The seven ACCEL Year 2 participating startups are working on everything from yeast-centered water treatment, to vertical-axis offshore wind turbines, to algae- and cellulose-based fashion beads. And in the first half of the program, they’ve been hard at work on tech and business development.
ACCEL is an accelerator from Greentown Labs and Browning the Green Space (BGS) that’s dedicated to bolstering BIPOC-led startups as they develop critical climatetech solutions by offering access to funding, networking connections, resources, and opportunities that structural inequities put out of reach. This year-long program combines acceleration with a curated curriculum, incubation through Greentown membership, and extensive mentorship from Greentown and BGS’s networks of industry experts.
Over the past six months, the participating startups—AtmoSpark Technologies, Aquasaic, Axis Sky Renewables, Carbon Negative Solutions, Cellsense, EcoForge, and Sankofa Dynamics—have gone through comprehensive training with our Curriculum and Resources Partner VentureWell, diving into topics from product-market fit, to value-proposition development, to customer discovery and relations. They’ve met regularly with expert mentors, reached key milestones, and charted their paths forward.
This fall, they presented their impressive climate technologies at an ACCEL Showcase at Greentown Houston. Read on to learn what they shared about their solutions and progress during the program!
Thank you to ACCEL’s funders—the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, Microsoft, Equinor, The Ion, Barr Foundation, bp, and Somernova—for making this program possible, and to our showcase speakers Taylor Brugh, Climate Innovation Fund and Business and Operations Lead, Microsoft; Tim Bartlett, U.S. Ecosystems Lead, Equinor; and Tiffany Heitkamp, Vice President DE&I Workforce, bp!
AtmoSpark Technologies
AtmoSpark Technologies (Houston, Texas) is an atmospheric water generation company with a patented electro-condensation technology, which has a 40 percent lower energy footprint than that of current water-generation methods. Its co-founders are Tejus Mane and Aniket Khade.
AtmoSpark Technologies and a partner recently conducted a pilot with a company under a grant from the U.S. Department of Defense, and the startup has secured another paid pilot with a data-center operations company that involves scaling its tech 10x over the upcoming year.
AtmoSpark Technologies is currently raising a $2.6M seed round that will help it carry out pilots, scale production, and grow its team.
“I want to thank ACCEL, Greentown Labs, Browning the Green Space, and all our mentors who have really guided us, helping us hone our value proposition and business model,” Mane said.
Aquasaic
Aquasaic (Cambridge, Mass.) is enabling clean energy while delivering clean water for every life’s mosaic. Its co-founders are Shalmalee Pandit and Nikita Patil.
The startup’s tech centers on an engineered yeast that removes heavy metals—including lead, mercury, arsenic, and more—from water without using harsh chemicals. Aquasaic intends to apply its solution with government and industrial partners, including in mining and oil and gas.
Aquasaic has secured a water-treatment pilot with the city of Antioch, CA. In addition to conducting this pilot, next priorities for the startup include locking down industrial pilot projects.
“We are very thankful for the accelerators and programs we’ve been a part of, including ACCEL, that have helped us set up and really get going,” said Patil, Aquasaic’s CTO.
Axis Sky Renewables
Axis Sky Renewables (Houston, Texas) is developing the next generation of wind energy. Its towerless, vertical-axis wind turbine for offshore applications is more financially competitive than current offshore solutions are, paving the way for offshore wind farm development that makes economic sense for the environment, the customer, and the business. The tech’s unique design reduces OPEX by placing generators at the base of the platform, and the turbines can be installed close to each other, requiring less total area. Axis Sky Renewables’s founder is Andre Gafford.
The Axis Sky Renewables team noted how valuable ACCEL, and in particular the VentureWell programming, has been for the startup.
“The ACCEL program has allowed us to streamline our milestones and achieve our goals,” the startup’s CFO Gabrielle Gafford shared. “And now it has prepared us to raise capital.”
This funding, targeted at $500k, will support team growth and tech development.
“We’re starting to raise funds to build out our team and to create what’s called a digital twin that allows us to de-risk the project,” CEO Andre Gafford said. “This proof-of-concept allows developers to understand and be more comfortable as we transition into the prototype stage. Then we’ll start looking for pilots, commercial pilots, and eventually get to commercial sales.”
Learn more about Axis Sky Renewables and see renderings of its wind turbines!
Carbon Negative Solutions
Carbon Negative Solutions (Rock Hill, N.Y.) is remediating air and ground pollution for industrial companies, converting these waste streams into carbon-negative concrete products—enabling industrial companies to transform their waste into money-making assets, all while decarbonizing their operations. Its founder is Keith Crossland.
The startup utilizes proprietary AI and carbon capture to produce waste-upcycled concrete that co-decarbonizes two hard-to-abate industries simultaneously: heavy industry and cement/concrete.
During ACCEL, Carbon Negative Solutions was accepted into Village Capital’s impact investing program, VertueLab’s 45Camp accelerator, and Creative Destruction Lab. The startup won the All Things Innovation pitch competition and a Technology Game Changer award from Greentown and was named a semifinalist in the 2024 Black Ambition Prize Competition. Crossland has also been featured by the Concrete Credentials podcast and in a TEDx Talk.
“I love the program, people, and the opportunities granted,” Crossland said, reflecting on the first six months of ACCEL.
Now, the startup is looking for pilot demonstration partners for its tech. Watch a video featuring Carbon Negative Solutions here!
Cellsense
Cellsense (Somerville, Mass.) transforms algae and cellulose into compostable beads that eliminate microplastics in the design and cosmetic industries. Its founder is Aradhita Parasrampuria.
Wanting its products to be desirable to designers, Cellsense engineered bacteria to achieve a vivid color palette with brilliant properties such as translucency and bioluminescence. The desirability of its materials has been validated through three successful paid B2B pilots, where pilot partners have become repeat customers. The startup has received inbound requests from over 25 brands interested in purchasing its product.
Cellsense has also automated the manufacturing of beaded fabric, creating a streamlined process that is 20 times faster and 70 percent more cost-efficient than traditional methods.
During ACCEL, Cellsense worked in Greentown Boston’s wet lab—thanks to the support of program funders Microsoft and bp—and won the Redesign Everything Challenge from What Design Can Do. The startup was also a finalist for the inaugural Earthshot Innovation Challenge: Northeast U.S. Edition, winning $25k.
“Through the wet lab resources and support provided to us by ACCEL, we have successfully completed R&D for our proprietary formula, applied for patents, and tested our novel manufacturing systems,” Parasrampuria said. “Now, we’re looking to transition from a prototype to a pilot plant.”
EcoForge
EcoForge (Providence, R.I.) develops safer and more sustainable chemicals for use in making building materials, driving innovation for a healthier planet. Its co-founders are Rongyu Na, Myung Bender, and Kaixi Yang.
EcoForge has been accelerating quickly during the ACCEL program, fully leveraging prototyping and wet lab space at Greentown—the latter of which is made possible through the support of ACCEL funders Microsoft and bp—while meeting corporates including BASF, a Greentown partner that visited EcoForge’s lab space to explore its product innovations.
The startup created the first sustainable binding agent for furniture and interiors, hit major milestones with a successful customer pilot, and wrapped up the Cleantech Open Northeast 2024 accelerator. EcoForge was recently accepted into the IMPEL program, which partners with Greentown.
“We’re building serious momentum, thanks to the support from Greentown Labs and ACCEL,” says Na, who goes by Sodium. “To keep our edge, we’ve integrated AI into our R&D, driving rapid, scalable, and cost-effective solutions that are ready for the real world. Our AI-driven approach is unlocking practical, scalable solutions. It’s also been great to connect with corporate partners such as [Greentown partner] BASF—it was wonderful to meet the team during a lab tour.”
Sankofa Dynamics
Sankofa Dynamics (Boston, Mass.) creates low-cost, eco-friendly solutions for water, heat, and energy problems by developing atmospheric water generators (atmospheric water harvesters or AWGs) using carbonized post-consumer waste and non-toxic biodegradable materials. Its founder is Chauncy L. Spencer.
Initially, the company’s focus will be reducing high energy consumption from indoor farming facilities due to their need for dehumidification and heat-management equipment. Sankofa Dynamics’s solution is a two-part system that uses a water-absorbing hydrogel and a geothermally cooled phase change material (PCM) to replace traditional industrial equipment that uses significantly more energy.
The startup’s upcoming priorities include securing its IP, building its team, identifying pilot partners, and finding local sources of post-consumer-waste feed materials.
“I’m happily overwhelmed with the resources, such as the access to information, networking, and motivational and technical support available,” Spencer said about ACCEL.
We’re getting ready to launch the next year of ACCEL! Interested in becoming a funder and helping make this accelerator possible? Get in touch.
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