Nearly four months after Roadrunner Venture Studios unveiled its first three portfolio companies and headquarters at a large technology gathering in Albuquerque's Innovation District, the company plans to bring more national investors and well-known tech figures to the Duke City this coming fall.
Roadrunner Venture Studios, the deep tech-focused startup development company backed by America's Frontier Fund, plans to host its second Roadrunner Technology Forum on September 4, 2024. The studio's first technology forum was in early December 2023, hosted at the Wool Warehouse Theater near Downtown Albuquerque and Roadrunner's headquarters at 701 Spur St. NE.
The second annual technology forum will feature speakers from prominent national venture capital firms and studio updates. Planned guests at the September event include Trae Stephens, the co-founder and chairman of Anduril Industries and a partner at Founders Fund; Rajesh Swaminathan, a partner at Khosla Ventures; and Laurie Yoler, a venture partner at Playground Global.
Roadrunner intends to announce other well-known guests for the September tech forum at later dates, a spokesperson for the studio said. Guest speakers at the inaugural December forum included folks from Khosla, Playground and Prelude Ventures, three venture capital firms based in California's Bay Area.
"One of the studio's primary goals is to make New Mexico the heart and soul of the American deep tech movement," Adam Hammer, Roadrunner Venture Studios' CEO, said in a statement. "Convening the local community with national VCs, leading scientists and founders, and government officials is one of the ways we are announcing Albuquerque as the globe's latest tech hub."
Hammer said Roadrunner plans to hold technology forums in Albuquerque on an annual basis. Besides its Albuquerque studio — the company's first — and headquarters, Roadrunner announced plans for a second studio location in New Jersey in December.
Albuquerque is also home to what Hammer called the venture studio's flagship "entrepreneur-in-residence" program, which brings entrepreneurs to New Mexico to build companies in partnership with the studio. Roadrunner has three portfolio companies currently and is eyeing a fourth startup venture to work with by June of this year.
Roadrunner was the first investment by America's Frontier Fund, a national deep tech-focused investment firm that received a $100 million commitment from the New Mexico State Investment Council in November 2022. Roadrunner landed $10 million from America's Frontier Fund to establish its Albuquerque headquarters and to identify and help build the inaugural group of portfolio companies.
