From AI and healthtech to energy, food and construction, these companies have one thing in common: They see an opportunity to build something bigger in Buffalo.
The final 43North Finals are upon us.
Fifteen companies remain in the running for investment and the chance to make Buffalo a much bigger part of their future.
They come from Portland and Palo Alto, Memphis and Manhattan, Toronto and Texas. Two are already based in Buffalo. They’re tackling everything from wastewater and rural healthcare to restaurant ordering, international trade and women's health.
The 15 semifinalists have raised a collective $19.8 million from notable investors that include Chloe Capital, Launch NY, Fourward Ventures, Cornell Tech Runway Program, Brainstorm VC, Jason Calcanis (Launch Fund), Cortado Ventures, Techstarts USA and Genesis Venture.
For the winners, Finals night is just the beginning. They’ll be expected to put down roots here, with the opportunity to find customers, hire employees, raise more money and build consequential companies in Buffalo.
43North proved that great things are possible in Buffalo. The best is yet to come
Here’s the Series B field guide to the final 15.
Based: Portland, Oregon
Founded: 2023
Industry: Cleantech / climate
Airbuild recovers nutrients from municipal and industrial wastewater and converts them into biochar fertilizer and carbon credits. Its model creates three potential revenue streams while using a feedstock — wastewater — that costs the company nothing.
Airbuild sees Buffalo as a place where several pieces of that model could come together: aging wastewater infrastructure, industrial users that need treatment solutions and potential customers for the fertilizer it produces.
Based: Austin, Texas
Founded: 2025
Industry: Healthtech
CareAtlas wants to help seniors stay healthier and stay in their homes longer.
Its AI-enabled care platform combines software, labor and clinical support for rural healthcare facilities managing patients with chronic conditions.
The company sees Western New York's healthcare ecosystem and surrounding rural communities as a potential fit, particularly as it looks to work with health systems serving Medicare populations.
Based: New York, New York
Founded: 2018
Industry: Cleantech / climate
COI Energy is building what it calls a Virtual Battery Network.
The platform helps businesses identify unused or flexible energy capacity, reduce waste and potentially turn that flexibility into a new source of revenue.
For COI Energy, Buffalo offers a strategic foothold between major markets: access to the broader Midwest as well as Canada.
Based: Buffalo, New York
Founded: 2022
Industry: Consumer
JECA is already building in Buffalo.
The food manufacturer and consumer brand produces energy bars made with clean-label, whole-food ingredients, with products sold through retail and direct-to-consumer channels.
JECA sees an opportunity to tap into Buffalo's manufacturing infrastructure while expanding its distribution and retail reach.
Based: Rochester, New York
Founded: 2021
Industry: Consumer
Playground is building a women's wellness brand focused on the $400 billion intimate-care market.
Its clinically proven products are designed around intimate health issues women experience from postpartum through menopause.
Already based just down the Thruway in Rochester, Playground sees Buffalo's medical community and talent base as potential ingredients for its next stage of growth.
Based: New York, New York
Founded: 2025
Industry: Supply chain technology
International trade is complicated. SAIL wants AI to make it easier.
The company has built an AI-native trade compliance workspace for enterprise teams, helping them classify goods faster, identify potential duty savings and maintain audit-ready records.
Buffalo's location is part of the pitch. Sitting on one of the most important U.S.-Canada trade corridors gives SAIL proximity to cross-border commerce, potential customers and a real-world environment for its technology.
Based: Dunlap, Illinois
Founded: 2025
Industry: AI / machine learning
SpecVision wants to build the data layer for heavy equipment.
Its AI can identify an asset from photographs, creating structured information that can then be used to value, insure, finance or sell equipment. The company sees a massive potential market, pointing to an estimated 260 million assets.
There is an obvious Buffalo connection here, too: SpecVision sees an opportunity to learn from the ecosystem that helped produce ACV while tapping into customers and AI talent coming out of the University at Buffalo.
Based: Palo Alto, California
Founded: 2020
Industry: AI / machine learning
VoicePlug AI is putting AI agents behind the counter.
Its technology handles restaurant orders across phone, drive-thru and kiosk channels. The company says its technology is already live at more than 300 locations, backed by more than 1 million hours of audio data.
VoicePlug reports more than $1.4 million in annual recurring revenue and 124% net revenue retention.
Why Buffalo? Restaurants and, specifically, pizza. The company sees the region's unusually dense restaurant and pizzeria market as a promising place to find customers and expand.
Based: Toronto, Canada
Founded: 2024
Industry: Construction technology
Actuality is using AI to attack one of the construction industry's less glamorous time sinks: responding to RFPs.
The company says proposal workflows can consume more than 200 hours and cost upwards of $12,000. Its platform generates compliant responses directly inside construction firms' branded InDesign templates, potentially reducing that work to hours.
For the Toronto company, Buffalo offers access to U.S. construction customers and capital markets while allowing it to remain close to home.
Based: Memphis, Tennessee
Founded: 2019
Industry: Advanced manufacturing
Hera Health Solutions combines AI, pharmaceuticals and advanced manufacturing.
The company takes existing drugs and turns them into long-acting therapies designed to optimize dosing, improve outcomes and accelerate development.
Hera sees Buffalo's manufacturing capacity, workforce and University at Buffalo talent as potential advantages, while the city's Northeast location provides access to the pharmaceutical industry concentrated around Boston and other East Coast markets.
Based: Arlington, Texas
Founded: 2024
Industry: Proptech
LeanSite is building an AI-powered operating system for facilities.
Its platform gives organizations with multiple locations one place to manage maintenance, vendors, assets, compliance and work orders.
The company sees Buffalo as a place where it can tap into both talent and potential customers as it grows.
Based: New York, New York
Founded: 2025
Industry: AI / machine learning
AI can produce remarkably confident answers. Neurath is focused on knowing when those answers shouldn't be trusted.
The company is building what it calls an "uncertainty layer" for AI systems operating in high-stakes environments including manufacturing, medicine and defense. Its technology is designed to flag unreliable outputs before they lead to costly mistakes.
Buffalo's concentration of healthcare and manufacturing organizations gives Neurath potential enterprise customers, alongside a pipeline of technical talent.
Based: New York, New York
Founded: 2024
Industry: AI / machine learning
Pardon AI wants businesses to stop treating pricing as static.
Its platform analyzes customer behavior in real time and automatically makes pricing, sorting and campaign decisions for restaurants, hotels, retailers and e-commerce companies.
The company says customers using its technology have seen an average 22% increase in profit.
Pardon sees Buffalo as a gateway to enterprise customers across the region — and to the Canadian market just across the border.
Based: New York, New York
Founded: 2025
Industry: Healthtech
Valene Health is building an AI-native clinical operating system.
Its technology automates clinical, operational and financial workflows for health systems and payers, with the goal of reducing readmissions and costs while expanding the amount of care organizations can provide.
In Buffalo, Valene sees two things it needs to grow: enterprise healthcare customers and talent.
Based: Buffalo, New York
Founded: 2025
Industry: Fintech
Ziffy.ai is the second company in the Finals field that's already building from Buffalo.
The company is creating an AI-native real estate investing platform with embedded financing. Investors can discover cash-flowing rental properties, analyze them and secure rental-loan financing through a single workflow.
Its Buffalo thesis is already underway. Beyond its existing presence here, Ziffy sees an opportunity in the region's proximity to Canada and the Canadian investors who purchase U.S. real estate.
One more night under the lights
These 15 companies cover a lot of ground.
Four are primarily AI and machine-learning companies. Two are in healthtech. Two are tackling climate and energy. The rest stretch across consumer products, construction, real estate, supply chains, fintech and advanced manufacturing.
They are coming to Buffalo from across the country and, in Actuality's case, across the border, with very different ideas about what they could build here.
This week, those founders are going to walk onto stages in Buffalo with a pitch and a plan. Then, for the winners, the work begins: moving to Buffalo, meeting customers, hiring people, raising capital and trying to turn that pitch into a consequential company.
