Start-up Society #20 — October 5th, 2020: All 52 States/Territories Covered!

A weekly blog promoting nationwide entrepreneurship featuring 3 innovative American start-ups based out of 3 different states.

Welcome to the 20th edition of Start-up Society! This blog highlights some of the most exciting start-ups in the country striving to keep the American Dream alive.

Make sure you check out the previous issue, if you have not already, here.

This week we have achieved our goal of covering a different Start-up from across the United States (including Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico) 🥳!!! One of the reasons Start-Up Society has sought to cover all 52 states and territories is to demonstrate the potential that human innovation can reach when it is unbound!

This week we are looking at a highly innovative early-stage energy company from Delaware, a sustainable community-oriented beverage company out of Hawaii, and a health insurance technology company based in Puerto Rico. Although these companies span a variety of industries, the ability of people to innovate is not limited by geography.

Delaware

W7energy

HQ: Wilmington

Founded: 2017

Total Raised: $5M

Company Highlights

• The Company focuses on the development of next-generation hydroxide exchange membranes and polymeric materials that enable zero-emission fuel cell-powered vehicles at a significantly lower total cost.
• The world’s most advanced hydroxide exchange membranes and ionomers for affordable zero-emission fuel cell vehicles, clean hydrogen generation, and clean energy applications. PiperION enables economically viable zero-emission fuel cell electric vehicles with 33% lower fuel cell system cost.
• Currently, Lithium (Li) Ion Batteries are the standard fuel in electric vehicles. However, companies such as Tesla, are putting the spotlight on new manners in which we can overcome this limiting factor. Although Li-Ion Batteries have dropped in price per Kilowatt of power significantly, it is still not enough to drive mass adoption.

• The fuel cells that W7energy produces are of robust mechanical strength for all applications under extreme conditions and put out an unprecedented high performance for compact and powerful fuel cell engines.
• W7energy core polymer technology is backed by $5M from the U.S. Department of Energy, Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (DOE ARPA-E), Blue Hen Proof of Concept Fund, Unidel Foundation, FastPass-Delaware Innovation Space, EDGE-Delaware Division of Small Business, and Green Energy Fund-Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control.

About the Team

• Yushan Yan, Ph.D, Co-Founder & CEO: Previously, Yushan received his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Caltech in 1996. He started his career as a Senior Staff Engineer at Allied Signal before rejoining academia as a Professor for the University of California Riverside. He became a presidential and departmental chair during his time there. In 2014, he joined the University of Delaware and now serves as the Henry B du Pont Chair in Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering. He has been an inventor on more than 25 patens, both issued and pending. He has also helped form several startup companies including NanoH2O and OH-Energy and served as co-founder, chief scientific advisor, and board member. He Founded W7energy in 2017.
• Santiago Rojas-Carbonell, Co-Founder, Senior Chemical Engineer & COO: Previously, Santiago received his Masters in Nanoscience and Microsystems in 2013, a Ph.D. In Philosophy and Chemical Engineering and his MBA from the University of New Mexico in 2017. While at school, he was in research focused on Li-Ion Batteries and ethanol fuel cells for over 7 years of collective research experience. In 2013, he founded Batterade LLC, which specialized in affordable and green cellphone charging for Sub-Saharan Africa. In 2019, he joined W7energy as its COO after completing his Postdoctoral Associate role at the University of Delaware.
• Lan Wang, Co-Founder, CTO, & Senior Chemist: Previously, Lan received his Bachelor of Engineering in Chemistry and in 2012 from the East China University of Science and Technology and his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Delaware in 2018. After completing his Postdoctoral Research at the University of Delaware he joined W7energy as its CTO in 2019.

The Start-up Society Assessment

• With the combination of being on the bleeding edge of battery relevant technology and the current issues facing the Li-Ion Battery industry, a company such as W7energy is poised to produce a reliable fuel cell that could assist in driving mass electrical vehicle adoption.
• As the current automobile manufacturing market is searching for cost-efficient ways to produce and convert their current fleets into electrical vehicles, they will need more options that just incrementally improved Li-Ion Batteries.
• The team itself is highly academic, but also quite diverse in background and experience. With many technically sound team members who are able to also raise funding, the company is off to a strong start with lots of momentum behind them. The entire team has also been instrumental in their ability to raise grant funding to maintain their cutting edge research. The team also has experience in taking ideas from the lab to the market.
• The technical acumen and potential ability to execute on this highly innovative fuel cell seem to be the perfect storm for the W7energy team.

Go Deeper

• W7energy among the 10 Most Promising Companies at the 2020 Energy Tech Venture Forum hosted by the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship
• An Efficient Direct Ammonia Fuel Cell for Affordable Carbon-Neutral Transportation
• Delaware Innovation Space Announces W7energy as Winner of University of Delaware FastPass Award
• W7energy Among the 10 Most Promising Companies at Rice 18th Annual Energy Tech Venture Forum
• How Low Can Lithium-Ion Battery Costs Go?

Hawaii

Hawaiian Ola Brewing

HQ: Kailua-Kona

Founded: 2010

Total Raised: $3.1M (PitchBook)

Company Highlights

• The Hawaiin Ola Brewing company is a beverage production company and Brewery that produces world-class Hawaiian hard seltzers. Previously they offered 3 beverages in a sustainable and environmentally forward way. The Kona Leaf Tea, Noni Juice Shots, and Sparkling Noni Energy drinks contain all-natural ingredients sourced from within Hawai’i. While the average farmer in Hawaii makes about $15,000 a year, this company is focused on building a community focused on not only supporting farmers but also holding farmers responsible for sustainable production methods.
• Hawaiian Ola’s community is made of a diverse group of dedicated people with a common vision for a healthy Hawaii and achieving sustainable food sovereignty throughout the islands. Their goal is to distribute $2M to 100+ farmers by 2025.
• Currently, the Hard Seltzer Market is growing at 220% and has already hit $4.7B worth of sales in 2020.
• The Hawaiian Ola Brewing company is categorized as a member of Hawaii’s growing community of Certified B Corporations. B Corps are for-profit companies certified by the nonprofit B Lab to meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency.
• The company closed on $297,551 of $9,999 in equity crowdfunding via StartEngine Crowdfunding from undisclosed investors as of August 31, 2020. The company also received the final tranche of a $1.6 million investment venture funding from undisclosed investors on January 13, 2020. The funding was initially raised in the form of convertible debt and got converted into equity subsequently. Previous investors include Will Mantesh & Impact Assets.

About the Team

• Brett Jacobson, Co-Founder & CEO: Brett Jacobson has worked as a CEO in the beverage space for almost a decade and has a fearless and dynamic approach to overcome the hurdles that Ola Brew has faced in the era of the pandemic. Previously, he graduated from Santa Rosa Junior College with a Degree in Architecture in 2006 and studied Green Building at Sonoma State University until 2008. He has founded several companies and ran Envy Construction. Brett Focuses on business development opportunities and brings his business acumen and experience to continue to lead Ola Brew to higher and higher levels.
• Naehalani Breeland, Co-Founder & President: Naehalani Breeland has been in the beverage industry for 6 years; raised on the island of Molokai and educated in New York City at the New School, where she received her Bachelor's Degree in Cross-Cultural Psychology. She joined the executive team at Hawaiian Ola in 2014 and maintains expertise in marketing.

The Start-up Society Assessment

• The team here has focused on building a tight-knit community that is rallying behind a specific and achievable goal. They are then utilizing this formal community and their Brewery to launch a community-oriented hard seltzer brand. The combination of these two factors has shown significant growth for the company.
• Hawaiian Ola Brewing Corporation grew its net sales from ~$1.5M in 2018 to over $3.5M in 2019 and has built a trustworthy and reliable network of suppliers. The control they exhibit over their supply chain and their ability to overcome the hurdles of manufacturing demonstrate the companies ability to navigate the nuances of starting a CPG company.
• The Co-Founders boast a collective 15+ years of industry experience that have utilized their deep industry ties and actionable environmental and community goals to build a brand that not only supports the Hawaiian agricultural ecosystem but also produces a high-quality product.

Go Deeper

• 27 Nexty Award Winners Natural Products Expo West
• A Hawaiian B Corp. Expands With the Help of Small Investors
• Start Engine Ola Brew

Puerto Rico

Abartys Health

HQ: Guaynabo

Founded: 2015

Total Raised: $4.9M (PitchBook)

Company Highlights

• Abartys Health is a health insurance technology company aiming to solve the global healthcare crisis of sky-high costs and lack of transparency and efficiency.
• Abartys has established a centralized hub containing healthcare data between insurers, doctors, and patients.
• For insurance companies, Abartys provides a data delivery and management system that tracks information about patients and providers. This allows for real-time access to information as well as AI-backed key healthcare metrics.
• For healthcare providers, Abartys has created a centralized patient database to access patient and insurance data. It also enables seamless communication between patients and the provider.
• Abartys has created a personalized platform for patients as well that contains all of their healthcare records and insurance documents. The platform’s machine learning capabilities produce health insights for the patients along with adaptive healthcare pricing assessments.

• The company raised $2.92 million of seed funding from undisclosed investors on August 24, 2020.

About the Team

• Dolmarie Mendez, CEO & Co-Founder: Dolmarie received her Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Puerto Rico and her MBA from the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico and Syracuse, NY. She was a Senior Account Manager a Triple-S and V.P. of Benefits at the Olympic Insurance Agency. She’s currently a mentor at Parallel18 and StartupMexico, a contributor at Entrepreneur Media, and an advisory board member at Socialgeek.co.
• Lauren Cascio, Co-Founder: Lauren received her Bachelor of Science Degree from Florida International University. She’s currently a mentor at the University of Southern California Incubator and the Founder Institute, and a guest contributor at Entrepreneur Media.

The Start-up Society Assessment

• The healthcare industry needs to and will go through massive technological progress that will grant providers, insurers and patients access to high-quality data in real-time. This is pivotal for reducing costs, improving quality, and driving efficiency.
• The healthcare industry has long been resistant to change, and especially after the global pandemic’s impact, it’s evident now more than ever how essential it is to coalesce technology with healthcare.

Go deeper

• Patients, Providers, Insurers Benefit From Health Data Interoperability
• Abartys Health Introduces PatientLynk 2.0 to Enable Universal Patient Identification, Provide Faster Response for COVID-19 Lab Tests

Thank you for reading this article! Feel free to leave a comment, clap, and follow. Stay tuned for next week’s write-up, posted every Monday at 5 AM ET.

Authored by Arteen Zahiri, Rumeer Keshwani, and Elham Chowdhury