News Release: NREL Announces Third Round of Start-Ups to Participate in the Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator (IN2) Program

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Companies will receive up to $250,000 from Wells Fargo and technical support from NREL to accelerate innovative commercial building technologies

The Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) will help an additional 10 companies advance their technologies under the third round of the Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator (IN²) program, a five-year, $10 million program designed to facilitate early-stage technologies that provide scalable solutions to reduce the energy impact of commercial buildings.

Including Round 3 selections, a total of 20 companies have been awarded in-kind technical and project support funding to date.

"IN² continues to attract high quality applicants and companies and is proving out the model that we had envisioned. Participating companies have been acquired by successful clean-technology corporations and received follow-on funding, and beta demonstrations are underway within the program," said Richard Adams, Director of NREL's Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center. "We are enthusiastic about the opportunity to advance these early stage technologies and offer real-world test conditions in order to optimize their potential for success in the market."

Small businesses selected to participate in round three include:

• Transformative Wave: (Kent, WA) HVAC, light, and battery storage retrofit kit for commercial buildings. Referred to apply to program by University of Colorado Boulder

• Software Motor Corporation: (Sunnyvale, CA) Super high efficiency Internet-enabled motor for HVAC applications. Referred to apply to program by Cleantech Open, University of California, Davis

• PowerFlex Systems: (Los Altos, CA) Adaptive EV charging network for demand response and renewable integration. Referred to apply to program by California Institute of Technology

• simuwatt: (Boulder, CO) Rapid energy auditing software and platform. Part of Wells Fargo/NREL network.

• Maalka: (New York, NY) Open modeling platform for managing large scale building sustainability initiatives. Referred to apply to program by Urban Future Lab/ACRE

• Geli: (San Francisco, CA) Software platform to design, automate, and manage energy storage systems. Referred to apply to program by Prospect Silicon Valley, NREL Investor Advisory Board (IAB)

• APANA: (Bellingham, WA) C&II smart water management systems using IoT and prescriptive analytics. Referred to apply to program by Imagine H20, Cleantech Open

• EdgePower: (Aspen, CO) Cloud-hosted energy simulation application for analyzing and enhancing building performance. Referred to apply to program by Telluride Venture Accelerator

• Ibis Networks: (Honolulu, HI) Plug load management for the enterprise. Referred to apply to program by Energy Excelerator

• J2 Innovations: (Chino, CA) Building automation and operating system for connecting and controlling devices. Part of Wells Fargo/NREL network.

 

Launched in 2014, IN² is funded by the Wells Fargo Foundation and co-administered by NREL.

Selected companies also receive access to Wells Fargo financial services, products, education and mentorship, and ultimately an opportunity to potentially beta test their technology within the Wells Fargo footprint.

"As an organization managing nearly 100 million square feet of real estate, we know that efficiency matters, and we are pleased that our efforts to build and foster an ecosystem that accelerates the commercialization of clean technologies for commercial buildings is bearing fruit," said Ashley Grosh, vice president and IN² co-lead for Wells Fargo. "Companies from rounds one and two have achieved significant milestones on their way to the commercial marketplace. We are pleased to add this third round of innovators to IN² and expect the momentum we've seen to date continue across the program."

The IN² program sources potential program participants from more than 40 universities and regional accelerator programs that serve as channel partners.

NREL is the U.S. Department of Energy's primary national laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development. NREL is operated for the Energy Department by The Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC.

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