Accelerate Blue Foundry Hits Its Robotically Enhanced Stride in Year Two
6/26/2026
An implantable therapy that restores natural hormone production in girls and women with ovarian failure from cancer treatment. Powered lower-limb robotic exoskeletons designed to reduce fatigue and injury for delivery drivers. Sustainable building materials made from 87.5% recycled post-industrial plastic waste. Pulsed laser technology that protects military and civilian spaces from drone swarms.
These inventions have one thing in common: just months ago, they were promising U-M technologies waiting for someone to raise their hand and lead them to market. Without the right entrepreneurial match through the Accelerate Blue Foundry, they might have remained in the lab.
“Great technologies don’t build companies on their own,” said Dave Repp, director of ventures and managing director of the Accelerate Blue Fund at Innovation Partnerships, at this year’s Accelerate Blue Foundry Pitch Day. “They need the right talent to turn potential into impact.”
The University of Michigan is one of the world’s leading public research universities, with more than $2 billion in annual research expenditures and an extraordinary pipeline of new discoveries. Many of those discoveries have strong commercial potential, but building a successful startup requires two critical ingredients that are often scarce at the earliest stages: experienced entrepreneurial leadership and early investment capital.
For institutions outside the nation’s most concentrated venture markets, access to those resources can be limited. The Accelerate Blue Foundry was created to address that gap by connecting promising U-M technologies with entrepreneurs who are ready to build, while providing the early capital needed to help newly launched startups take their first steps toward the market.
The Accelerate Blue Foundry is a flagship program created by Innovation Partnerships to address the gap between startup founders, early investment capital and promising U-M research.
Now in its second year, the AB Foundry connects motivated entrepreneurs from across the country with cutting-edge University of Michigan research, fast-tracking the creation of startups built around U-M innovations. When a Foundry team launches, Innovation Partnerships invests a minimum of $50,000 in pre-seed funding from the Accelerate Blue Fund.
U-M inventors and selected entrepreneurs were matched last winter and set to work refining startup ideas, developing business and fundraising plans and crafting compelling pitches. AB Foundry teams received hands-on mentorship from U-M mentors-in-residence and technology licensing professionals throughout the program, culminating in Pitch Day, where 14 startups pitched to panels of experts, pre-seed investors and other ecosystem stakeholders.
The AB Foundry is one element of the broader Innovation Partnerships commercialization pipeline, which provides hands-on startup mentoring and support to promising U-M spinouts. What sets the Foundry apart is its focus on chemistry between inventors and entrepreneurs and the pressure that focus creates. The best teams quickly identify what matters most, adapt their strategies and arrive at Pitch Day ready to face investors for the first time.
AB Foundry 2026 By the Numbers
- 86 entrepreneurs applied and screened
- 59 technologies marketed for commercialization
- 32 introductions made between entrepreneurs and U-M inventors
- 14 teams presented at Pitch Day
- 42% out of state entrepreneurs
“The Accelerate Blue Foundry is helping us unlock more of the potential within Michigan’s extraordinary research enterprise by pairing promising U-M technologies with entrepreneurs who are ready to build. These newly launched startups are still early in their journey, but they represent exactly the kind of ambition, talent and momentum needed to turn university discoveries into meaningful impact,” said Kelly Sexton, associate vice president for research – innovation partnerships and economic impact.
Interested in learning more about the 2026 AB Foundry startups? Visit this link to access the Pitch Day 2026 Startup Lookbook.