Tickets are now live for 43North Semi-Finals and Finals, where five startups will each receive a $1 million investment and join the final 43North cohort.
The field is set for 43North Semi-Finals.
Fifteen startups from across North America are coming to Buffalo in October. They are building new tools for health care, energy, food, facilities, global trade, real estate and autonomous systems. Two are already building here. All 15 now have the chance to make Buffalo part of what comes next.
On Wednesday, October 7, Golisano Institute for Business & Entrepreneurship will host the 2026 43North Semi-Finals. Each company will pitch live before an audience and more than 30 venture capital judges from across North America.
By the end of the day, the field will be cut nearly in half.
Eight companies will advance to the final 43North Finals at Shea’s Performing Arts Center on Thursday, October 8. Five will leave the stage with $1 million investments and a place in the final 43North cohort.
This is the last time the community will watch that sequence unfold.
Over more than a decade, 43North brought founders from around the world to Buffalo and put this city on the map as a place where ambitious companies can build. The final competition is one more chance to see that work happen in real time: a new group of founders arriving, pitching and deciding whether Buffalo could become part of their story.
Both Semi-Finals and Finals are free and open to the public. Tickets are live now.
The 2026 43North Semi-Finalists are listed below. Consider this the introduction. We’ll have plenty more on the companies, the founders behind them and what exactly they’re building before they take the stage in Buffalo.
Actuality AI — Toronto, Canada
Actuality AI helps architecture, engineering and construction firms automate RFP responses through a purpose-built knowledge graph for the built world.
Airbuild Inc. — Portland, Oregon
Airbuild turns wastewater treatment plants into fertilizer microfactories, recovering nutrients cities discard and returning them to the soil as fertilizer.
CareAtlas — Austin, Texas
CareAtlas is an AI care-management platform for primary care. It turns electronic health records into closed-loop workflows designed to unlock new Medicare revenue and reduce avoidable hospitalizations.
COI Energy — Brooklyn, New York
COI Energy helps enterprises identify and activate the energy flexibility already inside their facilities.
Hera Health Solutions — Memphis, Tennessee
Hera Health Solutions is an AI-enabled advanced nanotechnology manufacturing platform transforming existing medicines into next-generation therapeutics.
JECA Energy Bars — Buffalo, New York
JECA is a Buffalo-based food manufacturer and consumer brand producing clean-label energy bars with whole-food, non-ultra-processed ingredients.
LeanSite — Arlington, Texas
LeanSite is an AI operating system for commercial facilities, automating maintenance operations, vendor management, compliance and budgeting across enterprise portfolios.
Neurath AI — New York, New York
Neurath helps teams working in critical industries, including defense, autonomy and medicine, constrain and control autonomous systems by quantifying AI uncertainty in real time.
Pardon AI — New York, New York
Pardon AI is an agentic revenue platform that turns real-time customer behavior into autonomous, profit-driving actions across hospitality, retail and e-commerce.
Playground — Rochester, New York
Playground is a consumer health brand building a trusted destination in women’s intimate wellness, one of the largest and most underserved categories in the sector.
SAIL — New York, New York
SAIL is an AI-native workspace that turns tariff classification and duty modeling into a real-time decision layer, helping enterprise trade teams manage exposure, optimize duty spending and navigate regulatory change.
SpecVision — Chicago, Illinois
SpecVision is building the data layer for heavy equipment, using AI and computer vision to automate how assets are identified, assessed and transacted.
Valene Health — New York, New York
Valene Health is an AI-native clinical operating system that coordinates end-to-end operational, clinical and financial workflows for health systems and payors.
VoicePlug AI — Palo Alto, California
VoicePlug AI builds voice technology for restaurants, taking orders by phone, drive-thru and kiosk while handling voice-based table reservations and event bookings.
Ziffy.ai — Buffalo, New York
Ziffy.ai is an AI-native real estate investing platform where local and global investors can discover, analyze and finance cash-flowing U.S. rental properties in one workflow.
Fifteen companies will enter Semi-Finals. Eight will earn a place on the Shea’s stage. Five will become the Final Five.
There will not be another 43North competition. If you want to see how this chapter ends, be in the room.
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