BOSTON -- Hope springs eternal.
As the economy improves, a new set of startups are seeking venture capital to fund product development and customer trials and commercialize production of existing products.
At the Cleantech Group's Boston forum, NIMTech, Diverse Energy, Primafuel and SNTech were among the many companies looking to establish and grow their businesses.
Toronto-based NIMTech looks to sell non-invasive measurement technologies to the industrial production sector. The firm's SonicGauge System uses patent-pending multispectral ultrasonic sensor technology to identify and monitor a substance's quality in real time.
"For instance, we're working with the largest ethanol producer in Canada to integrate real time fermentation monitoring across eight of their plants," said NIMTech Strategic Advisor Jason Kotler.
NIMTech seeks $1 million to complete development of its SonicGauge System and support ongoing feasibility projects with the LANXESS, and engage additional customers.
"We have a beachhead opportunity to develop a custom solution for a $6.7 billion Euro chemical manufacturer, LANXESS, to characterize their butyl rubber production processes," said Kotler. "Our SonicGauge system makes this possible by providing data that there is no other way they can get now. Their observability gap is so severe that they found us."
Based in the U.K., Diverse Energy aims to supply off-grid cellular phone towers with fuel cell based baseload power. Designed to replace the twin diesel generators currently used by mobile phone towers in many developing countries, the company's PowerCube provides hydrogen for its fuel cell system from ammonia.
"The critical thing is where do you get your hydrogen from? We get our hydrogen from ammonia," said Diverse Energy's Operations Director, Dr. Alastair Livesey. "We are a patented, high-efficiency small [Ammonia] cracker. We are partnered with one of the four biggest industrial gas suppliers worldwide, Linde. They will deliver the ammonia."
Diverse Energy has finished development of its PowerCube and has trials already underway in Namibia and Tanzania. The company is seeking $17 million to fund additional customer trials and begin small-series production.
Primafuel, out of Southern California, has developed and deployed modular technology that extracts and purifies high-value renewable compounds from biomass waste. Last year, the company fully commercialized its first product, SMAART, which extracts residual oil from corn-ethanol waste. This year, the technology platform has already brought in more than $4 million in revenues. Primafuel's second platform, CLARITY, will extract valuable organic, succinic, lactic, and acetic acids.
"Our revenue model is straightforward. We sell equipment at a thirty to forty percent margin," said Primafuel Co-Founder Rahul Iyer. "We also retain a piece of the ongoing sales of the product that we extract – essentially a royalty stream," added Chief Operating Officer Brook Porter.
Primafuel would like to raise $5 million to accelerate commercialization of CLARITY.
Arizona-based SNTech has designed, developed, patented, and begun selling a new drop-in replacement electric motor that the company claims is significantly more efficient than existing motors. Targeting the heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration market, SNTech has spent the past two years completing customer tests and obtaining required agency approvals.
"Our motor operates at 90 plus percent efficiency across the band," said SNTech CEO Shannon Bard. "Standard motors, the ones that are installed in existing HVAC systems right now, operate at 60 percent or less. Our efficiency is 50 percent better which translates into a 33 percent energy savings."
SNTech is seeking $10 million to commercialize production for the residential HVACR market and increase the firm's sales and technical support capacity.
Yoni Cohen is a currently pursuing a joint degree at Wharton School of Business and Yale Law School. He formerly worked for Fox Sports, among other jobs.
