The application period for the Commercialization Competition is set to close in one week, but there is still time for potential applicants to submit their materials for this year’s competition for a chance to win up to $50,000. This competition is intended to help small and medium-sized manufacturing and technology companies strengthen their “go-to-market” strategies as they move from new product/production method to marketplace.
This year for the competition we replaced much of our online form with a PowerPoint application. Please be advised that this is NOT your Pitch Deck; instead, we are using this PowerPoint document as the core of our application, so you can answer all the questions offline. Please review the competition website as well as the instructions listed in the upload section of SurveyMonkey Apply to ensure that you provide the correct information in your application slides.
FuzeHub will hold its fourth New York State Commercialization Competition on November 18 & 19, 2020. Top applicants will be considered “finalists” and invited to “pitch” virtually to a panel of judges to demonstrate the commercialization potential of their technology or product. To apply or to learn more about the application process for FuzeHub’s Commercialization Competition 2020, visit https://fuzehub.com/commercialization-competition/.
What Do Our Winners Have To Say About The Competition?
Over the last three years, FuzeHub has received over 100 prototype submissions and has awarded fifteen of those innovative ideas. While there are commonalities across our awardees, each company brings its own unique business proposal to the competition in an effort to generate interest in their product or technology and advance their prototype into the marketplace. From additional funding to facilitating connections, here is what some of our past competition awardees have to say about how the competition has helped them advance their commercialization efforts over the last few years.
Santiago Alegria, Co-founder, Íko Systems
“The competition gave us the funding we needed to build and deliver 30 beta units to people in NYC and Boston. FuzeHub also facilitated introductions to Incodema, our sheet metal producer, and MTEC, our circuit board designer.”
Linh Le, Founder and CEO, Flextrapower (formerly Bonbouton)
“FuzeHub has given me the opportunity to explore different manufacturing options within New York and expand our network from New York City to the Capital Region for collaborations. Winning the Commercialization Competition grant not only helped us with funding, but also provided validation that we’re adding value to the community.”
Eleanor Rusling, CEO, MicroEra Power
“MicroEra Power’s FuzeHub Grant provided timely funding to prototype in the lab our THERMAplus Thermal Battery and to demonstrate the efficacy of a proprietary Phase Change Material. Since FuzeHub, we have raised investor funds to build a beta prototype to further demonstrate our unique hardware and software. Thermal batteries are an enabler for a renewable-intensive grid by shifting peak heating and cooling demands to off-peak times when the electric grid is less carbon-intensive. The goal is to provide low-cost and low-carbon heating and cooling to commercial buildings. Together with CHPplus, we are working to develop on-site solutions for energy security, cost savings, and sustainability.”
Michelle Crimi and Fiona Laramay, Co-Founders, RemWell
“The FuzeHub competition helped RemWell to develop and advance our prototype in situ reactor technology (InSRT) to treat groundwater contaminated by per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which are some of the most challenging contaminants our society has faced to date. RemWell secured EPA Phase 1 SBIR funding to test and advance the prototype and is now working hard to develop our Phase 2 SBIR proposal, which will allow us to be field-ready. We have recently proposed a technology demonstration to the Department of Defense’s Environmental Security Technology Certification Program (ESTCP) and are hopeful that we will be able to demonstrate the technology in action at full-scale at a contaminated field site.”
Juan Guzman, CEO, Capro-X
“Capro-X won a Commercialization Competition prize at a pivotal time to propel the company forward. With CC and FuzeHub, we were able to scale our dairy waste treatment technology out of the lab for the first time, and secure a committed commercial partner. Because of the acceleration we gained with our CC prize, we demonstrated scalability and our ability to achieve our engineering and R&D targets; we were awarded an NSF SBIR Phase 2 grant, as well as an EPA Phase 1 grant this year and plan to continue growing our company to enter the market in the next couple of years.”
In the coming weeks, we will share more stories from past awardees as well as highlight some of the success stories from other Innovation Fund programs including, the Manufacturing Grants and the Innovation Incentive Prize Program.
