UBC's Venture Founder program takes on 26 startups, from cancer diagnostics to newcomer finance

Twenty-six new ventures have joined Innovation UBC's fall 2026 Venture Founder cohort, a 16-week program that helps University of British Columbia students, faculty and staff turn research and business ideas into companies.

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Participants work through venture validation, business model development and leadership training with guidance from more than 50 mentors. This fall's teams come from eight faculties across UBC's Vancouver and Okanagan campuses, and the program splits them into a stream for businesses with shorter routes to market and one for research-heavy companies facing regulatory approvals or clinical trials.

Among the ventures, FinTorch is building a bank-agnostic financial dashboard to help newcomers plan their finances, ASLytics is improving content accessibility for Deaf community members and SensRIM measures wheelchair propulsion. Nxylon is developing a renewable black material, and CryoGrip Materials is making traction materials to reduce winter slips.

Health ventures include Aureon Therapeutics, which is pursuing targeted cancer drug delivery, and VeriPath, which is building evidence-traceable AI to help clinicians speed up cancer diagnosis. Applications for the spring 2027 cohort are open until Oct. 11.