To celebrate Earth Day, we’re highlighting a few Atlanta clean technology startups managing waste and energy consumption.
Investors expect clean tech to grow in the next four years because of President Joe Biden’s commitment to invest $400 million into the sector in the next 10 years as well as green policy changes, according to Pitchbook.
In Atlanta, telecommunications giant Cox Enterprises has committed to investing in clean tech and has a goal to acquire its investments to create a Cox Cleantech division, similar to Cox Automotive or Cox Media Group.
The state is also seeing high growth in the electric vehicle industry as more companies set up manufacturing plants to produce EV parts, which could spur innovation from the local startups in this sector.
Some startups in the Atlanta tech ecosystem are already focused on environmental solutions, many of them using software as a tool.
Here are some startups you should know:
Cove.tool
Cove.tool produces a software that shows builders the cheapest products they can use to make a structure more energy efficient — either to bring the building up to local code or to make it more sustainable. The software automates the process, so developers don’t have to spend tens of thousands of dollars on consultants to increase their buildings’ efficiency. CEO Sandeep Ahuja founded the company in 2018 with Patrick Chopson and Daniel Chopson and raised a $5.7 million Series A round in 2020.
Grubbly Farms
Grubbly Farms CEO Sean Warner said the startup’s goal is to “feed our chickens while helping our planet thrive.” Founded in 2016 out of a Georgia Tech dorm room, Grubbly Farms focuses on providing sustainable protein sources to backyard chickens. To date, the startup has diverted 5 million pounds of food waste from landfills and prevented 7 million pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere, according to a spokesperson. Grubbly Farms, backed by Atlanta seed firm Overline Ventures, has $4.1 million in funding.
Nexus Fuels
Nexus Fuels, backed by Cox Enterprises, uses a thermo-chemical recycling process in order to convert certain plastics back into oil, which can then make more plastics. The Atlanta-area plant has produced about 310,000 gallons of oil and diverted more than 2.7 million pounds of plastic from the landfill. The startup uses hard-to-recycle plastics, such as Styrofoam and film, and sells the oil to Royal Dutch Shell and Chevron Phillips Chemical, which convert it back to plastic.
Optimal Technology Corporation
This hardware-as-a-service startup installs a suite of solar and internet-of-things systems to gather data about a building’s energy consumption. Optimal then deploys artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies to identify inefficiencies, working with facilities to implement fixes that lower energy costs. CEO Reginald Parker says that the addition of solar panels coupled with the autonomous tracking of appliances can help lower utility costs by up to 70%. Optimal Tech Corporation received funding from the Google for Startups Black Founders Fund.
Phobio
Phobio wants to give consumer electronics a second life. The startup produces an electronics trade-in software, which enables companies to take back old electronics such as phones, tablets and laptops and resell them in other markets. CEO Stephen Wakeling wants to reduce e-waste and expand access to technology. Phobio, a bootstrapped company with about 100 employees, works with e-commerce brands and retailers such as Apple, Amazon Canada, Costco and Hyperion Partners to power their trade-in programs.
