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These agtech and clean energy startups are entering F3 Tech’s 2021 accelerator

The Eastern Shore-based program is drawing companies from around the country.

Members of the 2018 F3 Tech Accelerator cohort. (Courtesy photo)

Easton-based agricultural innovation accelerator F3 Tech named the next cohort for its program. In all, five companies working in agtech and clean energy will take part in the program, which is backed by the Eastern Shore Entrepreneurship Center.

The three-month accelerator program starts in September, offering guidance from F3 Tech mentors in business development, marketing, legal and finance.

As leaders of the accelerator previously told Technical.ly, the accelerator seeks to provide connections between startups and their potential customers in industry.

“It’s much less academic and much more focused on trying to help a lot of these companies add some experience in the field that they are developing a product,” program director Chris Hlubb told us last year.

It also aims to help companies get ready to seek out investment.

Like many programs, F3 Tech has embraced a remote model in the pandemic, and is now serving companies from all over. In this cohort’s case, that means there isn’t a company from Maryland.

Check out four of the companies in this year’s cohort below. A fifth company from Durham, North Carolina, was not named and will be announced in early 2022, the accelerator said. Here are those who are out of stealth, with descriptions sourced from F3 Tech:

  • Holganix, of Aston, Pennsylvania, manufactures plant probiotics that harness the power of microorganisms to optimize soils and grow healthier plants. The idea is to reduce the need for fertilizers and pesticides.
  • Lepidext, of  Lexington, Kentucky, makes a patented bioinsecticide that is designed to control the corn earworm (aka cotton bollworm) in both the organic and conventional farming of crops.
  • Urban Electric Power, of Pearl River, New York, is a clean energy company spun out of the CUNY Energy Institute. The company offers rechargeable alkaline battery technology that does not contain lead or flammable electrolytes. The battery cells designed to scale from residential to commercial to utility applications.
  • Growbox, out of Utah, is a company that produces self-contained, fully automated shippable fodder systems that can match a year’s output of a 50-acre field of hay.

3D printer donation

Salisbury U students show off their new 3D printer.

Salisbury U students show off their new 3D printer. (Courtesy photo)

While we’re on it, here’s another piece of Eastern Shore Entrepreneurship Center news: The Center donated a 3D printer to Salisbury University. It’s a move aimed at giving students access to tools that turn 3D CAD files into robots.

Housed in the university’s robotics lab, it will be available for computer science students and others. The school’s VexU Robotics Club will also use it.

“Training students to use next-generation technology like this reductive 3D printer is absolutely critical to develop the STEM workforce of the 21st century,” Michael Scott, dean of Salisbury’s Henson School of Science and Technology, said in a statement. “This donation will immediately allow us to meet that demand.”

Companies: Eastern Shore Entrepreneurship Center
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