The Make It in Brooklyn audience gathered this week at Hana House in Downtown Brooklyn to see five climate tech startups showcase their innovative approaches to sustainability and the environmental. The stakes were high as the winner would receive not only a $5,000 prize but also 10 hours of advisor services with grIP Venture Studio, including 1 hour with Rob Watson, a climate expert, plus $3,000 of legal services from grIP Law PLLC.
The competitors
The impressive lineup included: Valorize Systems, transforming biomass into measurable value through waste-to-value solutions;. NANOPLUME, scaling the manufacture of the world’s lightest and best insulating material – Bio-Aerogel;. Zero Day, modernizing food waste management systems through a two-part system that collects waste in a user-friendly and environmentally conscious approach;. Coffee Elf, upcycling spent coffee grounds into valuable, eco-friendly products using green chemistry and biotech; and Beautiful Harvest, connecting local food vendors with their communities through a farmer-first platform.
Left to right: Farès Kammourieh, Ben Rosenn, Imran Ansari, and Joe Silver
Expert Judging Panel
Our distinguished panel of judges included Joe Silver, Senior Product Manager at NineDot Energy; Farès Kammourieh, Technical Program Manager at Newlab; Imran Ansari, Downstate New York Economic Development Lead Representative at National Grid; Ben Rosenn, Manager of Deployments and External Affairs at PopWheels; Colter Miller, Climatetech Expert at Curbing Carbon. The contest was moderated by Shelby Thompson, Director of Deployment at Voltpost.
the Winning Solution
Following three-minute pitches (some that may have run a bit long!) and challenging Q&As about scaling strategies and market adoption, Coffee Elf emerged victorious. The judges were impressed by Coffee Elf’s innovative approach to transforming commercial spent coffee grounds into bio-based ingredients for beauty products. By offering companies a cheaper, lower-carbon alternative to virgin plant oils while diverting waste from landfills, Coffee Elf addresses both environmental and economic challenges with a solution that’s already attracting interest from major brands.
Coffee Elf plans to use the prize money to validate their product for commercial adoption, funding the regulatory compliance, pilot-scale manufacturing, and technical sample kits that will enable them to initiate co-development partnerships with contract manufacturers and beauty brands.
Left to right: Helen Zhang and Jessica Wang, Co-founders of Coffee Elf.
Congratulations to Coffee Elf and all the finalists who are building the sustainable solutions our cities need for a healthier future!
Make It in Brooklyn is dedicated to fostering entrepreneurship and supporting Brooklyn’s innovation ecosystem through its series of pitch contests, meet-ups, and panels. These initiatives have united hundreds of entrepreneurs and provided over $100K in seed funding, along with invaluable pro-bono professional services.
The competition was made possible by the generous support of sponsor NYU Tandon School of Engineering and event venue, Hana House.
