Elemental Excelerator, a Hawaii-based nonprofit investor in climate technology, recently announced its 12th cohort, this time investing $12.5 million into 15 climate companies.
Companies in Cohort 12 are focused on the heating and cooling of homes, resource extraction, advancing carbon removal and transforming food systems. This latest cohort brings Elemental’s total investment amount over the years to $79 million into more than 165 companies, according to the announcement.
Pacific Business News spoke with one of the cohort members, Jake Muise, the CEO and co-founder Maui Nui Venison, to learn more about the company, what he hopes to gain from the accelerator program, and more.
Tell me about Maui Nui Venison. The company was designed as a solution to help balance Axis deer populations on Maui and turn that invasive species into great food for the community and customers. We’ve been operating for about nine years now and have harvested a little over 35,000 deer from the island of Maui.
How will Elemental’s investment help Maui Nui Venison scale its impact? We were so thankful and humbled to be accepted into the cohort. One of the reasons we applied was the resources available. From policy to partnerships to operations, [Elemental brings] with them such a wealth of knowledge with some of the best experts on the planet. ... Instead of having to go figure those things out for yourself, you get to reach out to this amazing group of people, not only at Elemental, but within these larger cohorts to ask for help. That’s such an amazing benefit — the ability to ask for help.
How has the accelerator program been going so far? We’ve been sitting down with the other 14 people in the cohort, and they’re solving some of the world’s most complex climate issues. You have folks that are able to pull nickel out of high-metallic soils to create batteries and capture carbon and things that almost don’t seem real. It’s a very hopeful group of people. There’s many similarities to what Maui Nui does ... and so many of them are at similar inflection points. ... It feels like we’re going to learn and grow exponentially because of the resources available.
Other companies in Cohort 12 include:
- Capture6: Removes CO2 from the atmosphere while delivering clean water to communities.
- Ebb Carbon: Addresses the problems of too much CO2 in the air and too much acidity in the ocean.
- Yard Stick: Measures soil carbon at 70-90% lower cost than traditional methods.
- C16 Biosciences: Has developed a biotechnology platform to create sustainable oils and fats.
- Edacious: Utilizes technology to accurately measure the nutritional content of whole foods.
- Genomines: Uses genetically-enhanced plants to pull nickel from land with metal concentrations too low for conventional mining, but too high for agricultural use.
- Glacier: Uses robots to keep recycling facilities running sustainably.
- Olokun Minerals: Extracts minerals from unconventional water resources that might be discharged into the environment.
- Bedrock Energy: Makes large-scale geothermal systems smaller and faster to install.
- Gradient: Creates window heat pumps, which offer a solution for year-round heating and cooling.
- HIVED: Modernizes package delivery with electric vehicles, equitable pay for drivers, and more.
- Kelvin: Transforms the energy inefficiency of radiator-heated buildings by integrating smart, insulated radiator covers with heat pumps and thermal batteries.
- SparkCharge: Offers mobile charging solutions, which allows electric vehicle drivers to get miles of range delivered to them.
- SunFi: Features a managed marketplace that connects consumers with solar installers and sorts out the financing.
For more information about Elemental Excelerator's 12th Cohort, visit elementalexcelerator.com/cohort-12.
