From Breakthrough Research to Investment-ready Ventures: Aggie Venture Accelerator’s Inaugural Cohort Reaches Key Milestone

Three startups—Pharm to Food, ThriveSpan Labs and SinewUS—have completed the programmatic phase of the inaugural cohort of the Aggie Venture Accelerator (AVA), a four-month program designed to help founders translate promising technologies into commercial ventures and reach critical value inflection points.

Based at Aggie Square, the accelerator is delivered by the UC Davis Innovation and Economic Development Office in partnership with The March Group, a thematic early-stage venture capital investor. 

Throughout the program, founders worked with the AVA team and industry mentors to build strong company foundations, identify opportunities to increase business value and develop investor-ready materials. Participants also received weekly mentorship, access to domain experts and curated connections to industry partners and investors. 

The participating startups reflect the breadth of UC Davis expertise in the life sciences, addressing challenges ranging from tendon rehabilitation and metabolic health to molecular analysis for food and health applications.

“Each of these startups demonstrates the strength of the research and entrepreneurial talent at UC Davis,” said Mike Lemcke, director of the Aggie Venture Accelerator. “The founders have put tremendous work into building their breakthrough companies over the past few months and made meaningful traction, generating revenue and building partnerships ranging from leading healthcare providers to professional athletes.”

Meet the startups

Pharm to Food, a UC Davis spinout founded on pioneering research from Professor Carlito Lebrilla’s laboratory, is redefining how food, biotechnology, and health companies understand and innovate with their products. Combining advanced mass spectrometry, glycomics, multi-omics, and proprietary informatics, the company reveals molecular complexity that conventional analytical methods often overlook. Its largely expanding Molecular Intelligence Database connects detailed chemical profiles with scientific knowledge of biological function, enabling companies to accelerate product development, substantiate functional claims, and uncover new opportunities for innovation. Serving clients ranging from Fortune 500 companies to emerging biotechnology and food innovation startups, Pharm to Food generated approximately $700,000 in analytical-services revenue across more than 20 engagements in its first year, including several repeat clients, demonstrating strong commercial demand while building the foundation for a scalable data-driven platform.

ThriveSpan Labs is developing a precision metabolic wellness platform, beginning with people taking GLP-1 medications. These therapies can change weight, dietary intake and nutrient balance, yet users are lacking insights into how their broader metabolic health is changing. ThriveSpan Labs’ Metabolic Health Panel combines blood-based biomarkers with personalized reports designed to translate results into nutrition, supplementation, prescription recommendation and lifestyle guidance, with recurring assessments to track changes over time.

Spun out from UC Davis professor Keith Baar’s lab, SinewUS is drawing on years of research in tendon health to establish tendon training as a core pillar of human health and performance. Most people never train or even think about these tissues until an injury happens. Then, recovery from tendon injuries often relies on subjective pain assessments and time since injury, rather than objective measures of strength. Leveraging Baar’s experience working with professional athletes across a variety of major sports leagues, SinewUS pairs tendon-specific training devices with a companion app to deliver individualized training protocols and progress tracking, giving everyone an objective way to improve and monitor their tendon health.

With the programmatic elements complete, the founders are now participating in a series of curated Demo Day presentations to venture capital firms and industry partners.