UCSD - University of California - San Diego

09/01/2026 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 09/01/2026 13:10

New Joint Incubator Backs Founders Building Dual-Use Technologies

Published Date

September 01, 2026

Article Content

Six companies founded by University of California San Diego students, faculty and alumni have been selected for the inaugural cohort of a new joint summer incubator from the UC San Diego Office of Innovation and Commercialization (OIC) and Bow Capital, an early stage venture capital firm anchored by the University of California.

Launched in June, the incubator is tailored to founders developing dual-use technologies that can serve both national security and commercial markets, spanning sectors including defense, robotics, autonomy, space, digital biology and critical infrastructure. Each selected team receives $100,000 in upfront funding and participates in a three-month, full-time, in-person program at the Design and Innovation Building.

"UC San Diego is committed to building talent, partnerships and pathways needed to advance dual-use technologies," said Paul Roben, associate vice chancellor of innovation and commercialization at UC San Diego. "By leveraging the strengths of our university and the San Diego region, we can build a national powerhouse for dual-use innovation while preparing the next generation of talent to contribute to it."

The incubator further strengthens an existing ecosystem supporting dual-use innovation, drawing on Horizon, OIC's accelerator program; FORGE, a dual-use national security innovation initiative anchored by Innovating for National Security (i4NS), a nationally ranked STEM workforce development program focused on experiential learning; and Accelerating Innovations to Market (AIM), a market-driven technology accelerator. Alongside Bow Capital, these programs provide founders with mentorship, strategic guidance, customer introductions and access to investors, operators and government partners as they work to advance their technologies toward commercialization.

"Many of the world's most important technologies begin in research labs but never make it into the hands of those who need it most," said Andre Ranadivé, partner at Bow Capital and Army veteran. "Through our partnership with the OIC team, we're building a dual-use technology incubator that helps bridge that gap, connecting breakthrough science with both commercial markets and national security needs."

This intersection of university resources and Bow Capital's broader network gives these founders a unique combination of technical, business and industry support beyond capital alone.

"Founders need more than capital to move research and deep science-backed innovations to deployment - they need direct lines to operators, prime contractors and the government customers who validate how technologies perform in the field," said Shane Moise, director of Horizon Accelerator, which facilitated the program's creation. "Together, we built this program with FORGE and i4NS to strengthen national security and translational pieces founders can't access on their own. This cohort is the proof point."

Stifel Bank also sponsored the program, setting up startup bank accounts for all six founders. DLA Piper, through Horizon board member Lisa Haile, PhD, provided legal expertise to help founders establish their companies, cap tables and other foundational documents for long-term growth.

"What's exciting about this dual-use cohort is watching small, fast-moving teams take on problems once reserved for the largest prime contractors," said Senior Vice President Sam Wogan of Stifel Venture Banking. "These founders are turning frontier science into real-world capabilities. Stifel Bank is proud to support Bow Capital and UC San Diego as they give these founders the resources to make that leap."

Meet the Cohort

The teams were selected from a competitive applicant pool based on technical depth and originality, team capability and speed of execution, and alignment with dual-use and national security priorities. Their technologies range from medical devices and advanced materials to artificial intelligence and autonomous systems, reflecting the breadth of translational research emerging from across the university.

ReBlood RX

Founders: Carlos Munoz, PhD and Christopher Caballero

ReBlood RX is creating a shelf-stable hemoglobin-based oxygen carrier designed to deliver oxygen when donor blood is unavailable.

Netra

Founders: Pranay Yalamanchali, William Stobaugh, Tanay Karumanchi and Landon Stobaugh

Netra is building an adaptable, distributed counter-unmanned aircraft system detection platform that combines radio frequency, acoustic and optical sensing into a self-healing mesh network.

Evaporion

Founders: Renkun Chen, PhD, Shengqiang Cai, PhD, Tony Tong, PhD and Raja Annapooranan, PhD

Evaporion has developed a breakthrough cooling technology, inspired by how sweat cools skin, that removes heat 10 times faster than today's liquid cooling while using a fraction of the energy. It's built for the world's most heat-intensive electronics - power inverters, defense systems, and AI chips - cutting energy costs and unlocking compute power that heat currently leaves on the table.

Valanor

Founders: Alex Battikha and Nicolas Dos Santos

Winner of the hardware track at the Bow Capital defense technology hackathon, Valanor builds integrated site security systems for airports, theme parks and stadium venues, pairing its software with ground robots and NDAA-compliant drones. Its platform unifies every camera, sensor, and robot in one dashboard, correlates alarms into a single incident, and lets an operator dispatch a robot or drone to verify, with every event logged and audit-ready.

AMRADTECH, Inc.

Founders: Alan Hirales, PhD candidate, and Jenna Hirales, PhD candidate

AMRADTECH is expanding radiation detection beyond the few large, costly installations that leave gaps at borders, ports, and critical infrastructure. Its networked detection architecture delivers persistent, real-time, distributed monitoring at a size, weight, power, and cost point conventional systems cannot reach.

Tessera Ceramics

Founders: Kent Griffith, PhD and Elena Sjoblom

Tessera Ceramics is engineering hierarchically stabilized, rare-earth-free advanced ceramics for extreme-temperature and high-stress environments, including jet engines, thermal barrier coatings, and ceramic matrix composites.

Together, the six companies reflect different paths for translating research into technologies with potential across the defense sector and beyond. The program meets them at different points along that path, from developing early-stage technologies to advancing products toward commercialization.

"This incubator catalyzed the commercialization of the advanced ceramic technologies developed in my materials chemistry laboratory," said Founder Kent J. Griffith of Tessera Ceramics and assistant professor of Chemistry at UC San Diego. "The cumulative resources and connections have been immensely helpful in guiding the early stages of our journey."

At Evaporion, founder and Jacobs School of Engineering faculty member Renkun Chen, PhD, is already seeing that support shape the company's next steps.

"The funding, resources and mentorship are helping us accelerate our R&D, prototype development and customer discovery," said Chen. "The Bow Capital team has advised us on technical development and business strategy while connecting us with potential partners, and UC San Diego's Horizon team has introduced us to potential customers, investors and other partnership opportunities. The support and connections we've gained through this program are helping us advance our technology toward commercialization."

For Ranadivé, the program's larger promise lies in what these companies can become beyond the incubator.

"Our ambition is to help build the next generation of enduring dual-use companies that strengthen American innovation, enhance our national security, and ensure the United States continues to be the world's technology leader," added Ranadivé. "We're incredibly grateful to UC San Diego for being such an outstanding partner, and we're excited to see what this exceptional cohort accomplishes."

As the inaugural cohort moves beyond the incubator, the founders will keep developing their technologies and building relationships with the customers and partners who can take them to the next stage.

Read more news about: Health Innovation

UCSD - University of California - San Diego published this content on September 01, 2026, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on September 01, 2026 at 19:10 UTC. If you believe the information included in the content is inaccurate or outdated and requires editing or removal, please contact us at [email protected]