Maritime Blue, a Washington state public-private coalition promoting marine-related technologies, has announced the 10 startups participating in its 2022 accelerator. Seven are from Washington or Oregon.
The cohort includes four female founders and two teams led by people of color, which supports a deliberate effort by the accelerator to bring diversity into the historically white and male dominated marine sector.
“We are very eager to help drive momentum for this eclectic group of startups, each delivering unique value into our region’s blue economy ecosystem, from kelp to global supply chain solutions,” said Joshua Berger, founder and CEO of Washington Maritime Blue.
This is the third year of the Maritime Blue Innovation Accelerator. The mentoring program runs for four months, culminating in a startup showcase in May.
Past participants include Discovery Health, a company remote healthcare services for workers on marine vessels that has grown to employ more than 200 people, and Silverback Marine, a Seattle boat building and design company that won a grant with Pure Watercraft to build an all-electric vessel for the Port of Lopez.
The Port of Seattle and the Washington Department of Commerce are supporting the program.
Here are the participating startups:
- Adhere Gear (Portland) – Building IoT devices for tracking maritime shipping cargo.
- Algeon Materials (San Diego) – Creating sustainable plastics from algae.
- Blue Dot Kitchen (Bainbridge Island, Wash.) – Producing kelp-based snack foods.
- Carbon Orca (Seattle) – Developing electric hydrofoil boards.
- Duplex M (Anacortes, Wash.) – Offering software used to optimize battery performance on vessels.
- Marine Safety Solutions (Poway, Calif.) – Manufacturing shields used on marine vessels to prevent fires.
- Photon Marine (Portland) – Developing electric outboard engines for commercial fleets.
- Sea Potential (Seattle) – Promoting and supporting Black Indigenous People Of Color in the maritime sector.
- Steamchain (Beaverton, Ore.) – Operating a platform for business-to-business payment processing.
- WeavAir (Singapore) – Selling software and hardware for monitoring and improving air quality.
The accelerator is part of Maritime Blue’s broader effort to support the maritime industry. In December, the coalition was awarded $500,000 in the first stage of a clean-tech challenge funded by the federal government. It plans to use the money to help commercialize new technologies aimed at decarbonizing heavy-duty transportation and reducing carbon emissions.