Technologies developed at Carnegie Mellon University have the ability to enhance energy generation and the consumption of that energy in our buildings, transportation, industry, and homes. Some of these technologies are just emerging from the university, while others have already entered, or are on the cusp of entering, the marketplace. These next-generation technologies have been developed by undergraduate and graduate students, researchers, faculty, and alumni from all across Carnegie Mellon.
Energy and cleantech startups
Anactisis
Scandium, gallium, rare earth elements, and other critical materials are used for a wide range of technologies, including electronics, defense systems, energy, catalysis, advanced materials, and others, but their supply is problematic. Much of the world’s critical materials are from mines in China or other geopolitically unstable regions, which have at times restricted access to these raw materials. Anactisis is developing novel solvent-free, highly-selective separation technologies for the extraction and recovery of boutique critical elements from large volume industrial wastes, such as mining tailings, titanium oxide processing tailings, bauxite residues, coal ash leachates, acid mine drainage, geothermal water, etc., contributing this way to circular economy concepts. Their initial priority is scandium recovery due to its great potential to decrease weight, and increase strength and thermal resistance of aluminum alloys for additive manufacturing, automotive, electronics to aerospace and space applications. They actively pursue the expansion of their technology to other critical elements. The company has received SBIR funding from DOE, NSF, and DOD, as well as grant awards from DOE and DOD.
Sector: chemistry, critical materials
Revenues: No
Raising: Seeking strategic partnership to support field large-scale pilot deployment
And Battery Aero (ABA)
And Battery Aero, based in Palo Alto, CA, was founded in 2022, with a mission to build battery systems to decarbonize and propel the future of aviation. The company specializes in the development of materials and systems for high-specific-energy battery cells and systems that can enable higher range, greater payload, and overall higher aircraft performance. ABA is part of an ARPA-E SCALEUP award with 24M Technologies and a selectee for the ARPA-E PROPEL-1K program to build high-energy battery chemistries and systems for aviation. ABA engages with several aircraft manufacturers (ECTOL, EVTOL, ESTOL, Hybrid, and UAS) and is part of the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) Electric Propulsion & Innovation Committee (EPIC).
Sector: aviation, EVTOL, batteries
Revenues: $1M/yr grants/services
Raising: Seeking strategic partnerships
Arieca
Arieca is an advanced materials start-up that is pushing the boundaries of materials functionalities in the most demanding applications. Our proprietary Liquid Metal Embedded Elastomer (LMEE) technologies allow for unprecedented performance in applications across the semiconductor, automotive, and healthcare industries. Our flagship products, TIMbber® and Thubber®, represent seminal advancements in material science. TIMbber stands as the most adaptable thermal interface material (TIM) for high-performance advanced semiconductor packaging. Utilizing liquid metals as filler technology ensures the highest thermal performance while maintaining reliability in critical applications. Meanwhile, Thubber is a soft, stretchable, and thermally conductive elastomer ideal for applications demanding both flexibility and heat management. Founded in 2018 as a spin-out from Carnegie Mellon University, Arieca combines cutting-edge research with the most advanced technologies to deliver innovative solutions to our partners and customers.
Sector: semiconductor, advanced materials, flexible electronics
Revenues: Yes
Raising: Seeking $4M in 2024
Chement
Chement is a Chicago-based pre-seed startup working to eliminate 8% of carbon emissions released by cement production each year. To do this, Chement is scaling its process for net-zero carbon production of Portland cement. This room-temperature electrochemical process utilizes renewable electricity, avoiding emissions from coal-fired kilns of conventional cement production. And while the process can utilize limestone to leverage the existing $1.4T of capital equipment within the existing cement industry, the resulting cement achieves high performance with reduced calcium content, thereby reducing the amount of direct emissions from limestone decomposition. The remaining emissions, already reduced by 60%, can be immediately stored or utilized, requiring no additional carbon capture technology. Overall, this technology will enable the existing cement industry to achieve net zero while matching or bettering the current cost of production. After spinning out of Carnegie Mellon University, Chement was part of the first cohort of the Breakthrough Energy Fellows Program and received investment from Starlight Ventures. Chement's current 5-person team works closely with two cement advisors who have more than 70 years of combined experience in the cement production industry, including at the executive level.
Sector: chemistry; green building materials
Revenues: No
Raising: Seeking seed round
CorePower Magnetics
Electric vehicles, EV chargers, and renewables lose efficiency due to bulky, outdated magnetic components. CorePower has developed novel inductor, transformer, and motor technology that achieves massive size reductions and efficiency improvements. Our proprietary nanocrystalline magnetic alloy materials and power electronic cores operate at next-generation frequencies and power levels. Our unique tape-wound cores and lean & scalable in-line production technique optimize magnetic flux distribution, preventing hot spots. This enables higher power in more compact components, allowing EVs to go farther and charge faster while reducing barriers for renewable energy grid integration. In short, CorePower is making EVs and renewable energy systems smaller, lighter, more powerful, and efficient. Awarded $20M DOE grant for manufacturing scaleup.
Sector: materials, power electronics
Revenues: Yes
Raising: Seeking $25M
Ecotone Renewables
Ecotone Renewables sustainably converts food waste into a powerful liquid fertilizer called Soil Sauce. Our patent-pending ZEUS digester is an on-site solution that is 8X faster than composting while being automated and clean, with no permits needed. We are already generating revenue by targeting the 10,000 businesses with waste reduction goals, and the larger $16 billion opportunity of 10 US states with food waste bans to landfills.
Sector: circular economy, waste management
Revenues: Yes
Raising: Raising seed round
FlowCellutions
FlowCellutions unlocks our energy storage future through diagnostic and monitoring tools for flow batteries, opening a $45B market. Our first-of-its-kind localized sensor platform enables more accurate and reliable data collection than currently on the market, and services all flow battery technologies and other non-lithium grid-scale batteries. Our diagnostics software enables stakeholders such as battery manufacturers, grid managers, and regulatory agencies to continually monitor and predict crucial battery health metrics. Armed with both our software and hardware solutions, customers will be able to extend the lifetime of their flow batteries and prevent catastrophic failures in the early critical years.
Sector: grid infrastructure, sensors, long duration energy storage
Revenues: No
Raising: Pre-seed round
Four Growers
Four Growers is a Y Combinator-backed startup that develops AI and robotic solutions to feed the world. Their first product, a harvesting and analytics robot, has already been deployed across North American and European greenhouse farms and has picked millions of tomatoes at speeds faster than people. This versatile technology has also expanded to harvest cucumbers and provides detailed plant-by-plant scouting feedback, capabilities unprecedented in agricultural robotics. Their solution is augmenting the vanishing farm labor force to ensure the resiliency of our food system and enabling countries to continue to produce higher quality, sustainable produce, with less.
Sector: robotics, AI, agriculture
Revenues: Yes
Raising: Currently raising $7M round
InceptEV
CMU researchers are developing software to predict the battery charge of electric vehicles in different climatic and geographical conditions that impact their energy use, determining the best place for charging stations. The system looks at wind, elevation, and other environmental factors to generate more holistic predictions of the energy needs of electric cars and electric aircraft. The system could enhance the charging grid by providing dynamic data about the best locations to place stations.
Sector: EVs, EV infrastructure
Ionworks Technologies Inc.
Ionworks is a battery software company with a mission to accelerate battery R&D using physics-based modeling and machine learning. Battery companies and OEMs are currently spending hundreds of millions of dollars to design new batteries, with 5- 10 year timelines to market. Simulation can significantly improve these figures by enabling scientists and engineers to replace real experiments with accurate simulations that are a fraction of the cost and far quicker to run. Ionworks aims to build the battery R&D platform for the modern age, beginning with simulation and expanding to data management, cycler interfacing, and fully automated design and execution of experiments.
Sector: batteries, EVs
Revenues: Yes ($600k annualized)
Raising: Seeking angel investors now and seed round in 1 year
LeanFM Technologies
LeanFM has developed an integrated software framework that provides automated Fault Detection & Diagnostics (FDD) of large HVAC systems. LeanFM Prescriptiv(TM) works with any non-proprietary Building Automation System (BAS) and uses supervised machine learning to provide root-cause analysis at the component level of software and hardware faults in the complex HVAC system. These faults are presented in a web-based dashboard and KPI reports and are used by HVAC maintenance staff to correct very specific faults that will decrease energy waste, reduce GHG emissions, and improve operations. In initial commercial deployments, LeanFM has demonstrated direct savings of an average of 24% of energy used by the HVAC systems. NSF SBIR awarded. Funded by private investors in 2017 and 2020. Customers include Carnegie Mellon University, the Cleveland Clinic, the Mayo Clinic, and the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh.
Sector: software, energy efficiency, prescriptive analytics
Revenues: Yes
Raising: Seeking seed round
Pearl Street Technologies
Pearl Street Technologies is an interconnection solutions company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Backed by best-in-class venture capital firms, VoLo Earth, Pear VC, Powerhouse Ventures, and Incite, Pearl Street’s mission is to help expedite the transition to a decarbonized grid. The company’s portfolio includes its two software products, Interconnect™ and SUGAR™ (Suite of Unified Grid Analyses with Renewables). Interconnect™ is a customized risk analysis platform for utility-scale project developers, aiming to provide certainty throughout the interconnection lifecycle and steer more projects to successful interconnection to the grid. SUGAR™ is utilized by grid operators and utilities to accelerate study timelines through its robust modeling and simulation capabilities. To date, Pearl Street’s software solutions have been used to model more than 1000 queued renewable generation projects totaling roughly 180 GW nationwide.
Sector: grid modeling software
Revenues: Yes
Raising: Not currently raising
Peoples Energy Analytics
At Peoples Energy Analytics, we reduce unpaid energy bills while increasing revenue recovery in electric and gas utilities. Through our patent-pending algorithm, we identify abnormal energy consumption patterns in energy customers using electricity and gas meter data. Through working with two utilities, we have refined our algorithm to identify at-risk households years before they ever miss a payment. We then connect them with bill assistance programs, which reduces bad debt for the electric and gas utilities. Peoples Energy Analytics is able to provide a scalable and low-cost solution for utilities to assist the 25 million Americans who are behind on their energy bills.
Sector: Utility operations
Revenues: In pilot discussion
Raising: Seeking seed round
Power3D
Power 3D has developed novel Li-ion batteries for UAV or drone companies who do not have enough range or loiter time to complete their mission. Our technology 3D prints the battery electrodes that increase energy density by 50%, reduce charge time by 80%, and allow drone manufacturers and users to fly farther and longer. Unlike current batteries, our product has a greater cathode surface area, which leads to greater energy storage.
Sector: batteries, drones
Revenues: No
Raising: Pre-seed
SeaLion Energy
The surface properties of electrode materials determine the performance of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), including rate capability, cycling stability, and safety. By introducing chemical vapor deposition polymerization techniques, SeaLion Energy tailors the surface properties of materials with nanoscale functional polymers. These polymer coatings can significantly increase the rate capability and cycle life of batteries. For example, in their recent work, they demonstrate an extension of the 4.5 V cycle life of LiCoO2 at C/2 by over 17 times using a uniform poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) coating. Their methods can reduce the charging time, increase the lifespan, and improve the safety of batteries for their application in cellphones, laptops, and electric vehicles. Our initial techno-economic analysis indicates these processes can be integrated with existing LIB manufacturing processes in a cost-effective fashion.
Sector: batteries, materials, manufacturing
Revenues: No
Raising: Seeking seed round
Sensible Photonics
Sensible Photonics is developing a fiber optic approach to sensing that provides low-cost, real-time, embedded monitoring for early failure detection and prevention. Optical fiber-based sensing is inherently compatible with electrical systems, harsh environments, and challenging integration requirements. Functional sensing layers in their devices provide customizable sensing signals with extremely low-cost optical components. The end result is a new capability for asset owners and operators to economically avoid costly failures. Application areas include transformers, grid-scale batteries, electric vehicle batteries, and other types of critical power equipment.
Sector: grid infrastructure, EVs, sensors
Revenues: No
Raising: Seeking seed round
SilisiumTech
SillsiumTech is a CMU spinoff whose mission is to rebuild and decarbonize the US solar supply chain by producing silicon wafers (the most important and the most expensive part of the solar panel) in a new continuous way that enables the company to cut the cost of today’s slow, expensive, wasteful, and manually produced wafers in half and generate half as much CO2. The dirty secret in the solar industry is that 97% of all silicon wafers are produced in China, and forced labor is used to produce much of their raw material. The new process enables profitable wafer production in the US to serve this $2B market. Our inventor and CTO has been working on this problem for the last 10 years with $5M in grant funding from DOE, NSF, and others. If all silicon wafers were produced with this continuous process, we would prevent 60 million metric tons per year (equivalent to 11 million cars) from being produced annually. Current funding from: DOE (non-dilutive), NSF (non-dilutive), Gener8tor Sustainability accelerator, Third-Derivative (D3) accelerator, Free Radical Ventures, and Rebel Family.
Sector: photovoltaics, materials
Revenues: No
Raising: Seeking $800K pre-seed round
Teratonix
Teratonix is developing a high-speed diode energy harvesting solution to generate electricity from ambient heat. It completed the Shell GameChanger program for industrial IoT applications, harvesting RF energy, and is now raising funding to work with a contract manufacturer to produce heat-energy-harvesting diodes.
Sector: energy harvesting, cleantech
Revenues: Demonstration project funding
Raising: Seeking seed round
Traffiqure Technologies
Traffiqure uses Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning technologies to provide services or software products that help clients make effective decisions in the transportation domain based on massive data. The ultimate goal is to improve the efficiency, reliability, and equity of transportation system planning and operation. TraffiQure works with governmental agencies, non-profit organizations, and private transportation firms that operate transportation systems. Examples include federal, state, and local departments of transportation, public transit agencies, parking agencies, emergency response agencies, and mobility service providers.
Sector: smart cities
Revenues: Demonstration projects
Raising: Seeking seed round
uberSpark
uberSpark is developing a security architecture for Modular Provable Security (MPS), an incremental way to introduce provable security into existing Commodity Heterogeneous Interconnected Computing (CHIC) platform implementations. The MPS approach focuses on verifiably securing both control and data flow of desired critical execution paths of the CHIC software stack implementations – the trusted path– from adversarial takeover. uberSpark has received DOE SBIR funding to develop cybersecurity systems for smart grid applications.
Sector: cybersecurity, IoT, smart grid
Revenues: No
Raising: Seeking seed round
Virtual Traffic Lights
Virtual Traffic Lights uses Cloud Computing and AI, V2V, and V2Infrastructure (V2I) communications to improve traffic flow. VTL is a disruptive technology that aims to improve traffic management and traffic safety in cities, closed and controlled spaces (airports, warehouses, etc.). In addition, VTL Technology can be used for emerging micro mobility services in cities, as well as for prioritizing AVs and EVs. Simulations have shown improvements in traffic flow of 60%. Field testing has been conducted in a major Middle Eastern airport for operational vehicles. A Utah DoT deployment and demonstration project has been ongoing for the last 2 years. The company has strategic investors.
Sector: smart cities; V2X, V2V, autonomous vehicles (AVs), EVs
Revenues: Demonstration projects
Raising: Seeking series A
For more information, please contact:
Cindy Chepanoske, Director of Licensing
Center for Technology Transfer and Enterprise Creation (CTTEC)