EVENT RECAP: NextCycle Michigan FLOWS Showcase & RIT Pitch Competition
On March 3rd, 2022 NextCycle Michigan hosted its first Showcase and Pitch Competition at the University of Michigan.
The event featured pitches from 15 Michigan-based projects centered around recycling technology and organic recovery initiatives. These initiatives developed by NextCycle Teams during two of the NextCycle Michigan Innovation Challenge Tracks are part of the growing pipeline for circular economy investment opportunities. The teams were selected from a large application pool and worked through key development phases, received individualized business and technical support, and refined their ideas to investment-ready status as part of the NextCycle Michigan experience.
The NextCycle Teams pitched in front of a panel of 10 Judges representing members of the NextCycle Michigan Technical Advisory Committee along with invited guests. As always, the judges had the tough task, especially with such a diverse group of high-caliber companies. Once the deliberation concluded, three teams were selected by the judges for funding along the audience’s vote for the People’s Choice award.
Pitch Competition Judge Panel: left to right, Nadia Abunasser, Jennifer Louie, Doug White, Dan Schoonmaker.
$30,000 in Awards Distributed
$16,000 Pitch Competition Award & $500 People’s Choice Award
NexTiles, a woman-owned business in Detroit diverting scrap textiles from landfills to manufacture energy-efficient building insulation material received both the $16,000 Pitch Award and $500 People’s Choice Award
$8,000 Showcase Award
Wormies, a minority-owned company scaling vermicomposting operations in Grand Rapids, MI, was selected by the judges to receive the $8,000 Showcase award which will further accelerate their efforts.
$5,000 Technical Support
The team selected to receive this award was Glacier, a business building AI-enabled robots that automate sorting, making recycling lower-cost and more effective for recycling facilities of all sizes and budgets.
$500 People’s Choice from the Showcase
Cocoa Corporation with their solution for composting medium density fiberboard with food waste won the $500 Showcase People’s Choice Award.
Keynote Speaker
Our keynote speaker was Jennifer Louie. She is an Executive Director at Closed Loop Partners, where she leads the Infrastructure Group, private credit, and catalytic investment funds across the circular economy value chain. She shared her view on the characteristics a partnership should have to push a community toward a successful circular economy and touched on the synergy happening around improving recycling access, inclusion, and centering climate equity.
“Not only is each organization striving to build out a meaningful part of the path towards the circular economy, but the teams represent diverse communities that will ultimately benefit from these types of solutions,” Jennifer Louie proclaimed regarding teams.
Jennifer Louie, Closed Loop Partners
Sponsoring Partners
NextCycle Michigan Awards and support for teams was made possible through our Sponsoring Partners which including Carton Council of North America, Centrepolis Accelerator at Lawrence Technological University, Closed Loop Partners, Dow, Foodservice Packaging Institute, Frederick A. & Barbara M. Erb Institute University of Michigan, Ice Mountain, Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE), and Washtenaw County.
To learn more about the NextCycle Michigan Teams that participated, browse the session recordings on the NextCycle Michigan YouTube Playlist.