Five companies graduate from first-ever SustainableCincy accelerator
The program is a collaboration between the University of Cincinnati’s 1819 Venture Lab and the Flywheel Social Enterprise Hub.
The University of Cincinnati’s 1819 Venture Lab, in partnership with the Flywheel Social Enterprise Hub, is helping five socially minded start-ups to grow. It’s is through the first-ever SustainableCincy collaboration between these two startup accelerator programs is intended to drive positive social impact and innovation throughout Greater Cincinnati.
As one of the Queen City’s longest-running business accelerators, UC’s Venture Lab is using its business acumen to support environmentally focused companies. The eight-week SustainableCincy program, taught at the 1819 Innovation Hub for the first time, will offer business coaching, pitch opportunities and entrepreneurial networking to Flywheel’s newest cohort.
While Flywheel focuses entirely on social endeavors, UC’s Venture Lab offers guidance to all kinds of startups. The two groups have an identical goal with their most recent cohort: crafting a more environmentally responsive region by supporting socially minded ventures.
The fall 2024 cohort, which launched on September 23 and held a demo day the week before Thanksgiving, is comprised of the following sustainability-focused start-ups:
- Ecoshell:A Covington, KY-based company that aims to reduce plastic waste by using eggshell biocalcium as a feedstock for plastic packaging.
- Greenway Innovations:A Florence, KY-based business that replaces single-use medical waste containers with durable ones that can be cleaned and returned for reuse.
- Mod Fab: A Dayton, OH-based company building low-cost, environmentally friendly homes out of repurposed shipping containers.
- Sunflower Fuels: A Lexington, KY-based business developing eco-friendly aviation fuels and power sources out of miscanthus, also known as silvergrass.
- X-inator: A Cincinnati, OH-based company developing high-energy-density battery cells to reduce emissions in the aviation sector.
The eight-week program offered by Flywheel and powered by UC’s 1819 Innovation Hub helped guide entrepreneurs through some of the most rigorous and confusing steps of pioneering a business, from finding capital to adapting to change.
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