Brite Energy Innovators, the energy tech accelerator in Warren, Ohio, will share a $220,000 award to launch a program that helps underrepresented cleantech entrepreneurs in Ohio and Michigan take their products to market faster.
Brite Energy Innovators and Centrepolis Accelerator in Southfield, Michigan, won the 2023 Channel Partner Strategic award from Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator, funded by the Wells Fargo Foundation and co-administered by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, according to a statement by the incubator.
This year, the Colorado-based innovation incubator is distributing $970,000 among seven winners to fund projects intended to strengthen and diversify startups in cleantech: technology that reduces negative environmental impacts such as carbon emissions, it said.
Brite Energy Innovators and Centrepolis Accelerator serve as their state's cleantech incubator and accelerator, helping startups and early-stage companies develop products, do market research, find customers, and identify grant funding and investment opportunities, Brite wrote in its award application.
Brite focuses on tech-enabled mobility, energy storage and grid resiliency startups and has been a leader in Northeast Ohio's bid to help lead the nation's race toward electrification.
The Ohio/Michigan program will be aimed at helping companies managed by women, people of color, veterans, people with disabilities and companies in underserved communities reach commercialization faster, Brite said.
Brite plans to work with between 18 and 25 new cleantech founders through the program, which starts in July.
Jing Lyon, Brite's director of entrepreneur programs, will be in charge of this opportunity, said the organization's chief of staff, Sara Daugherty, in an email.
