CRI-Argonne Virtual Pitch Competition, Cohort 5 Finals

Virtual Conference
February 21, 2021

CRI-Argonne Virtual Pitch Competition, Cohort 5 Finals

Through an annual call, four to six startups are selected to join Chain Reaction Innovations (CRI), a two-year program for innovators focused on energy and science technologies. Program participants will receive financial and technical support to mature and de-risk their technologies to the proof-of-concept level. CRI’s Cohort 5 will be embedded at Argonne National Laboratory from June 2021 through June 2023.

The event will be held virtually on Tuesday, February 9 and Wednesday, February 10. from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day. Finals are open to the public. You are cordially invited.

For Cohort 5, a record-breaking 177 applications were submitted. The semi-final pitch competition was held in December, with 32 individuals that represented 29 startups participating. From this group, 16 of the best and brightest clean energy startups were selected for the Final Pitch Competition.

QUANTUM, AI, MACHINE LEARNING, SENSING

* Atomic AI, analytics for nanotechnology

* Lelantos, Inc., gas sensors for hazardous leak monitoring

* Niall O’Dowd, optical in-situ monitoring for metal additive manufacturing

* QuantumScale, quantum simulators and algorithms

MANUFACTURING, ADVANCED PRODUCTION & MATERIALS

* Mjolnir Ultrasonics, acoustic quality control for ultrasonic welding

* Mars Materials, Inc., renewable acrylonitrile via nitrilation

* Afthon, jet engine for hydrogen aircraft

BATTERIES & RENEWABLE ENERGY

* Piersica, solid state battery with 2x energy density of li-ion

* DayLyte, Inc., membranes for high energy na-air batteries

* Kazadi Enterprises, entrochemical systems technology

* Farm To Flame Energy, biomass electricity generator

BUILDINGS, ADVANCED PRODUCTION, MATERIALS

* Hempitecture, Inc. carbon-negative, bio-based insulation

* Gregory Houchins, carbon-free electrochemical synthesis of Portland cement

* GOLeafe, graphene-based deionization water filtration

* Hongjun Zeng, carbon nanotube composite materials for energy applications