Slideflow Labs wins first place at Chicago Booth's New Venture Challenge
What's the deal? Slideflow LabsDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, a cancer pathology AI company, took first place and $575,000 at the 30th annual Edward L. Kaplan, '71, New Venture Challenge (NVC) at Chicago Booth. Judges and investors awarded a total of $2.1M to 10 finalists at the competition.
Slideflow Labs builds AI infrastructure that enables hospitals to discover, develop, and run cancer biomarkers in-house — replacing external reference labs. The startup participated in both the Transform Accelerator and Alchemist ChicagoDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → programmes before the competition.
Second place went to NesteraDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → ($560,000), which automates Hospital-at-Home programmes for health systems. Third place went to Vidnova Therapeutics ($210,000), a microbiome therapeutic company targeting liver disease, which also won the $25,000 Moonshot Prize.
Why now? The NVC marks its 30th year as one of the top university startup competitions in the US. The 2026 cohort leaned heavily into healthcare and AI — reflecting broader venture trends.
"This was an exceptionally strong year for the New Venture Challenge, and the final investment amounts were closer than usual — a clear sign of just how competitive these teams were," said Mark Tebbe, adjunct professor of entrepreneurship at Chicago Booth.
What could go wrong? Slideflow Labs operates in a highly regulated space. AI-driven diagnostics face lengthy approval processes and scepticism from clinicians wary of algorithmic decision-making in cancer care. Hospital procurement cycles are notoriously slow, and convincing institutions to bring biomarker analysis in-house — rather than outsourcing to established reference labs — is a significant sales challenge.
Nestera and Vidnova face similar regulatory headwinds. Vidnova's lead asset is still in a Phase 1b clinical trial, meaning it is years away from commercialisation.
The signal: Slideflow Labs, tagged as "early growth" on Dealroom, emerged from both the Transform Accelerator and Alchemist Chicago — an investment fund that serves as a feeder for NVC-stage companies bridging university research and commercial traction. The win spotlights a recurring pattern: AI startups tackling clinical workflow inefficiencies are reaching investment-readiness faster, particularly when they promise to shift revenue streams back to hospitals from external labs.
Read more: Polsky Center
