NYSTAR’s recent New York State Innovation Summit united a statewide ecosystem of wavemakers for a multi-day event full off showcases, pitches, talks and more. The summit focused on companies and researchers at the forefront of emerging technologies in areas such as biotechnology, new materials, energy innovation and AI.
The Koffman Incubator team attended to show support to the multiple members tabling and participating in the event. Norma Byron of Ashlawn Energy, LLC and Shailesh Upreti of iM3NY were featured speakers on panel discussions and KLAW Industries, C4V, iM3NY, and BRASH ENGINES, INC. showcased their technologies in the exhibit hall.
As part of the Jeff Lawrence Innovation Fund, FuzeHub held its fifth NYS commercialization competition at the event. One dozen finalists pitched with two Incubator-connected start-ups taking home $50k each.
One of the winners, DomCat Technologies, is a newly formed start-up focused on green energy technology that manufacture catalysts for fuel cell applications. The focus of their winnings will be to build up manufacturing capabilities and transition from bench scale to industrial scale output.
DomCat’s founder and CEO, Dominic Caracciolo, gave credit to the Koffman incubator and Binghamton Office of Entrepreneurship for their support.
“The team was instrumental in providing me the education and guidance to be better prepared for the pitch,” Caracciolo says.
The second big winner was SunThru, a manufacturer of aerogel monoliths used to unlock triple pane window insulation performance in double pane window infrastructure. The company is building out an aerogel manufacturing device that will allow for the production of 20” x 14” transparent monoliths.
“SunThru had participated in the incubator’s XCEED intern program and worked with many great interns who have helped us to advance our technology,” says John Costa, CEO. “We have received NYSERDA entrepreneurs in residence thanks to the incubator and learned about FuzeHub thanks to the team as well.”
The winning didn’t stop there, as KLAW Industries won $20k at an after-hours event sponsored by Clarkson University. KLAW processes waste glass that is destined for the landfill and processes it into a partial replacement for cement in concrete called Pantheon™ that reduces the embodied carbon of concrete by 30% and lowers the material cost. The winnings will allow KLAW Industries to expand its logistical capabilities and deliver Pantheon™ by the high volumes required in the concrete industry. In sum, these companies won over $120k at the innovation summit, and made key connections set to further progress their growth.
