The Raise 2026: A Look Back

Many founder programs teach entrepreneurs how to pitch. The Raise was designed around a different question: what does it actually take to run a process and close a round?

LongJump built The Raise in partnership with World Business Chicago, with support from the Coleman Foundation, for first-time founders who were post-product and prepared to get serious about fundraising. Over six sessions spanning January through March 2026, fifteen founding teams worked through the full arc together: from understanding how investors think, learning what it takes to run a tight fundraising process, to sitting across from active angels and VCs in introductory meetings.

This program was a true community effort, featuring founder and investor guest speakers including Andy Freivogel, (Science on Call), Brodie Meyer (YourCo), Connor Ryan (Bridge Ventures), Haley Kwait Zollo (Starting Line), Abhinaya Konduru (M25), Stuart Pino (QodeX), Sidhartha Sinha (Avant Health), Brad Schnitzer (Techstars), Guy Turner (Hyde Park Venture Partners), Allison Lechnir (Hyde Park Venture Partners), and Anj Fayemi (Rivet).

The Raise culminated with an investor matchmaking day that saw over 70 meetings take place between the founders and investors from the LongJump network. Many thanks to the angels and VCs (Real Tech Capital, Hyde Park Venture Partners, Fifth Star Funds, Gateway Capital, Capitalize, Pear VC, TechNexus, and DIpalo) who attended.

The Cohort

‍The 2026 cohort was fifteen companies across health, biotech, AI, consumer, and business tools. Every team completed the full curriculum.

Aura Life Science (DeepTech / Biotech) — Emilio Balderas, Jake Bhoi. Using photosynthetic bacteria to produce therapeutics, enzymes, and cosmetic ingredients at a fraction of conventional costs while sequestering CO2.

Bedflow Health (Health / Wellness) — Mahesh Kumar, Yonatan Zemlyak. The foundational enablement layer for Hospital at Home, automating the coordination needed to deliver scalable, home-based acute care.

CareLumi (Business Tools) — Shai Basys. AI-automated compliance and credentialing for outpatient healthcare clinics, reducing time-to-revenue from months to weeks.

Constructure AI (DeepTech / AI) — Sanchit Popli. An AI-powered search and collaboration platform for construction teams, unifying drawings, BIM models, specs, and project data into one source of truth.

Craft BioSolutions (DeepTech / Biotech) — Mitchell Craft. A low-cost, automated biomanufacturing platform to accelerate the development and commercialization of bio-based products.

Doulala (Health / Wellness) — Folasade Runcie. Connecting expecting and new mothers with certified doulas for affordable, on-demand virtual support through flexible monthly subscriptions.

EcoGrains (DeepTech / Biotech) — Janet Namutebi. Transforming agricultural waste into sustainable aviation fuel using patented microbial fermentation, with 80% lower lifecycle emissions.

Grid (Business Tools) — Ethan Sawyer. A database with a spreadsheet interface for ingesting unstructured and structured data, building tables from web research, and running AI agents over company data.

Skyello (DeepTech / AI) — Tabari Seward, Yusuf Seward. An AI compliance operating system for industrial sites, automating inspections, hazard detection, and regulatory enforcement in real time.

Sodality (Insurtech) — Parfait Nayigihugu. Blending underwriting data to help insurance companies settle claims faster and with greater accuracy.

Tabbird Labs (DeepTech / AI) — Jing Ma. Automating warranty engineering work for OEMs and converting product data into service efficiency and aftermarket revenue.

Tanda Biotech Corporation (DeepTech / Biotech) — Yingqing (Luke) Huang, Hua Jin. Cost-efficient and sustainable filtration technologies and processing services for biomanufacturing.

The Dev Difference (Business Tools) — Jovanay Carter, Jolene Bernagene, Moyosore Okeremi. AI-powered first-round interview screening to help tech companies cut through candidate volume and hire more fairly.

ThrowbackBuys (Consumer / E-Commerce) — LeMarc Johnson. An online marketplace for nostalgic collectibles, toys, fashion, and tech from the 80s through Y2K.

Twilight Laboratories (Consumer Tech / Media) — Max Bushala. A marketplace for music rights holders and media buyers that cuts licensing times and costs.