Greentown is proud to partner with IMPEL+ (Incubating Market-Propelled Entrepreneurial-Mindset at the Labs and Beyond) and the Department of Energy (DOE)’s Building Technologies Office, alongside our friends at Austin Technology Incubator (ATI), to foster a buildings innovation ecosystem across the country.
Buildings consume almost 40 percent of our energy and produce more than 30 percent of the United States’ greenhouse gas emissions. We’re proud to join the country’s leading researchers, scientists, entrepreneurs, and businesses to catalyze energy innovations across the buildings sector—both commercial and residential—to help decarbonize the industry and move us closer toward bold climate action.
This spring, we collaborated with IMPEL+ to host a building tech pitch day, which featured seven startups that are leading the way in sustainable building innovations. The event was a platform for strategic connections between the startups and Greentown and IMPEL+’s combined network of corporates, public agencies, investors, and others who can play a key role in startups’ success.
This summer and fall, we’re excited to continue bolstering these startups by granting them access to both Greentown’s robust selection of member-only programming—which is designed to equip startups with the connections and knowledge they need to succeed—and our community of supportive climatetech entrepreneurs.
Meet these seven leading building tech startups below!
Community Energy Labs
Community Energy Labs (CEL)’s mission is to affordably enable communities’ building decarbonization goals by 2030. CEL’s core AI-powered clean building control platform was a regional winner of Cleantech Open’s 2020 international accelerator, an overall winner in the 2020 Madrona Venture Labs Go Vertical challenge, and a 2021 IMPEL+ building innovator, and is part of the EPRI Incubate Energy 2021 cohort.
Ecoclosure
Ecoclosure aims to retrofit low performing windows with intelligent microalgae windows to offer building energy savings, carbon sequestrations, and high-value bio-products.
InventWood
InventWood™ is committed to transforming the world by developing cellulose-based materials that are high-quality, cost-effective, and environmentally sustainable.
MicroEra Power
MicroEra Power is a venture-backed company developing and commercializing THERMAplus, a smart thermal energy storage system for commercial buildings. The startup has developed a unique phase change material that stores both heat and cooling at temperatures that are ideal when paired with heat pump, solar thermal, and fuel cell systems. THERMAplus has global potential as a tool for managing peak electrical loads by shifting building loads to lower-cost and renewable-intensive periods.
Midflare Corporation
Midflare is a commercial and utility-scale solar project developer providing clean electricity to mid-market companies, large energy buyers, and utilities. Midflare’s development strategy is to develop solar projects ranging in size from 10-500 MW to meet the renewable portfolio requirements of utilities and companies at highly competitive prices. The startup creates energy solutions that deliver cost certainty while helping organizations meet their sustainability objectives.
Ultrasonic Technology Solutions
Drying is a very energy-intensive and costly process. Ultrasonic Technology Solutions (UTS) has developed a novel ultrasonic drying technology that mechanically shakes the wet material and extracts water very quickly and efficiently. UTS’ technology is two times faster and five times more efficient in drying wet material than conventional heat-based drying systems, meaning UTS can significantly reduce drying’s carbon footprint.
XeroHome
XeroHome enables utilities to target and engage residential customers for energy efficiency and decarbonization retrofits. XeroHome’s innovative cloud platform creates unique energy upgrade recommendations for each home by integrating remotely available public datasets into individual EnergyPlus building energy models.
Watch a recording of the Building Tech Pitch Day below to hear these seven startups pitch!