Agenda

9:00 AM | Opening Remarks | Fenway

9:15 AM | Opening Fireside Chat: The Physical AI Frontier: Where Digital Intelligence Meets Hardware | Fenway

AI is moving off the screen and into the robots, warehouses, factories, and physical systems that run the economy. This opening conversation examines what it takes to put intelligence into hardware at scale, where the real bottlenecks are, and how founders and investors should approach building in this space.

• Tye Brady, Chief Technologist, Amazon Robotics
• Austin Badger, Global Head of Climate and Deep Tech, HSBC Innovation Banking

9:45 AM | Panel: IPOs in Tough Tech: Paths to Public | Fenway

For capital-intensive companies, the path to public markets looks different than it does for software. Bankers, operators, and investors discuss what makes a Tough Tech company IPO-ready, how the market is treating energy and other Tough Tech issuers today, and what founders should be doing years before a listing.

• Lucy Brash, Managing Director & Head of Natural Resources ECM, J.P. Morgan
• David Ulrey, CFO, Fervo Energy
• John Rudy, Member / Co-chair, Securities & Capital Markets Practice, Mintz (Moderator)

10:40 AM | Founder Pitches

• Track 1A: AI Infrastructure & Next-Gen Computing | Esplanade
  • Ayo Semiconductor (Peter Russo)
  • Adiabatic Machines (Alex Wynn)
  • VioNano Innovations (Chris Taylor)
  • Icarus Quantum (Poolad Imany)
  • Lightfinder (Diana Mojahed)
  • Axiomatic AI (Jake Taylor)
  • Tessellate 2D (Nicholas Olsen)
  • Quantum Formatics (Jason Gibson)
  • 2Pi Optics (Tian Gu)
  • HyperSpectral (Logan Spears)
• Track 1B: Climate Tech, Decarbonization & Clean Energy | Kenmore
  • Supercool Earth (Dacia Leon)
  • Lyra Power Technologies (Audrey Lee)
  • Fourth Power (Arvin Ganesan)
  • Superlight (Noamaan Siddiqi)
  • Natel Energy (Gia Schneider)
  • Osmoses (Francesco Maria Benedetti)
  • Electrified Thermal Solutions (Daniel Stack)
  • Tempo (Mark Babcock)
  • MIMiC Systems (Berardo Matalucci)
  • Blue Frontier (Daniel Betts)
    

12:10 PM | Investor-Hosted Networking | Fenway

1:00 PM | Lunch

2:05 PM | Founder Pitch Tracks

• Track 2A: Future of Health & Biotech | Kenmore
  • Aptamino (Julie Zhang)
  • Melio (Mridu Sinha)
  • Predicta Biosciences (Brian McKernan)
  • Bexorg (Zvonimir Vrselja)
  • Tessel (Arvind Thiagarajan)
  • Leadoptik (Reza Khorasaninejad)
  • Pumpkinseed (Jack Hu)
  • Avalo (Brendan Collins)
  • Hyfé (Michelle Ruiz)
• Track 2B: Sustainable Manufacturing & Frontier Infrastructure | Esplanade
  • Voluna (Alexander Strange)

  • Adiabatic Materials (Michael S. Emanuel)

  • Sunchem (Daniel T. Sun)

  • Nfinite (Miguel Galvez)

  • Macrocycle (Jan-Georg Rosenboom)

  • Capra Biosciences (Liz Onderko)

  • Ozone Bio (Khorcheska Batyrova)

  • Terran Robotics (Zach Dwiel)

  • Circ (Peter Majeranowski)

3:40 PM | Dual Use Panel: Building for Civilian and Military Purposes | Fenway

More Tough Tech companies are selling to both commercial and defense customers. A founder and investors discuss how to build for both markets, how defense procurement and funding work in practice, and the trade-offs of taking government and defense capital.

• Stephen Rodriguez, Defense Investor, DCVC (Moderator)
• Alex Harstrick, Managing Partner, J2 Ventures
• Rylan Hamilton, Co-Founder & CEO, Blue Water Autonomy

4:20 PM | Fireside Chat: Engineering Our Brains: Neurotechnology & Neuro-inspired AI | Fenway

Brain-computer interfaces and neuro-inspired AI are drawing growing attention and capital. This closing panel brings together a neuroscientist and serial entrepreneur, an investor, and an AI researcher to separate progress from hype: where the science stands today, what is commercially real, and what comes next.

• Philip Sabes, CEO, Arbor Neuroscience
• Amy Kruse, General Partner & Chief Investment Officer, Satori Neuro
• Tom Griffiths, Director, The Princeton Laboratory for Artificial Intelligence; Co-Founder, Inductive Technologies

5:00 PM | Closing Remarks & Reception

For the builders turning bold science and engineering into enduring companies, and the funders helping bring them to scale.

2026 Pitch Tracks

40 fundraising-ready companies will take the stage across four pitch tracks this year, 12 more than in 2025. Twelve more first looks at the science and engineering moving from the lab toward market, and a wider view of where Tough Tech is heading.

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