Global Midwest Alliance
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Driving Innovation and Growth
Press Release
October 22, 2015
Global Midwest Alliance Announces 2015 Polsinelli Innovation
Competition Finalists
CHICAGO -- Global Midwest Alliance and sponsor Polsinelli are pleased to announce the five finalists in the Alliance's 7th Annual Polsinelli Innovation Competition, a leading Midwest competition for entrepreneurs developing innovative processes, products and services in the areas of renewable and alternative energy; infrastructure and community; food and agriculture; manufacturing and industrial; water; and logistics and sustainable distribution. The five finalists are: AD Up Energy LLC, based in Lincolnwood, IL; BessTech LLC, based in Troy, NY; NETenergy, based in Chicago, IL; Pegasus Sustainability Solutions, Inc., based in Fitchburg, WI; and Seeonic, Inc., based in Plymouth, MN.
The Polsinelli Innovation Competition showcase will be held during the Alliance’s annual Corporate Venturing program on November 12 in Chicago. The innovation competition focuses on excellence in technology innovation, products and services across the Midwest and beyond. Finalists will present their technologies to a live audience and a judging panel comprised of corporate venturing executives. The winners will be announced immediately following the Polsinelli Innovation Competition showcase.
Entries in the competition are developing products and services which:
•
Improve resource utilization;
Improve resource utilization; •Promote the productive and responsible use of natural resources;
Promote the productive and responsible use of natural resources; •Reduce negative ecological impact; and
Reduce negative ecological impact; and •Provide superior performance at lower costs.
Provide superior performance at lower costs.The 2015 finalists are:
AD Up Energy was formed by Argonne inventors. We use a sustainable additive technology (biochar) to close the loop on resource utilization. We partner with food waste generators to produce renewable natural gas and organic fertilizer. We avoid capital investments and produce natural gas from a low-grade biogas. Partners receive value from debottlenecking waste management, sales of natural gas and fertilizer and renewable fuel credits. We profit in the price of the additive. The waste facilities process ~40 KT/year and expects to generate $1M/project. The U.S. could have thousands of facilities.
BessTech LLC is a lithium-ion component design and engineering company, delivering design solutions to battery manufacturers and assemblers. Our business model is fabless, reducing the need for high capital costs for scale up. Our first product is a silicon-based nanoengineered anode for lithium ion battery systems. For our customers who are battery assemblers, this means that they can reduce manufacturing costs and at the same time producing batteries that charge faster, have longer times between charging, increased lifetimes, and decreased weight.
NETenergy, winner of the Clean Energy Challenge $100,000 Pritzker Prize, is a thermal energy storage (TES) company. NETenergy’s TES module works like a battery, except it stores “cold energy." It integrates with small commercial building air conditioning systems to shift energy demand and consumption from on-peak to off-peak hours. By utilizing NETenergy’s Thermal Energy Storage (TES) module, building owners can save 30% or more on their energy usage and reduce carbon emissions by 50%.
Pegasus Sustainability Solutions creates a dynamic market in the environmental services industry. We harvest demand for environmental services such as hazardous waste management, environmental remediation, and emergency spill response, primarily utilizing contemporary inbound marketing tools and techniques. We then screen and qualify the inbound opportunities to ensure that they are valid and timely. The validated opportunities are then transferred into our proprietary fulfillment engine, known as Pegex. Pegex is a sorting and bidding platform that allows service providers to bid on opportunities are interesting.
Seeonic has a mission is to provide unparalleled inventory visibility for better business decisions. Our technology allows our customers to more optimally control inventory in retail stores, hospitals and other locations where the level of inventory is critical to meeting demand. Seeonic's patented technology runs autonomously, requires no power or IT infrastructure and delivers the inventory results via the Cloud on any authorized browser.
The Polsinelli Innovation Competition is a preeminent venue for entrepreneurs to present venture-ready business ideas to potential investors. Inventors submit their products, services or processes to a qualified panel of experts—competing not only for a cash award and a Tech Start-Up Legal Service Package sponsored by Polsinelli and valued at $10,000, but also for opportunities to explore licensing and funding, network with investors and help their ideas become reality.
The Polsinelli Innovation Competition is presented by the Global Midwest Alliance and sponsored by the Polsinelli law firm.
About Polsinelli
Polsinelli is an Am Law 100 firm with 750 attorneys in 18 offices, serving corporations, institutions, entrepreneurs and individuals nationally. Ranked in the top five percent of law firms for client service and top five percent of firms for innovating new and valuable services*, the firm has risen more than 100 spots in Am Law’s annual firm ranking over the past six years. Polsinelli attorneys provide practical legal counsel infused with business insight, and focus on health care, financial services, real estate, life sciences and technology, and business litigation. Polsinelli attorneys have depth of experience in 100 service areas and 70 industries. The firm can be found online at www.polsinelli.com. Polsinelli PC. In California, Polsinelli LLP. *BTI Client Service A-Team 2015 and BTI Brand Elite 2015
Global Midwest Alliance is a business-led, region-wide, not-for-profit education organization dedicated to transforming the Midwest into an internationally recognized leader in innovation and business growth. The Alliance aligns and integrates resources throughout the Midwest helping businesses to grow by leveraging existing resources to develop new products and find customers throughout the world. The Alliance is the Private Sector Liaison Office for the World Bank and a member of Global CONNECT. Through these and other affiliations, the Alliance facilitates access to global business opportunities for Midwest business. The Alliance offers educational opportunities through a variety of programs and resources designed to promote innovation, technology development and access to global opportunities in the clean technology, energy, food, logistics, manufacturing and water industries. For more information, visit www.globalmidwestalliance.org.
