From kelp pots to kilns: UW’s CoMotion Labs reveals 8 startups joining its newest climate cohort

The University of Washington’s CoMotion Labs has selected the second cohort of startups for its Climate Tech Incubator. The founders are tackling wide-ranging sustainability challenges including boosting EV adoption, reducing plastic use, supporting local food and beverage production, and developing smart climate strategies for cities.

The six-month program is located at the Seattle Climate Innovation Hub, a public-private partnership in the city’s downtown. The venue supports climate entrepreneurship beyond the incubator and hosts regular public events.

Eight early-stage startups participating in the program receive support in building teams, developing their business plans, forging strategic partnerships and preparing to make their pitch to investors. The cohort will share their progress at a demo day in September.

Jared Silvia, partner at Gliding Ant Ventures and former CEO of BlueDot Photonics, is a CoMotion mentor.

“If our region is serious about being a leader in climate tech, we need to find more ways to support more founders,” Silvia said. “The Climate Tech Incubator is a fantastic addition to the support ecosystem.”

Here are the participants:

Astraeus Ocean Systems is a maritime ag-tech startup, offering water-quality monitoring and crop modeling for shellfish and seaweed growing operations. The Bellingham, Wash.-based company’s founding team includes two Ph.D.-holding research scientists and a leader in business development.

Benchmark Star helps facilities managers comply with clean building regulations by automating regulation tracking and streamlining utility data reporting. The effort launched out of a Seattle Climate Innovation Hub hackathon last year and is led by Renee Gastineau, who has worked in clean energy for more than a decade.

Climate Solutions International is the brainchild of Jan Whittington, a UW urban planning professor. Whittington developed strategies for helping cities take action on climate change while making their infrastructure more resilient in a warming world. The World Bank funded her to apply the approach across 300 cities in 30 countries, and her startup is turning that expertise into a business.

EVQ is a one-stop, AI-powered platform helping drivers find, buy and operate electric vehicles, demystifying battery charging and other hurdles to EV ownership. The Seattle startup spun out of Coltura, a nonprofit promoting EV policies and research founded by EVQ CEO Matthew Metz.

FlameWise produces portable kilns for individuals and communities to turn unwanted woody debris into biochar that sequesters carbon and provides soil benefits. The kilns are a low-smoke alternative to burn piles. Seattle’s Korina Stark launched the effort following challenges to manage wood waste on her own 20-acre forested property.

OceanMade offers seaweed-based pots for nurseries, landscapers, gardeners and small farms who want to avoid plastic waste. The kelp containers also support root development and naturally degrade in the soil after planting. CEO Emily Power previously worked at Microsoft for nearly eight years before founding the Seattle startup in 2021.

REearthable is manufacturing biodegradable plastics from waste limestone recovered from mining operations. The material from the Seattle-area startup is suitable for cosmetics, food packaging and other applications. CEO Charlotte Wintermann is a serial entrepreneur with a background in sales, marketing and business strategy.

Seeking Ferments produces fermented beverages and kombucha that are brewed in Seattle from locally sourced ingredients. Co-founders Jeanette Macias and Lyz Macias launched their startup in 2019 and now sell their beverages online and at farmers markets and their “filling station.”

Related: UW’s CoMotion Labs names six startups for inaugural climate and green tech incubator