2019 Cleantech Open Northeast Impact Report

Cleantech Open Northeast
2019 IMPACT REPORT
Cleantech Open Northeast | 2019 Impact Report

The 2019 business accelerator cohort
consisted of 32 cleantech startups
plus 3 development teams

Letter from the Director
What a year! Cleantech Open Northeast (CTONE) swept the prizes at the Global Forum in Los Angeles. Both the National
Grand Prize Winner Aeroshield (awarded $50,000) and Runner Up Flux Marine (also People’s Choice Winner and Best in
Showcase) are from the Northeast! The CTONE Regional Winners are Aeroshield, Flux Marine, Quatcare, and Teratonix, and
the Finalists are Enersion and Feedback Solutions. The Regional Winners each took home $10,000.
What worked well in 2019? (1) Tricia Dinkel, Northeast Program Manager, keeps us focused, organized and smiling. Thank you,
Tricia! (2) The Canadian Consulate in New York sent eight Canadian startups who brought enthusiasm and a strong work ethic.
(3) We engaged alumni in all of our programming. (4) We made an extra effort to coach the Finalists prior to the Global Forum.
CTONE relies heavily on our dedicated mentors, volunteers, alumni, and sponsors to keep the program running smoothly. Tim
Hoffman was recognized at the NECEC Green Tie Gala as Startup Supporter of the Year (along with MassCEC), at the CTONE
Regional Finals as Lifetime Service Award of the Year, and at the Global Forum as Volunteer of the Year. We especially
appreciate our Regional Premier Sponsors MassCEC and NYSERDA for their continued support. Thank you to so many others
for your generosity in time, expertise and funding! Let’s continue to improve the environment and grow the cleantech
economy through innovation and entrepreneurship.
Sustainably yours,
Beth Zonis, Northeast Regional Director, Cleantech Open

PROGRAM

$274,000+
Awarded in cash prizes
and in-kind offers
2019 Accelerator at a Glance
Graduates
144
Mentors matched
43
Expert judges
32
“The program is great. I like the name accelerator, because you’re churning us up, and then BOOM!”
- Robert Baxter and Jim Truslow, CBC Wind Energy
“We can’t say enough how great an experience participating in Cleantech Open is. You are doing great work.”
- Kenneth Kent and Amir Akbari, Anessa

2019 Highlights
Feb-Mar-Apr | Recruiting May | Cohort Selection Jun | Academy & More Jul-Aug | Accelerator
Sept | Regional Finals Oct | Wrap-up & Prep Nov | Global Forum
Kickoff events in Boston,
Cambridge, Fall River (MA),
New York City, Providence,
Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.
89 Applicants
46 Accepted
38 Participants
Mentor Mixer events in
Boston and NYC.
2-day East Coast Academy
at the Boston Federal
Reserve.
Go-to-Market Clinic in
Boston.
Go-to-Market Clinic in NYC.
Social Impact Clinics
Finance Funding & Legal Clinics
Tell Your Story Clinics
Professional video production
Mock Judging
32 Graduates
2-day Regional Finals in NYC: 1st
day at Riverside Church with
Columbia University; 2nd day at
AWS Loft
Launch alumni survey
Release professional videos
Finalist Mock Judging
Begin 2020 Recruitment
3-day Global Forum and national
pitch competition in Los Angeles, CA.
Northeast teams take home National
Grand Prize, National Runner-up,
People’s Choice Award, and Best in
Showcase.

Events in Numbers
Average Number of
Event Days per Month
1954
Total Attendees
33
Events, majority in
Boston
& New York City
3.8
“I really enjoyed the workshop
yesterday and hope the feedback I gave
to companies was helpful.”
- Kamal Dhagastani, Spring Lane
Capital, regarding Boston Finance
Funding and Legal event
“Thank you very much to you for the
invitation, I really enjoyed the night and I
think quite all the startups did very good
presentations!” - Luca Seletto, Enel,
regarding Boston Mock Judging
“The event was stellar! Truly exciting
and wonderful to see the teams,
presentations, mentors, and volunteers.
Thank you for inviting me. I was so glad
to be there.” - Tyra Rankin, Regional
Director, CTOSC, regarding the
CTO Academy

Northeast Regional Finals
The two-day event on September 25 and 26, 2019 brought together more than 400 attendees to celebrate
the graduation of the 2019 Cleantech Open Northeast Cohort. 38 judges reviewed private pitches at
Riverside Church. Columbia Entrepreneurship Innovation and Design Lab hosted the Investor Connect at
which each company had three one-on-one meetings with local investors from private investment ﬁrms,
corporates, and government entities. The cohort demonstrated their innovations in a public showcase at
Amazon Web Services Loft. The top six companies pitched in front of a live audience. Five VIP judges -- Scott
Dupcak, Carolyn Kissane, Jiong Ma, Nick Querques, and Tibor Toth -- selected the four Northeast regional
winners each of whom won $10,000 in cash, plus additional in-kind offerings.
Regional
Finalists
Regional
Winners

2019 Global Forum
Aeroshield of Massachusetts won the National Grand Prize.
Flux Marine of Rhode Island won National Runner-Up, the
People’s Choice Award, and Best in Showcase.
Tim Hoffman, the NY Metro Director, won National
Volunteer of the Year.
The three-day event on November 10, 11, and 12, 2019 had 16 Regional Finalists from across the country
competing for the Grand Prize. The 6 Northeast Regional Finalists, Aeroshield, Flux Marine, Quatcare,
Teratonix, Enersion, and Feedback Solutions, participated and pitched privately to panels of expert judges. 15
Northeast startups participated in the Expo and Investor Connect.
National Winners

STARTUPS

Technology Breakdown of 2019 Cohort

Geographic Breakdown of 2019 Cohort
New York
5
Pennsylvania
2
Massachusetts
13
Rhode Island
4
Connecticut
1
New Jersey
2
Canada
8

National Winner:
Aeroshield has developed a highly transparent, super-insulating silica
aerogel. The nanoporous glass is composed of 95% air. By placing
Aeroshield between two panes of glass, performance is now
competitive with triple-pane windows at the cost and installation ease
of a double-pane. This makes for a window 50% more energy efﬁcient
than 80% of windows installed in today’s homes.
“During the Cleantech Open Cohort, we have had the privilege of joining
a supportive community focused on helping us improve the world.
Through the ups and downs of the last few months the management
team, mentors and entrepreneurs have brought together resources and
enthusiasm to help us make our ideas into a reality. The work we have
accomplished and the connections we have made will be a part of our
team and our personal journeys for many, many years to come!”
- Elise Strobach, CEO & Founder of AeroShield

National Runner-Up:
Flux Marine has set out to design, manufacture, and market electric outboard
marine motors to the boating industry. The motors hold several advantages over
gasoline counterparts; decreased maintenance costs, increased reliability, and
minimized pollution. Flux Marine’s electric outboards are designed to minimize
failure points and utilize long-life solid state components, making them extremely
reliable and virtually maintenance-free. The electric outboard motors do not leave a
footprint on the environment and have the potential to reduce overall recreational
outboard CO2 pollution levels by 240 million pounds annually with a 1% market
capture.

Regional Winner:
QUATCARE is striving to solve global industrial water microbial contamination.
Today, this problem is addressed by using expensive chemicals that cause
bacteria to develop resistance and mutate. QUATCARE’s approach is more
sustainable, eco-friendly and does not create microbial mutations- all at a low
cost while allowing water waste to be better recycled and reused while
controlling the spread of microbes, further reducing the impact on the
environment. QUATCARE embeds a mix of quaternary ammonium compounds
permanently into the surface of a product, allowing the surface to have
continuous antimicrobial activity against a broad spectrum of pathogens.
“This has been an invaluable learning
experience… One of the best business education
programs that I’ve ever been in!”
- Mario Mercado, Quatcare

Regional Winner:
Currently, IoT sensors and active medical devices are mainly powered by
batteries and there is no commercially available remote powering solution
for either. Teratonix is aiming to address the limited lifespan of a battery,
which leads to high battery replacement/maintenance cost and huge amount
of battery waste. Teratonix has developed an ultrahigh-speed
Metal-semiconductor- metal (MSM) heterojunction diode. This diode’s speed
is 100 - 1000x times faster than other known diodes, and has zero-bias cutoff
frequencey > 100 GHz, making it the only known technology capable of
rectifying broadband radio signals into DC power.
“With the help from dedicated CTONE team and mentors (assigned and
others I met through the CTO program) with objective/different perspectives,
we now have a clearer view on our business and thus a more articulated
message to potential investors/partners.”
- Johnny Huang, Teratonix

Regional Finalist:
Enersion Incorporation has invented a green cooling solution
that saves up to 70% on electricity by utilizing unused
waste/heat, without using any harmful refrigerants. Enersion’s
chiller uses any thermal energy - such as solar energy or
low-grade waste heat (an existing by-product of operations) to
produce cooling power. It also can be paired with a CHP
(Combined Heat and Power) unit to offer cooling, heating and
electricity as one integrated solution.
“Cleantech Open is an enthusiastic and well-networked group of
people who go above and beyond to help their companies to grow!”
- Hanif Montazeri, Enersion

Regional Finalist:
Feedback Solutions technology utilizes raw data produced by
people-counting and tracking sensors to apply their algorithm via an Intel
Gateway, resulting in 95+% accurate, real-time occupant counts that are
communicated via BACnet/IP to the Building Automation System (BAS)
optimizing ventilation rates to reduce energy consumption and GHG
emissions. This technology has the ability to normalize the raw data
received for in and out counts across multiple access points for a zone or
zones to provide accurate, real-time occupant data that is reliable enough
to be used by the BAS to optimize the ventilation rates in the space. This
technology has proven to be capable of reducing HVAC-related energy
consumption by 30%, or greater, in numerous environments.
“Regardless of the ﬁnal outcome, we feel like have already won.
We have made some incredibly important connections and have met many
key contacts. Our traction in the US market has been accelerated as a
direct result of our participation in the CTO.”
- Karen Smith, Feedback Solutions

Company Development Program (CDP)
The Cleantech Open Company Development
Program provides development support for a
limited number of very early stage companies.
CDP companies can take advantage of workshops
and clinics while they work with their mentor.
Companies that participate in the CDP program
are eligible to apply to participate in the full
CTONE accelerator in a succeeding year.
3 CDP Participants
“I want to thank you and the rest of the crew for all your
help and support through this process. We learned a lot
and deﬁnitely advanced our company by leaps and
bounds.” - Robert Monteith, Advance Renewable
Concept (CDP team)
“Thank you again. Cleantech Open is a special gift.”
- Donna Childs, Prisere (CDP team)

ENTREPRENEUR SATISFACTION

Alumni Engagement
422Total Cleantech Open
Northeast Alumni
Alumni in the 2019
News
145+
Alumni referenced
in 2019 social media
22
Alumni who took on
a new active CTO
role for the 2019
accelerator
70+

Aclarity (2018)
Over $1M Raised
Massachusetts
Alumni Highlights in 2019
Pika Energy (2012)
Acquired by GeneracⓇ
Maine
Radical Plastics (2018)
$500K Awarded
76 West Winner
Massachusetts
ThinkLite (2011)
$30M in annual revenue
Massachusetts
EnviroPower (2014)
$5.5M Series A
Connecticut
Capro-X (2018)
$250K Awarded
Won GrowNY
New York
Heat Inverse (2018)
$225K Awarded
SBIR by NSF
New York

Alumni Highlights in 2019
Anax Power (2019)
Contracted $3M term sheet
during 2019 accelerator
New York
AeroShield (2019)
IN2 Winner
Massachusetts
Tank Utility (2015)
$6M Raised
Massachusetts
Optimus Technologies (2017)
$1M Awarded
76 West Grand Prize
Pennsylvania
Techstyle Materials
(2018)
IN2 Winner
Rhode Island
Aquaneers (2019)
$1.3M Raised
New York
Power HV (2019)
CDN 490K Awarded
Canada

2019 Cohort in the News

In the News (cont.)

COMMUNITY

Mentor Program
144
Mentors matched to
a team this year
97
315+
Active volunteers
Mentors returning
from the previous
year
“We now know what to do!
The Cleantech Open is
fantastic. We feel really
fortunate to have learned
what we have. Our mentors
have been great!” -- Karen
Smith, Feedback Solutions
“It’s an honor and privilege to
be a small part of the
Cleantech Open Northeast.
Thank you and your team for
all that you do.” - Ladd
Greeno, Mentor

2019 National Volunteer of the Year &
2019 Lifetime Service Award
Tim has been dedicating his time and expertise year
after year as Cleantech Open New York Metro
Director. In this role, he has leveraged his professional
contact database to line up experts and investors at
events as well as to identify and secure event hosts
and sponsors. He has attended events around the
state of New York to recruit startups, mentors, and
volunteers. He runs ﬁve Business Clinics in New York
City each year, and gets rave reviews. Thank you Tim,
we couldn't do all of this without you!
NY Metro Director
TIM HOFFMAN
Tim & Rob adjust like everything was already planned
for. Tim's presentation to the Mock Judges was fresh,
informative and good humored whether you were a
new judge or a seasoned one.”
- Lindsay Drogin, Deputy NY Metro Director

2019 Volunteer of the Year
“Within my Mock Judging group, the teams showed
much improvement from earlier stages. The judges were
ﬁrm, critical and chock full of pertinent questions and
comments. The interplay between the companies and
the judges was also ﬁlled with intelligence, good will and
mutual respect. Another great CTO event in NYC. I am
proud and inspired to be among such people.”
- Lindsay Drogin
NY Metro Deputy Director
LINDSAY DROGIN
In 2019, Lindsay became NY Metro Deputy Director
to support New York programming, while continuing
to offer her time and expertise as a Lead Mentor to
Apis Innovation and Mock Judge to others. Lindsay
has been a CTO mentor since 2017, offering her
experience in investment banking and business
development to cleantech startups.

2019 Lead Mentor of the Year
“CTO provides a fabulous service to cleantech entrepreneurs. Plus, I
have found the mentoring experience both personally rewarding
and a great way to improve my skills as a leader. I highly recommend
the experience to entrepreneurs and mentors alike.”
- John Ireland
Mentor for Sky Canoe
JOHN IRELAND
“I can't tell you how thankful we are of Cleantech Open's support
and amazing module training and mentor support. We are learning
so much.”
- Jason Dudek, Sky Canoe
John has been a Cleantech Open
Mentor for 7 years --as a General
Mentor, a Sustainability Mentor,
and as a Lead Mentor.

2019 Lead Mentor of the Year
“It’s been my pleasure to
participate. It’s been very valuable
for me to engage and learn from
the budding entrepreneurs that
CTO attracts.”
- Vikram Aggarwal
Mentor for Íko Systems
“Vikram has been an invaluable resource. He is also a founder of a
startup and is genuinely interested in our success… Vikram has
dived into the trenches of our business with us and helped us think
through tough problems and come up with creative solutions. I
truly think Vikram should be nominated for Mentor of the Year.”
- Ben Sword, Íko Systems
VIKRAM AGGARWAL
Vikram is a Cleantech Open alumnus with
his company EnergySage, now the most
visited solar website in the US. Vikram has
been giving back to as an ambassador
(speaking at events and consulting with
prospective startups), a Mentor for several
companies, a Judge, and a Recruiter for
other Mentors. Vikram sets an incredible
example. In 2019 Vikram mentored Iko
(pronounced "ECO") Systems.

2019 Generalist Mentor of the Year
Mentor for CF Technologies, Inc.
“Scott was a huge strength in the technical aspects, including
sustainability, chemistry, TRLs, MRLs, lean manufacturing and
past experiences. He reviewed all of the documents, was on all of
the calls, made it to all of the clinics and mock judging. He has
been a really great mentor and friend. I would rate his involvement
and dedication highly. He has a good eye for innovative trends and
existing technology. As a PhD chemist, he was helpful with
technology research and improvements to our sustainable
practice as well. If there is an award for top ﬁrst time mentor, I
would 150% award it to Scott.”
- Jessica Sweeney, CF Technologies
SCOTT TWIDDY
In his ﬁrst year as a CTONE mentor, Scott
Twiddy was recognized as 2019
Generalist Mentor of the Year. Scott is a
senior research scientist with expertise in
organic synthesis, polymer formulation,
data analysis and interpretation, and
anti-counterfeiting strategy.

2019 Generalist Mentor of the Year
Mentor for Soilless
“Cleantech Open is the best kept secret.
Entrepreneurs learn, grow and solve problems to
create a better world. They’re doing hard work,
solving important problems. The accelerator is a
rigorous learning experience that’s also fun.
These teams deserve our best efforts.”
- Sam Nejame
SAM NEJAME
“Sam is an amazing mentor and an extremely kind person.
He always tells you what is on his mind and always tries his
best to help lead you on the right path. We are really
grateful to have had Sam as one of our mentors!”
- Westen Johnson, Soilless
Sam Nejame has mentored with CTONE since 2018, in
which he was a mentor for the 2018 National Winner,
Radical Plastics. He has 30 years of experience helping
scientists and engineers commercialize disruptive
technology with environmental impact.

2019 Sustainability Mentor of the Year
“Thank you for letting me
participate. It was great for
me as well.”
- Bob Morton
Mentor for FluidSense - EcoBilge
Bob was a ﬁrst-time Cleantech Open Mentor in
2019. He was enthusiastic and engaged throughout
the program. He attended and actively participated
in events such as the Go-to-Market clinic, where he
added value beyond his role as Sustainability
Mentor. Bob’s sustainability expertise includes
photovoltaic systems, heat pumps, battery storage,
electric vehicle charging stations and renewable
energy generation.
BOB MORTON

SUPPORTERS

National Sponsors

Regional Premier Sponsor
MassCEC
“As Massachusetts and states across the Northeast work
hard to build a clean energy future, reduce greenhouse gas
emissions, and mitigate the impacts of climate change, it is
imperative that we support the startup community, which
is pursuing innovative solutions to our greatest energy
challenges. As a longtime sponsor of Cleantech Open, MassCEC looks forward to building on
the progress we’ve made over the last decade and continuing our shared mission to address
critical funding gaps, barriers to commercialization, and expanding the clean energy sector
across the region.”
- Stephen Pike, CEO, Massachusetts Clean Energy Center

Regional Premier Sponsor
NYSERDA
“The innovative technologies being developed by
Cleantech Open Northeast-supported companies
will play a vital role in New York’s efforts to
combat climate change and reduce harmful
greenhouse gas emissions, making NYSERDA
extremely proud to sponsor this program. As more
states and countries develop clean energy goals such as those presented under Governor
Cuomo’s nation-leading Green New Deal, we will need a growing number of emerging
companies to bring their revolutionary ideas to the marketplace in support of the global
momentum of creating a more resilient energy system for future generations.”
-- Alicia Barton, President and CEO, NYSERDA

Northeast Regional Affiliate
NECEC
NECEC leads the Cleantech Open
accelerator and business plan
competition in the Northeast.
“NECEC combines the Northeast Clean Energy Council and NECEC Institute,
two sister nonprofits focused on growing the clean energy industry and
cleantech innovation ecosystem across the US Northeast. We're excited to be
the affiliate organization running the Cleantech Open here in the Northeast
for many years. 2019 was a great year for Cleantech Open in our region, with
breadth of applicants, depth of mentors, volunteers, investors and supporters,
and great quality of entrepreneurial teams taking advantage of the
accelerator to add rigor and market testing to their cleantech startups. We're
proud of regional finalists, many of whom were also winners at the Global
Forum. Congratulations to all of theese teams and to Beth and Tricia who lead
our Cleantech Open Northeast team and continue to grow the ecosystem
connections that are helping these startups start their innovation journeys.”
- Peter Rothstein, President, NECEC

Regional Silver Sponsors

Regional Bronze Sponsors

Contributor &
Northeast Network Sponsor

In-Kind Sponsors

2019 Major Event Hosts and Sponsors

2019 CTONE Interns
Annie
Patyk
Lauren
Skirball
Olivia
Polos
Julia
Dayan
Kaitlin
Hollinger
Thank you to our remarkable interns that contributed to
the success of the 2019 CTONE program.

Cleantech Open Northeast
STAFF
Beth Zonis
Regional Director
BZonis@cleantechopen.org
Tricia Dinkel
Program Manager
TDinkel@cleantechopen.org

2019 Cleantech Open Northeast Impact Report

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