Join Us in Welcoming the 2026 USC and Techstars University Catalyst Class
August 31, 2026
By Mariessa Esho, Operations Associate, Techstars Startup Community, USC and Techstars University Catalyst
Year three of the USC and Techstars University Catalyst is here, putting 20 companies founded by USC students, alumni, faculty, and staff through 10 weeks of masterclasses, pitch coaching, and mentoring on the way to a November 5 Pitch Day.
Los Angeles (August 31, 2026) – Year three starts today. A lunar mobility spacecraft. A saliva-based diagnostic. A group payments app. The USC and Techstars University Catalyst is back with twenty companies spanning space tech, healthtech, climate, fintech, beauty, and more. They have almost nothing in common except the school they came from and the next ten weeks.
In partnership with the USC Office of Research and Innovation, this pre-accelerator gives faculty, staff, alumni, and student founders expert-led virtual masterclasses, personalized pitch coaching, 1:1 mentoring, and the kind of peer community that makes the hard weeks survivable. Watch what ten weeks does to a pitch at their Virtual Pitch Day Showcase on November 5th.
Welcome the USC and Techstars University Catalyst 2026 Cohort
213Deli — Drops the best of the best beauty products via text each week. Text back how many pieces you want, and they ship them to you.
Betta — A shooting sleeve that learns the shot only you take, then helps you repeat it, rep after rep.
Coddi — A social trip-planning app for Gen Z that turns the travel inspiration you save on TikTok and Instagram into real trips you take together.
Cogitatis AI — An institutional GenAI platform for higher education that turns every AI-assisted assignment into verifiable evidence of student understanding.
dotNex — Detects AI-coordinated influence campaigns on social platforms, and deploys a counter-response before a crisis reaches mainstream media.
Earthia Bio — Building the feedstock intelligence engine for flexible biorefineries.
Finnley — A gamified financial-literacy app for teens and young adults.
GuardianCare AI (dba Alvis Care) — An ambient AI platform that helps older adults keep living in their own homes.
HAILI — An agentic AI platform that optimizes healthcare workflows and automates complex operational processes.
Impactify Labs — Building the operating system for nonprofits so they spend less time on admin and more time serving their missions.
InSitu Space — Building the last-mile mobility layer for the Moon.
LollyLab — Developing a non-invasive, lollipop-inspired health monitoring platform.
MEDICIPHER — Helps nursing homes maximize Medicaid and Medicare revenue so operators stop leaving money on the table.
My Gun's Been Moved — A smart-home safety company whose SmartPad and mobile app let firearm owners monitor their weapons.
Pando Surgical — Improving surgical ergonomics.
Plurel — A group payments app that takes fronting the bill out of the equation.
PublicRisk.ai — An ethical, audit-ready AI risk intelligence tool that helps public entities prepare for, mitigate, manage, and recover from environmental and operational risks.
Salvo Sports — The attention engine for live sports and media, transforming passive viewership into active engagement.
SPIA — A Mediterranean-inspired skincare brand for people struggling with inflammatory skin conditions.
WoafMeow — An AI-powered care platform for aging and sick pets, starting with an AI smart health bed that tracks behavior changes pets can't tell us about.
Connect with us on LinkedIn for more announcements and learn more about the USC and Techstars Programs.
