Commercialization through Venture Partners at Boulder drives $8.7 billion impact nationwide
Photo: Christopher Bowman (left), professor of chemical and biological engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder, holds a beaker of hydrogel as a graduate student illuminates the material with a flashlight. Supported by an up-to-$5.8M contract from ARPA-H, the team is developing a hydrogel that could lead to new treatments for a host of serious tissue injuries, from battlefield blast wounds to frostbite and diabetic ulcers.
Commercialization activities throughVenture Partners at Boulder had an economic impact of$8.7 billion nationally and$5.1 billion in the state of Colorado over the last five years, according to a new report from the Leeds School of Business.
The study was completed by theBusiness Research Division of the Leeds School of Business—led by Brian Lewandowski, executive director—which conducts economic impact studies and research projects for the state, the university and local organizations. The report reinforces the economic growth that results from the University of Colorado Boulder’s leadership in commercializing new discoveries and launching ventures. It also underlines commercialization as a significant addition to the economic impact of Boulder reported recently in a separate report.
Highlight findings from the report on fiscal years 2021–2025 include:
- Venture Partners held405 unique commercialization agreements, which included364 revenue-generating intellectual property (IP)licenses and67 licenses to startups that raised capital.
- Startups founded on Boulder technology generated$3.7 billion in capital funding.
- The economic impact on the national economy included an estimated31,200 jobs, 19,156 in Colorado.
- Commercialization of licenses and startups spanned41 states and40 countries.
In fiscal year 2024, Boulderreached a historic milestone, launching 35 new companies based on university IP during fiscal year 2024, more than any other U.S. campus that year. In addition to holding the No. 1 spot for that year, the achievement also places Boulder No. 2 for the most startups launched in a single year by a U.S. campus.
Venture Partners leads commercialization with a comprehensive approach andsuite of programming. In 2021–25, this included launching theEmbark Deep Tech Startup Creator, which matches industry entrepreneurs with groundbreaking university discoveries, and theCreative Futures Fellowship, which provides grants, training and community for promising ventures in the arts, humanities and social sciences.
“One of Boulder’s priorities is supporting our innovators,” said Bryn Rees, senior associate vice chancellor for innovation and partnerships. “Through Venture Partners, that means supporting our creative faculty, graduate students and postdocs who are addressing important problems in their work. Commercialization increases the campus’s ability to translate promising discoveries and innovations into real-world solutions. ”
This year, Infleqtion,spun out of Boulder as ColdQuanta and rooted in pioneering research led by Dana Anderson (JILA, College of Arts and Sciences and College of Engineering and Applied Science), went public at a $1.8B valuation—becoming Boulder’s tenth unicorn alongside companies including Amgen,Ball Aerospace & Technologies,Solid Power andSomaLogic.
The revenue Boulder receives from licensing innovations created at the university is reinvested in what Rees calls a “virtuous cycle,” supporting the innovators themselves as well as the commercialization training, mentorship and funding programs run by Venture Partners.
“Today, someone wishing to commercialize an innovation at Boulder has access to a tremendous amount of support, and they have that because of the past successes of their peers and the reinvestment of the university’s share in that success,” said Rees. "The end result is a greater capacity for Boulder to deliver on the promise of breakthrough research that benefits society and promotes economic growth.”
Additional impact metrics can be found in theVenture Partners Annual Report and theprevious economic impact study 2018-22.
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