NCUSC 2026 | NYC Innovation Summit & Cross-Border Startup Competition

about this event

2026 NYC Cross-Border US Startup Competition. Meet the founders building new companies and the investors and operators who understand what it takes. Join NCUSC in New York on October 10 for a day of live startup pitches, investor discussions, and conversations with founders and technology leaders working across AI, robotics, biotechnology, fintech, and enterprise technology. This year's judging lineup brings together venture capital partners, founders who have built and scaled businesses, and engineering and research leaders with experience at Google DeepMind, Meta, Fortune, AWS and more!

Reserve your seat above. Early Bird admission is $39 through October 5.

Join as Startup (Until Sept. 27th): https://forms.gle/CbtKAbGpFdqPN3XQ7

Join as Volunteer: https://forms.gle/HXaDte3GPeDkNnqk7

INVESTOR JUDGES — The investment and startup ecosystem lineup includes:

Acorn Pacific Ventures — Benny Liao, Principal. Acorn invests in early- and growth-stage technology companies, with interests in proprietary technology, industrial transformation, and cross-border expansion. Benny's background includes fintech entrepreneurship and early-stage company management.

Taihill Venture — Tianyi (Sky) Yu, Founder & Managing Partner. Based in Boston and Silicon Valley, Taihill invests in early-stage deep technology, including AI, robotics, biotechnology, and frontier computing, with a focus on commercializing research breakthroughs.

UpHonest Capital — Fannie Wang, Vice President of Investment. A Bay Area venture capital firm backing early-stage companies across AI, enterprise software, consumer technology, and biotechnology. Fannie's work includes AI-native applications and supporting founders through fundraising and business development.

Peachscore — Miao Kang, representing Peachscore; Founder & CEO, Witti Marketing. Peachscore is a technology-driven startup acceleration platform connecting founders with investors, corporations, and innovation resources. Miao brings experience in cross-border business development and growth initiatives for more than 100 businesses.

iVision Ventures — Hongfei Tian, Founding Partner. An early-stage fund investing in AI and robotics. Hongfei's background combines technology entrepreneurship, blockchain infrastructure, and venture investing.

DGLG Capital — Steven Guo, President. DGLG Capital provides private equity investment and advisory services for companies seeking access to U.S. capital markets, including pre-IPO preparation, financing, and M&A.

InFound — Andreas Deutschmann, Managing Partner, InFound Equity; Managing Director, Avalon Securities. InFound supports growth companies through investment, capital-markets preparation, and business development. Andreas brings more than 30 years of capital-markets experience.

Q Bay — Michael Zhao, Co-Founder, Q Bay Boston. Q Bay connects startups with technology, capital, and an international innovation network. Michael's background spans neuroscience, drug development, biotech entrepreneurship, and early-stage healthcare investing.

LightHouse — Bowen Ke. A Boston-area founder community and venture studio connecting entrepreneurs with investors and industry resources. Its community activities cover AI, robotics, and hardware.

Huadan Angel Investment — Jie Zhang, Managing Director, Investment. Huadan supports early-stage companies through angel investment and incubation, with interests across enterprise services, healthcare, hardware, and frontier technologies.

CSIL.ai — Chelsey Huang, Founding Partner, COO & Quant Researcher. An AI-driven, multi-strategy quantitative fund working across arbitrage, options, perpetual hedging, and trend-following strategies. Chelsey also brings experience growing AI products and developer communities.

ZGC Capital Corporation — Wei Luo, Director & Executive President. Wei brings more than 20 years of multinational leadership experience, with a background in cross-border investment and developing innovation networks in Silicon Valley and Boston.

ZT Corporate — Nancy Chen, Executive Strategist, Capital Markets & Investor Relations. A private investment firm with an operational focus on healthcare and automotive businesses. Nancy brings experience in M&A, financial management, and investment strategy.

Hang Chuang AI Camp — Sean Shen, Coaching Partner. An AI-focused incubation platform connecting research, industry, investment, and coaching resources. Sean works with founders on strategy, leadership, and the organizational challenges of building AI-native companies.

Mint Finance — Jeremy Gao, Co-Founder & Chief Investment Officer. A financial services platform with annual transaction volume reaching tens of millions of U.S. dollars. Jeremy brings firsthand experience in building and growing a fintech business.

INDUSTRY JUDGES — The industry panel brings individual expertise in building technology, leading teams, and growing companies.

Erran Li — CEO, Stealth Startup; ACM Fellow; IEEE Fellow. Co-founder of Uber AI Labs, with former roles as Chief Scientist at Pony.ai and Head of Science for Human-in-the-Loop at AWS. His work includes reinforcement learning for large language models and self-improving AI agents.

Amy Liao, PhD — Co-Founder & CEO, Couragene. A serial biotechnology entrepreneur who co-founded GENEWIZ and helped build it into a global genomics services business before its acquisition by Brooks Automation. She now leads Couragene's work on gene and biologic therapies.

Jin Zhang — Engineering Director, Meta. Her experience includes engineering leadership at Meta, AWS, and IBM. A TEDx speaker and advisor to entrepreneurship and product programs, she focuses on human-centered AI and product innovation.

Xiaomin Li — Senior Research Scientist, Google DeepMind. Previously worked on coding agents in Microsoft's CoreAI GitHub Copilot team. He holds a PhD in Applied Mathematics from Harvard and has worked as a research associate at MIT.

David Shen — VP of Engineering, Fortune. Brings more than 15 years of experience across media and technology, including Paramount, Dow Jones, and Facebook. His work covers engineering leadership, organizational transformation, and AI-enabled software development.

Venkat Nelabhotla — Co-Founder, President & CEO, Vyome Holdings, Inc. Leads a healthcare platform spanning biotechnology, medical devices, and AI.

Stark Zhang — Web3 Entrepreneur & Investor; ex-CEO, APX Finance. His work spans decentralized finance, tokenized finance, and AI applications, with experience in entrepreneurship and early-stage investment.

Vera Wang — Co-Founder, Sweetgum Labs. A blockchain entrepreneur focused on Web3, startups, and sustainability, with a Yale MBA background.

Siyuan Zhao — Associate Faculty, Columbia University. Her work includes enterprise risk management education and professional mentoring.

Yuhong Jiang — CEO, BRISEA Group, Inc. An operator and deep-tech investor with experience across environmental technology, energy, and industrial businesses. She has served on the U.S. Department of Commerce's Environmental Technologies Trade Advisory Committee.

Map Shen — Qishi Venture Mentor. Brings more than a decade of North American fintech experience, including engineering leadership, data platform architecture, and mentoring professionals and aspiring founders.

David Wang — Venture Partner, Taihill Venture. His background spans pharmaceutical research, corporate strategy, and healthcare investing, including experience at Bristol Myers Squibb and private investment firms.

Affiliations describe participants' professional backgrounds and do not imply institutional sponsorship or endorsement. Participation in individual sessions may vary.

Why attend — A compelling pitch is only the beginning. What makes the technology defensible? Who will pay for it? Can the team turn early traction into a sustainable business? NCUSC brings investment and operating perspectives into the same conversation. Investor judges assess commercial potential and funding readiness, while industry judges draw on experience in research, product development, engineering leadership, and company building. For founders, the day offers a closer look at how investors evaluate businesses and how experienced operators approach growth. For investors, it is an opportunity to discover emerging teams and exchange perspectives with fellow judges. For professionals working in technology and business, it is a chance to meet potential collaborators and explore ideas beyond their own field.

The program — The day includes panel discussions, live finalist pitches, networking, and judges' remarks followed by the awards ceremony. Meet fellow attendees during check-in and the networking breaks, then follow the finalist teams as they present their businesses and respond to questions from the judging panel. A separate closed-door VIP dinner follows the main program, offering a smaller setting for continued conversation. VIP dinner access requires a separate $399 ticket and approval. It is not included with general admission.

Building on last year's competition — The previous edition received 60 startup applications, with 18 teams advancing to the preliminary round and eight reaching the final. This year, NCUSC continues to connect emerging founders with investors and experienced operators, with a judging lineup that covers both the technical and commercial challenges of building a company.

Event details — Date: Saturday, October 10, 2026. Venue: Vanderbilt Hall, NYU School of Law, 40 Washington Square South, New York, NY 10012.

Tickets — Early Bird: $39 through October 5. Regular Admission: $59. VIP Deluxe Dinner: $399, subject to approval.

For startup participation, partnership opportunities, or other inquiries: contact@clsa-association.com. Register above to join us in New York.

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