STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Five startups were selected for Flywheel’s Sustainable Cincy accelerator.
- The program runs from Sept. 23-Nov. 18.
- The latest cohort includes companies tackling issues like sustainable housing, waste reduction, alternative plastics and more.
Five startups, including a Kentucky company that recently tapped a Cincinnati-based CEO, have been selected for a local accelerator program tailored for sustainability-focused businesses and innovations.
Flywheel’s Sustainable Cincy accelerator, an eight-week offering, kicked off Sept. 23 and runs through Nov. 18. The latest cohort includes companies tackling issues like sustainable housing, waste reduction, alternative plastics and more.
It’s Flywheel’s fourth Sustainable Cincy cohort since the program launched in 2020 and the first since its new Executive Director Donna Zaring took the helm Aug. 1. Flywheel has increased the number of outside partnerships in putting together this class.
“We worked really hard and hustled and traveled all over the region to attract the best founders,” she told me. “They are all tackling key issues for Greater Cincinnati and bring a diverse range of experience and backgrounds. When we got them together (for the first time this week) it was really magnetic.”
Participating companies include:
- Sunflower Fuels, founded by Tim Donovan, Brutus Clay III, Andrew Ritch, Chris Brown and Andy Holzhauser. Participating in the program is newly named CEO Gabrielle Blocher. Blocher has a B.S. from the U.S. Naval Academy, an MBA in economics from Columbia Business School and is a former airborne Marine Logistics officer with extensive startup experience. Sunflower Fuels grows bioenergy crops that will extract carbon from the air and power the U.S. economy. These high-yield, low-carbon-intensity crops can be developed for uses including sustainable aviation fuel, alternative power generation, product and package manufacturing and more.
- Mod Fab Inc., founded by Kémo A’akhuter. A’akhuter, who hails from Dayton, is a serial entrepreneur. Mod Fab launched in 2019 to address the lack of fast, durable and financially accessible housing in the United States. Mod Fab uses offsite modular fabrication to create new options for housing through the use of shipping containers to deliver scalable products for sustainable and affordable real estate for underserved communities (rural and urban).
- X-inator, founded by Hridayesh Kumar, William Mattis, Sebastian Padron and Roee Omessi. X-inator’s mission is to reduce emissions in the short-range flight and aviation industry with a newly developed high-energy density battery cell technology designed for commercial and defense sectors. Its team has a variety of engineering expertise: Kumar holds a B.S. in computer engineering from the University of Cincinnati and was previously a data/automation engineer at Tesla. Mattis has a B.S. in mechanical engineering from UC and was a project lead at Thermo Fisher. Padron holds a B.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of Florida and was a process engineer at Tesla and a systems engineer at Lockheed Martin. Omessi holds a B.S. in electrical and computer engineering from Dalhousie University and was an engineer for both Tesla and Nvidia.
- Greenway Innovations, founded by Alison Connor and Kevin Connor. Based in Florence, Greenway Innovations offers a reusable container program that stops hundreds of thousands of pounds of plastic waste from going into landfills. Greenway’s goal is to provide a safer, more economical and ethical way to manage medical waste streams. Alison Connor holds undergraduate degrees from Niagara Community College and SUNY Buffalo State and a masters in health care administration from the University of Cincinnati. She previously worked at Bon Secours Mercy Health. In early September, she was named Aviatra’s inaugural Woman Health Entrepreneur of the Year for her work.
- Ecoshell LLC, founded by Andrew Bliss. He recently returned to Greater Cincinnati after spending two decades in Taiwan, where he served as a professor in addition to founding several Asia-based startups. Ecoshell’s mission is to tackle the global plastic crisis by reducing overall plastic use and production. Ecoshell is an alternative packaging and durables material that provides product manufacturing partners with a 25% to 50% reduction in plastic. It plans to introduce new consumer products that bring zero virgin plastic into the economy.
During the cohort, member companies will attend weekly workshops and individual coaching and networking events.
Flywheel is partnering – for the first time – with the University of Cincinnati Center for Entrepreneurship and Venture Lab, providing founders with access to UC’s pre-accelerator curriculum and a network of more than 80 entrepreneurs-in-residence. The program will culminate with a demo day event at the 1819 Innovation Hub.
Zaring said Flywheel also has reconnected with Miami University’s Center for Social Entrepreneurship and Social Impact Fund, one of the only undergraduate-led funds of its kind in the nation.
Samuel Baker is serving as Flywheel program manager, and the Sustainable Cincy coaches for 2024 include Adam Coleman, Tricia Morris, Fred Hilkowitz, Joan Kaup, Betsy Neyer, Deborah Davis, Kelly Dehan, Hugh Ralston, Melisse May and Julie Albright.
Over-the-Rhine-based Flywheel supports social entrepreneurs with goals to better the community. Since its debut in 2011, the nonprofit has helped more than 50 local social entrepreneurs, 83% who are still in operation. Its revenue is more than $8 million.
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