Startup program graduates and founders with university ties had a busy third quarter in Nebraska — from new investment activity to taking part in accelerator opportunities outside the state. This is according to venture capital data compiled from Invest Nebraska and PitchBook, highlighting 21 deals from July through September.
VC is a type of funding aimed at early-stage, high-growth companies. It funds efforts to scale startups in exchange for equity in ownership.
Included deals range from familiar startups with past fundraising rounds under their belts, such as the agtech company DARO, and new ventures in the earliest stages of development. This includes the college students in the latest Startup Studio cohort out of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Jeffrey S. Raikes School of Computer Science and Management.
DARO incubated out of The Combine, the agtech incubator and accelerator in Lincoln. Startups that graduated from the NMotion startup accelerator, such as the camping technology company Set Your Sites and the immigration technology company Immigify, showed new VC investments as well.
Beyond student founders at Raikes School, the University of Nebraska system has a presence on the list through its faculty and researchers. Such individuals have led to the advancement of listed medtech companies Grasshopper Health and Virtual Incision.
Restating his caution from past quarters, Invest Nebraska Investment Associate Ben Hohensee said that the numbers displayed below could still differ from PitchBook and other reports. Readers should view the following table as more of a snapshot of VC movement in Nebraska, rather than a complete overview.
SPN has not independently verified all investment details.
Data notes
Invest Nebraska is a nonprofit venture development organization that invests in Nebraska startups and partners with the Nebraska Department of Economic Development to support entrepreneurs. Its team previously assisted SPN with tracking VC deals during Q1 (January-March) and during Q2 (April-June) of this year.
PitchBook is a financial market database that reviews and compiles information about private companies based on public and self-reported data. Sources include news articles, regulatory filings, websites and press releases.
Rounded values, pending deals and varying information submitted by company stakeholders and then collected by PitchBook can create discrepancies when looking at different sources.
Startups may also combine raises in a single announcement to capture bigger momentum. Those in capital-intensive industries, such as robotics, can experience ongoing raises across quarterly reports in their efforts to continue fueling growth.
Invest Nebraska offered its own insights as an investor in the ecosystem to clean up the data. However, the team still had their own questions and speculations about how PitchBook flagged VC activity.
Companies such as Rocket Carwash and INSight Partners/INSight Capital appeared in the original raw data, but Invest Nebraska said such ventures didn’t fit the criteria as startups for its reports.
Additional takeaways
The numbers do reveal that the student-led companies in the latest Startup Studio cohort at UNL will each receive $70,000 in SAFE notes rather than the $100,000 given in previous groups.
Jake Koperski, the assistant director of Startup Studio, said the funding changed due to the program not meeting its original fundraising goal. Koperski said the school adjusted program costs accordingly for students after an investor dropped out.
In the initial data set, PitchBook listed startups that were active in accelerator cohorts. However, participation in these programs didn’t mean these companies gained capital by giving up equity.
For example, the irrigation intelligence company Nave Analytics is a member of an ongoing Innosphere and National Science Foundation accelerator cohort. Nave Analytics Co-founder and CEO Jessica Korinek said there has been no investment with her involvement, but the program could lead to some financial support.
Similarly, Megan Hale, founder and CEO of the financial planning startup DreamMoney, said she did not receive VC with her acceptance in the 2026 Vogt Awards cohort out of Louisville, Kentucky. Members do receive $25,000 in non-dilutive grant funding.
Techstars, the global network and accelerator, offers both accelerator programming that involves funding for equity and pre-accelerators that focus on education and connections.
Quantum Qool, a startup dabbling in laser-enabled thermal management systems for advanced electronics, is a member of the latest Techstars Columbus Powered by The Ohio State University. Participation in Techstars accelerators includes a $220,000 investment.
In comparison, some of the members of the Techstars Founder Catalyst Global Fall 2026 Program appeared on the list. The pre-accelerator aimed at Nebraska founders, through the nonprofit Open Range doesn’t include VC.
For a greater overview and breakdown of VC trends in Nebraska, Invest Nebraska released its 2026 Nebraska Venture Capital Report earlier in the year, providing an in-depth analysis of 2025 VC movement in the state.
