Meet the VC26 Company Lineup

Meet the Venture Connect 2026 Company Lineup

Innovators Shaping the Future Across Four Dynamic Sectors

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC – February 20, 2026 On behalf of our CED team and external Selection Committee, we are excited to announce our Presenting Company Lineup for this year’s Venture Connect Conference!Each year, we have a growing number of impressive founders who apply, and 2026 was no exception. We would first like to thank all 2026 applicants who applied and represented a dynamic and maturing ecosystem here in the RTP area. Venture Connect brings together some of the most promising Early and Growth Stage companies driving meaningful change across industries. This year’s lineup spans the four categories we’re focusing on for VC26: Human Health—Biotech and Medtech, Next-Gen Hardware and Deep Tech, Science for a Healthier Planet, and Software Innovation. These companies represent the cutting edge of what is possible when bold ideas meet disciplined execution. Below, we are proud to introduce the companies — organized by session and stage — and the breakthroughs they are bringing to market.

DPAC Stage Presentations

Human Health — Biotech & Medtech

From ENT care to oncology, the companies in this session are redefining how medicine is practiced, delivered, and experienced. Whether through novel device engineering, AI-powered diagnostics, or breakthrough therapeutics, these innovators are tackling some of healthcare’s most persistent challenges.

excelENT is a comprehensive solutions provider purpose-built for independent ENT practices across the United States. The company supplies leading clinical products — including sinuplasty balloons, shaver blades, scopes, and nasal rinses — while also offering an integrated suite of services encompassing patient prospecting, automated insurance verification and scheduling, and billing support. By equipping local ENT practices with both the tools and the operational infrastructure they need, excelENT enables them to remain independent while delivering the highest quality of care to their communities.

Corit Medical is modernizing one of the most commonly performed ENT procedures: turbinate reduction. With more than 100,000 adult procedures performed annually in the United States alone, the existing tools for this surgery are widely acknowledged to be slow, messy, and decades out of date. Corit has developed a single-use, mechanical device that gives surgeons a faster, cleaner, and more predictable approach to removing turbinate tissue and bone — improving outcomes for the millions of patients who struggle to breathe clearly.

EmitBio is pioneering the use of LED light-based therapeutics to treat upper respiratory disease. The company’s proprietary technology represents what would be the world’s first non-drug antiviral, with its lead indication targeting COVID-19, followed by influenza and RSV. EmitBio has completed a successful double-blind, placebo-controlled pivotal trial for COVID-19 and is currently in the final phase of FDA clearance through its De Novo application — a significant milestone that speaks to the maturity of its clinical program.

Galaxy Diagnostics is redefining the standard of care for flea- and tick-borne disease detection, a fast-growing clinical and economic burden. Today’s conventional tests miss up to half of all infections, leading to delayed treatment and avoidable costs. Galaxy’s proprietary, peer-reviewed direct-detection technology delivers industry-leading sensitivity and accuracy, giving clinicians earlier and more reliable answers. Backed by a seasoned management team and a body of scientific work spanning more than 400 publications in vector-borne disease, Galaxy is advancing scalable, high-sensitivity solutions designed for routine clinical practice.

Redbud Labs is reinventing molecular testing through a convenient, reliable, and affordable platform for sample preparation automation. Built on patented materials technology, Redbud enables high-performance, gold-standard nucleic acid workflows to be executed on a compact microfluidic cartridge — bringing lab-quality results closer to the point of care and reducing the logistical complexity of molecular diagnostics.

RESTEC Solutions, LLC

RESTEC Solutions has developed the SONOCIDE® HLD, an automated disinfection system designed for hospitals and clinics. Using patented ultrasonic aerosol generation technology, the system achieves High-Level Disinfection of shared patient items — including non-lumened ultrasound probes — without the manual burden that characterizes current disinfection workflows. For healthcare facilities seeking to improve both compliance and throughput, RESTEC offers a compelling solution.

SonoVascular is a clinical-stage medical device company focused on transforming the treatment of venous thromboembolism (VTE). Its Sono Thrombectomy™ System combines ultrasound facilitation with thrombolytic enhancement to offer what the company believes is a safer and more effective alternative to current thrombectomy approaches. Given the significant morbidity associated with VTE, SonoVascular’s technology has the potential to meaningfully improve outcomes for a large and underserved patient population.

VQ Biomedical is developing a minimally invasive intravascular oxygenation catheter that delivers oxygen directly into the bloodstream. Targeting Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) — a condition that affects hundreds of thousands of patients annually and for which current treatments are invasive, risky, and frequently inadequate — VQ’s technology is designed to become a new standard of care in critical care settings, supported by promising early proof-of-concept data.

Bairitone Health is developing AI-powered diagnostic imaging technology that is affordable, non-invasive, and designed for use in the home. By reducing the need for inappropriate diagnostic procedures and lowering healthcare costs, Bairitone aims to increase access to high-quality diagnostics for underserved communities — representing a meaningful step toward more equitable, patient-centric healthcare.

Oncurie is developing targeted radiopharmaceuticals to fight cancer. At the core of its platform is a proprietary chelator — a compound capable of securing and sequestering radioisotope ions — which serves as a safe carrier for targeted delivery strategies against tumors. By combining precision targeting with radiopharmaceutical science, Oncurie is working to improve the therapeutic index of cancer treatment.

SelSym Biotech is a preclinical-stage biotechnology startup based in North Carolina’s Research Triangle, developing novel platelet-mimetic therapeutics to transform patient outcomes following severe bleeding events. By engineering synthetic particles that replicate key hemostatic functions of natural platelets, SelSym is pursuing a new class of treatment with the potential to save lives in trauma and surgical settings.

Tellus Therapeutics was founded to address one of medicine’s most heartbreaking gaps: the absence of effective treatments for premature infants facing life-altering brain and gut injuries. The company is pioneering the first myelination therapy for neonatal white matter injury — a condition that currently has no approved therapeutic options — offering hope to families and clinicians navigating some of the most difficult moments in neonatal care.

Phase Advance is tackling one of the pharmaceutical industry’s most persistent and costly problems: the high failure rate of drug candidates in late-stage clinical trials. Its next-generation Predictive Technology Platform (PTP) models human biology and disease as a unified, in silico system, generating lifetime models of disease progression that can predict drug performance as far forward as Phase 3 trials. By delivering highly predictive, clinically actionable insights early in the development process, Phase Advance aims to dramatically improve the odds of translational success.

Lindy Biosciences, Inc.

Lindy Biosciences is solving critical formulation challenges in the biotherapeutics market through its Microglassification™ technology. The platform produces high-dose suspensions of therapeutic proteins suitable for subcutaneous injection — a formulation approach that reduces administration costs, improves patient comfort and compliance, and enables a new class of high-dose molecules to reach patients. For a biopharmaceutical market increasingly focused on patient-centric delivery, Lindy’s innovation addresses a genuine unmet need.

Next-Gen Hardware & Deep Tech

The companies in this session are operating at the frontier of what hardware and deep technology can do. From advanced robotics and satellite systems to novel materials and semiconductor architecture, these innovators are building the physical and computational infrastructure of tomorrow.

AxNano destroys PFAS “forever chemicals” and other complex waste streams at the point of source. Its solution reduces waste disposal costs by 83% compared to off-site incineration or landfilling — offering military, industrial, and municipal customers a way to mitigate significant liability risk while achieving higher throughputs and cleaner outputs. As regulatory pressure around PFAS continues to intensify, AxNano’s technology addresses an urgent and growing market need.

Blue Sky Robotics is dedicated to leading the global robotics software industry by developing custom automation solutions that are perceptive, adaptive, and effortlessly programmable. Leveraging the latest advances in robotics, AI, and computer vision technology, the company helps businesses optimize their operations and improve efficiency through purpose-built robotic systems tailored to specific operational needs.

Carolina Instruments

Carolina Instruments is a UNC Chapel Hill spinout building a camera-free eye tracking system for integration into next-generation Virtual and Augmented Reality (XR) headsets. Developed originally in neuroscience research, the company’s technology uses optical sensing — rather than cameras — to measure eye movement and pupil dynamics with high resolution. By reducing the power and processing demands of eye tracking, Carolina Instruments enables headset manufacturers to extend battery life, reduce size and weight, and simplify system integration.

CrossFire Technologies, Inc.

CrossFire Technologies is enabling the Open Chiplet Economy with its holistic Chiplet Design Suite. While chiplets are becoming increasingly prevalent in AI system-on-chip design, their adoption in other segments has been constrained by high costs, complexity, and integration challenges. CrossFire addresses these pain points directly: its Direct Chiplet Interface (DCI) is 10–50x smaller and uses 10x less power than competing offerings, while its OmniDie™ integration approach eliminates the need for costly interposers or high-density package substrates — saving development time and cost for semiconductor designers.

Extellis Incorporated

Extellis is a satellite imaging company dedicated to delivering reliable Earth observations at industrial scale. Built on patented antenna technology invented at Duke University with DARPA-sponsored research, Extellis’s satellites are capable of capturing thousands of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images per day. By blending wide-area scanning with high-volume capture capabilities, Extellis brings advanced spaceborne monitoring to a broader range of customers with economics that make widespread adoption practical.

iOrganBio is a Chapel Hill-based biotechnology company specializing in the precision engineering and scalable manufacturing of human cells and organoids. Through its proprietary CellForge™ platform — which integrates AI-driven prediction, biological sensing, and automated 3D incubation — iOrganBio transforms complex cellular science into a programmable, closed-loop process. Founded in 2024 by experts from institutions including Weill Cornell Medicine and MD Anderson, the company provides biopharma partners with predictable, reproducible cell products for drug discovery, disease modeling, and regenerative medicine.

MithrilAI has developed what it describes as the world’s first silicon-proven AI circuits capable of preventing hardware attacks — including side-channel and fault injection attacks — that can expose commercially valuable AI models or cause critical misclassifications. Built on randomized multi-party computation, MithrilAI’s solution makes individual computations inside hardware computationally intractable while preserving the exact input-output functionality, bringing cryptography-level security to AI hardware deployments.

Natural Negative Ltd.

Natural Negative is building the missing infrastructure layer that has prevented next-generation sustainable materials from displacing plastics at scale. Its DropForm™ platform uses physics-guided models, structured formulation data, and digital twins of processing to translate a brand’s performance and manufacturing requirements into a custom, home-compostable drop-in material that runs on existing equipment. In doing so, Natural Negative gives sustainable materials the predictability and manufacturability that made plastics ubiquitous.

Onda Vision Technologies, Inc.

Onda Vision Technologies is advancing health and safety through intelligent monitoring systems designed to protect individuals experiencing shifts in hydration levels due to physical exertion, environmental exposure, or medical conditions. An NC State University spinout from the NSF-funded ASSIST Center, Onda Vision is translating academic research in sensing and monitoring into practical solutions for athletes, workers, and patients who face meaningful risks from dehydration.

PolyPV is an NC State spinout commercializing next-generation flexible organic solar modules designed for reliable power generation in environments where traditional rigid panels are impractical. By replacing fragile, rigid panels with a proprietary rugged polymer-based architecture, PolyPV delivers lightweight, easily transported, and field-ready energy solutions with superior power density per volume. Backed by funding from the Office of Naval Research and the National Science Foundation, PolyPV is scaling a roll-to-roll manufacturing process targeting defense, disaster response, and off-grid power markets.

SkyMul is a construction-robotics startup building telepresence robots and digital twins for concrete contractors. Its flagship product is a drone-based quality assurance and quality control system that has already scanned more than 3 million square feet across tilt-up slab and data center projects — catching layout and embed errors before the pour. FAA-approved for remote drone-in-a-box operations and deployed in active paid engagements with leading concrete contractors, SkyMul integrates capture, verification, and reporting into a single digital-twin workflow.

Utilyst develops AI-native infrastructure intelligence platforms for utilities managing aging, complex infrastructure networks. Its flagship platform, WorldGraph, combines real-time sensor streams, geospatial intelligence, and AI agents into a unified decision-support system that goes beyond visualization to deliver actionable intelligence. Functioning as an AI co-pilot, WorldGraph helps operators prevent failures, prioritize maintenance, and optimize capital planning. With a signed contract with DC Water and active discussions with Duke Energy and others, Utilyst is validating a cross-utility platform approach with real commercial traction.

Uviquity is a deep tech startup pioneering the next generation of solid-state far-UVC light sources, enabling a new class of compact, energy-efficient devices for disinfection, sensing, and advanced photonic applications. Founded in 2022 and backed by leading venture capital firms, Uviquity has already partnered with multiple Fortune 500 companies and international commercial partners to bring its innovations to market — signaling strong early validation of both the technology and its commercial potential.

Windlift is developing autonomous tethered aerial systems that deliver persistent airborne presence for high-value security, communications, and sensing missions. Its G Series platform significantly outperforms conventional tethered systems across wind, endurance, stability, and deployment flexibility — enabling defense, maritime security, border monitoring, and critical infrastructure customers to achieve continuous coverage with minimal logistics. Built on more than $24 million in DOD-funded research and protected by core patents, Windlift is also advancing Airborne Power Generator (APG) technology capable of delivering 3 to 75 kW of distributed power for microgrids and remote operations.

SwabBot Solution, Inc.

SwabBot holds the only patent on automated swabbing — solving a critical industry problem that costs regulated consumer products companies millions of dollars annually and exposes them to employee injuries, product loss, and potential recalls. By automating a process that has historically required manual labor, SwabBot brings safety, consistency, and efficiency to life sciences, consumer goods, and food and beverage manufacturers. The company generates revenue through a robot leasing model combined with ongoing consumables sales.

MorphosAI is an AI architecture company revolutionizing vectorization and AI search pipelines for agentic AI. Its Green Vectors technology reduces vector storage by up to 99%, dramatically lowering storage costs, hallucination rates, and latency for AI applications. By building foundational infrastructure that addresses one of the core scalability challenges facing AI adoption, MorphosAI is positioning itself as a critical enabler of the next wave of enterprise and individual AI deployment.

Science for a Healthier Planet

The companies in this session are confronting some of the most pressing environmental and agricultural challenges of our time. From climate-resilient crops to next-generation water treatment and sustainable seafood, these innovators are using science to build a more resilient and sustainable world.

Upstream Biotechnology, Inc.

Upstream Biotechnology is developing a new generation of climate-resilient crop traits that enable plants to defend themselves against disease from within. Its SwitchBlade platform embeds disease resistance directly into the plant genome using tunable genetic circuits to precisely activate plants’ natural broad-spectrum immune system — Systemic Acquired Resistance (SAR) — delivering durable, season-long protection across multiple diseases. By combining advanced RNA biology with field-proven agronomics, Upstream is establishing a new standard for broad-spectrum disease management, transforming resistance from a transient external input into a built-in genetic feature.

ALORA designs gene-edited crop traits that protect yield during the most critical — and increasingly hostile — windows of crop production: pollination and grain fill. As climate change intensifies heat, salinity, and environmental instability, ALORA’s technology channels these stresses into productivity rather than loss. Drawing on the recognition that nature already contains genetic solutions to environmental extremes, ALORA’s traits are purpose-built for the agricultural realities of a warming world.

Eupry offers an automated temperature compliance solution purpose-built for the life sciences industry. Its integrated platform combines measurement, monitoring, validation, and calibration to ensure data integrity and patient safety across the global pharmaceutical supply chain. By automating what have historically been manual and error-prone processes, Eupry helps more than 1,000 customers worldwide maintain total compliance and reliability in pharmaceutical distribution.

Innatrix is revolutionizing crop protection through a target-based platform that develops environmentally friendly biological products. With more than $4 million in secured capital and two U.S. patents, the Research Triangle Park-based company’s approach delivers products to market faster, at 95% lower cost compared to traditional chemical pesticides, and with an 80–90% reduction in carbon footprint. By targeting specific pathogens, Innatrix eliminates the harmful off-target effects that have long been a concern with conventional crop protection methods.

Meiogenix advances crop improvement through proprietary breeding technologies based on precise, targeted recombination. By unlocking the natural genetic diversity of crops in ways that conventional breeding cannot, Meiogenix enables plant breeders to develop elite varieties that address the interconnected challenges of productivity, sustainability, and disease resilience — helping farmers succeed in an increasingly demanding agricultural environment.

NALA Membranes has developed a unique class of chlorine-stable reverse osmosis and nanofiltration membranes for water and wastewater treatment. Its patented polymer membranes are engineered to be up to 1,000 times more stable to chlorine bleach than any competing membrane on the market — a property widely regarded as a critical unmet need in the industry. NALA’s durable, low-fouling membranes offer new opportunities to improve efficiencies and reduce operating costs for even the most challenging water treatment applications.

Phytoform Labs is an agricultural biotechnology company focused on improving sustainability across the food supply chain through the power of genetics. By partnering with food brands, processing companies, and seed companies, Phytoform translates cutting-edge scientific discoveries into real-world commercial impact — bridging the gap between research and the practical needs of the food system.

TNT Eco Materials / TNT 3D Construction

TNT is pursuing a multi-pronged commercial strategy centered on the commercialization of TNT Eco Materials, the expansion of TNT 3D Construction, and an integrated workforce development engine. The company is working to capitalize on the significant opportunities emerging at the intersection of sustainable materials and next-generation construction technology.

Verdia Diagnostics is pioneering diagnostic tools for disease management in agriculture. By developing hardware and software solutions that enable earlier and more accurate disease detection, Verdia helps farmers improve yields while reducing the costs and labor associated with traditional disease management practices — bringing precision agriculture to the field of plant health.

Atlantic Fish Co uses cellular agriculture to develop the world’s most sustainable cultivated seafood. The company’s mission is to establish cultivated seafood as the third pillar of global seafood production — complementing wild-caught and aquaculture — offering a path to meeting growing global demand for seafood while reducing the environmental strain on ocean ecosystems.

RCOAST is building the world’s first searchable 4D coastal intelligence database, designed to track and predict which mitigation strategies actually work to protect coastlines. By helping governments, investors, and planners optimize the return on every mitigation dollar spent, RCOAST is creating an essential decision-making tool for a world increasingly grappling with coastal erosion and climate-driven sea level rise.

This session showcases software companies using artificial intelligence, automation, and modern cloud platforms to solve real-world problems across healthcare, construction, education, finance, and beyond. What unites them is a commitment to replacing inefficiency with intelligence — and delivering measurable impact to the people and organizations they serve.

Theralinq helps pediatric therapy clinics extend care beyond the clinic walls while driving measurable business impact. Its secure platform strengthens caregiver-therapist collaboration through customized home exercise plans, real-time progress tracking, and actionable data insights. By improving family engagement and continuity of care, Theralinq helps clinics deliver better patient outcomes while unlocking new revenue opportunities — and gives families the tools to take an active, informed role in their child’s therapy journey.

Coworks is a coworking and flexible workspace management platform. Our mission is to be the operating system for the modern flexible workspace. Our platform is a full service operations system that manages scheduling, payments, room/desk reservation, and lead and member management. We sell directly to space operators and empower them to create operational efficiency while accessing key spatial data. Our member app allows the members in each space to easily access space resources, events, and community. Together we are able to provide key data and metrics to space managers around usage, growth, and community engagement while allowing the people in the space to easily understand how to utilize and access the workspaces on demand.

Scale Social AI is an AI-powered engagement and marketing platform that helps businesses transform real customer experiences into authentic, high-performing marketing content. By prioritizing engagement first, the platform makes it easy for brands to capture customer-generated content, enhance it with AI, and distribute it across the right channels with clear, goal-aligned outcomes. The platform serves small businesses, multi-location operators, and enterprise brands seeking visibility and growth without the complexity of traditional marketing agencies.

Sunlight is modernizing the operating system of America’s social safety net. As one of the fastest-growing GovTech startups in the country, Sunlight has scaled to serve 1 in 10 youth in foster care across 30 states. Its products are trusted by more than 300 agencies to improve communication, case management, legal representation, and care coordination in child welfare cases — demonstrating that software can be a powerful tool for social good.

Jobvious helps automotive specialists run and grow their businesses by connecting them with dealership work and equipping them with AI agents that streamline day-to-day operations. By bringing intelligent automation to an industry that has historically been underserved by technology, Jobvious enables automotive professionals to focus on their craft while the platform handles the business complexity.

Nolodex is a sales intelligence and relationship management platform that centralizes people, companies, and business deals into a single, actionable system. It helps identify opportunities, track relationships, and act on insights to close deals and receive income.

OneCare Practice Management

OneCare is an AI-powered, fully integrated Practice Operating System that consolidates EMR, billing, scheduling, payments, patient communication, and workflow automation into a single seamless platform. Designed to help medical practices run smarter and grow faster, OneCare reduces the administrative burden on care teams so they can focus on what matters most: delivering exceptional patient care.

Ooga Technologies is a one-stop platform that empowers the non-destructive testing (NDT) industry to operate more safely, efficiently, and cost-effectively. By leveraging cloud technology to connect customers with vetted NDT experts around the globe in a matter of minutes — and enabling remote testing through a suite of digital tools — Ooga is digitizing an industry that has traditionally required on-site, in-person presence for every inspection.

KilsarKilsar is a dual-use AI and 3D-powered maintenance technology company modernizing how complex equipment is trained, operated, and sustained across commercial industry and the Department of Defense. Its flagship platform, Orion, converts unstructured maintenance data into interactive, step-by-step digital workflows with embedded AI, automated compliance, and 3D visualization. Orion is deployed across the largest U.S. aviation training network and expanding into energy, manufacturing, and construction, while also supporting U.S. Air Force, Navy, and Special Operations modernization efforts. By serving both enterprise and defense customers, Kilsar drives a dual-use flywheel that accelerates product innovation, strengthens cybersecurity posture, and positions Orion as the foundational AI layer for global maintenance and sustainment.

PETE is an AI-powered learning platform transforming workforce training. Its solution enables companies to create customized virtual academies that develop, host, and manage tailored training content without the need for a dedicated training department. From personalized onboarding to sales and compliance training, PETE’s adaptive technology ensures every employee receives the most relevant content for their role and experience level — maximizing learning impact at scale.

Solvrays is a cutting-edge insurtech workflow solution reshaping how insurance and third-party administrator (TPA) operations function. By applying AI, next-generation technologies, and workflow-driven automation at the intersection of insurtech and fintech, Solvrays is on a mission to bring meaningful efficiency and modernization to an industry long overdue for transformation.

Futureproof is building the world’s first autonomous finance team. Launching with bookkeeping, forecasting and planning, cap table modeling, and an investor-ready data room, Futureproof gives founders the tools to delay hiring a CFO and avoid building large finance teams prematurely. Its long-term vision is an AI that predicts financial challenges before they surface, manages cash with precision, and executes solutions in real time — eliminating the majority of finance overhead so founders can focus on growth.

Clinware Solutions Inc.

Clinware automates post-acute care reimbursement, referral and admission workflows, and end-to-end healthcare operations. By eliminating manual documentation bottlenecks and empowering care teams with faster, data-driven clinical and financial decision-making tools, Clinware enables post-acute providers to operate with greater speed, accuracy, and financial sustainability.

Beam Dynamics helps enterprises streamline asset management, oversee large system integration projects, and increase the utilization of assets, facilities, licenses, and labor — all within a single cloud-based platform. Deployed globally at major media, entertainment, sports, live event, and broadcast companies, Beam empowers teams with a common source of truth and the data-driven insights needed to make informed decisions across their operations.

Roboro is delivering the industry’s first AI-powered legislative insights platform, transforming how organizations engage with public policy. By empowering lobbyists, businesses, and advocacy organizations to monitor, analyze, and influence legislation with unmatched speed and clarity, Roboro is bringing the power of modern AI to one of democracy’s most consequential processes.

Rozie Synopsis captures what is said on stage and on the show floor at live events, then transforms it into clear, usable outputs — including summaries, insights, and reports — available both during and after the event. For conference organizers, sponsors, and attendees seeking to extract maximum value from live programming, Rozie offers an intelligent solution that turns spoken content into lasting, actionable knowledge.