In an unprecedented collaboration, seven world-class deep tech startups from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign joined forces with counterparts from the University of Chicago and Northwestern University to showcase Midwest innovation to over 200 Bay Area venture investors during the San Francisco's 2025 Deep Tech Week. The inaugural, invite-only Deep Tech Demo Day took place on June 23 at Pear VC in San Francisco and brought together nearly 175 Bay Area investors to hear pitches from startups working across clean tech, AI, robotics, quantum and more.
This groundbreaking collaboration represents the first time these three powerhouse universities have united to amplify their startup ecosystems on the nation's most influential investment stage. Bay Area venture capital accounts for 20% of all U.S. venture deals and a staggering 64% of total funding, according to the PitchBook and the National Venture Capital Association.
Jed Taylor, Assistant Dean for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Grainger College of Engineering, said, “This collaboration represents the power of Midwest innovation. Collectively, our three universities perform around $2.7 billion in cutting-edge research in their labs every year. By showcasing our deep tech ecosystem to Bay Area investors, we're not only securing funding for these Illinois startups, but building bridges that will sustain long-term partnerships between Midwest ingenuity and global capital.”
27 teams from the three universities included seven startups from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign representing a diverse portfolio of transformative technologies spanning the deep tech sectors of quantum computing, robotics, space, energy, materials science and artificial intelligence—each solving the world’s toughest challenges to make a better tomorrow.
Illinois startups included:
Cache Energy: Founded by mechanical engineering alumnus Arpit Dwivedi, the startup is revolutionizing energy storage. Their non-toxic, non-flammable storage material can be safely stored at room temperature with zero loss over time, providing the same reliability features as fossil fuels but in a completely clean and distributed fashion. Cache Energy has raised $8.5 million in funding to date.
Natrion Inc.: The startup is pioneering new materials for the next generation of batteries through its LISIC technology, which reduces lithium battery costs while increasing safety, performance and recyclability. Led by material science and engineering alumnus Alex Kosyakov, Natrion is positioning itself at the forefront of the global battery revolution and has raised $7.7 million in funding to date.
Photon Queue: Photon Queue is developing free-space quantum memories for photonic quantum computing and quantum networking. Co-founded by Physics PhD student Kelsey Ortiz, the company is commercializing technology that could become the "RAM" for utility-scale quantum computers—a market that barely existed five years ago but is now attracting substantial investment. Utility-scale quantum computers will require efficient RAM-like memories to store quantum information encoded into photons. Current memories are severely lacking in efficiency and have high operational costs. Photon Queue is commercializing a free-space photon-storage technology in which photons are stored by traveling through air in a compact optical setup.
EarthSense, Inc.: Co-founded by professor of agricultural and biological engineering, Girish Chowdhary, EarthSense is bringing autonomous AI-powered robots to climate-positive agriculture. With $3.6 million in funding, they're providing robotic Farming-as-a-Service to corn and oil palm crops—the two largest fertilizer-hungry crops globally.
Samara Aerospace: Co-founded by aerospace engineering alumnus Patrick Haddox, Samara Aerospace is developing next-generation satellites that fuse pointing control and power generation for unprecedented space mission versatility. With $3.7 million raised, they're positioning themselves in the rapidly expanding commercial space market.
BRILL Neurotech, Inc.: Co-founded by Mehmet Gunal, a research affiliate at the Beckman Institute's Cognitive Imaging Lab, BRILL Neurotech has developed the first brain imaging headset that can see when and where neurons fire in real-time. Current brain imaging technology can show when the brain activates or where, but never both in real time—a limitation that hampers the diagnosis and treatment of disorders like epilepsy and causes brain-computer interfaces to lag or misfire due to imprecise signals. By detecting what the team calls the "Fast Optical Signal," their wearable, non-invasive headset offers faster speed and better precision than existing brain-computer interfaces.
Atzeyo Biosensors, Inc.: The startup is transforming cancer diagnosis with their breakthrough platform for point-of-care molecular diagnostics. Co-founded by Gies Business alumnus Paul Yeh, their technology enables fast, affordable and accurate cancer diagnosis using simple liquid samples instead of invasive biopsies, potentially allowing patients to receive diagnosis, confirmation and treatment consultation to reduce delays in test results and start treatment sooner.
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