CleanStart’s Post

What role does the newly launched Minnesota Energy Alley initiative play in our accelerator ecosystem? What is it? Minnesota Energy Alley is a public-private partnership, driving innovation to secure our state’s energy and economic development future. This leverages our region’s technical expertise, industry leadership, and collaborative spirit to drive the transition to a clean energy economy. The initiative is funded by the Minnesota Department of Commerce, led by Clean Energy Economy Minnesota (CEEM), in partnership with Grid Catalyst. How does it help startups? 🔗 Strengthening the connections between startups and the established energy industry and early adopters. Building on the strong membership of CEEM and Grid Catalyst's Innovators Network. https://lnkd.in/eYzjX3cw 📚 Providing resources for entrepreneur training and development. 💡 Seed funding for demonstration projects for startups working with Minnesota-based partners. Pilot projects are a critical step on the path to commercialization and this is one of the only programs in the country that offers this type of opportunity, with funding support. 🚀 Meet the 2024 Cohort supported by Minnesota Energy Alley. https://lnkd.in/gXDX9uNy Applications for the 2025 Demonstration Cohort (supported by Minnesota Energy Alley) open in June 2024. Read more about this initiative and the 2024 Demonstration Cohort 📰 Twin Cities Business Magazine – New Effort Aims to Make Minnesota a Leader in Clean Energy Tech https://lnkd.in/gTkgCSP4   📰 Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal – Minne Inno – Minnesota Energy Alley launches, first cohort includes local startups Carba and Aza Power Systems https://lnkd.in/gfpb4j5j 📰 Star Tribune – Minnesota Energy Alley aims to support entrepreneurs tackling the state’s climate issues https://lnkd.in/g_ymCbVy 📰 Finance & Commerce – Sustainable: Six clean tech startups chosen for Energy Alley https://lnkd.in/gDc9BdBx #AccelerateNorth #MinnesotaEnergyAlley #demo2deploy #WeNeedCleanMN #energy #innovation #startups #AprilAcceleratorAcademy #accelerator

#RainforestAB is measuring the state of Alberta’s #tech ecosystem through the 2023 Scorecard Assessment by examining the six pillars- which are all weighted differently. This year, we are measuring the state of the whole province in partnership with the Edmonton RIN , the Calgary Innovation Coalition, and Rainforest Alberta - yeg, which means there will be a wider reach of diverse perspectives across #Alberta. This is our first-ever pan-provincial scorecard assessment! Take a look back on 2023 and share your perspective on the performance of all six pillars and diversity, equity, and inclusion by filling out the Scorecard Assessment ➡️ https://bit.ly/3TMILog Alberta Innovates Olds College of Agriculture & Technology Central Alberta Regional Innovation Network - CARIN East Central Alberta Regional Innovation Network APEX Southeast Alberta Regional Innovation Network of Southern Alberta (RINSA) Lorna Baird Gail Powley Tim Carwell Joel Magalnick NAIT (Northern Alberta Institute of Technology) Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) #yyctech #albertatech #yegtech #entrepreneurship #dei #yycstartups #yegstartups #albertastartups #albertafounders #calgaryfounders #edmontonfounders #survey

Building sector startup spotlight -- Day 4 -- featuring Koolboks 🔦 Koolboks is unlocking access to refrigeration for small business owners in Sub-Saharan Africa, where refrigeration penetration is still below 20%. Further, Koolboks is making refrigeration reliable where the grid is often not by coupling their coolers with off-grid solar, battery storage, and thermal storage. This reduces emissions both by eliminating the need for diesel-powered generators to run the refrigerators, and by reducing food loss waste. Koolboks is also part of RMI’s Energizing Agriculture Program, and we’re thrilled to have them joining Third Derivative as well. Learn more about Koolboks: ▶ https://lnkd.in/db3jyxck  Natalie Casey Ayoola Dominic Interested in being a part of Third Derivative’s accelerator program? Applications are open for our next general cohort and will now be open until April 2nd. Learn more and apply: 👉 https://lnkd.in/erTeARqT    What's this building sector startup spotlight? As D3’s Building Sector Lead, I wanted to welcome our 24-1 cohort startups, and give an extra spotlight to our new building sector companies for my network and professional friends here in the architecture, engineering, and construction world. My goal is simply to bring leading decarbonization innovations to the AEC community to spark inspiration and collaboration. We have seven building sector (and adjacent) companies in our 24-1 cohort, and I plan to highlight one a day. I hope you follow along! #RMI #ClimateTech #ClimateSolutions #Startups #Entrepreneur #Cooling #EnergyAccess #CoolingAccess

Discover the MIT CEP journey through Alex Wright-Gladstein’s lens, Co-founder of Ayar Labs. Ayar Labs, one of our successful alumni community, has earned a spot among the Top 5 New Products or Technologies to Watch by HPCwire 2023! 🚀 Ready to tread the path of our alumni successes? Follow in their footsteps by becoming a part of our vibrant community. Don't miss out—apply now at www.cep.mit.edu/apply or if you’re looking for team partners find it here https://lnkd.in/e6tURVbx! #climatetech #decarbonization #competition #entrepreneurship #socialenterprise #climatesolutions #startups #team #renewables #innovation #student #climate #renewableenergy #competition #mit #startup #sustainability #climatechange #pitch #funding #energy #acceleration #business #businessideas #esg #matching #fundraising #openapplication #team #studentcompetition #founders #venturecapital #networking #mentoring

It's Climate Tech Accelerator Application Season with due dates almost here! Please get the word out to founding teams in your network. Cascadia CleanTech Accelerator, a collaboration between VertueLab and CleanTech Alliance. Applications are due this Friday, April 5. More here: https://lnkd.in/gDtSv2BH 45Camp Pre-Accelerator and Accelerator, a new program powered by Vertuelab for underrepresented entrepreneurs in the climate sector. The pre-accelerator is a great fit for concept-stage startups. Applications are due Sunday, April 7. The Accelerator is for founders who want to dive deeper into business innovation with a product or concept. Applications are due Monday, April 22. More here: https://lnkd.in/gNmdFGtZ CleanTech Open, the largest clean tech accelerator in the U.S., applications open until Sunday, April 14. More here: https://lnkd.in/dW9eBgvj

We're taking a look at the founder of CarbonCure Technologies - an east coast start-up that has revolutionized the concrete space by decarbonizing the ready-mix concrete space. Robert Niven has taken a good hard look into concrete decarbonization for a long time. It was his thesis when attending McGrill University and decided to make a big move to Halifax and start his first company. He met with local concrete producers who decided to take a chance on him. CarbonCure Technologies was founded in 2012, with an initial product focused on cinder blocks. What makes CarbonCure so effective is the chemistry they are putting the concrete through and taking CO2 which reacts to the cement by forming calcium carbonate nanomaterial. This provides additional strength and enables greater efficiency for concrete producers. The key here to adopting new decarbonized products is by creating a product concrete producers would find better then what they're already using. CarbonCure's mission is to reduce 500 mega tons per year by 2030. They've caught the eye of plenty of prominent cleantech VCs, raising a total of $92.4M from the likes of Blue Earth Capital AG, Amazon's Climate Pledge Fund, Samsung Ventures, Microsoft's Climate Innovation Fund and others. CarbonCure is operating in 30 countries and have produced nearly 5 million truckloads, carrying more than 37 million cubic yards of lower carbon concrete, saving 290,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide. #startupsuccess #startupstories #founderstory #founder #founders #founderlife #founderbackground #startupbackground #startupcommunity #cleantech #startuptips #innovation #innovate #newfuture #cleanerfuture #tech #disruptive #disrupt #motivation #inspiration #inspired #makeadifference #growth #startupnation #startup #startups #entrepreneur #entrepreneurship #entrepreneurlife

Grant funding opportunities: Foundation Industries Clean Heat Accelerator Programme (closes 31 May): Are you an ambitious business aiming to grow in Clean Heat? Apply for this 5-month accelerator to take your start-up or small business to the next level. The Accelerator will support up to 15 ambitious businesses enabling the transition to clean heat in buildings. https://buff.ly/4bJZnTm Clean Futures Accelerator (closes 9 June): Calling all West Midlands innovators: receive up to £50K in challenges built around rail and automotive manufacturing and their related supply chains. https://buff.ly/44XB5U2 New Innovators in net zero industry, South West Wales (closes 19 June): UK registered micro and small businesses can apply for a share of up to £1.5 million for projects that grow their innovation activities in net zero industry in South West Wales. https://buff.ly/4dUA6YS Construction start-up competition (closes 30 June): Cemex Ventures, Caterpillar, Dysruptek by Haskell, Ferrovial, Hilti, VINCI Group’s Leonard, NOVA by Saint-Gobain, Trimble, and Zacua Ventures join forces to host the 8th edition of the construction sector’s biggest startup competition. They are scouting for the next-gen startups with the most innovative solutions that fall under our 4 focus areas: Green Construction, Enhanced Productivity, Construction Supply Chain, Future of Construction. https://buff.ly/45hpjUh

Well done and great progress ... Biosphare Solar is moving at light speed towards the first circular solar panel

🌏Calling all #ClimateTech startups and entrepreneurs, applications are now open for Uptake Alliance’s venture development program. The 6-month program is dedicated to supporting climatetech startups to scale and reach the market as quickly as possible. The program, administered by ADL Ventures and supported by NYSERDA, provides a point-of-entry for climate tech entrepreneurs and startups looking to do business in New York State. Submit your application through the Uptake website here. The deadline for submissions is April 26, so make sure to apply early! If you want to hear more about the program or have additional questions, Uptake is hosting a webinar on March 28th 3pm ET. Sign up to learn more. #innovation #climatetechange #tech #energy #renewable #sustainability #sustainable #climatetech #cleantech #cleanenergy #technology #climate #environment #community #startups #utilities #investors #policymakers #accelerators #venturedevelopment #netzerofuture #decarbonizeNY

What is a reverse pitch? Industry partnerships are crucial to supporting startups. They can be first customers and early adopters of emerging technology and services. They can also be important collaborators in making sure an innovation meets a market need and has a clear commercialization pathway. One way to make sure innovators and startups are getting connected to those industry partners and priorities is through a reverse pitch event. It's an opportunity for partners from that sector (government, private business, or other established organizations and experts) to lay out their needs, technology, or projects they are developing, and their wish list for solutions that could come from or developed with startups. Grid Catalyst hosted a cleantech reverse pitch on March 20 with Bill Weber (3M), Al Innes (Minnesota Pollution Control Agency), Jeremy Lenz (national water and technology expert), Ellie Rabine (City of St. Louis Park), and Richard Graves, FAIA (Center for Sustainable Building Research/University of Minnesota). They laid out the priorities for their sectors and organizations and connected with founders at the event. Check out the video - https://lnkd.in/g5HcSgFj #AccelerateNorth #jargon #reversepitch #energy #startups #AprilAcceleratorAcademy