startups

Matchmaking for environmentally minded startup companies


VertueLab hosts its annual Portland showcase of promising clean tech companies


TRIBUNE FILE PHOTO: HAILEY STEWART  - Vertue Lab celebrates its new name and expanded mission at a launch party in July. Portland-based clean tech incubator VertueLab is holding its annual summit of promising startups, including two from British Columbia.

Formerly organized as the nonprofit Oregon BEST, the group rebranded this summer, changing its name and expanding its mandate to the entire Northwest instead of just Oregon. Clean tech companies seek to address environmental challenges by creating new products and services. The sector has blossomed in green-minded Portland and Oregon.

This year’s VertueLab Impact Summit is slated for Sept. 26 at Castaway Portland, 1900 N.W. 18th Ave.

The event serves as a business matchmaking services, allowing eight companies to describe their technology and then field questions, including from prospective investors, scientists, inventors and others. In this year’s showcase, VertueLab is collaborating with Foresight Cleantech Accelerator Centre, a Canadian clean tech promoter.

The eight companies are:

• Beta Hatch — Grows high-protein insects for food, feed, and fertilizer

• The Renewal Workshop — Transforms discarded apparel and textiles into renewed apparel, upcycled materials, or new feed stock

• Gadusol Labs — Uses synthetic biology methodology to produce natural, nontoxic sunscreen compounds found in marine life

• Wheyward Spirit — Uses excess whey from local artisan cheese producers to make a craft vodka

• OpConnect — Electric vehicle charging stations

• Boydel Wastewater Technologies — An electrochemical treatment system for industrial and municipal wastewater

• BC Biocarbon — Turns biomass into high-grade biocoal, biogas, biochar, and other products

• Allumia — Lighting upgrades to generate savings that are shared with the customer.

The event also will include a “Fireside Chat” with four panelists: Abhilash Mudaliar, research director at the Global Impact Investing Network; Sarah Cleveland, consultant who helps mainstream sustainable investments; David Griest, Managing Director at SJF Venture; and Elizabeth Carey, who oversees the Oregon Community Foundation’s finance, fund services, investments, technology, and operations activities.

For more information or to register: https://vertuelab.org/events/

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