Aquagga takes top prize at PNW Climate Week event for its battle against ‘forever chemicals'
Aquagga CEO Dhileep Sivam makes his winning pitch at a PNW Climate Week contest held in Seattle. (GeekWire Photo / Brent Roraback)
Six early-stage climate and deep-tech startups faced off at a pitch contest and happy hour in Seattle as part of PNW Climate Week. Entrepreneurs, investors and climate tech enthusiasts packed the Thursday evening event at Stoup Brewing on Capitol Hill.
The competing companies are tackling a variety of sustainability challenges, including solar panel recycling, deployment of residential heat pumps and AI-assisted ocean floor surveys.
The panel of judges and the crowd both crowned Aquagga as the winner, awarding the startup $1,500 in prize money. The company is developing portable, modular units for destroying PFAS 'forever chemicals' that for years have been used in food packaging, carpets and fabrics, water-repellent clothing and non-stick pans.
The chemicals are used to repel water, stains and grease, but they escape from products and contaminate drinking water across the U.S. and are even detected in breast milk.
In his presentation, CEO Dhileep Sivam showcased how his startup's technology directly addresses customer pain points. Aquagga eliminates all forms of PFAS while treating wastewater contaminated with additional pollutants, offering a cost-effective onsite alternative to expensive transportation and incineration processes.
The crowd and judges consider the top pitch at a PNW Climate Week event at Stoup Brewing. (GeekWire Photo / Brent Roraback)
'We're building something that's going to be really attractive for our customers,' Sivam said.
The CEO noted that Aquagga, which launched in 2019, is scaling operations for bigger cleanup projects. The company has secured new contracts with 3M and landed a three-year Colorado deal to process unwanted firefighting foam containing PFAS.
The contest's judges were Rodrigo Prudencio, managing partner at Propeller VC; Gabriel Scheer, senior director of innovation for the investment nonprofit Elemental Impact; Dana Robinson, a member of the climate-focused, angel investment group E8; and Alex Young, senior associate at Energy Impact Partners.
The event was hosted by E8 and Gliding Ant Ventures, an organization supporting startups pursuing low-carbon technologies.
PNW Climate Week is a 10-day regional conference focused on the clean-energy transition with events held in Seattle, Tacoma, Bellevue, Portland, Vancouver, B.C., and Bellingham. It runs until Friday.
Read on to learn more about the startups, and find more of GeekWire's sustainability tech coverage here.
The CEO of startups competing in a PNW Climate Week pitch contest from left: Heather Alvis of Electra; Dhileep Sivam of Aquagga; Alexander Gutierrez of L5 Automation; Jason Puracal of ZILA BioWorks; Victoria Price-Doucet of StrateSea; and Robert Benjamin of Aris Hydronics. On the right are Virginia Emery and Jared Silvia of Gliding Ant Ventures and co-hosts of the event. (GeekWire Photo / Brent Roraback)
Business: Building devices that destroy costly, hard-to-treat PFAS chemicals.
HQ: Tacoma, Wash.
Leadership: CEO Sivam has held leadership roles at Intellectual Ventures and Breakthrough Energy, and served as entrepreneur-in-residence at the University of Washington's Clean Energy Institute.
Business: Providing sustainable heating and cooling systems and water heaters in residential settings. The startup designs, sells and installs the systems and provides follow-up data and support.
HQ: Milwaukie, Ore.
Leadership: Robert Benjamin, founder and CEO, has been a startup advisor, a director and founder in marketing and film production, and studied mechanical engineering.
Business: Offering solar panel recycling that includes partnerships with collection centers, transportation to certified recyclers, repurposing with nonprofits where possible, and tracking.
HQ: Bellingham, Wash.
Leadership: Heather Alvis, founder and CEO, was an operations specialist at Renew Solar, a California company offering solar panel recycling, and held leadership roles overseeing software engineers and business operations at multiple companies.
Business: Developing agricultural robots as a service that can provide crop data from in the field and harvest produce, beginning with strawberries.
HQ: Los Angeles area
Leadership: Alexander Gutierrez, founder and CEO, co-founded the space robotics company Astrobotic Technology and was a research engineer at Lockheed Martin for nine years with a focus on robotics and process automation.
Business: Engineering technology using AI to analyze vast quantities of undersea videos collected for offshore construction of wind power and laying cables, and naval surveys for detecting mines and other anomalies.
HQ: Portland, Ore.
Leadership: Victoria Price-Doucet, co-founder and CEO, was director of data and AI for Slalom; a researcher with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and private companies; and global supply chain director with Nike.
Business: Developing plant-based resins and epoxies to replace high-carbon alternatives with an initial focus on equipment for skiing and snowboarding.
HQ: Renton, Wash.
Leadership: Jason Puracal, co-founder and CEO, was a leader in real estate and sustainable infrastructure in Nicaragua, and executive director of the East Shore Unitarian Church in Bellevue, Wash.
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