This special section marks the launch of the annual Startups to Watch list, a collection of startups New Mexico Inno will keep an eye on in the next 12 months.
The list of 10 honorees includes businesses in various sectors — sustainable energy, health care and mobile communications, to name a few. Our Startups to Watch are trying to use data to identify the “social determinants of health” and deploy space-mining technology.
Like New Mexico’s broader startup ecosystem, one industry or vertical isn’t responsible for the majority of the startups we are watching. Generally, each company has raised funding and is in the process of developing or commercializing technology.
Startups to Watch honorees were selected by New Mexico Inno reporter Collin Krabbe, who, when considering each honoree, looked at how the businesses performed in 2021, as well as what they have planned in 2022.
In the coming days, you will have a chance to read about each startup online and see the work they are doing to grow their businesses in New Mexico and beyond. All 10 companies were also highlighted in the Feb. 4 print edition of Albuquerque Business First.
First up, Planetoid Mines.
Planetoid Mines
If you’re unfamiliar with the concept, mining in space may sound like an unusual way to go about resource exploration.
But a handful of companies across the world are developing technologies for just that — and one of them is located in Rio Rancho. That company is Planetoid Mines, and it plans to build its new headquarters on roughly eight acres of land that it is in the process of purchasing, according to founder Kevin DuPriest.
Founded in 2009, Planetoid Mines said it has developed a rover with an excavator. DuPriest said its rover's ability to sort and process soil samples onboard sets it apart from its main competitors. The excavator itself, he added, is about the size of a golf cart and designed to “burrow into the ground.”
As part of the “beneficiation” process, the rover excavates the top layer of soil, crushes it and then separates the minerals. After beneficiation, raw materials are separated into concentrated, high-purity ore which gets transferred to an additive manufacturing system for the production of materials such as iron, steel and titanium rods, according to DuPriest. The company’s technology is also meant to be able to extract water and oxygen from minerals.
And now, with the plot of land in Rio Rancho that borders the Saratoga dam, Planetoid Mines is ready to put its plan into action. DuPriest said three investors are backing the project, which is set to include a small test track for NASA’s Break the Ice Lunar Challenge, focused on developing technologies that could facilitate life on the moon for humans.
Planetoid Mines plans to test its rover at the test track, as well as host other challenge participants to test their own technologies. A new headquarters, which DuPriest envisions as eventually employing more than 50 people over the next three years, will also be built on-site, he added.
The acquisition of the plot of land was announced on social media by DuPriest in January. DuPriest said development will begin after the deal closes.
