Round
Softbank Group is increasing its support for Carnegie Mellon University robotics spinoff Skild AI by leading a $500M funding round. Started by CMU professors Deepak Pathak and Abhinav Gupta, the company raised $300M last July from Jeff Bezos and other backers. The funding would bring Skild’s valuation to $4B, making it one of the most valuable startups in Pittsburgh.
Additional coverage in TechCrunch.
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Boom Supersonic Raises $33M to Build the Fastest Airplane for Passenger Flight
Boom Supersonic has raised a new $33M Series A round, which it says is enough to build and fly its first supersonic jet, the XB-1 demonstration and testing craft, which will be a 1/3-scale prototype version of the supersonic airliner it will eventually build and sell to air fleet customers. “This funds our first airplane, all the way through flight tests,” explained Carnegie Mellon alumnus and Boom founder and CEO Blake Scholl in an interview. “Now we have all the pieces we need – technology, suppliers and capital—to go out and make some history and set some speed records.”
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Korion Health Co-Founder Anna Li Combines Tech
and Preventative Health Care
Anna Li, M.D./Ph.D. student of computational biology who is dual enrolled at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University, was recently featured in Pittsburgh Inno's 'Personalities of Pittsburgh'. As stated in the story, "Anna realized while volunteering in the emergency room in 2021 that a high volume of patients came in with preventable issues, leading to her eventually co-founding Korion Health, a company that develops affordable at-home electronic stethoscopes for heart and lung screenings."
Anna is also a Pittsburgh Business Times 30 Under 30 honoree.
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Innovation Works Unites AlphaLab Accelerator Program with Emphasis on Market-facing Skills
AlphaLab has previously offered multiple programs, including hardware-focused Gear accelerator and life sciences-focused Health accelerator. Since its inception in 2008, over 250 startups have raised over $1.3B after graduating from the program. Now, rather than naming individual cohorts, the accelerator will unify the program under one curriculum while sector-specific guidance will be offered as tracks underneath the umbrella.
Tepper School of Business alumnus and Adjunct Instructor Aaron Tainter is Director of Accelerator Programs at Innovation Works.
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SWARTZ CENTER SUCCESS STORIES
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The Swartz Center has provided growth and financial resources for hundreds of students, faculty and alumni who have created great companies that positively affect the way people live. To celebrate, the Swartz Center interviewed six startup founders in 2024, as part of its 'Success Stories', who talk about their journey to founding their companies and give advice to CMU Entrepreneurs.
This week, we are featuring Gather AI, founded by CMU alumnus Sankalp Arora. Gather AI accelerates and automates manual processes using autonomous drones and advanced computer vision technology.
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| Opportunity for Startup Funding!
CMU student Jiya Gupta is a venture partner/scout for Picus Capital and LvlUp Ventures and is looking for qualified startups to connect investors at both firms. See below for more information about each VC firm.
Picus Capital: Founded in 2015, Picus Capital is an early-stage technology VC firm that predominantly invests in pre-seed, seed and Series A rounds, with a focus on technology companies in FinTech, HRTech, Climate & Energy, E-Commerce, and Enterprise SaaS. Picus has made 170+ investments across 20+ countries. Picus typically invests $500k–$2M in early-stage startups and $10M+ in growth-stage ventures. Picus is committed to supporting founders and empowering them to scale their businesses successfully and in addition to funding, provides resources like Guidance/Mentorship, HR/Recruiting, Network, and Infrastructure.
LvlUp Ventures: Founded in 2019, LvlUp Ventures is an early-stage VC firm managing a $200M+ fund with over 50 investments focused on pre-seed and seed-stage funding, ranging from $100K to $250K. Their portfolio spans industries like FinTech, HealthTech, Web 3.0, Gaming/Esports, and AI. Operating across the United States and Canada, LvlUp Ventures offers access to eleven VC partners, strategy mentorship, funding and network and support.
If you are a CMU startup and interested,contact Jiya via email at jiyag@andrew.cmu.edu.
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| Date: February 1, 2025
Time: 10:00 AM | ET
Location: Swartz Center, 4765 Forbes Avenue, Tepper Quad, 3rd Floor
Dr. Rorry Brenner, a CMU SCS alumnus and founder of Perforated AI, will be hosting a hackathon centered around utilizing Perforated AI's innovative PyTorch extension to enhance machine learning projects. The event will be held at The Swartz Center, with a one-day coding session on February 1st, followed by seven weeks off to allow for model training and parameter tuning. The hackathon will then conclude with a presentation day on March 22nd.
Unlike traditional hackathons that require building a project from scratch to solve a specific problem, this event encourages participants to optimize existing projects, including ongoing research or open-source PyTorch repositories. Perforated AI is offering $6K in cash prizes for the best optimizations.
For more information contact Dr. Brenner at rorry@perforatedai.com.
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| Date: February 18, 2025
Time: 1-2:30 PM | ET
Location: CMU Scott Hall, Bosch Spark Conference Room
Join the Scott Institute’s Entrepreneurial Student Lunch Series with James R. Swartz Entrepreneurial Fellow Ruben Quesada Alvarado, co-founder of Sabana, an AI-powered data management platform designed to streamline communication and collaboration for architects and design engineers.
This series inspires students, faculty and staff to explore cleantech and climate tech entrepreneurship opportunities. Lunch will be provided, but space is limited.
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| Applications Open for the VentureBridge 2025 Accelerator!
Are you a CMU alumni working on a startup? Apply to the CMU VentureBridge 2025 accelerator in Pittsburgh, San Francisco, and New York for funding, 1:1 support, founder roundtables, weekly talks with VCs and introductions to mentors and advisors.
Attend an information session on February 3 or March 3, 2025.
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| CONNECTS/START SMART LAW SEMINARS
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| Can't make a CONNECTS? Watch on our YouTube channel.
Find out more and see the full schedule.
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|  2/4
REGISTER
Practical Business Negotiation for the Early Stage Company (Eric Kline, Troutman Pepper)
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REGISTER
IP Basics: What Is It and How Should You Protect It? (Alicia Palladino, J.D., Ph.D and Martin Gomez, Goodwin Law Firm)
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2/6
REGISTER (Virtual)
START SMART LAW: Starting A Business With an F-1 Student Visa
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The mission of 99 Tartans is to partner with the highest potential, early-stage CMU alumni companies and accelerate their success through access to capital and networks. Find out more.
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CMU ENTREPRENEURSHIP CLUBS
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| Click the images to see upcoming Club events!
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| Date: February 7-9, 2025
Time: 6:00 PM | ET
Location: Register to See Address
Learn how to think, work and build like a startup in 54 thrilling hours. Techstars Startup Weekend is an exciting and immersive foray into the world of startups. Over an action-packed three days, you’ll meet fellow builders, mentors, investors, co-founders and sponsors to show you how to get more done faster-- and, maybe even start that Business.
We welcome anyone in the Pittsburgh region: students, passionate problem-solvers, aspiring entrepreneurs and more to join us for a fun, insightful and transformative experience to kickstart your entrepreneurial journey.
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T&E Boston:
VentureBridge Info Session & Pitch Practice
Date: Thursday, February 13, 2025
Time: 6-8:30 PM EST
Location: Sense, 485 Mass Ave, #3, Cambridge, MA
Discover how VentureBridge, CMU’s premier startup accelerator, supports alumni founders with seed funding, mentorship and a powerful network. This session includes an overview of the program, details about the 2025 application cycle and a pitch practice session.
Interested in pitching? Let us know to reserve a spot!
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| The CMU Tech & Entrepreneurship group aims to build a bridge between CMU students and alumni across the startup and tech continuum. With main chapters in NYC, Pittsburgh, and SF, we offer a range of in-person and online events and programming in the form of panels, workshops, founder/investor engagements, startup support, and socials to foster collaboration, innovation, and networking opportunities.
Join 7,000+ Tartans on our Slack workspace and mailing list for resources and updates on how you can engage in the community and CMU entrepreneurial ecosystem. Find out more and
get involved!
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The following companies help directly support our programming and entrepreneurs.
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| Pillsbury and Steptoe & Johnson, PLLC are holding office hours for the CMU Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship. The office hours are for any interested CMU graduate, undergraduate or alumni interested in entrepreneurship or connecting with members of the Swartz Center network.
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Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP
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Legal Services Weekly Virtual Office Hours with Matt Kirmayer
Mondays 1:00-3:00 PM ET (10-12 PT)
Matt Kirmayer of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, is offering office hours for newly established startup and emerging companies. Matt specializes in representing technology startups and emerging growth companies, assisting with entity formation, fundraising and overall growth needs. Startup companies with a founder who is a CMU graduate, undergraduate or alumni is eligible to register for
an appointment. Complete the Signup Form for a 30 minute session by the Thursday prior to your
desired appointment.
Contact Daria Stokes for office hours outside of these regular hours.
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| Steptoe & Johnson PLLC
Steptoe & Johnson PLLC is a multi-jurisdictional, full-service law firm that takes a progressive approach to providing counsel at each stage of a client’s life cycle. Our dedicated team works closely with our clients to form entities, advise on the most advantageous entity type, and design and negotiate joint ventures and mergers and acquisitions. If a client has a dispute, Steptoe & Johnson has a team of business and product liability litigators and labor and employment lawyers to guide clients through these often stressful and disruptive situations.
Steptoe & Johnson brings a strong skillset for data privacy, cyber security and intellectual property matters which are frequent concerns for startups and technology companies. We offer competitive and flexible rates and aim to provide value to our clients.
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HOW TO WORK OUT OF THE SWARTZ CENTER
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Swartz Center Education and Resources
No matter what phase of the entrepreneurship cycle you're in, there are programs and resources at the Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship that will take your idea to the next level. Find out more.
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Project Olympus Incubator Program
Want more help with finding product/market fit, developing your business model, making connections and attracting funding? Project Olympus will team you up with a business coach to develop a personalized ‘roadmap. Find out more.
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COMMUNITY OPPORTUNITIES/RESOURCES
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FIND OUT WHAT OUR PARTNERS ARE DOING
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Have startup news or opportunities to share? Have questions about the Swartz Center Weekly Bulletin? Send news, opportunities or questions to Sonya Ford, Program Manager.
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Carnegie Mellon University Swartz Center For Entrepreneurship
5000 Forbes Avenue | Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890 |
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