The University of Chicago’s Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation celebrated the official launch of Third Coast Foundry, a new San Francisco-based innovation hub designed to connect Midwest university-backed startups with Bay Area investors, partners, and customers.
The launch was marked on June 23 with a ribbon-cutting and Midwest Deep Tech Demo Day.
Third Coast Foundry is backed by eight partner universities: the University of Chicago, Carnegie Mellon University, Northwestern University, The Ohio State University, Purdue University, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Washington University in St. Louis.
The hub is designed to create a shared San Francisco presence for Midwest founders, researchers, and university-backed startups seeking access to the Bay Area’s venture capital, corporate partnership, and commercialization networks.
The ribbon cutting brought together leaders from the eight partner universities, founders, investors, sponsors, and San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie.
Later that evening, Midwest Deep Tech Demo Day featured 40 startups presenting to Bay Area investors at the INSEAD San Francisco Hub for Business Innovation.
The event drew more than 200 attendees, including founders, partners, sponsors, and investors who collectively manage more than $110 billion in capital.
The participating startups were backed by the universities involved in Third Coast Foundry. Their technologies spanned advanced materials and manufacturing, cleantech and energy, semiconductors, robotics, spacetech, quantum, healthtech, medtech, AI, and other deep tech categories.
The startups included ventures founded by students, alumni, faculty, and researchers.
The launch week was designed to show how Third Coast Foundry can help make connections between Midwest innovation ecosystems and the investors and partners needed to accelerate growth.
For Midwest universities, the hub creates a coordinated pathway to bring research-driven startups into deeper contact with the Bay Area’s capital and commercialization ecosystem.
UChicago President Paul Alivisatos said the initiative reflects a rare level of cooperation among major research institutions.
The Polsky Center said Third Coast Foundry is intended to make these connections more consistent, intentional, and impactful while highlighting the caliber of founders emerging from the Midwest.
KEY QUOTES:
“Universities bring incredible energy. They bring new ideas and new people into our city. They strengthen the culture of innovation that has defined San Francisco for generations, and that is exactly what we want more of here in downtown San Francisco.”
Daniel Lurie, Mayor of San Francisco
“Third Coast Foundry is about creating new opportunities for university-backed founders and researchers from the Midwest to build relationships with investors and partners in the Bay Area. Our universities have deep research expertise, talented founders, and strong startup ecosystems. This shared San Francisco presence gives them another pathway to connect and grow.”
“Tonight is the culmination of a shared effort to connect startups from the Midwest with the investors, customers, and networks that can help them scale.”
“Third Coast Foundry was created to make these connections more consistent, more intentional, and more impactful. These events show the strength of what our universities can do together—and the caliber of founders emerging from the Midwest.”
Samir Mayekar, Managing Director of the Polsky Center
“The Midwest is one of the most important regions in the U.S. It is filled with builders, entrepreneurs and operators who build things that last and scale—and that’s exactly what we need today.”
Victoria “Vic” Woo of the INSEAD San Francisco Hub for Business Innovation
“It’s not every day that eight universities come together like this. We’ve come together with a deep spirit of cooperation because we know we can bring to the Bay Area a level of founder that you will be excited about.”
“To all the founders here, we’re so excited about what you’re here to pitch. I’ve been there myself. Sometimes you may need to give a few pitches, but we’re all behind you.”
Paul Alivisatos, President of the University of Chicago
