For ClimateTech Forest Grows; Cool Cohort Wins to Beat the Heat
Welcome to For ClimateTalk – For ClimateTech’s monthly newsletter highlighting upcoming opportunities for climate innovators, thought leaders, and community connectors.
The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.
This past winter, Scale For ClimateTech recognized Bob Bechtold for his leadership in sustainable cleantech contract manufacturing and implementation. The tree that came with the recognition was recently planted in St. Joseph’s Park in Rochester, NY near NextCorps’ office this past month.
The Scale For ClimateTech team extends our gratitude to Bob, again, for starting Harbec down the path to net-zero GHG manufacturing over 20 years ago, and sharing his lessons learned with our team and many more!
Funding
Accelerate at VERGE 23 is Now Open
If you are a climate tech startup working in energy, carbon, food, transport or buildings, you have until August 6 for a chance to pitch your startup at VERGE this October in San Jose, California. The winner of the pitch competition will receive $20,000, with second and third runner-ups receiving $10,000.
Click here for more info and to apply.
FuzeHub’s Commercialization Competition Application Now Open
If your NYS-based company is pre-revenue and has an existing tangible prototype, apply for your chance at a $50,000 grant. Several are available, and one company has the chance to win an additional $100,000 for a grand award of $150,000. Finalists will pitch live during the NYS Innovation Summit at the Saratoga City Center on October 16 and 17, 2023.
Get your application in here by August 9, 2023.
Cohort News
New Frontier Aerospace was announced as one of NASA’s SBIR/STTR awardees for the development of its high-performance “Orbital Transfer Stage” designed on its Mjölnir engine. The awards are focused on technologies that protect the health of astronauts and decrease the risk of collision damage to spacecraft that can support future missions. Read NASA’s full release here.
Ateios announced the successful validation of its fabless manufacturing model with the help of the $75K Manufacturing Expert-In-Residence (MEIR) award from Scale For ClimateTech. Ateios Systems is working to enable its innovative electrode manufacturing techniques. The project demonstrated a 20% increase in energy density through a cell build for a significant battery original equipment manufacturer (OEM). In addition, it also eliminated 231,000 metric tons of CO2 for a single production line. That’s the equivalent emissions of 50,000 gas-emitting cars.
Learn more about Ateios here.
The American Concrete Institute awarded KLAW Industries and the City of Binghamton with an Award of Merit for making cost-effective, sustainable infrastructure a reality. Leading up to the award, KLAW Industries partnered with the city of Binghamton to provide $1.7 million worth of sidewalk and curb concrete work that uses post-consumer glass as a partial cement replacement.
Read more about the award covered by Fox 40 in Binghamton.
Uuvipak, Cohort 3 member of Venture For ClimateTech, was announced as one of the 12 startups to join Techstars Farm to Fork class of 2023. Uuvipak has a patent-pending, home compostable natural packaging created from upcycled food waste, which is designed to eradicate single-use plastic utensils and packaging. Read more about Techstars new Farm to Fork class here.
Power to Hydrogen won the 9th edition of Startup Basecamp’s “The Future of Climate Tech Global Online pitch competition. They competed against over 65 different companies from around the world and across every sector in climate. You can read more about the competition here.
Active Surfaces won the Robert P. Goldberg Grand Prize of $100K and the Danny Lewin Audience Choice Award of $10K, hosted by theThe Future of Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA): Insights from Tinia Pina MIT Entrepreneurship Competition. Active Surfaces is commercializing an ultra thin-film solar technology based on decades of MIT research. You can read more about Activate Surfaces in a feature story by Greentown labs here.
Re-Nuble and its Founder and CEO, Tinia Pina, was featured in Indoor Vertical Farming Newsletter®’s article The Future of Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA): Insights from Tinia Pina, Founder of Re-Nuble. Tinia offers insights on the growing medium products they offer how they are navigating the complexities of organic farming certifications. Read the full story here.
Program Update
Cohort 3 of Venture For ClimateTech is heading into week 10 of programming. Each company has been working with staff and our NYSERDA Entrepreneurs-in-Residence (EIR) to navigate the foundations of their business model, troubleshoot, assess market fit, and create a narrative for investors. A key phase for the current teams is developing and pitching their market opportunity fit to the Venture For ClimateTech board and key stakeholders.This involves fundraising and fine-tuning their storytelling. From there, 10 of the 20 teams will be awarded $25,000 each as they all enter phase II of the program.
Community
Meet the Venture For ClimateTech Apprentice
Jacqueline Erica Karen Hinneh is spending this summer as Venture For ClimateTech’s Apprentice, thanks to the ClimateWorks Foundation and NYSERDA. As a part of the apprentice role, she will explore a new business idea while going through the Venture For ClimateTech curriculum alongside Cohort 3.
Jacqueline graduated from the University of Liberia with a Bachelors of Science in Geology and a Masters of Science from the University of Rochester in Technical Entrepreneurship and management with a concentration in energy and environment.
Jacqueline first became involved with entrepreneurship at a Liberian startup called AgriWATTs, where she helped with operational
assistance and conducting market research on the feasibility of the organization’s business plan in harnessing solar energy in Liberia. After her time at AgriWATTS Jacqueline transitioned to a more forward looking approach to some of the world’s most significant challenges to create a long lasting positive impact.
Presently, Jacqueline is exploring problems that solve the climate crisis in the Rochester metro area.
Connect with Jacqueline here.