Six early-stage local weather and deep-tech startups confronted off at a pitch contest and completely satisfied hour in Seattle as a part of PNW Local weather Week. Entrepreneurs, buyers and local weather tech fans packed the Thursday night occasion at Stoup Brewing on Capitol Hill.
The competing firms are tackling quite a lot of sustainability challenges, together with photo voltaic panel recycling, deployment of residential warmth pumps and AI-assisted ocean flooring surveys.
The panel of judges and the gang each topped Aquagga because the winner, awarding the startup $1,500 in prize cash. The corporate is growing moveable, modular items for destroying PFAS “eternally chemical compounds” that for years have been utilized in meals packaging, carpets and materials, water-repellent clothes and non-stick pans.
The chemical compounds are used to repel water, stains and grease, however they escape from merchandise and contaminate ingesting water throughout the U.S. and are even detected in breast milk.
In his presentation, CEO Dhileep Sivam showcased how his startup’s know-how straight addresses buyer ache factors. Aquagga eliminates all types of PFAS whereas treating wastewater contaminated with further pollution, providing an economical onsite different to costly transportation and incineration processes.
“We’re constructing one thing that’s going to be actually enticing for our clients,” Sivam mentioned.
The CEO famous that Aquagga, which launched in 2019, is scaling operations for greater cleanup tasks. The corporate has secured new contracts with 3M and landed a three-year Colorado deal to course of undesirable firefighting foam containing PFAS.
The competition’s judges had been Rodrigo Prudencio, managing companion at Propeller VC; Gabriel Scheer, senior director of innovation for the funding nonprofit Elemental Impression; Dana Robinson, a member of the climate-focused, angel funding group E8; and Alex Younger, senior affiliate at Vitality Impression Companions.
The occasion was hosted by E8 and Gliding Ant Ventures, a company supporting startups pursuing low-carbon applied sciences.
PNW Local weather Week is a 10-day regional convention centered on the clean-energy transition with occasions held in Seattle, Tacoma, Bellevue, Portland, Vancouver, B.C., and Bellingham. It runs till Friday.
Learn on to be taught extra concerning the startups, and discover extra of GeekWire’s sustainability tech protection right here.
Aquagga
Enterprise: Constructing gadgets that destroy pricey, hard-to-treat PFAS chemical compounds.
HQ: Tacoma, Wash.
Management: CEO Sivam has held management roles at Mental Ventures and Breakthrough Vitality, and served as entrepreneur-in-residence on the College of Washington’s Clear Vitality Institute.
Aris Hydronics
Enterprise: Offering sustainable heating and cooling methods and water heaters in residential settings. The startup designs, sells and installs the methods and offers follow-up knowledge and help.
HQ: Milwaukie, Ore.
Management: Robert Benjamin, founder and CEO, has been a startup advisor, a director and founder in advertising and movie manufacturing, and studied mechanical engineering.
Electra
Enterprise: Providing photo voltaic panel recycling that features partnerships with assortment facilities, transportation to licensed recyclers, repurposing with nonprofits the place attainable, and monitoring.
HQ: Bellingham, Wash.
Management: Heather Alvis, founder and CEO, was an operations specialist at Renew Photo voltaic, a California firm providing photo voltaic panel recycling, and held management roles overseeing software program engineers and enterprise operations at a number of firms.
L5 Automation
Enterprise: Creating agricultural robots as a service that may present crop knowledge from within the discipline and harvest produce, starting with strawberries.
HQ: Los Angeles space
Management: Alexander Gutierrez, founder and CEO, co-founded the house robotics firm Astrobotic Know-how and was a analysis engineer at Lockheed Martin for 9 years with a give attention to robotics and course of automation.
StrateSea Know-how
Enterprise: Engineering know-how utilizing AI to research huge portions of undersea movies collected for offshore building of wind energy and laying cables, and naval surveys for detecting mines and different anomalies.
HQ: Portland, Ore.
Management: Victoria Worth-Doucet, co-founder and CEO, was director of knowledge and AI for Slalom; a researcher with the Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and personal firms; and world provide chain director with Nike.
ZILA BioWorks
Enterprise: Creating plant-based resins and epoxies to interchange high-carbon options with an preliminary give attention to gear for snowboarding and snowboarding.
HQ: Renton, Wash.
Management: Jason Puracal, co-founder and CEO, was a pacesetter in actual property and sustainable infrastructure in Nicaragua, and government director of the East Shore Unitarian Church in Bellevue, Wash.
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