Maryland Clean Energy Center
|
Location |
College Park, MD |
|
|---|---|---|
|
Build to Scale Program |
Venture Challenge |
|
|
Project Name |
Maryland Energy Innovation Accelerator |
|
|
Award Amount |
Federal Share |
Local Match |
|
$750,000 |
$865,488 |
The Maryland Energy Innovation Accelerator (MEIA), a program of the Maryland Clean Energy Center (MCEC), is a venture development and advancement program focused on commercializing advanced energy and climate technologies developed at Maryland-based businesses, universities, and federal laboratories. MEIA uniquely blends the “pull” of an early-stage venture development program with the “push” of accelerating existing pre-revenue businesses to create investible companies that will become the foundation of Maryland’s newest economic cluster. MEIA provides startups with access to domain experts, strategic partners, professional services, and project management support to execute commercialization milestones. To form or augment startup teams, MEIA recruits and engages experienced, industry-specific business executives and entrepreneurs (“energy executives”) who want to become founders or executives of the startup to perform its commercialization activities. This energy executive model creates higher quality leadership teams that, when combined with great technology, produce the investible Maryland-based companies that form the foundation of an emerging economic cluster. MEIA will deliver startup support to 22 teams per year. MEIA will implement a three-tiered approach that moves technology from concept to demonstration: 1) Pre-Accelerator – A two-month customer-discovery program for the earliest technologies from universities and labs; 2) Launchpad – A six-month commercialization planning program for high-potential technologies in universities or labs; and 3) Accelerator – A more than six-month program for established companies looking to fill senior roles, to demonstrate technology, and to obtain third-party capital investment.