Scholarships Announced for Clean Tech, Water Innovation MassChallenge Finalists

Sally Griffith, Project Manager

There are a lot of great ideas out there that could prove transformative. With over 150 universities and a strong culture of research and development in Massachusetts, our state already has the right conditions to develop breakthroughs in clean energy and water innovation technologies.

But getting these technologies out into the marketplace requires more than technical abilities; to form a successful company, you need to understand the best market for your product, gain skills to attract funding and customers and build the capacity for manufacturing.

This is where accelerator programs like MassChallenge and CleanTech Open Northeast come in. By providing early-stage companies training and access to mentors , they are able to help these companies address these areas, accelerating them along the pathway to commercialization.

This year, MassCEC joined Autodesk, Cydan, the John W. Henry Family Foundation and Microsoft to provide scholarships of $5,000 directly to companies accepted into the accelerator program. The MassCEC scholarship focused on startups in Massachusetts that are developing and commercializing technologies that contribute to the advancement of clean energy and water innovation.

We’re excited to announce the first recipients, and look forward to following their progress throughout the program:

• AquaFresco Inc. – developing an efficient laundry process expected to reduce water and detergent use by 95 percent.
• Blackburn Energy  – developing a power unit that produces electricity from a truck’s driveline, which can be stored and used to power sleeper cabs, eliminating the need for overnight engine idling.
• Kwiksulate – developing a foam insulation system that allows a user to dispense insulating spray foam without external machines.
• PSM Energy – developing a company to finance and aggregate solar assets using an online financing and asset management platform.
• Water Hero – developing a web-connected, smart-phone-enabled plumbing leak detection and prevention tool to reduce water waste.