Investor / VCUpstate New York

Launch NY

Investor / VC · Buffalo, NY

Launch NY is a seed funding organization that provides mentorship and capital to early-stage startups in Upstate New York. The organization offers tailored coaching from industry experts, seed financing programs, and connections to additional capital sources, with its portfolio companies having secured over 40x in follow-on funding.

Founded

Region

Upstate New York

Investors

People

About Upstate NY

Upstate New York seeded Silicon Valley more directly than most people realize: IBM started in Endicott, GE's research labs sat in Schenectady, and Kodak and Xerox built deep imaging and photonics expertise in Rochester — engineers and ideas from all three migrated west and helped build what came after. Cornell, RPI, the University of Rochester, and the SUNY system now anchor a semiconductor, photonics, and drone corridor that's a direct descendant of that older industrial-research base, not a recent transplant.

Region Stats

Total firms 137

VC / investors 61

Companies 59

Schools 17

Known For

Semiconductors

Photonics

Drones