Monday, September 15, 2008

Maine doles out latest tech seed grants for robots, vet software, and more

By Mass High Tech Staff

The Maine Technology Institute has given out more than $130,000 in 13 Seed Grants to technology companies in the Pine Tree State.

The MTI gives out seed grants of up to $12,500 to support early activities for product development, commercialization or business planning and development, the organization said. A company may be awarded up to a total of $25,000 in seed grants for a specific project.

Each MTI grant requires a one-to-one dollar match consisting of actual cash, salaries, staff time or equipment and in-kind contributions directly attributable to the proposed project. Seed Grants are awarded six times each year. The deadline for applications for the next round of grants is October 16, 2008.

The following companies received funding:

• Artascope Playworks LLC, South Portland; $10,100 to conduct a beta test of its Kids Art Party products for market research.
• c-Link Systems Inc., Norway; $11,900 to prototype and test an autonomous robotic vehicle chassis.
• Fetch Enterprises, Portland, $12,500 to develop and test proprietary software intended to enable independent veterinarians to establish a customized online pharmacy.
• Flagsuit LLC, Southwest Harbor; $5,200 to develop space suit gloves for the commercial space flight market.
• Flexor Energy Co., Orono; $12,400 to develop an environmentally clean, low-cost technology to extract energy from wind and water currents.
• Harbor Technologies Inc.; Brunswick. $12,500 to develop and build an environmentally friendly composite waste pump-out station and service barge along with a sustainable business model for routine service and maintenance for the station.
• Jotul North America, Gorham; $12,500 to redesign its non-catalytic wood-burning fireplace insert to use a more effective, environmentally friendly insulating material.
• KV Tooling Systems, Augusta; $10,400 to develop a marketing plan based on internal and external environmental analyses.
• The Little Pearl, Walpole; $12,000 to conduct a pilot to prove the concept and quantify the dimensions of a proposed aquaculture farm.
• US Windblade LLC, Portland; $11,800 to try to replace conventional windblade coatings using a gel or sprayed polyurethane by developing a process that uses laminating resin as the surface coating.
• Wood Waste Industries, Sanford; $12,500 to redesign the prototype of a machine intended to produce a brick-type fuel source made from wood mill waste to make it more marketable.
• YetiFace Software LLC, Orono; $4,400 to test the beta version of its software and perform market research of an Internet-based software package designed to help small and midsize restaurants market themselves online.
• Zeomatrix LLC, Orono; $6,000 to write and file a patent for a nanofiltration membrane for woody biomass separations.