Monday, May 6, 2019

Capital Factory Awards $300K To Clean Tech Startups

Austin-based Capital Factory has awarded $300,000 in prizes to three startups at the EarthX E-Capital Summit, to three companies working on various clean technology efforts. According to EarthX, the awards tripled the initial award offering of $100,000, after Capital Factory decided that three companies--and not just one--deserved a prize. The tree companies were Syzygy Plasmonics, Semtive, and Evolve Energy. Syzygy is developing a "photocatalytic chemical reactor" being applied to the industrial gas, chemical, and energy industry, which the Syzygy says reduces costs and emissions in developing major commodity chemicals like fuel, fertilizer and plastic. Semtive is a developer of a wind turbine, which uses "vertical-axis" technology, allowing wind turbines to operate at extremely low wind speeds and with a lot less noise than conventional wind turbines. Finally, Evolve Energy develops artificial intelligence (AI) software which automatically shifts energy usage by users to non-peak hours, when more green energy is flowing into the grid. Capital Factory helps startups with connecting them with investors, mentors, and more, and also offers up a co-working space, runs many events, and more all focused on accelerating startups.