Directed by the Rady School of Management and Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the StartBlue program is designed to help new companies centered on the ocean and climb their technologies and science -based data technologies and services that support economic growth, maritime safety, coastal resistance and resource management needs of the United States and the blue economy.
“UC San Diego is proud to serve as a catalyst for innovation at the intersection of science, sustainability and entrepreneurship,” said Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation Corinne Peek-ASA. “Startblue exemplifies our commitment to translate the avant -garde oceanic research into real world solutions that feed economic growth and address global challenges. With each new cohort, we are moving forward to the blue economy and helping to shape its future.”
Eligible startups are classified into the Launch either Scale The program tracks depending on its general business stage and its level of technological preparation, a measurement system used to evaluate the maturity of a particular technology.
He Launch The program is designed for new companies in early stages and includes classes and training workshops of ocean entrepreneurship on topics such as customer discovery, business model canvas, tone preparation, fundraising, intellectual property and small -companies innovation research applications. He Scale The program is designed for new medium -stage companies and includes training opportunities to advance its level of preparation, scale operations and business development.
The teams included in the tracks of the StartBlue program this year include:
Launch
- Aquoro Technologies, producing affordable water from the air
- Dolphin Labs, taking advantage of the energy of the waves to feed a better understanding of the oceans
- Euler materials, creating impact resistant materials for performance in oceanic environments
- Kahu, building a maritime intelligence network using crowdsourcing and fusing radar data from ships to a real -time map of oceanic activity
- Nereus Systems, which develops a autonomous metacronal robotic platform with swarm and high motor skills for underwater survey missions
- Ocean analytical engineering, development of chemical measurement techniques for oceans
- Polar Geophysics Laboratory, which allows real -time environmental sampling and monitoring in remote locations through the implementation of autonomous surface vehicles connected to the cloud
Scale
- Bellamare, producing an autonomous tool for the advanced implementation of the ocean sensor and data management
- Of the oceanographic sea, creating vertical profile systems with waves
- Flood dynamics, building a tool to predict and mitigate the impact of floods before hitting
- LiftLabs, developing fast and easy -to -use equipment and without ropcless to establish a road so that whales and fishermen coexist
- Ocean Motion Technologies, forming a set of Oceanic Energy Solutions and data data to perform the potential of large blue data
- Reefgen, unlocking the restoration potential on a global scale making versatile submarine vehicles
This fall, the new Cohort of StartBlue teams will receive the business experience, the training and leadership of the Rady School of Management and the experience in the ocean, the technical development resources and the innovation of the Scripps Oceanography Institution. The teams will also receive training and tutoring, network opportunities, visibility, access to capital, non -dilutive funds and facilitated access to technology development facilities.
The initial financing of the StartBlue program in 2020 came from the “Industry Industry Challenge Prize” of the Economic Development Administration that feeds high growth entrepreneurship in the United States, together with a local party donated by members of the Council of the Director of Scripps, the Builder’s initiative and other philanthropic supporters.
The impact of Startblue to date includes support for 22 new companies centered on the ocean that have collectively raised $ 10.1 million during their time on the program. The new starting student companies that are making waves in oceanic innovation include solutions of Kai Pono, transforming the rainwater industry with a rainwater filtration device that has a low impact and is easily maintained; Hybrid reef solutions, addressing the need for effective and sustainable solutions to protect coral reefs; and Fjordphyto, a pioneer in the science of polar citizens by connecting tourists with the importance of phytoplankton research on the Antarctic Peninsula.
Last year, the Oceanic and Atmospheric National Administration (NOAA) gave Startblue a subsidy of $ 13.5 million as part of its Ocean Enterprise initiative to support accelerator programs that help entrepreneurs to market technologies, products and observation services based on the ocean, coastal and the great lakes.
“We are excited to partner with the StartBlue team in this first accelerator cohort as part of the Ocean Enterprise initiative,” said the Ocean Enterprise program manager of Noaa, Zack Baize. “Rady and Scripps have taken advantage of a large network of experts and partners to provide incredible support to ocean businessmen.”
StartBlue’s key partners include the port of San Diego and Blue Economy Incubator, TMA Blue Tech, Connect, coastal observation system on the southern coast of California (SCCoos), California Sea Grant, University of San Diego, San Diego State University, Energy Innovation Network of South California, Cleantech San Diego, Visions Ocean Ocean Ocean, 1,000 Oceanic startups, Altasea, Technology Center of the US Coast Guard of Expertis, San Diego Business of Pelecto Gunes Centers and Sycho.