BLUE Crew News - Q1 2022 - In This Edition | |
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BLUE Incubator Welcomed
- An amazing Business Advisor from across the Pond
- Spotlight on Startups' news to share
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KZO Sea Farms Africa: Food security, job development, AUSV TRITON
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Women in BlueTech Distinguished Speakers Roundtable with Donna Lanzetta, CEO Manna Fish Farms and Liané Thompson, CEO Aquaai.
- Upcoming Women in Blue Tech, ClimateTech and Blue Economy Speakers
- BLUE Incubator Winter topics and looking ahead!
BLUE Institute Labs
- SmartPorts Barcelona: BLUE COO Nathan Stempel speaks on the Blue Acceleration Panel
- BLUE Navigator launch - call out for additions
- UMass Dartmouth Seniors from the Carleton College of Business create BLUE Incubator program analysis using radar graphs
- MIT Sea Grant Lab visit - meet Zippy, Flippy, and "Drew's Crew"
- Hats off to the Northeastern Toronto Students in the Master of Science Project Management who completed their Capstone Project with a significant deep dive and redesign of the BLUE Excelerator program (designed in 2019 by BLUE Institute Labs, now run through our sister nonprofit 501c3 Blue Institute, Inc.).
- From the BLUE Institute: BLUE Excelerator Third Cohort (BX3) Mentors & Startups Call Out; 5th Annual Words on Water. Both applications & Submissions due Valentine's Day! #loveourblueplanet
- Impact Investment: curious on how an impact investment fund is started? We've got the scoop.
- Inbia's 37th International Conference on Business Incubation (ICBI37) - Detroit, Michigan - April.
- Oceans 23 Limerick, June: Enhancing a Sustainable Blue Economy through Teaching Entrepreneurship Fundamentals to Ocean Science and Engineering Students - call for papers.
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We welcome these four amazing startups to our Bi-Monthly Meetups. | |
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Harmony Desalting is an MIT spinout making water desalination more affordable and sustainable using batch reverse osmosis (RO).
Harmony Desalting aims to start by treating the harshest waters in the most remote locations, going where other RO processes cannot reliably perform. Initial applications include treatment of mining water and renewable-powered desalination.
Scroll below to learn more about their recent awards and field testing.
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Smart Dry is a Brazilian startup focused on making the mining industry more environmentally sustainable. Their process includes mineral separation, water extraction, and recovery services for minerals, concentrates and tailing materials based on liquefaction. Smart Dry's patent pending solution, vibrates the container creating liquefaction effect on the cargo. The liquid layer is sucked up, reducing the total amount of liquid in the cargo. By using a extraction solution during liquefaction, Smart Dry can recover soluble minerals present in tailings (new and old). | | |
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Argoneta mission is designing, building and operating underwater habitats to provide safe, affordable and accessible underwater work/play/live experiences and capabilities.
Argoneta, based in North Carolina, is improving humanity by transforming our ability to work, play and live under the surface of sea.
Short term underwater stays from 1 day to 8 days for recreation, conservation or science.
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Beluga Dive, based in Malta, is a movement of divers working together to restore our oceans. Beluga Dive helps speed up scientific discover with global underwater data collection.
Beluga Dive deploys and maintains ocean based climate solutions. Available soon on app stores Google Play and Apple.
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BLUE Incubator Advisor Spotlight:
Marilou SEC, Founder Blue Connection
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"Blue Connection is a Blue Growth Consulting Company, located in Toulon (France).
Blue Connection is committed to the emergence of innovations FOR and BY the Ocean, by connecting Blue Economy's actors and supporting the development and promotion of blue technologies and activities.
Blue Connection actively participates in the achievement of the #14 and #13 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations and offers unique services to support innovative organizations towards a blue growth.
Blue Connection is led by Marilou SUC, specialized in International Business Development, Digital Marketing and Strategic Information / Innovation Management in the Blue Economy sector.
Trained with key innovative Blue Tech actors in Europe and in the USA, she brings her experiences, her expertise and her international blue tech network for the benefit of innovative actors.
Marilou’s experience and passion for new business development and Blue Technologies makes her the perfect partner for your Blue Growth Strategy.
She is always curious and interested in new innovations and new opportunities in the Blue Tech sector."
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Startups in the news and news to share. | | |
Kadeya Awarded AFWERX SBIR Phase 1, and Seeks Collaborative Partners
As well as an undeniable environmental issue, the supply of bottled water to Air Force Bases represents an enormous economic and logistic burden for the military, both abroad and locally, where hundreds of thousands of dollars are spent to supply bottled water to AFBs and nearby areas contaminated with PFAs. By building a local mini bottling plant at the point of use, Kadeya has developed a safe and cost-efficient solution to bring bottled water from local sources to the workplace while avoiding single-use plastic bottles and reducing carbon footprint. Kadeya hydration stations integrate advanced water filtration, bottle cleaning, bottle sanitization and automated visual inspection to provide users with crisp, clear, tasteless, safe drinking water in sealed, sanitized, and reusable bottles. Using an advanced filtration process and an activated carbon & ion exchange filter, Kadeya purifies water of 99.999% of bacteria, parasites, and microplastics found in tap water. While any AF installation would benefit from a sustainable alternative to bottled water, at contaminated AFBs this is a critical health issue. We will look for our first end-users among the AFBs and installations where the Air Force has taken Drinking Water Response actions by offering them a Safe & convenient bottled water from raw, local water sources, with minimal logistics requirements that will:
• Miniaturize a bottling facility to decentralize the point of production to the point of purchase/use.
• Build a closed loop logistics platform to manage a new asset: reusable bottles.
• Deliver the most sustainable, convenient, and high-quality bottled water in the world.
• Provide consumers with first-in-class individual hydration and carbon footprint statistics.
• Power the final stock of bottles, the world will ever need.
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13 Mari Tow Tank Testing & $1M seed round raise
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13 Mari has the due diligence report completed content-wise with Keiretsu Forum. One last due diligence team meeting toward the end of next week will make it final. With the finalized report, the company starts the $1M seed round raising. The terms are 20% discount, $6.5M valuation cap, and 8% interest.
On the product side, 13 Mari has the first element manufactured at the partnering factory of Lodkostroitel at Tutrakan, targeting a 175m / 32,000 DWT bulk carrier retrofit in early 2023. The company has validated the adhesive shear yield, presently validating the reliable separation into a middle, sacrificial layer. Tow tank tests are underway, with the initial 4 days at the tow tank showing reduced drag in 2 of the 3 tested configurations. Additional 2-3 days of tow tank testing will take place before the 2022 year-end. The tests are taking place at BSHC in Varna.
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World's First Towable Seaweed Floating Farm:
Redrose Developments Ltd completes first Sea Trials!
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We at Redrose continue to give thanks for the continued support from the Blue Institute Labs and in particular from Judith Underwood.
Redrose is delighted to announce that we have successfully trialed the first towable floating seaweed farm. This pre-seeded modulated unit will enable fishers to become ocean farmers and addresses many of the market barriers to entry.
The system deployed in what is known across Europe as a ‘survival site’, located off the coast of Belmullet, County Mayo in Northwest Ireland. The site takes the brunt of the Atlantic storms and experienced four named storms within a seven-day period. The unit not only survived, demonstrating that it is robust in terms of design and is ‘fit for purpose’ but it also generated the anticipated yields of seaweed biomass. Redrose is currently working alongside agencies to explore the potential to collocate seaweed farms with offshore energy sites.
The success of the prototype opens many job opportunities, creates a healthier ocean and will improve marine biodiversity. The future goals will include working with US companies and entities to repeat and expand on the trials as seen in Ireland and we would like to engage as soon as possible to develop systems in the seaweed space that are compatible with local oceanic conditions in different areas and different species to cultivate for a range of commercial applications.
Please reach out to us to discuss ways in which we might be able to work together for both seaweed cultivation and also for nearshore processing units to capture the value of this amazing commodity.
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Biovert Protein Wins Prestigious Tech Challenge! | |
Biovert Protein selected as the Winner of the prestigious Tech Challenge 2022 from the Milwaukee, Wisconsin based Water Council, a global hub for fresh water innovation.
Picture: BSF Technology
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Harmony Desalting Team Wins
More Water Less Concentrate
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Picture: Eskuad Communication Flow
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From Chile to Maine: Eskuad is looking to make a difference in its new home
Max Echeverria founded his tech company in his home country of Chile before moving it to Maine after participating in the Techstars, hosted at Northeastern's Roux Institute in Portland.
Eskuad is growning and the business has earned significant financial backing from Google.
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Recent BLUE Incubator Bi-Monthly Meetup Speakers | |
BLUE Incubator was recently visited by KZO Founder Phil Cruver, Konstantinos Ghertsos, Ceo KZO Sea Farms Africa, and Andy Ziegwied, VP of Ocean Data at Ocean Aero for a discussion on offshore KZO Seafarms Africa on food security, job growth, and the impactful role of the triton - the world’s first and only environmentally powered Autonomous Underwater and Surface Vehicle (AUSV).
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Recent BLUE Incubator Bi-Monthly Meetup Speakers
Women in BlueTech Distinguished Speakers Roundtable
"If you see it, you can be it!"
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Fabulous discussion on everything from entrepreneurship to regulatory issues to funding. | |
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Upcoming BLUE Incubator Bi-Monthly Meetup Speakers
A few of the Distinguished Speakers for the Winter '23 Women in BlueTech Roundtables
"If you see it, you can be it!"
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Sloane Perras, Vice President
Foss Offshore Wind
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Nina Jensen
CEO, REV Ocean
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Celine Schulze, Co-founder & CEO
Narwhale Ventures
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Upcoming Topics for the BLUE Incubator in Q1 & Q2 |
- Industry: autonomy, ocean energy & offshore wind, blue biotech
- SBIR/STTR and other R&D funding opportunities
- Establishing representation or a business in Massachusetts
- Legal responsibilities for a startup and a conversation on IP
- Angel investors vs. VC's
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BLUE Institute Labs COO Speaks at Barcelona SmartPorts |
BLUE Institute Labs COO Nathan Stempel participated on a Blue Innovation panel at the Barcelona SmartPorts - Piers of the Future, in November. The panel on Blue Economy acceleration also included Ann Lee Carpenter, Co-Founder and CEO of Braid Theory based at AltaSea at the Port of Los Angeles; Andreas Schulze, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Narwhale Ventures based out of Geneva, Estonia, and Singapore; Nir Gartzman, Co-Founder & Managing Partner at theDOCK based out of Israel.
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BLUE Economy Navigator is an ongoing project of BLUE Institute Labs to identify organizations across the globe that advance the Blue Economy. We're adding all accelerators, incubators, cluster managers, research institutes and other advocacy programs of the Blue Economy (we are at 60+).
Future spotlight on our own Northeast regional - "Blue England."
If you would like to be added to the map, have your information updated or removed, please reach out via the link. Thank you.
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Business School Seniors Complete Operating Models Analysis | |
 | UMASS Dartmouth Seniors Eduard Marin, James Mason, Jovantae Cooper and Laura Korhonen conducted a SWOT analysis with operating model comparisons of startup accelerates to guide us in maximizing the value we bring to the companies in our cohorts and in the incubator. They conducted a qualitative analysis of over 40 startup accelerators and incubators across the dimensions of Technical Support, Supporting Strategy, Administrative Support, Providing Investment, and facilitating access to Mentors. The analysis compared for-profit and non-profit operating models and ended with very helpful recommendations, one of which is to double down on our capacity to provide deep technical support for founders! Well done team! Photo insert is a snapshot comparison of BLUE's operating model compared to the average profit and average non-profit operating model. (see attached for the photo mentioned). BLUE Institute Labs and the Blue Institute are Charlton Community Partners and have collaborated with Professor J. Einstein's senior business class since 2018. | |
After meeting at Oceans22 Sustainable Blue Economy talk on Open Innovation, and hearing about their research, a cool visit was arranged to meet the wider dynamic group of MIT undergrad students, their awesome lab professor, and to learn more about their amazing applied engineering projects at the Teaching Lab of the MIT Sea Grant Lab. Perhaps Flippy and Zippy will be future BlueTech spinouts??? | |
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Fiona J. Gillespie and Kassidy I. Peterson standing by "Flippy" designed to flip oyster cages.
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The "Drew" Crew
Dr. Andrew (Drew) Bennett, Education Administrator, MIT Sea Grant. Students: Fiona J. Gillespie, Kassidy I. Peterson, Ariana Ilvonen, Jessica Lam, and Audrey Chen.
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Arianna Ilvonen standing by "Zippy" designed for "fast" estuarian waters data collection. | |
Graduate Students at Northeastern University Toronto complete their Capstone project with BLUE Institute Labs. |
Hats off to the Northeastern University Toronto Students in the Master of Science Project Management who completed their Capstone Project with a significant deep dive and redesign of the BLUE Excelerator program (designed in 2019 by BLUE Institute Labs, now run through our sister nonprofit 501c3 Blue Institute, Inc.). We look forward to the implementation and activation of their important and impactful work - thank you Professor A. Aamer.
Thank you graduating students and congratulations!!!
Aruna Prabha Venkatasubramanian, Rohan Tashildar, Vidha Ajmani, Balaji Ravi, Prince Joshua Buduru, Rekha Kyathanahalli Suresh, Shanthi Maria Rani, Meghana Vijay, Savneet Kaur Chhatwal, Thomas Samuel, Mahmoodur Rahman Shaik, Noora Behzadpour, Rohnish Siddiqui, Anshul Karani, Sahil Batra, Samin Madani, Shantesh Varik, and Nirali Jitesh Dedhiya.
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BLUE Institute Announcements
Callout forBX3 callout for startups and Mentors!
Callout for submissions to 5th annual Words on Water!
Both deadlines Valentine's Day #loveourblueplanet!
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Veterans & Social Impact Funding Research | | |
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Recently, COO Nathan Stempel, and his former Navy colleague David Rossberg, participated in a specialized accelerator called VC Labs. They wanted to learn what it would take to organize and launch an impact venture fund by Veterans to support Veteran founders of climate impact startups.
If this is a topic of interest for you, please click the link below and we will be in touch to discuss - thank you!
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At BLUE we are grateful for the ongoing support and expertise from InBIA particularly as we move from (covid) primarily virtual home into a brick and mortar hybrid. | |
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Join BLUE in Detroit at the InBIA 37th International Conference!
InBIA is excited to announce the InBIA 37th International Conference on Business Incubation (ICBI37) which will be held this April 23 - 26 in Detroit, Michigan. The main conference activities will be happening in Detroit, but the entire state and also the neighboring city of Windsor, Canada, have much to offer in terms of innovation and entrepreneurship. Start making your plans to join InBIA in Detroit now - click here for more information and to register today!
Have expertise, tools, strategies, or other insights to share with an audience of peers? Submit a proposal to organize a session during ICBI37! The proposal form is open through January 13 - share your session ideas now. Questions? Email Lindsay Schuenke at [email protected] - we're always looking for new ways to best serve our conference attendees.
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Oceans2023 Limerick
Sustainable Blue Economy
Call for Abstracts on
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"Infusing Climate Entrepreneurship into the Academy"
Interested in participating on a special panel about "Enhancing a Sustainable Blue Economy through Teaching Entrepreneurship Fundamentals to Ocean Science and Engineering Students" ?
Please reach out for the full description. Abstracts due January 10th!
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