Aerovy at the 2026 Midwest Deep Tech Demo Day. Jul 1, 2026 On June 23, Aerovy pitched at the 2026 Midwest Deep Tech Demo Day in San Francisco, an event organized by Purdue Innovates as part of SF Deep Tech Week, hosted at Third Coast Foundry. Purdue Innovates was Aerovy's early institutional backer, investing when Nick was still a PhD student in Purdue's School of Aeronautics and Astronautics. When they extended the invitation to pitch alongside 42 other Midwest deep tech companies in front of San Francisco investors, it was an easy yes. What the event was. The Midwest Deep Tech Demo Day brought together 43 companies affiliated with 8 Midwest-based universities, spanning advanced materials, cleantech, semiconductors, robotics, quantum, healthtech, and AI, to pitch in front of West Coast investors in a single session. It was organized through Third Coast Foundry, a physical space in San Francisco built specifically for Midwest university-founded startups traveling to the Bay Area. The premise is direct: Midwest companies should not have to relocate to access West Coast capital. Third Coast Foundry brings the access to them. Why hardware-first AI companies belong in that room. Most of the 43 companies at the event build physical things: batteries, robots, semiconductors, medical devices, energy systems. The AI layer being built on top of those systems was well represented, and that is where Aerovy sits. The problem every hardware OEM eventually faces is the same: machines generate data, but that data lives in silos. Machine systems, ERPs, dealer networks, and customer records all speak different languages. Building the context layer to unify them takes 18 to 36 months in-house, if it gets prioritized at all. Aerovy is the AI operating layer that sits above telematics and existing systems. Aerovy Mobility, Inc. ingest machine, ERP, dealer, and customer data, resolve it into one governed ontology, and run branded apps, AI agents, and enterprise APIs on top, turning what used to be a multi-year integration program into a foundation OEMs can build on in weeks. That problem and solution landed clearly in a room full of founders building physical systems. Because everyone building hardware eventually hits the same wall: the machine works, the data exists, and nothing connects. What comes next. The concentration of Midwest deep tech companies, and the San Francisco investors who showed up to meet them, points to something real. Hardware-first companies are getting attention they have not always received from coastal capital. Events like this accelerate that. For Aerovy, it was a useful moment to sharpen the pitch, meet investors who understand physical systems, and represent the work Purdue Innovates helped make possible from the beginning. If you are a hardware OEM thinking about how to unify your data and build software services on top of your machines, Aerovy Mobility, Inc. would like to talk. Reach Aerovy Mobility, Inc. out.

GeekWire’s startup coverage documents the Pacific Northwest entrepreneurial scene. Sign up for our weekly startup newsletter , and check out the GeekWire funding tracker and venture capital directory .Plug and Play first Seattle-area accelerator program will provide free office space for participating companies out of SNBL Global Gateway in Everett, Wash. (SNBL Photo)Plug and Play is off and running with the inaugural batch of startups selected for an accelerator program based out of the innovation group’s new Seattle location.Three Pacific Northwest companies are among the 10 that will participate in a 12-week program starting this month and running through the end of June. They include:FlyX Technologies , of Bellevue, Wash., is working on patent-pending wireless charging technology for drones., of Bellevue, Wash., is working on patent-pending wireless charging technology for drones. Expanso is a Seattle startup which says it can boost security, accessibility, and cost-effectiveness by processing data where it lives.is a Seattle startup which says it can boost security, accessibility, and cost-effectiveness by processing data where it lives. LŌD, of Vancouver, B.C., provides IoT and energy management software infrastructure for data centers.Because it’s the first program batch out of Seattle, the locations where startups are based are more spread out