Faculty & Researchers

Tech Venture Teamup Closes Its First Cohort on a High Note

Posted By Rebecca Silver
on Tue, Mar 10, 2026

On February 25, NYU Entrepreneurial Institute’s newest program, Tech Venture Teamup (TVT), celebrated the close of its inaugural cohort. This three-month pilot program paired NYU researchers developing novel healthcare and life science solutions with experienced NYU Stern MBA and other master’s students to accelerate the path of innovations from lab to market—working side by side to explore business models, validate customer needs, and assess commercialization pathways.

Faculty-led research teams were paired with MBA students in December, and participated in workshops on regulatory strategy and go-to-market planning, venture coaching with the team at the NYU Leslie Entrepreneurial Institute and received a small budget dedicated to customer discovery. Teams tested assumptions with real stakeholders, refined their positioning, and culminated the program by pitching to a panel of healthcare and life sciences investors including:

The Finale Winners

The judges selected two “winning” ventures to receive an additional $2,500 in grant funding to support their next steps:

  • Abvenza, is developing an antibody-based cassette designed to integrate into existing dialysis systems as an accessory—improving dialysis efficiency for patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD).
    • Team: Xiangpeng Kong, PhD (Faculty, Grossman), Ruimin Pan, PhD (Researcher, Grossman), and Christina Luo (Researcher, Grossman), in partnership with Rosely Mateo (Stern ‘26) and Sibi Chakravarthy (GPH ‘26)
  • Aegenta, has created an integrated hardware–software platform to help providers detect subtle, subjective changes in vision that have historically been described only qualitatively. Using a VR-based at-home assessment, the platform quantifies vision loss and supports recommendations for vision-restoring therapies.
    • Team: Nitish Mehta, MD (Faculty/Clinician, Grossman) and Jaideep Prasad, MD (Resident, Grossman), in partnership with Sravya Koduri, MD (Stern ‘26)

In addition, the Audience Choice presented an award for best pitch to:

  • GI Bio, is developing a platform that enables scalable generation of human mini-organs and AI-driven predictive profiling to model human organ physiology and disease, enabling development of diagnostics and therapeutics for gastrointestinal disorders.
    • Team: Edwin Rosado-Olivieri, PhD (Faculty, Dentistry/Tandon), Javier Marquina Solis, PhD (Postdoc, Dentistry), and Elini Rice (PhD Candidate, Tandon), in partnership with Victor Sharma (Stern ‘27)

The Power or Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration

TVT demonstrated what’s possible when cross-disciplinary collaboration is intentionally structured. For scientific and clinical teams, the program created space—and expectations—to translate complex research into a clear value proposition grounded in market needs, regulatory realities, and healthcare workflows (not just academic or technical framing). That structure encouraged teams to address critical commercialization questions early, including adoption, reimbursement, and stakeholder incentives—issues that often arise much later in traditional research pathways.

For MBA and master’s students, TVT offered the chance to work on real technologies under real-world constraints, rather than purely case-based hypotheticals. Students helped shape commercialization strategies, sharpen messaging, and pressure-test assumptions through hands-on customer discovery.

We’re proud to announce that the majority of the eight ventures who completed the pilot intend to continuing to work together following the finale as they take the next steps to commercialization.

Growing TVT in the Fall

After success of the pilot, we’re proud to announce we’ll be growing and scaling the Tech Venture Teamup in Fall ‘26. Faculty interested in taking part in the next cohort are encouraged to apply for the NYU Tech Venture Workshop, as a pre-requisite for the next TVT.

*NOTE: The next Tech Venture Workshop will be taking place in April, and a late application may be considered by emailing Keith Mauppa, ktm9861@nyu.edu expressing your interest; Dates for the Summer Tech Venture Workshop TBA

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