Two Wyoming Businesses with UW Connections Participate in Fall 2026 gBETA Wyoming Cohort

Two businesses with ties to the University of Wyoming, UW Nano and Wyonics, participated in national venture capital firm gener8tor’s gBETA Wyoming startup accelerator, sponsored by Microsoft, alongside three other Wyoming-based startups in January.

During the accelerator program, startup founders received one-on-one coaching as well as access to a national network of customers, mentors, corporate partners and investors, according to gBETA Wyoming’s release announcing its fall cohort. The event culminated in a showcase where startups gave live pitches and networked with customers, mentors and investors. This year’s showcase took place at Laramie Community College’s Flex Tech Building in Cheyenne. The Business Studio@LCCC became a supporting partner of gBETA Wyoming this year, joining Microsoft who has been a partner since gBETA Wyoming’s first cohort.

UW Nano was founded by John Hoberg, a professor in UW’s Department of Chemistry, and Jon Brant, a professor in the Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering and Construction Management at UW, with the intellectual property owned by the university. Wyonics was founded by CEO and Adjunct Professor Kristin Di Bona, Professor Caleb Hill, Adjunct Professor Robin D. Rogers -- all in UW’s Department of Chemistry -- and Gabriela Gurau.

Both UW Nano and Wyonics were selected to be part of the 10th cohort of gBETA Wyoming, a free, virtual, statewide, seven-week accelerator program for early-stage businesses in October 2025, according to the program’s fall release. The program takes up to five business each cohort, with the first launched in 2020 in partnership with Microsoft.

“gBETA Wyoming has now served and supported 50 Wyoming companies. Those alumni companies have raised $20.7 million in venture capital and grant funding since completing the program and created nearly 200 jobs,” says Baylie Evans, managing director of gBETA.

UW Nano’s chemical additive for desalination (the removal of salt from water) increases performance of membranes seven to 10 times better than the market standard without the need for new facilities or processes, according to business information from gBETA. UW Nano also makes a membrane with the additive incorporated, Hoberg says. UW Nano’s technology is patented and one of the top 50 in the running for the X Prize Water Scarcity Contest. For more information, email Hoberg@uwyo.edu.

Wyonics’ work includes patented instrumentation designed to better analyze microplastics, nuclear materials and other microparticles, according to information from gBETA. In addition to receiving a U.S. patent, Wyonics received $1.8 million from the U.S. Department of Energy and the state of Wyoming toward the development of a commercial prototype -- currently ready to go to market. For more information, go here. To see the full list of business summaries from the fall 2025 cohort, go here.

Out of the gBETA showcase came an agreement with a major company, says Hoberg, a professor in UW’s Department of Chemistry, adding the company has been working with a venture capitalist.

For Kristin Di Bona, CEO and co-founder of Wyonics, gBETA was useful to meet people in the community as well as to practice and perfect pitches to mentors and investors.

“It was an intensive program which had us pitching to dozens of people each week,” says Di Bona, who also serves as an adjunct professor at UW. “I would say the networking was the most valuable to us. The showcase also allowed us to meet the Wyoming community in person, which was a useful experience.”

For more information on gBETA, visit www.gener8tor.com/gbeta/wyoming/.