Joint Venture Gets a Boost from U.S. EDA Innovation Grant
Participants hail from San Francisco, Pittsburgh and Chicago, but the hope is they’ll find connections and customers in the Carolinas. Eight early-stage companies in the fast-growing clean technology sector will visit Charlotte and the Research Triangle from March 20-22, as part of a regional collaboration to grow cleantech jobs and investment here.
This is the sixth year Joules Accelerator has brought companies to Charlotte but the first year of a formal partnership to expand its reach to the Research Triangle region and beyond. The joint venture between Joules Accelerator and the Research Triangle Cleantech Cluster (RTCC) is supported by a three-year $1.5 million matching grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration’s Regional Innovation Strategies program and North Carolina’s business community.
“Our portfolio focus has broadened from legacy grid infrastructure to tech solutions that mitigate water and food waste, improve urban walkability, and turn electric car fleets into distributed power plants, to name a few examples” said Bob Irvin, Joules Accelerator’s executive director. “We’re targeting the sectors with solutions our stakeholders are looking for, and that net has widened as smart cities and sustainability have become more mainstream.”
The startup cohort will be introduced to the two communities through networking events and one-on-one meetings with utilities, government staff, business executives and industry experts.
Corridor vision
The goal of the partnership is to launch a “cleantech corridor” that will tap into the strengths of the region between Charlotte and the Research Triangle to promote local expansion, relocation and project deployment for emerging technology companies. Charlotte’s assets include Duke Energy, one of the largest electric utilities in the country, while the Triangle is home to a smart grid cluster of over 1,800 companies and organizations.
“Our vision is to bring municipalities, utilities, industry and academia to source technology solutions for communities across North Carolina,” said Susan Sanford, Executive Director of RTCC. “We are excited about the opportunity the corridor presents to small, innovative communities as well as our larger cities.”
Meet the cohort
Public sessions with the cohort companies include an opening reception on March 20 at the Duke Energy Innovation Center at Optimist Hall in Charlotte. The reception will be the first community event in the newly renovated space. Optimist Hall houses employees from Duke’s technology and customer solutions divisions and was designed to facilitate the collaborative culture more typically found at a startup.
Guest speakers at the event include Brian Savoy, Duke’s senior vice president for business transformation and technology, and Mariela Alfonzo, CEO of State of Place, a selectee from the 2018 accelerator program that landed three contracts in North Carolina last year.
The cohort will then travel to the Research Triangle for meetings and an open-to-the-public networking event at Junction West in downtown Raleigh’s startup-centric warehouse district on March 21.
Registration for the Charlotte event: https://joules_sneek_peak.eventbrite.com.
Registration for the Raleigh event: http://www.researchtrianglecleantech.org/innovatorsnetworking.
2019 cohort members and headquarter locations:
San Francisco, CA – AMPLY Powerprovides “charging-as-a-service” to de-risk the process of deploying EV fleet charging infrastructure.
Charlotte, NC – Ardent Edgeuses low-cost, off-the-shelf components to reduce the cost of energy storage systems.
Atlanta, GA – Goodris a sustainable surplus food management platform which leverages technology to reduce food waste and combat hunger.
Cambridge, MA – Infinite Coolinghas developed a technology which reduces water consumption by evaporative cooling by over 20% and monetizes that water with purchasing agreements.
Pittsburgh, PA – RoadBoticsis an infrastructure technology company, utilizing machine learning and artificial intelligence to revolutionize how governments make data-driven pavement management decisions.
Chicago, IL – Switched Sourcemanufactures a grid management hardware solution that allows neighboring power lines to be operated as a networked platform.
Austin, TX – Varuna IoTprovides hardware and software for utilities to perform real-time water quality monitoring across a region.
San Francisco, CA – WeaveGriddevelops software-based solutions for integrating electric vehicle charging, while enabling grid operators to utilize EV batteries as dynamic distributed resource.
About Joules Accelerator
Joules Accelerator enables the growth of high-potential clean energy startups by providing advice and making connections to industry, community and utility leaders through the bi-annual Catalyst Program based in Charlotte, N.C. Since its 2013 founding, the accelerator has supported the creation of 90 jobs, $15 million in investment and multiple pilot projects. Joules Accelerator is a nonprofit organization funded by Duke Energy the U.S. Economic Development Administration. For more information, please visit https://www.joulesaccelerator.com.
About RTCC
The Research Triangle Cleantech Cluster (RTCC) was established in 2012 as an industry-led consortium to accelerate the growth of the Research Triangle’s cleantech economy by bringing together government, academia, and industry leaders. RTCC focuses its work in three strategic areas: talent attraction and development, business growth and marketing, and community and industry engagement. The Research Triangle region is home to more than 1,800 cleantech companies developing solutions in smart cities, the Internet of Things, smart grid, transportation, and water, advanced manufacturing, renewables, and energy efficiency. For more information, visit http://www.researchtrianglecleantech.org.
