Friday, November 20, 2009

Maine startups, projects land seed grants

By Brendan Lynch

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The Maine Technology Institute reports it has given out a total of more than $111,000 in a round of seed grants to technology companies in Maine.

The MTI gives up to $12,500 in awards six times a year, requiring a one-to-one match of funds, staff time, equipment or other resources from the startups. The next deadline for seed grants is Dec. 10, 2009, at 5:00 p.m.

The following startups and projects won funding:

• iSagacity, Portland: $12,500 to complete proof of concept testing for the application of iSagacity’s process data mining software for managing energy in commercial building.
 
• New England Pellet Burner LLC, Bass Harbor: $12,400 to develop, test and document for volume manufacturing a prototype of a clean burning, high-efficiency, affordable pellet boiler.

• Refrigeration Technologies, Gorham: $12,500 to develop a low-temperature supermarket refrigeration system.

• Organic Alchemy Composting LLC, Portland: $6,600 to develop a process that transforms organic wastes to high-quality compost.
 
• Argus Co., Van Buren: $12,500 to build a carbon-fiber harness racing sulky using a patented, miniaturized race car steering and handling system.

• Falcon Performance Footwear, Lewiston: $6,400 to develop a composite safety toe cap for safety shoes.

• MTK Group LLC, Gorham: $12,500 to develop an electronic checklist for small utilities.

• Local Interactive Strategies LLC, Cumberland Foreside: $11,200 for a prototype software platform intended to enable musicians to build connections with and among fans of their live performances.

• Blue Marble Geographics, Gardiner: $12,500 to develop a beta version of their geographic coordinate conversion developer tool; GeoCalc for the Java platform.

• University of Maine, Orono: $12,500 to develop commercialization strategies for the UMaine Offshore Wind Energy GIS (OWEGIS) environmental data management system and integrated mapping tool.