Delaware Innovation Space™ Launches Science Inc.™ Accelerator

First virtual cohort comprised of 10 science-based startups from across the US and Canada

WILMINGTON, Del.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Delaware Innovation Space, a multi-dimensional, non-profit entrepreneurial support organization and ecosystem for science-based startup companies, announced today that it has fully launched its Science Inc. accelerator program. Over the next 5 months, a cohort of 10 startups looking to grow their companies in the United States will participate in weekly programming and receive on-going expert mentoring and coaching, culminating with the Science Inc. Demo Day in June where each company will pitch to investors and partners.

“The ten companies in this first cohort include a wide array of diverse science startups working to improve and enhance our everyday lives by curing or mitigating disease with new therapeutics, curbing climate change through carbon capture and renewables, and improving water quality and other industrial processes,” said Bill Provine, CEO of Delaware Innovation Space. “Each company in this first cohort has the potential for enormous business impact. I’m excited to be able to witness and help accelerate the growth of these companies with the support, wisdom, and expertise of the Delaware Innovation Space community.”

Science Inc. Accelerator @ Delaware Innovation Space – Cohort #1

• Breatheasy, led by Dalton Signor, is developing novel smoking cessation therapeutics.
• Carbon Reform, led by Jo Norris and Nick Martin, is decentralizing carbon capture utilization technology for the commercial heating industry.
• Clean Valley Bio-filtration Technologies CIC, led by Nicholas LaValle, Damir Allen, Timothy Edmonds, and Roya Aghighi, is commercializing clean tech solutions for water and air filtration.
• Elyte Energy, led by Jalaal Hayes and Cherese Winstead Casson, is focused on commercializing clean power supply and providing services to off-grid communities.
• Extrave Bioscience, led by Joshua Selsby and Matt Hudson, is focused on the delivery of biomolecules in order to address the burden of neuromuscular diseases.
• GeneLancet Biosciences, led by Minghong Zhong, owns a novel lgRNA-guided gene editing platform for developing cures for chronic HBV, HIV and monogenic diseases such as Alzheimer disease.
• HARTLON, led by Jack Scanlon and Jeffrey Politis, specializes in a novel drug delivery technology for the treatment of coronary heart disease and peripheral artery disease.
• Lectrolyst, led by Greg Hutchings, is developing a novel chemical synthesis platform which uses electricity and carbon waste from renewable resources to create essential chemicals.
• MCET Technologies, led by Sagar Doshi, Erik Thostenson, and Dan Bryan, is developing and commercializing an innovative sensing technology enabled by advanced composite and nanostructured materials.
• SAS Nanotechnologies, led by Sumedh Surwade, is developing a smart microcapsule technology with self-healing properties that enable solutions in areas such as corrosion, lubricants, sensors, and agriculture.

“As a new resident company at the Delaware Innovation Space, we jumped on the opportunity to apply to Science Inc.,” said Jo Norris of Carbon Reform. “We were already receiving an amazing welcome and support through their extensive leadership and mentor community, and we were eager to take advantage of another one of their high-impact programs,” Norris said. Norris’s co-founder, Nick Martin, added “we were thrilled to learn we’d been accepted as the unique technological and entrepreneurial focus of the Innovation Space is superior to any other lab space and accelerator program in the region for science-minded founders, and we're confident Science Inc. will substantially help us to rapidly propel our company forward.”

“I’m very excited about the societal and economic impact that will be derived from the output of the startups that are part of Science Inc.,” said Provine. “Science Inc. is a program that will run cohorts twice a year supporting startups who are driving science from concept to commercialization, positively impacting the lives of thousands if not millions of people around the world.”

Science and technology-focused entrepreneurs can find more information about the Science Inc. accelerator program and future cohorts here. The application for our Fall 2021 Science Inc. cohort will open later this spring. Sign up here for updates about Science Inc. applications and other Delaware Innovation Space program news.

Science Inc. is an accelerator program that received national recognition and was awarded $1.5 million in funding from the US Economic Development Administration’s Build to Scale Venture Challenge program and its Office of Innovation & Entrepreneurship.

About Delaware Innovation Space:

Delaware Innovation Space is a multi-dimensional, non-profit entrepreneurial support organization and ecosystem where entrepreneurs, scientists, business leaders, community members, investors, and service providers in the advanced materials, industrial and agriculture biotechnology, chemical ingredients, renewable energy, nutrition, therapeutics, diagnostics, and healthcare fields can build business concepts together and accelerate the path to commercialization of each startup. Delaware Innovation Space was formed by a public-private partnership between the State of Delaware, DuPont, and the University of Delaware. Learn more: www.innovationspace.org

Media Contact:
Bill Provine
302-695-2201
Delaware Innovation Space
bill@innovationspace.org