Fe/male Switch: Your Startup Facilitator & Incubator for Women

Lincoln Startups to Watch in 2027: 8 Verified Nebraska Companies in Sports Tech, Construction Software, Surgical Robotics and Agtech, Where They Get Funding and Lessons for Founders

Lincoln Startups to Watch in 2027: Verified Companies in Sports Tech, Construction Software, Surgical Robotics and Agtech

Lincoln, Nebraska, is a state capital and university city that has produced two of the best-known software companies in the Midwest: Hudl, which films and analyses sports, and CompanyCam, the photo app for contractors. Around them sits a cluster of hardware, agriculture and health companies, many of them based at Nebraska Innovation Campus next to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The 2026 version of this article listed ten companies. When we checked them, one turned out to be based in San Diego, two had a dead or parked web address, one could not be matched to any Lincoln company, and one is a travel agency that has been in business for more than 30 years. For this 2027 edition we started again: in October 2026 we checked each company on its own website to confirm that it still operates, that it is based in Lincoln, what it sells and what it publishes about its funding. What happened to the old names is listed near the end.

Quick answer: the Lincoln startups and scale-ups to watch in 2027 are Hudl (sports video and data), CompanyCam (job-site photos and AI tools for contractors), Virtual Incision (a miniature surgical robot), Marble (automation for meatpacking), Spreetail (ecommerce for brands), Cattler (feedlot software), Driive (scheduling for home-service trades) and EpiCrop (epigenetic crop breeding). Virtual Incision received a new FDA clearance in August 2026, and CompanyCam closed a Series C led by B Capital in August 2025. For support, start with NMotion, Invest Nebraska, the LaunchLNK grants and the state's Business Innovation Act programmes.

Are you getting customers from ChatGPT yet?

More and more traffic is coming from Perplexity, ChatGPT, Grok and other AI tools.

👉 Rank on ChatGPT

Why Lincoln, Nebraska Matters for Founders in 2027

Lincoln's startup scene grows from three places. The first is software for everyday industries: Hudl started here in 2006 and still has its headquarters in the city, and CompanyCam grew out of a local roofing business. Former staff of both now start their own companies; Driive, on this list, was co-founded by former CompanyCam leaders. The second is the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Nebraska Innovation Campus, the research campus next to it, where Marble, Spreetail and Cattler have their offices. The third is agriculture: cattle, crops and meat processing are large industries in Nebraska, and several companies here sell technology to them.

Lincoln also has a compact support network: a city grant programme, an accelerator, a state-backed investor and state grants, all described below. For the wider picture, see our guide to the best startup cities in North America and our city lists for Chicago, Baltimore, Providence, Mobile and Honolulu.

Lincoln Startups to Watch in 2027 Compared

Company	What it does	Lincoln base	Latest funding we cite
Hudl	Video, data and cameras for sports teams	Headquarters since 2006	Not published
CompanyCam	Job-site photo app and AI tools for contractors	Haymarket District, Canopy Street	Series C led by B Capital, August 2025 (company)
Virtual Incision	MIRA miniature robotic-assisted surgery system	Old Cheney Road	Invest Nebraska portfolio company (no amount)
Marble	AI and food-grade hardware for meat processing	Nebraska Innovation Campus	$30M Series A, according to Silicon Prairie News
Spreetail	Buys inventory and runs ecommerce channels for brands	Nebraska Innovation Campus	Not published
Cattler	Cattle and feedlot management software	Nebraska Innovation Campus	Not published
Driive	Scheduling engine for home-service trades	Lincoln	Pre-seed round, 2026 (company press links)
EpiCrop	Epigenetic crop improvement	North 58th Street (also St. Louis)	Not published

Sources: each company's official website, news or press page, checked 31 October 2026; Marble's round from local press only.

The Lincoln Startups to Watch in 2027

1. Hudl: from a Lincoln startup to a global sports technology company

Hudl makes hardware and software that film, analyse and share sports video and data. Its founders created the company in 2006 and, as Hudl says on its press page, still run it from its headquarters in Lincoln. The product list has grown far beyond video review: it now includes Wyscout for scouting, StatsBomb data, Sportscode, Hudl IQ, Instat, Volleymetrics and Balltime, the Hudl Focus automatic cameras, and tools for fans and school athletic departments such as Hudl TV, Hudl Tickets and fundraising. Hudl says it employs thousands of people around the world. It does not publish revenue or funding figures, so we cite none.

Lesson for founders: Hudl grew by buying and adding products for the same customer, the coach and the team. Once you own one customer group, every new product can reach it faster.

Best for: founders in sports tech, video and data products, and anyone building in a smaller city.

2. CompanyCam: a photo app for contractors

CompanyCam lets contractors take job-site photos, track progress and work on tasks with their crews and customers. It grew out of the Hansen family's roofing business, which built the app after struggling with disorganised job photos. The company says more than 140,000 contractors and pros use it and that more than 1 billion photos have been taken in it. Its headquarters is in the Haymarket District in downtown Lincoln. Its press page lists a $6 million Series A in October 2020, a $30 million Series B in October 2021 and a Series C led by B Capital in August 2025, and in March 2026 it bought Beam, which makes AI estimating, invoicing and payment tools for contractors. The Series C release gives no amount or valuation; local media, among them the Flatwater Free Press citing PitchBook, reported that the round valued CompanyCam at $2 billion, the first Nebraska startup to reach that level.

Lesson for founders: CompanyCam started with one problem its founders had lived with: lost job-site photos. Building for an industry you know from the inside is one of the most reliable ways to find a real need.

Best for: founders in construction tech, B2B SaaS and mobile apps for field workers.

Boost Your SEO by Getting Featured in Our Blogs and get a backlink.

We publish content about startups, education, tech, funding, etc. that ranks well not only in Google but also in Perplexity, ChatGPT, Grok and other AI tools.

👉 Get featured now!

3. Virtual Incision: a miniature surgical robot

Virtual Incision builds the MIRA Surgical System, which it calls the world's first miniaturized robotic-assisted surgery (miniRAS) system: a small robot that can be moved between operating rooms instead of a large fixed machine. MIRA received FDA De Novo authorization in February 2024 for colectomy in adults, and on 25 August 2026 the company announced FDA 510(k) clearance for benign hysterectomy procedures, supported by a study by five surgeons at three US hospitals. The company is headquartered on Old Cheney Road in Lincoln, appointed Jim Alecxih as CEO in June 2025 and holds more than 200 patents and patent applications. Invest Nebraska features it as one of its portfolio companies.

Lesson for founders: medical devices win approval one use at a time. Virtual Incision added a second type of surgery to its FDA clearance two years after the first, which shows the long, step-by-step path of medtech.

Best for: founders in medtech, robotics and hardware that needs regulatory approval.

4. Marble: AI and robots for meat processing

Marble (Marble Technologies) builds AI and food-grade hardware to reduce labour, improve product quality and reduce waste in meat processing. Its products are Marble Pack-Off, which sorts and boxes meat, and Marble Box Verification, which uses AI to check boxes for quality. Its main office is at Nebraska Innovation Campus in Lincoln, and it has a second office in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Marble does not publish funding on its site; according to Silicon Prairie News, it raised a $30 million Series A in June 2026, mostly from Nebraska investors.

Lesson for founders: Marble sells automation to an industry that finds it hard to hire for tough jobs. Look for work that is hard to staff: that is where buyers pay for automation.

Best for: founders in robotics, computer vision, food tech and industrial automation.

5. Spreetail: ecommerce partner for brands

Spreetail buys inventory from brands, sells it across more than 20 channels, including Amazon, Walmart, Target, eBay, Wayfair and TikTok Shop, and handles fulfilment end to end. Brands can choose a wholesale model, in which Spreetail buys the stock outright, or pay for services such as fulfilment or marketplace growth. Its US office is at Nebraska Innovation Campus in Lincoln and it also has a UK site in Leighton Buzzard. It is a large scale-up rather than a young startup, and it does not publish funding figures.

Lesson for founders: Spreetail turned the hard parts of online selling, stock, channels and delivery, into a service for other brands. If your team solves an operational problem well, other companies may pay you to solve it for them.

Best for: founders in ecommerce, logistics and marketplace services.

Boost Your SEO by Publishing Your Startup Press Release with us.

We publish content about startups, education, tech, funding, etc. that ranks well not only in Google but also in Perplexity, ChatGPT, Grok and other AI tools.

👉 Publish Press Release

6. Cattler: software for feedlots

Cattler sells cattle management software that brings feedlot work, feeding, health, processing and inventory, into one platform with digital records, automated reports and cost tracking. The company says its software handles more than 1.5 million head of cattle a year and more than 9,000 tons of feed delivered a day. Its headquarters is on Transformation Drive at Nebraska Innovation Campus. It does not publish funding on its site.

Lesson for founders: Cattler replaces paper records in a large, traditional industry. Many farm and ranch businesses still run on paper and spreadsheets, which leaves room for simple, well-built software.

Best for: founders in agtech, livestock and vertical SaaS.

7. Driive: scheduling for home-service trades

Driive is a Lincoln company that builds a scheduling engine for HVAC, plumbing, roofing, remodelling, landscaping, electrical and pest control businesses. It plans jobs around drive time, crew skills and service areas, qualifies leads and syncs calendars; its Dot virtual scheduler answers calls and handles texts, emails and form leads, and developers can use its Platform APIs. Its co-founders include former CompanyCam leaders, and it says it is backed by CompanyCam's founder. It announced a pre-seed round in 2026; according to Silicon Prairie News the round was close to $800,000.

Lesson for founders: Driive sells to the same contractors as CompanyCam. Experience and contacts from one successful local company can give the next startup a head start with the same customers.

Best for: founders in vertical SaaS, AI agents for small businesses and scheduling tools.

8. EpiCrop: crop breeding through epigenetics

EpiCrop uses epigenetics, the way environmental changes affect how plant genes are expressed, to improve crops without genetic modification, and analyses DNA methylation data to pick the best plant lines. It works on tomato, soy, canola and sorghum and says its traits, such as heat and cold tolerance, carry over for four or more generations. It lists two addresses: North 58th Street in Lincoln and St. Louis, Missouri. It does not publish funding on its site.

Lesson for founders: EpiCrop offers a non-GMO route to better crops, which avoids some of the regulatory and market barriers of genetically modified seed. How you position a technology can open markets as much as the technology does.

Best for: founders in agricultural biotech and plant science.

Early-Stage Names and Companies Around Lincoln

A few younger companies and one name from the old list are worth knowing, even if they are too early or outside the city to sit in the main list:

AION Prosthetics: on the old list. It is based in downtown Lincoln and is designing 3D-printed, body-powered prosthetic hands that it plans to sell directly to users; the product is still in design, with a paid beta community. Its site lists gener8tor, Invest Nebraska and NMotion as backers.
Sentinel Ag: listed in the old article as Sentinel Fertigation; its old web address now leads to Sentinel Ag. It sells a nitrogen management platform with daily crop nitrogen and soil moisture insights, developed at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Its address is in Ithaca, Nebraska, outside Lincoln.
2026 LaunchLNK grant winners: the six Lincoln startups that won a $20,000 city grant in 2026 are DineU (campus food delivery by student couriers), Doomsun (algorithmic trading tools for energy markets), GrazeStat (early warning of horse health problems from feeding behaviour), Kimto (family health, wealth and legacy planning), MicroFarm OS (selling backyard crops to local buyers) and Rheam Medical (a safer automated first step in keyhole surgery).

Where Lincoln Startups Get Support

NMotion: a 12-week accelerator in downtown Lincoln, run with gener8tor, for early-stage companies from the Great Plains in any industry. It invests $100,000 per team for 7.5% equity through a SAFE and takes six startups per cohort, twice a year. Applications for the Fall 2026 cohort closed on 17 May 2026; the cohort ends with a showcase on 18 November 2026. Its portfolio includes QuantifiedAg, Nobl Health and RealmFive.
Invest Nebraska: a Lincoln-based investor that backs high-growth Nebraska companies in all industries once they show early signs of product-market fit. It says its average first check is $250,000 and that it has made more than 155 investments; Virtual Incision and CompanyCam are among its portfolio companies.
LaunchLNK: the Lincoln Partnership for Economic Development's grant programme. In 2026 it gave $20,000 non-dilutive grants to six startups chosen from 63 applications; applications for the 2027 programme open in the fall of 2026.
Nebraska Business Innovation Act programmes: the state Department of Economic Development runs the Nebraska Seed Investment Program, SBIR/STTR matching grants, an academic research and development grant, and Nebraska Innovation Fund Prototype Grants of up to $150,000 per project. Prototype grants need at least a 50% cash match (25% for value-added agriculture), and the current window runs from 6 July 2026 to 30 June 2027 while funds last.
Nebraska Innovation Campus: the research campus next to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, built for partnerships between the university and private companies. Marble, Spreetail and Cattler have offices here, and its Nebraska Innovation Studio is a 16,000-square-foot makerspace open to the whole community for a monthly fee, with metal and wood shops and a rapid prototyping room.
UNL Center for Entrepreneurship: the university's programme for students of any major, with the New Venture Competition, 3-2-1 Quick Pitch, a student accelerator and the Husker Venture Fund. It offers more than $80,000 in cash prizes through its annual student competitions.

Lincoln Companies From the Old List That Changed or Could Not Be Verified

The 2026 version of this article listed ten companies. Here is what we found when we checked each one in October 2026:

Kept: Hudl, CompanyCam and EpiCrop (spelled Epicrop Technologies in the old list) are operating and based in Lincoln.
Mirador Therapeutics: a real precision medicine company, but its address is in San Diego, California, not Lincoln. You will find San Diego biotech in our list of San Diego startups to watch.
Sentinel Fertigation: now Sentinel Ag, based in Ithaca, Nebraska; moved to the section above.
AION Prosthetics: still in design and early beta; moved to the early-stage section.
Executive Travel: a corporate travel management company with its headquarters in Lincoln and, as it says, more than 30 years in business. It is not a startup, so we removed it.
Virtualsion: its web address does not answer and we found no company record or news, so we removed it.
Nestimate: its web address now shows a parked page, so we removed it.
Grindstone: we could not match it to any Lincoln company; the Grindstone we found is an investment firm in Washington, D.C., so we removed it.

We also removed the old article's unsourced claims about a $10.5 billion economic impact and Hudl's country count, and its links to third-party startup lists.

Which Lincoln Startup Should You Learn From?

You build B2B software for one industry: study CompanyCam, Cattler and Driive.
You build software for sport, education or fans: study Hudl and how it added products for the same customer.
You build hardware that needs approval: study Virtual Incision and its step-by-step FDA path.
You automate heavy industrial work: study Marble.
You work in agriculture: study Cattler, EpiCrop and Sentinel Ag, and their links to the university.
You sell online: study Spreetail, which turned ecommerce operations into a service.
You are just starting: apply for LaunchLNK, look at NMotion's next cohort and the state's prototype grants, and use Nebraska Innovation Studio to build your first prototype.

Is your startup on ChatGPT?

More and more traffic is coming from Perplexity, ChatGPT, Grok and other AI tools.

👉 Rank on ChatGPT

How Founders Use Lincoln's Startup Scene

Notice the order in which Lincoln companies raise money: a city grant or student prize first (LaunchLNK, the New Venture Competition), then an accelerator and state-backed capital (NMotion, Invest Nebraska, state prototype grants), and then larger rounds from national funds, as CompanyCam did with Insight Partners and B Capital. Plan for each stage. Compare early investors in our guides to angel investors in North America and deep tech VCs in North America, and if you build hardware or biotech, see our list of deep tech grants in North America. Founders building with AI can compare programmes in our list of AI accelerators in North America.

Pitching for a prize is a good first test, as the LaunchLNK and UNL competitions show. Find more in our list of startup competitions in North America. Before you copy any of these business models, validate your startup idea with real customers. Most companies on this list sell far beyond Nebraska, so they need to be easy to find online: list your startup in the F/MS marketing directories, publish your startup press release, and write about your product with the F/MS AI SEO Tool or the AI SEO Blog so customers, investors and AI assistants can find you.

FAQ About Lincoln Startups to Watch in 2027

Which Lincoln, Nebraska startups should I watch in 2027?

Our verified list: Hudl, CompanyCam, Virtual Incision, Marble, Spreetail, Cattler, Driive and EpiCrop. Each still operates and lists a Lincoln base on its own website, checked in October 2026.

Is CompanyCam a unicorn?

CompanyCam announced a Series C led by B Capital in August 2025 but did not publish the amount or valuation. According to local media, including the Flatwater Free Press citing PitchBook, the round valued it at $2 billion, a first for a Nebraska startup.

Is Hudl based in Lincoln?

Yes. Hudl says its founders created the company in 2006 and still run it from its headquarters in Lincoln, Nebraska. It now makes video, data and camera products for sports teams around the world.

Which Lincoln startups work in healthcare?

Virtual Incision makes the MIRA miniature surgical robot, which received FDA clearance for benign hysterectomy in August 2026. AION Prosthetics is designing 3D-printed prosthetic hands, and Rheam Medical, a 2026 LaunchLNK winner, is developing a device for safer keyhole surgery.

Are there agtech startups in Lincoln?

Yes. Cattler makes feedlot software, Marble automates meat processing, EpiCrop improves crops through epigenetics, and Sentinel Ag, just outside the city in Ithaca, sells nitrogen management developed at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

What accelerator is in Lincoln, Nebraska?

NMotion, run with gener8tor, is a 12-week accelerator that invests $100,000 for 7.5% equity in six startups per cohort, twice a year. Applications for the Fall 2026 cohort closed on 17 May 2026, so watch its site for the next call.

What grants can Lincoln startups get?

The city's LaunchLNK programme gives $20,000 non-dilutive grants, with 2027 applications opening in the fall of 2026. The state's Nebraska Innovation Fund Prototype Grants give up to $150,000 per project with a matching requirement, and there are state SBIR/STTR matching grants too.

What happened to the startups on the old list?

Hudl, CompanyCam and EpiCrop stay. Mirador Therapeutics is in San Diego, Sentinel Fertigation is now Sentinel Ag in Ithaca, AION Prosthetics moved to our early-stage list, Executive Travel is a long-established travel agency, and we removed Virtualsion, Nestimate and Grindstone because we could not verify them.

What can founders learn from Lincoln startups?

Build for an industry you know from the inside, use local grants and the university to start, add products for the same customer, and sell nationally early.

Where can I get a backlink by writing about my startup?

You can publish a guest post in one of the Fe/male Switch startup blogs, which rank in Google and in AI tools. Get a quality backlink.

About the Author

Violetta Bonenkamp, also known as MeanCEO, is an experienced startup founder with an impressive educational background including an MBA and four other higher education degrees. She has over 20 years of work experience across multiple countries, including 5 years as a solopreneur and serial entrepreneur. Throughout her startup experience she has applied for multiple startup grants at the EU level, in the Netherlands and Malta, and her startups received quite a few of those. She’s been living, studying and working in many countries around the globe and her extensive multicultural experience has influenced her immensely.

Violetta Bonenkamp

2026-10-31 01:51 Best Startups