Orva Energy reaches CU grant final as Last Wave pursues battery-collector testing

Company profile. Orva Energy was named a finalist on September 15 for the University of Colorado’s Lab Venture Challenge. The program offers up to $125,000 per invention. Orva’s finalist spot creates a chance to seek development funding; it is neither an award nor a commercial sale.

For battery makers considering development partners, Orva and Last Wave Energy present different technical questions. Orva works on battery active materials, while Last Wave develops ultrathin current collectors—the conductive layers that carry electricity through a cell. This non-ranked comparison selects the two Colorado-connected battery ventures identified in the 2026 West Gate fellowship materials: CU’s account of Orva and the national laboratory’s profile of Last Wave founder Ryan Brow. It asks the same questions of each as of September 24, 2026: What component is proposed, what validation is documented, what customer evidence is public, and what support is disclosed?

Company statements are attributed to their sources. This profile is not an employee testimonial or a hands-on product review.

The same questions, two different components

• Orva Energy. CU describes the Boulder spinout’s work on battery materials. Its accounts of the West Gate selection and grant finalist spot do not supply a cell-level customer test or a stage designation directly comparable to Last Wave’s laboratory profile. They also disclose no customer contract, price or revenue figure. Its documented support is a West Gate fellowship and the opportunity to pitch for a CU grant; the grant has not been awarded to Orva.
• Last Wave Energy. The West Gate profile designates its lithium-ion current collectors bench scale and describes further work to validate manufacturing and performance. On its company website, Last Wave advertises 20% less weight and 10% less volume. The reviewed page does not identify the test baseline or a customer result for those figures; the reviewed company and laboratory descriptions disclose no contract, price or revenue. Last Wave has West Gate support. CU’s finalist list does not name it, which does not establish whether it applied.

The component difference matters more than a forced ranking. A battery could potentially use both a new active material and a new current collector. Last Wave’s advertised percentages cannot be weighed against an equivalent Orva result in these records, and an undisclosed benchmark is an unknown, not evidence of poor performance. West Gate’s two-year access to laboratory expertise offers a route to testing, not a measured customer outcome.

CU’s pending funding decision

The Lab Venture Challenge ceiling comprises up to $100,000 for proof-of-concept work and $25,000 for early commercialization. Those are prospective project funds, not revenue. CU’s timetable places distribution to winners in spring or summer 2027, subject to change.

CU schedules the physical-sciences finalist pitches for October 21, 2026, from 6 to 8:30 p.m. at Boulder’s Dairy Arts Center. Orva’s pitch is the next documented step in its funding bid; comparable cell tests and customer terms remain absent from this public comparison.