UPNY Ventures

Mission

Every year in New York State, founders leave university labs, incubators & accelerators with solutions to complex problems. The technology will work but there is a gap between proof of concept and the revenue needed for proof of marketability. The feedback is "Not VC ready. No customers." That is a fair verdict.
UPNY Ventures is purpose-built to help these founders fill that gap.

We work alongside New York State deep-tech founders to establish early-customer traction and market validation that lead to additional investment rounds and sustainable growth.

Get Funded →

Incubated Deep-Tech NYS Startup

UPNY Ventures Pre-Seed Investment + GTM Program

Phase 1 — GTM Strategy Course 2 Weeks · Free to Public

Phase 2 — 100-Day Challenge GTM Commercialization Engine

Phase 3 — Pre-Seed Investment $25–50K · Top Performers

Phase 4 — Follow-on Investment $100K · Scaling Companies

Scale Customers & Revenue

Seed-Ready Early customers, pilots & beta testers

The Gap

$7B+

Annual University Research Spending

New York State produces world-class innovation across engineering, AI, biotech, energy, and advanced manufacturing.

<5%

Technologies Reach Commercial Scale

Most university-developed technologies never successfully transition into scalable companies or market adoption.

18–36 Mo

Average Commercialization Timeline

Deep-tech founders often require extended pilot validation, customer discovery, and GTM development before institutional funding becomes accessible.

New York State produces world-class innovation across engineering, AI, biotech, energy, and advanced manufacturing — yet many breakthrough technologies fail to progress from research environments into commercially scalable companies. The gap is often operational: customer discovery, commercialization strategy, pilot validation, and early go-to-market execution.

UPNY guides startups from strategy and go-to-market execution to early traction, commercialization, and scale.

Invest

$5M Fund = 100+ Activated Startups & 30+ Investments

Investment Model →

Angel

Individual investors seeking early-stage access to incubated and accelerated deep-tech startups. We target investments of $10K–$50K alongside experienced operators and advisors who contribute mentorship, guidance, and strategic support within portfolio companies. Our goal is to strengthen the entrepreneurial ecosystem through active participation and founder development.

Institutional

Family offices and institutional LPs seeking exposure to a structured pre-seed investment vehicle backed by operational support and commercialization strategy. Our approach is to establish validation through a growing network of angels, founders, and statewide partnerships that create the foundation for long-term institutional participation and scalable fund growth.

Partnerships

New York State programs and economic development organizations focused on deep-tech commercialization, regional growth, and translating publicly funded research into market-ready companies. We're actively looking to foster aligned partnerships that support entrepreneurship, accelerate innovation, and strengthen the long-term startup infrastructure across Upstate.

About

UPNY Ventures

Albany, NY

UPNY supports deep-tech founders through strategic guidance, GTM development, operational systems, and early-stage growth infrastructure designed to help breakthrough technologies reach market adoption faster. Our goal is to work alongside other organizations with a shared goal to help startups move from research and innovation to commercialization and long-term growth.

Allan Von Schenkel

Founding Partner

Allan is a five-time founder with experience spanning software, e-commerce, hospitality, retail, and nonprofit organizations. Beginning his career as a Federal Program Manager, he later transitioned into the startup ecosystem where he spent the last twenty years helping build and scale early-stage companies. His experience spans the full startup lifecycle — from pre-seed and seed-stage formation through venture-backed growth and Series A+ expansion — working across strategy, commercialization, operations, and go-to-market execution.