Senior program manager for the ClimateTech Incubator Terra Dunham, right, and Josh Fox, founder of Survue work at The Roux Institute on Friday. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer

A new business incubator in Portland is trying to help small technology startups take on a big problem: climate change.

Northeastern University’s Roux Institute launched its ClimateTech Incubator this month, a shared space for environmentally-focused startups to collaborate and grow their businesses.

Terra Dunham, senior program director for the incubator, said the goal is for these small companies “to become huge companies,” outgrow the incubator, add highly skilled jobs in Maine and ultimately boost the economy.

The incubator currently houses 12 startups that deal with many facets of climate change, including, among others, energy storage and management, renewable energy, transportation, food and agriculture, carbon capture and climate financing.

There’s Eli, a company designed to help people find, qualify and apply for electrification incentives like rebates; Edacious is a startup that measures and compares the nutritional quality of food to link agriculture, climate change and health; and SeaDeep uses AI-powered visual intelligence to map and monitor ocean environments to minimize the impact of offshore wind and other oceanic infrastructure.

“We’re trying to grow the sector here in Maine,” Dunham said. “We wanted to make sure we saw all the opportunities in climate tech that could be successful here.”

Incubator members have access to desk and prototyping space, mentors, investors, and the Roux Institute’s background in artificial intelligence, machine learning, data visualization, data analysis, and materials science. 

Dunham hopes to see the incubator grow to 20 companies by the end of the year and expects it will grow even more once the program moves to the school’s new campus on the site of the old B&M Baked Beans Factory. The $500 million project is expected to be completed in 2027.

Climate tech incubators are not new – there are examples all over the country – but Dunham believes Portland could become a hub for the industry.

“We all know that climate change is something that is impacting all of us and it has been very visible in Maine,” she said.

MORE BIKES AND … GOLF CARTS?

Geoff Blaisdell’s company doesn’t “draw a straight line” to climate change.

It’s easy to make the connection between the environment and electric vehicles – roughly half of Maine’s carbon emissions come from the transportation sector.

But Blaisdell’s startup, Roamr, deals with a different, smaller kind of electric vehicle: golf carts.

Roamr uses both hardware and software to help consumers and businesses manage fleets of these low-speed electric vehicles, more commonly known as golf carts.  The technology can be used to track the location and speed of the carts and prevent other people from unlocking them, among other features. Safety features like crash detection are upcoming.

Blaisdell, 57, of Rockland, has a background in financial services but pivoted to startup investment when he moved back to Maine four years ago.

He saw a “niche” opportunity in the “low-speed electric vehicle” market.

Terra Dunham senior program manager for the ClimateTech Incubator at Northeastern University’s Roux Institute, and Josh Fox, founder of Survue at The Roux Institute on Friday. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer

Golf carts aren’t the vehicle of choice in Maine (with the exception of Peak’s Island) but Blaisdell said there are ample opportunities in southern markets. They’re obviously popular at golf courses, but also resorts, campgrounds, amusement parks and airports.

Blaisdell hopes to see his technology increase the use of alternative forms of transportation and while Maine may not be the perfect test location, software can be developed anywhere.

“If there are 10 million more LSV’s five years from now or 10 years from now that people are using instead of their cars and some fraction of that has been enabled because of technology like Roamr, then that’s a significant impact on the environment,” he said.

Blaisdell said working in the incubator has been a “phenomenal” opportunity.

“It’s great being surrounded by a bunch of really bright people who are working really hard to get cool things done,” he said.

Joshua Fox wasn’t sure his company was a good fit for the incubator, either.

Survue, a sort of rear bicycle radar, uses AI to protect cyclists. The device detects a vehicle’s location, predicts how fast it’s going, alerts the cyclist if it’s close and automatically records video of vehicles that pass too closely.

Fox, 42, of Scarborough, didn’t immediately see how it connected to climate change.

But when he took a step back, he realized that safety concerns are a common reason people choose not to bike.

It’s how Fox got the idea for Survue in the first place. He felt unsafe taking his daughter to the bike trail because the road there was too busy and it didn’t feel worth the risk.

“If we can remove or lower that barrier of safety concern, you get more people on bikes, getting the benefit mentally (and) physically, reducing the congestion on the roadways and reducing the impact on the environment,” he said.

Last year the company launched the first round of beta testing and now, Fox is working to develop the next generation of Survue and aiming for mass production in May.

He sees a market opportunity for cities that use bicycle fleets like Citi Bike. The data collected can also be used by municipalities to plan and maintain bicycle lanes and improve rider safety.

Working in the incubator alongside like-minded entrepreneurs has already been helpful, Fox said, and he hopes to see more climate tech businesses in Maine.

“We’re seeing the problem first-hand, maybe we have a chance at (finding) the solution first-hand,” he said.

‘A GREAT TIME FOR BUSINESSES’ 

The incubator was funded in part by a $975,000 grant from the state’s Clean Energy Partnership, an energy workforce and business development initiative from the Governor’s Energy Office.

Tagwongo Obomsawin, program manager for the Clean Energy Partnership, said the incubator will help keep Maine “at the forefront of the clean energy transition nationwide.”

A Survue bike light on the desk of Josh Fox, founder of Survue, at The Roux Institute on Friday. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer

In 2022, the industry contributed $2.3 billion to Maine’s economy and the Governor’s office announced in May that the state has added 15,000 of the 30,000 clean energy jobs needed by 2030. E2Tech is collaborating with the Roux Institute on the incubator.

Eric Howard, executive director of E2Tech, the Environmental & Energy Technology Council of Maine, said there has never been a better time to invest in climate-centered startups.

“There are now a lot of young people and established entrepreneurs who’ve come to Maine … and this way they can have jobs to work on from Maine instead of having to migrate to other parts of the United States,” Howard said.

Obomsawin said the state sees the incubator as both a challenge and an opportunity to prove that climate tech businesses can be grown in Maine, even if the ideas weren’t initially developed here.

The state has seen significant growth in the clean energy sector and investment at the state and federal level has never been higher.

“It’s a great time for businesses to get involved with this kind of work,” she said.

Blaisdell said Maine’s business ecosystem is particularly beneficial for startups, with access to organizations like the Maine Venture Fund, the Maine Angels, Maine Technology Institute and others.

“(There) are great ideas, but if startups don’t have the support of local organizations, then there’s a much smaller chance of us making it, and that would be unfortunate,” he said.