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Portfolio

Since 2012, America’s Seed Fund powered by NSF has made more than 2,500 awards to startups and small businesses. Since 2014, our awardees have had 70 exits and have received $3.5 billion in private investment. We encourage you to explore this list of assorted companies we’ve funded.

We fund varied tech sectors.

Each year, we fund roughly 400 companies across nearly all technology and market sectors. Download a searchable PDF of the full list of technology topic areas that also includes descriptions of the subtopics.


Technology Topic Areas

View our current awardees, who are still completing the research outlined in their proposals and who haven’t yet reached the estimated ends of their award terms. View current Phase I awardees or Current Phase II awardees.

From lab to market - Bolt Threads genetically engineered yeast brew silk proteins that can be spun into fibers.

Featured alumni and exits

Advanced Manufacturing and Nanotechnology (MN)

Program director

Linda Molnar

Featured companies

Advanced Manufacturing and Nanotechnology (MN):

  • Manufacturing Technologies (M1)
  • Bio-Inspired Manufacturing (M2)
  • Additive Manufacturing Components & Systems (M3)
  • Modeling & Simulation (M4)
  • Cybermanufacturing (M5)
  • Personalized Manufacturing / Maker Manufacturing / Maker to Manufacturer (M6)
  • Transportation Technologies (M7)
  • Human-Centric Industrial Technologies (M8)
  • Manufacturing for Emerging Markets (M9)
  • Sustainable Manufacturing Technolog (M10)
  • Nanomaterials (N1)
  • Nanomanufacturing (N2)
  • Nanotechnology-Based Solutions to Grand Challenges (N3)

Advanced Materials and Instrumentation (MI)

Program director

Ben Schrag

Featured companies

Advanced Materials and Instrumentation (MI):

  • Metals and Ceramics (MI1)
  • Structural and Infrastructural Materials (MI2)
  • Coatings and Surface Modifications (MI3)
  • Multiferroics and Specialized Functional Materials (MI4)
  • Materials for Sustainability (MI5)
  • Other Materials (MI6)
  • Instrumentation for Characterization and Imaging (MI7)
  • Instrumentation for Detection, Actuation, Control, and Manipulation (MI8)
  • Other Instrumentation (MI9)

Biological Technologies (BT)

Program director

Ruth Shuman

Featured companies

Biological Technologies (BT):

  • Agricultural and Food Safety Biotechnology (BT1)
  • Biosensors (BT2)
  • Life Sciences Research Tools (BT3)
  • Bioinstrumentation (BT4)
  • Synthetic Biology and Metabolic Engineering (BT5)
  • Fermentation and Cell Culture Technologies (BT6)
  • Computational Biology and Bioinformatics (BT7)
  • Advanced Biomanufacturing (BT8)
  • Advanced Technologies for Functional Genomics in Organismal Systems (BT9)
  • Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine (BT10; formerly BM3)

Biomedical Technologies (BM)

Program director

Henry Ahn

Featured companies

Biomedical Technologies (BM):

  • Pharmaceutical Manufacturing (BM1)
  • Materials for Biomedical Applications (BM2)
  • Noninvasive Imaging of Brain Function (BM3)
  • Medical Imaging Technologies (BM4)
  • Diagnostic Assays and Platforms (BM5)
  • Drug Delivery (BM6)

Chemical and Environmental Technologies (CT)

Program director

Anna Brady-Estevez

Featured companies

Chemical and Environmental Technologies (CT):

  • Bio-based Chemicals and Biochemical Processes (CT1)
  • Chemicals, Polymers, Plastics, and Derivatives (CT2)
  • Novel Catalysts and Processes (CT3)
  • Chemicals and technologies pertaining to Carbon Dioxide and Methane (CT4)
  • Food Technology (CT5)
  • Energy Efficiency, Capture, Storage, and Use (CT6)
  • Energy Generation, Oil & Gas Transformation, Bioenergy, Renewable Fuel Technology (CT7)
  • Separation Technology (CT8)
  • Resource and Water Conservation, Treatment and Reuse, Waste Minimization and Environmental Sustainability, Handling of Produced Water (CT9)
  • Environmental Sensing, Environmental Pollution Control, and Mitigation (CT10)
  • Plant-based Products and Sustainable Agricultural Innovations (CT11)
  • Chemical Production Efficiency and Productivity (CT12)
  • Sustainable Chemistry and Green Engineering Technology (CT13)
  • Emerging Technologies and Applications (CT14)

Digital Health (DH) and Medical Devices (MD)

Program director

Nancy Kamei

Featured companies

Digital Health (DH) and Medical Devices (MD):

  • Business Models for User-centered Healthcare (DH1)
  • Digital Health Information Infrastructure (DH2)
  • From Data to Decisions (DH3)
  • Interoperability of Health Record Systems, Medical Sensors, Devices, and Robotics (DH4)
  • Empowering Individuals and Communities (DH5)
  • Medical Devices (MD1)

Educational Technologies and Applications (EA)

Program director

Rajesh Mehta

Featured companies

Educational Technologies and Applications (EA):

  • Pre K-12 Education (EA1)
  • Global, Distance, and Higher Education (EA2)
  • Simulations and Gaming Technologies (EA3)
  • Entrepreneurial, Informal, and Maker Education (EA4)
  • Information, Computer Science, and Engineering (EA5)
  • Emotional Intelligence (EI) Enhancing Educational Innovations (EA6)
  • Education & Training for the Emerging Fourth Sector Eco-system (EA7)
  • Topical Education of Citizens (EA8)

Electronic Hardware, Robotics and Wireless Technologies (EW)

Program director

Muralidharan S. Nair

Featured companies

Electronic Hardware, Robotics and Wireless Technologies (EW):

  • Energy and Power Management (EP)
  • Energy Harvesting, Storage and Management (EP1)
  • Smart Grids, Infrastructure, and Power Management (EP2)
  • Micro-electronics Packaging, Thermal Management & Systems Integration (MT)
  • Robotics and Human Assistive Technologies (RH)
  • Human-Machine Interfaces and Control/Architecture (RH1)
  • Robotic Applications (RH2)
  • Robotics in Agile Manufacturing, and Co-Robots (RH3)
  • Human Assistive Technologies and Bio-related Robotics (RH4)
  • Wireless Technologies (WT)
  • Wireless Systems (WT1)
  • Wireless Devices and Components (WT2)

Internet of Things (I), Semiconductors (S), and Photonic (PH) Devices and Materials

Program director

Rick Schwerdtfeger

Featured companies

Internet of Things (I), Semiconductors (S), and Photonic (PH) Devices and Materials:

  • IoT Sensors and Actuators (IoT1)
  • IoT Energy and Power Systems (IoT2)
  • IoT Communications (IoT3)
  • IoT Integrated Systems (IoT4)
  • Photonics (PH)
  • Lighting and Displayss (PH1)
  • Communications, Information, and Data Storage (PH2)
  • Energy (PH3)
  • Advanced Metrology and Sensors (PH4)
  • Advanced Optical Components and Systems (PH5)
  • Semiconductors (S)
  • Electronic Materials (S1)
  • Electronic Devices (S2)
  • Processing and Metrology Technology (S3)
  • Integrated Circuit Design (S4)

Information Technologies (IT)

Program director

Peter Atherton

Featured companies

Information Technologies (IT):

  • Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Natural Language Processing (IT1)
  • Image and Video (IT2)
  • Quantum Information Technologies (IT3)
  • Cybersecurity, Authentication, and Privacy (IT4)
  • Cybersecurity for the Internet of Things (IT5)
  • Networking Technology (IT6)
  • Mobile Computing; Internet of Things (IT7)
  • Cloud Computing; High-performance Computing (IT8)
  • Cloud-based IT Services (IT9)
  • Big Data and Advanced Analytics (IT10)
  • Human-computer Interaction; Virtual Reality; and Augmented Reality (IT11)
  • Social Media and Collaborative Networking (IT12)
  • Software (IT13)
  • Other (IT14)

Other Topics (OT)

Program director

Ben Schrag

Other Topics (OT):

  • The Other Topics category is intended to be a home for any proposed project that doesn't seem to fit into one of the other Technology Topic Areas, but still seems to meet our goals of supporting research and development of innovative, risky, unproven technology with commercial viability and possible social benefit.

    Distributed Ledger and Blockchain: Distributed Ledger Technologies, including Blockchains, Sidechains, Distributed Acyclic Graphs and Other Implementations — Security, Anonymity and Identification — Scalability and Efficiency Solutions — Consensus Methods — Business Models Innovation —Smart Contract Innovations — Organizational Structure and Collaboration — Ease of Use and Simplification